Mercury Derivatives, part of the Hertshten Group, has adopted the cloud-based version of Validus on a T+1 basis for market surveillance, including the ability to identify and address a wide range of potential market manipulation behaviors.

Elad Hertshten, a senior member of the Hertshten Group, said: "For us, we find that one of the most important things to survive long-term in this industry is to be fully compliant. Trade surveillance is a key component of that, including complying with the exchanges in which we operate."

Mercury Derivatives had been using a trade surveillance platform it had acquired, but it required significant resources to maintain, including an in-house developer. The firm planned to outsource next year but accelerated its plan after seeing Validus and participating in a custom demo. Hertshten said: "I'm a big believer in outsourcing what we're not specialized in. The Validus technology is much more advanced than what we had. And we were particularly impressed with the people, hands-on support and professionalism. They delivered what they promised. Implementation was quick. The integration went smoothly, the communication has been great, and all timetables were met."

Amit Bhanwani, Head of Business Operations, said: "The Validus platform is quite intuitive, and we really like the open architecture and ability to build any type of automation into Validus on the basis of our requirements. The information captured in the platform is very granular in nature so if we want to see the data in a different format, we can drill down and add it to our main user interface. That gives me confidence that any form of customization is possible in this system."

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: "We're delighted that Mercury Derivatives has put its confidence in us and look forward to a lasting relationship. Our focus from the beginning has been to offer clients not only superior, easy-to-use technology that meets the highest regulatory and firm standards, but also high-touch service they can't find elsewhere."

Headquartered in Mauritius, the Hertshten Group also has operations in India, Israel, the UK and Canada.