[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA), an independent body that regulates the financial services industry in the United Kingdom (UK), today announced that the FSA has selected NASDAQ OMX’s SMARTS Integrity market surveillance system to further enhance the FSA’s monitoring of transaction reports across the UK’s financial markets.

SMARTS Integrity will provide the FSA with a surveillance platform for the detection of market abuse across financial instruments admitted to trading on regulated or prescribed markets including any underlying derivatives. SMARTS Integrity will also afford the FSA with a platform that is scalable and extensible to meet future European legislation such as the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).

Paul McKeown, Vice President, Market Technology at NASDAQ OMX, said: “We are thrilled to be supporting the FSA in their regulatory endeavors. This new partnership marks an important achievement for our SMARTS Integrity product in the European marketplace, with more than 55 percent of all European equity trading now being monitored through our software. As regulatory issues and requirements continue to evolve around the world, we look forward to working with other regulators like the FSA to investigate market abuse through our best-in-class systems for market surveillance.”