Transaction Surveillance Software features explained
for Compliance and Risk Management
Tools that monitor trading activities, detect potential conflicts of interest, identify suspicious transactions, and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
Every feature we track for Transaction Surveillance Software products, with a description of what each one means.
AML & Compliance Features
Specialized modules focused on supporting anti-money laundering frameworks and broader regulatory compliance.
- Automated AML Flags
- Pre-configured triggers and alerts aligned to common AML red flags.
- Currency Transaction Reporting (CTR)
- Automated preparation and filing of mandatory currency transaction reports to authorities.
- Geo-Fencing & Jurisdiction Tagging
- Automatic classification and monitoring by geographic areas of risk.
- Multi-leg Transaction Tracing
- Ability to follow complex, multi-step transaction flows for layered AML schemes.
- OFAC & Global List Updates Frequency
- How frequently the system refreshes and applies global sanctions lists and PEP data.
- Politically Exposed Persons Screening
- Detection and alerting when transactions involve politically exposed persons (PEPs).
- Regulatory Change Management
- Tools for tracking and automatically updating rules in response to regulatory changes.
- Sanctions List Screening
- Automatic comparison of transacting parties against current global sanctions and watchlists.
- Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Workflow
- Integrated tools for generating, tracking, and managing SAR filings.
- Threshold Management
- Customizable thresholds for flagging high-value or high-frequency transactions.
Alerting & Case Management
Features for generating, managing, escalating, and resolving alerts/cases arising from surveillance activities.
- Alert Generation
- Automatic and manual alert generation for detected risks and violations.
- Alert Prioritization
- Ability to score or prioritize alerts based on risk or urgency.
- Alert Resolution SLA Tracking
- Measurement of time taken from alert creation to resolution.
- Attachment & Evidence Management
- Support for linking supporting documents or evidence to a case.
- Audit Trail
- Comprehensive logs of all alert and case related actions for compliance.
- Automated Notifications
- System sends emails or in-app messages upon alert trigger or escalation.
- Bulk Alert Handling
- Processing, assigning, or closing multiple alerts at once.
- Case Management Workflow
- Integrated process for tracking, investigating, and documenting cases.
- Custom Alert Rules
- Users can define specific alert rules/templates as per firm policy.
- Role-based Escalation
- Automated alert/case escalation based on user roles or business rules.
Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics
Use of machine learning, AI, and advanced data analytics to improve detection, reduce false positives, and adapt to evolving threats.
- Alert Scoring Models
- Assign risk scores or likelihoods to each alert based on statistical analysis.
- Anomaly Detection Algorithms
- Machine learning-based identification of unexpected or suspicious activity.
- Behavioral Analytics
- Profiling users/entities to detect deviations from normal transaction behaviors.
- Custom Model Integration
- Ability to import or develop custom analytics or ML models.
- Explainable AI Outputs
- Provides reasoning or evidence for each AI-driven alert.
- False Positive Reduction Technology
- AI mechanisms to significantly lower the number of irrelevant alerts.
- Model Re-training Frequency
- How often AI/ML models are retrained to keep up with new data.
- Natural Language Processing
- Analysis of unstructured data (emails, notes) for surveillance signals.
- Scenario Simulation
- Test and validate AI models or surveillance rules against simulated scenarios.
- Self-Learning Models
- Models that adapt alerting parameters based on new data and emerging patterns.
Audit & Regulatory Compliance
Controls and records designed to guarantee adherence to regulatory standards and to facilitate auditing.
- Accessibility to Regulators
- Secure, controlled regulator access to requested surveillance data.
- Audit Report Generation
- One-click generation of compliance/audit output.
- Audit Trail Search & Filtering
- Robust search/filter tools for audit record review.
- Change Management Tracking
- Logs and summarizes rule, threshold, and configuration changes.
- Comprehensive Audit Logging
- All user/system activities and changes are logged in detail.
- Data Privacy Compliance Controls
- Privacy features for GDPR, CCPA, or relevant data protection regimes.
