Joint NOREX Commitment To Market Surveillance

Oslo Børs has signed a final agreement to supply its obSurveX market surveillance product to the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Oslo Børs has already signed a similar agreement with Stockholmsbörsen. A joint commitment to market surveillance in the NOREX countries with the use of a common surveillance system is an important element in ensuring that the marketplaces function in the same way. The signing of this new agreement serves to ensure that market surveillance throughout the Nordic area will be at the leading edge of international development.

We are very pleased that NOREX is making a joint commitment to market surveillance in this way. This will in turn ensure higher quality surveillance, as well as a more efficient use of resources. A co-ordinated focus on the prevention of market abuse will further strengthen the NOREX alliance, and will lead to a better market for Nordic securities, comments Sven Arild Andersen, President of Oslo Børs.

A centre of expertise in market surveillance is to be established in conjunction with the agreement by the NOREX exchanges to jointly use obSurveX. This will be located at Oslo Børs, and will work with all the exchanges that use obSurveX. Each exchange will continue to carry out market surveillance in its own right. The new centre of expertise will principally be involved in systems production and the development of alarm features.

obSurveX has been developed by Oslo Børs. The product is based on an enhanced version of the SMARTS surveillance system supplied by the Australian company Computershare Technology Services Limited. The obSurveX concept comprises a combination of the supply and technical operation of SMARTS, together with the provision of expertise and specialised market surveillance services.