FINRA Restructures Market Regulation and Transparency Services Team
"The way that MRTS was organized historically, [...] made sense at the time, and it served the department well. But it's important for us to continue to evolve as the industry and the markets evolve and to be able to adapt to those changes so we're able to meet those challenges ahead, which is why we embarked on this journey to redesign our organization."
Market Regulation and Transparency Services Senior Vice President Jackie Perrell
"The way that MRTS was organized historically, [...] made sense at the time, and it served the department well. But it's important for us to continue to evolve as the industry and the markets evolve and to be able to adapt to those changes so we're able to meet those challenges ahead, which is why we embarked on this journey to redesign our organization."
Market Regulation and Transparency Services Senior Vice President Jackie Perrell
FINRA reorganized its Market Regulation and Transparency Services ("MRTS") into distinct functional areas "rather than around specific rules or products."
During an episode of FINRA Unscripted, Feral Talib, Executive Vice President of Surveillance and Market Intelligence, Jackie Perrell, a Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff for Market Regulation and Transparency Services and Steve Price, Senior Vice President of Market Investigations, described the reorganization. These FINRA executives described how the reorganization will allow for a more holistic view of market-based risks and more strategic allocation of technology and staff resources. The new groups within "MRTS 2.0" include:
- The Surveillance Market Intelligence ("SMI") group consolidated various market-based surveillance functions within FINRA, including market abuse, manipulation, fraud, insider trading and several specific trading and reporting surveillances.
- The Market Investigations team will cover four primary areas: market abuse (covering fraud, manipulation and insider trading), customer order handling (including best execution and fair pricing), market compliance (focusing on Reg SHO, Reg ATS and market access) and reporting and disclosure (CAT compliance).
- The Regulatory Services Management group will focus on FINRA's exchange clients.
- The Trading and Market Data Analytics group will provide market analytic support to the SMI teams.
- The Strategic Regulatory Engagement group will focus on "keeping up with external regulatory developments that could have a potential impact on the department," and on engagement with FINRA stakeholders on regulatory issues or market events that could impact the department.