AUSTIN, TEXAS January 16, 2019 – S3 (“the Company”), the premier trading compliance company providing innovative solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution and surveillance for equities, options, and fixed income securities, today announced the launch of Order Handling reports designed to meet the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) new 606 reporting requirements.
On November 2, 2018, the SEC announced new regulations governing disclosure of order handling practices by Broker Dealers with a compliance deadline of May 20, 2019. In addition to requiring considerably more data and calling for changes in report formatting, these new rules apply to significantly more market participants than previous regulations have, and the new reports are substantially more complex, making them difficult to produce in house.
Mark Davies, CEO of S3, commented on today’s news, “we offer a premium Best Execution and Surveillance solution and therefore, want to ensure that our clients are prepared for these changes well in advance of the SEC deadline. Our ability to rapidly adapt to changing regulations underscores S3’s commitment to providing best in class solutions and remaining the leader in compliance and regulatory reporting.”
S3 first began providing the precursor to the current 606 reports as part of the Best Execution Suite in 2004 and is now the market leader for multi-asset best execution and surveillance. The new 606(a)(1) held order flow reports will be available at no additional charge to clients who subscribe to the S3 Best Execution Suite. While additional data will be required in order to generate the necessary reports, S3 is well equipped to assist clients in preparing the necessary data, ensuring a seamless transition to the new order handling reporting format.
To meet the needs of brokers serving institutional clients, S3 is introducing a Not Held Compliance Suite. This suite will include the new on-demand 606(b)(3) reports and S3’s Transaction Cost Analysis (“TCA”). With these new reports, S3’s Best Execution Suite and the Not Held Compliance Suite ensure that S3 clients will meet all the requirements of the new SEC order handling disclosure rules for both held and not held order flow.
Mr. Davies continued, “S3, along with industry groups, is working directly with the SEC to confirm and clarify the new reporting requirements, and we are poised to adapt reports as necessary if the SEC changes the rules based on industry feedback. With our strong background in regulatory reporting and compliance, we are able to greatly reduce the amount of time and effort brokers will need to spend preparing to meet these new requirements, allowing our clients more time to focus on their customers.”
Mr. Davies will be discussing the new regulations at a fireside chat at the Security Traders Association of Chicago conference on Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 10:30 AM.
About S3
S3 is a financial services software company that provides innovative solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution, facilitate transparency, and simplify regulatory compliance for options, equities, and fixed income securities. The Company’s products are used today by many of the world’s largest financial institutions, broker-dealers, exchanges, bulge bracket and retail banks, and market makers to deliver market structure analytics, trade surveillance and best execution reporting. S3 leverages its proprietary software to provide third-party trade verification and optimize trade execution for both the U.S. and Canadian markets.
Contact:
Jeremy Vest
+1.512.450.6755
jvest@s3.com