The Helsinki Stock Exchange, one of the OMX Exchanges, has signed a three year agreement to use the Smarts real-time market surveillance system from Australian firm Computershare Markets Technology.
The Smarts service will be provided through obSurveX, a joint venture company established by Computershare and the Oslo Børs. The system enables users to create alert algorithms to identify "abnormal" market behaviour that may have an adverse effect on market integrity.
Computershare says the Helsinki exchange has joined the four exchanges of the Norex alliance in a formal surveillance alliance. The system is already used throughout Scandinavia - at the Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm markets - through obSurveX. Last March, the Iceland Stock Exchange (ICEX) also began using Smarts.
Each participating exchange is responsible for the operation of its own market surveillance function, while an 'expertise centre' established by the Oslo Børs is involved in developing surveillance alarms and systems production.
Commenting on the implementation at the Helsinki Stock Exchange, Sverre Lilleng, head of market surveillance at Oslo Børs and the chairman of the obSurveX Committee, says: "This will make co-operation between the Nordic exchanges, harmonisation and cross-border surveillance far easier."