Using artificial intelligence and a big data environment, SER is making even greater efforts to ensure efficiency, quality and efficacy.

Prometheus is based on cutting-edge technologies and the highest degree of automation. Prometheus will gradually replace the trading surveillance software that is currently being used. With the placing into service of the Market Manipulation module, SER’s trading surveillance division has embarked upon a new chapter in the monitoring of stock exchange trading in Switzerland, having successfully completed the Surveillance 2.0 project.

Since the entry into force of the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA) reporting regime, the trading surveillance unit now has at its disposal more information regarding the beneficial owner of a transaction. Prometheus enables the structural linkage and cross-referencing of these transaction data with trading data.

The Prometheus application will enable analysts from SER’s trading surveillance division to detect potential cases of market manipulation, insider trading and other breaches of the law or irregularities more swiftly and in more robust detail.

The implementation of the Market Manipulation module marks the completion of SER’s internal development work, which is now fully ready for deployment.

Initial empirical results
“The roll-out of the Market Manipulation module in October went without a hitch. The first few weeks have already shown that the newly developed system will meet our expectations: the quality of the plausible suspicions generated by the new system is demonstrably high and it has been possible to cut the number of false alarms”, comments Christian Müller, Head Surveillance & Enforcement at SER, regarding the go-live. As a result, Prometheus enables trading surveillance specialists to engage in greater depth with high-quality suspicious transaction reports.

Continuous improvement as a driving force for development
“The trading surveillance division’s aim is to improve all relevant processes on an ongoing basis. Gaining in efficiency and effectiveness while boosting quality are the most important driving factors in this. Prometheus sees us make the move towards becoming a leading global trading surveillance unit: using the latest technological approaches, it ensures that we don’t react to change, but rather that we trigger change ourselves. We do this rigorously in order to maintain the integrity and transparency of the Swiss financial system at a high level”, Christian Müller continues. Müller clarifies that “Prometheus puts us in a position to analyse more data more quickly and in greater detail.”

Targeted and rapid development of Prometheus
Following the project launch in Q4 2019, the Insider Trading module which has been operational since the end of 2020 and the recent go-live of the second and last Market Manipulation module, SER has achieved another milestone in its transformation into a more effective, risk-based and more efficient trading surveillance unit.
PwC Switzerland provided an experienced expert team for SER in the development of Prometheus. “Time to market was important from the outset. Not only did we want to develop an innovative and efficient application, we wanted to do it as soon as possible. A key factor in the success of the short roll-out period was the excellent cooperation between our internal specialists and the experts from PwC Switzerland”, explains Christian Müller, commenting on the reasons for the swift progress.