b-next Offering Market Surveillance Tool to Bridge Existing Gap at Tier 1 Banks

Following up on our article last month looking at 'b-next' and its new FX Benchmark monitoring tool aimed at detecting market manipulation, Forex Magnates reached out to b-next’s Director of Sales and Business Development, Martin Porter, to get a deeper understanding of the company’s roots, future direction and Mr. Porter’s views on the financial services landscape in general.

To read the full interview, click here.

Overview

'b-next' is a comparatively smaller surveillance and compliance monitoring provider compared to more established names such as 'Actimize’ and ‘Smarts’ which currently dominate the niche market occupied by B-Next.

According to Mr. Porter, the current monitoring systems currently being used by Tier 1 banks to monitor listed, OTC and submissions trading is "behind the curve" on delivering satisfactory monitoring, and when taking into account the additional requirements required by ESMA and Mifid II, "large banks have a lot of work to do before the rules are fully implemented around 2017," says Mr. Porter.

One of the largest problems currently facing any surveillance or monitoring tool is that it should ideally be able to monitor all product types, and not just listed products, for example.

Market monitoring and surveillance should also be able to capture cross-market and inter-firm activity as part of wider compliance processes such as conflicts of interest, market abuse rules and so on. 'b-next' is offering a solution that can improve on legacy systems and bring a whole lot more to the table as well.

The only issue it seems, is breaking the monopoly held by 'Actimize' and 'Smarts' in addition to convincing banks that a change is needed. Mr. Porter sees the upcoming regulatory changes as part of Mifid II as an excellent incentive to encourage large intermediaries to expedite their compliance changes. However, the number of firms able to implement those changes in time remains unclear. Mr. Porter estimates "approximately 50% of companies are currently behind schedule," with many more still deciding what changes are applicable to their respective businesses.

With large banks under the regulatory microscope and new rules on the horizon, 'b-next' is positioning itself as the only provider to be able to monitor all asset types traded across all global markets - from one integrated solution.