Company Enhances Analytics Tools for Rule 605 and 606 Reporting, and Now Offers Reporting Capabilities for Rule 611 and RegSHO
AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwired – Sep 30, 2015) – S3 (“the Company”), a financial services software company that provides customized solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution, today announced the launch of its enhanced regulatory reporting analytics suite. The Company’s already strong Rule 605 and 606 analysis tools have been significantly upgraded, and its software platform now offers support for Rule 611 and RegSHO reporting.
S3’s new interface allows clients to conduct more detailed analysis on those metrics required for SEC Rule 605 and 606 reporting, further validating the data that they submit to regulators. The enhanced portal allows firms to analyze their data at both summary and detailed levels, providing a greater level of accuracy, as customers can now drill down to a granular level of analytical detail to verify their data and comply with the reporting requirements. These enhancements build upon the already strong Rule 605 and 606 analytics tools that S3 has offered for years.
Mark Davies, CEO of S3, commented on today’s news, “A more complex and fragmented market structure has led to more stringent regulatory protocols, with broker-dealers and institutions now required to provide validation of execution quality and venue analysis under Rule 605 and 606. Ensuring full compliance with these regulations can be difficult without the proper analytical tools in place, and as a result of aggregated feedback from our customer base we have upgraded our portal to allow clients to easily customize their examination of all applicable data. S3’s software suite provides a deep level of transparency into those factors impacting best execution, allowing our customers to quickly and easily compile reports for regulatory bodies without sacrificing their accuracy — freeing up more time for trading.”
In addition to Rule 605 and 606 capabilities, S3 has further built out its interface to offer analytics for SEC Rule 611, which was enacted to prevent trade-throughs. Clients utilizing the regulatory portal can view and analyze all historical trade-throughs, better enabling them to avoid the practice to ensure compliance with Rule 611. S3’s proprietary platform scans every trade and flags those that were executed outside the NBBO, for both options and equities. As part of the enhancements to its regulatory compliance reporting suite, S3 is adding the ability for clients to monitor their own executions for any trade-through occurrences, including any exceptions under Rule 611. With the addition of this feature, the regulatory platform will offer both a comprehensive view of trade-throughs across the market, as well as streamlined visibility into any violations at their own individual firms.
Mr. Davies continued, “Incorporating trade-through data into our platform is crucial not only for our clients to comply with Rule 611, but also to enhance transparency. The SEC has established exceptions to the trade-through provision such as intermarket sweep orders, and S3 allows clients to keep track of this often complex information. Our enhanced regulatory analytics platform provides a complete view of the options and equities markets so that they can quickly and easily identify any past Rule 611 violations, and better understand when exceptions to the rule occur. This innovative toolset provides our customers with the requisite information for Rule 611 compliance, ensuring fairer markets for all parties.”
The final addition to S3’s regulatory software package is intelligence pertaining to Regulation SHO (RegSHO). RegSHO, adopted to address potentially abusive, “naked” short-selling, identifies short sales of securities at impermissible prices and restricts the prices at which those stocks may be sold. S3 provides clients with the full list of short-sale restricted securities in the market, and allows them to identify stocks on this restricted list that trade on either a downtick or an uptick. The Company’s analytics suite identifies those specific executions during which a downtick occurs, providing an even deeper level of insight. Additionally, S3 offers each customer a report identifying any restricted short-sales occurring in their own executions. As with Rule 611, there are certain exemptions to RegSHO listing, so monitoring every security and trade that has violated the regulation can be difficult. The holistic intelligence provided by S3’s RegSHO analysis software simplifies the information-gathering process so that clients can avoid short-selling restricted stocks, and thereby remain in full compliance with regulatory requirements.
Mr. Davies concluded, “Our analytical tools for Rules 605, 606, 611 and RegSHO significantly reduce risk by improving regulatory reporting capabilities. S3’s highly customizable software allows customers to navigate increasingly complex regulatory requirements, ultimately improving trust in the securities industries. As an independent data provider, S3 delivers third-party trade verification uniquely for each customer. We work with each client to develop specialized solutions, both for regulatory reporting and to determine best execution — this lies at the core of our business. S3 allows for analysis of trades against a wide and detailed set of metrics, affording greater market insight, identifying those factors impacting best execution, as well as for easy to manage and accurate regulatory reporting.”
For more information please visit: www.S3.com.
About S3
S3 is a financial services software company that provides customized solutions to monitor and analyze trade execution, facilitate transparency, and simplify regulatory compliance. The Company’s products are used today by many of the world’s largest financial institutions, broker-dealers and exchanges to deliver market structure analytics and best execution reporting. With over 30% of U.S. listed options volume and a growing equities business, S3 leverages its proprietary software to provide 3rd party verification and optimize trade execution.