Markets Regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has launched a sophisticated integrated market surveillance system, which will track data from all market players – stock exchanges, securities depositories and their associates, as well as online and offline (physical) clearing house data, to detect and track “abnormal” market patterns and behaviour.

The system, developed at a cost of Rs 22 crore by Australian financial markets software specialist SMARTS Pty Ltd and HCL Technologies, will go live from Friday December 1. Though sim , ilar systems are being used by market regulators around the world, Sebi has scored a global first by integrating the entire range of market activity in both the cash and derivatives sections of the BSE and NSE, as well as stock depositories, depository participants and clearing houses.

Announcing the launch of Sebi’s Integrated Market Surveillance System (IMSS) in Mumbai on Thursday, Sebi whole-time member G Anantharaman, who also heads its surveillance and investigation sections, said the objective was to capture market transaction data and develop sophisticated “alert engines” which will quickly detect “potential market abnormalities”. “Given the increasing complexity and sophistication of market instruments, transactions and technology, developing an audit trail has become difficult,” Anantharaman pointed out. That job will now be done by IMSS.

Locked behind ultra-secure access controls (the security system which controls access to this information includes sophisticated biometrics, as well as “double-level” access barriers, which combine passwords with knowledge unique to the individual accessing the system), a 50-strong team of Sebi officials will be able to monitor and “replay” every securities-related transaction.