BST Awards 2022: Best buy-side market surveillance tool/platform—SteelEye

Overview

Regulators are pressuring firms to improve their surveillance tools in order to adapt to a world in which e-communication is ever-increasing. Many firms continue to struggle to comply with regulatory mandates due to the use of disparate systems and scattered data, preventing comprehensive oversight. The ability to holistically analyze data is fundamental to effective surveillance. SteelEye’s trade and communications surveillance offering enables capital markets firms to capture, monitor and overlay data sources to enhance their surveillance requirements. 

What problem does it address?  

SteelEye reduces the complexity and cost of compliance by enabling firms to manage regulatory obligations through a single platform. SteelEye’s surveillance tools are designed to enable firms to monitor, prevent, and mitigate financial crime. They can run a range of market abuse reports and data is analyzed in real time, ensuring that risks are swiftly identified. SteelEye integrates with news data sources and social media, providing pertinent context to optimize detection, improve oversight and continuously demonstrate compliance.

Secret sauce 

SteelEye is designed by data scientists and technologists who have a clear understanding of how to utilize technology. The platform consolidates structured and unstructured data that does not normally fit together and turns that data into usable information. This data-centric approach is one of SteelEye’s key differentiators―it is a holistic surveillance solution that integrates trading data alongside communications, news and social media feeds.

Recent milestones

• Enhanced context for quicker investigations: Behavioral elements in market manipulation alerts mean more data is available to determine suspicious activity. Alerts are resolved faster, with analytics offering relevant information.
• Communications Surveillance Suite: Firms of all sizes and risk profiles have access to oversight tools.
• Order book replay: Organizations can replay a trading session and analyze market movements to highlight market abuse by visually showcasing the balance of the trading book against market price levels.

Future objectives 

• SteelEye has just completed a Series B funding round of $21 million―it will focus on fostering and maintaining company culture, while enabling business growth.
• SteelEye is focused on delivering best-in-class services and optimizing and automating processes to make them stronger and more effective.
• International expansion is a key focus for the year ahead―SteelEye recently expanded into North America.

Why they won

London-based SteelEye follows up its success in this category in last year’s awards by winning it again, thanks to its flagship offering of the same name. SteelEye’s trade and communications surveillance offering is designed to allow buy-side firms to capture, monitor and overlay a wide range of data sources in order to enhance their surveillance functions―essentially, it consolidates structured and unstructured data and transforms it into usable information allowing firms to monitor their employees’ activities accurately and efficiently.