G.H. Financials selects Eventus Systems for global trade surveillance

Multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions provider Eventus Systems announced today that G.H. Financials (GHF) has selected Eventus to meet its trade surveillance needs worldwide. The London-based exchange-traded derivatives clearing firm will deploy the cloud-based version of the Eventus Validus platform beginning in early 2021.

The decision comes following an extensive, nearly year-long review of solutions on the market. Validus will replace two existing outsourced solutions currently employed by GHF. The clearing firm will use Validus not only for trade surveillance of all of its futures and options activity on markets globally, but also for compliance with “RTS 6” real-time algorithmic monitoring requirements under the European Union’s MiFID II regulatory framework. GHF has subsidiaries in Chicago and Hong Kong.

Tracy Hetherington, G.H. Financials Global Head of Compliance, Trade Surveillance & Financial Crime, said: “What intrigued me immediately when I researched Eventus was the composition of the leadership team and Board, which includes experienced professionals who have been living and breathing enforcement, surveillance and market conduct. This is not just another software company that designed a surveillance system. The platform has been developed and guided by people who clearly have a passion for what they do and the foresight to explore where they believe the surveillance market is going. When we conducted our exhaustive review of providers this year, our trade surveillance team of three very experienced former traders were impressed by what they saw and the potential of the system. The choice of provider was therefore a collective decision.”

Hetherington said G.H. Financials has a high volume of data and needs a robust solution through which team members can easily modify existing surveillance rules while having the ability to create and test their own rules. She said Eventus offered the flexibility to customize the platform, as well as competitive pricing and a high level of client service. Hetherington added that while other solutions identify manipulative activity such as spoofing, layering and wash trading, Validus goes much deeper than that, covering a wide range of exchange rules as well as certain jurisdictional requirements.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “The team at GHF has been truly enthusiastic about our offering, and we’re excited to migrate the firm to our platform. We have increasingly been a resource for helping firms meet MiFID II requirements as we grow our business in Europe, while addressing global clients’ needs in jurisdictions around the world, including in the Asia Pacific region.”

Hetherington said: “We all have the same end goal; we want the markets to be clean and to offer a level playing field. It’s our intention to build a partnership with our surveillance provider to help further develop the system to address GHF’s challenges of ever evolving markets. We would hope this could also benefit all users on the platform, and we can benefit from input and experience offered by other Eventus clients. The firm is very receptive to this type of two-way dialogue and committed to constantly building on the platform.”