- Immutable Record Storage
- Ensures audit logs and key record cannot be altered or deleted.
- Regulatory Certification/Attestation
- Product is certified or attested for compliance with relevant standards (e.g., SOC, ISO, GDPR).
- Retention Policy Enforcement
- Automation to manage data retention in line with regulatory requirements.
- Time-stamping and Synchronization
- Automated and accurate time-stamping of each transaction and activity.
Core Transaction Monitoring
Features directly related to the capture, tracking, and surveillance of transactions for compliance, risk identification, and regulatory reporting.
- Ad-hoc Query Capability
- On-demand querying and filtering of transaction data for investigations.
- Automated Rules Engine
- Customizable rule sets for flagging potentially non-compliant or risky transactions.
- Cross-channel Surveillance
- Ability to monitor transactions across multiple platforms and channels (trading, banking, payments).
- Data Enrichment
- Ability to augment transaction records with additional data sources for enhanced detection.
- Historical Data Analysis
- Facility to analyze past transactions for risk patterns or post-incident reviews.
- Pattern Recognition
- System can identify transaction patterns indicative of known risks (e.g., layering in money laundering).
- Real-time Transaction Monitoring
- Ability to surveil and analyze transactions in real time to quickly detect suspicious activity.
- Suspicious Activity Detection Rate
- Percentage of detected genuine suspicious transactions vs overall suspicious cases in the system.
- Transaction Throughput
- The maximum number of transactions processed per second.
- Volume Capacity
- The largest number of records manageable in system storage without degradation.
Data Integration & Quality
Capabilities relating to importing, exporting, and maintaining the quality and integrity of data for surveillance.
- API Availability
- Availability of APIs for system integration and data exchange.
- Data Format Compatibility
- Supported number of standard and custom data formats.
- Data Lineage Tracking
- Ability to trace the origin and history of each data element.
- Data Retention Period
- Maximum duration data can be securely stored and archived.
- Data Validation & Sanitization
- Automated checks for data quality, accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
- Duplicate Transaction Detection
- Automatic identification of duplicate transaction records.
- ETL Performance
- Speed of extracting, transforming, and loading data.
- Manual Data Entry Support
- Allows for secure manual input and corrections of data where needed.
- Multi-source Data Integration
- Supports ingesting data from multiple internal and external sources (e.g., trade systems, banks, brokers).
- Real-time Data Feed Support
- Integration with streaming data feeds for live monitoring.
Reporting & Analytics
Capabilities for regulatory reporting, internal management reports, analytics, and visualization of surveillance results.
- Ad Hoc Analytics Module
- Tools for creating advanced, one-off analytic queries and visualizations.
- Audit Certified Reports
- Reports can be generated with system-assured audit certification.
- Custom Report Builder
- Users can design and generate tailored analytic and compliance reports.
- Dashboards & Data Visualization
- Interactive dashboards and visual summaries of key metrics and trends.
- Drill-down Analysis
- Ability to drill from top-line summaries to detailed transaction or alert records.
- KPI Tracking
- Track key performance indicators (alerts handled, case closure rate, etc.).
- Peer Group Benchmarking
- Compare your organization's risk/compliance statistics to industry benchmarks.
- Report Export Formats
- Available formats for exporting reports (e.g., PDF, Excel, CSV).
- Scheduled Reporting
- Reports can be automatically scheduled and distributed.
- Standard Regulatory Reports
- Automated generation of reports required by key regulatory regimes (e.g., FINRA, FCA, SEC).
Security & Infrastructure
Underlying technical and operational capabilities for ensuring system security, availability, and resilience.
- Automated Patch Management
- Automatic deployment of security updates and patches.
- Cloud or On-premise Deployment Options
- Ability to deploy the solution in the cloud, on-premises, or hybrid models.
- Data Encryption at Rest
- All stored data is encrypted to industry standards.
- Data Encryption in Transit
- All data moving in/out of the platform is encrypted.
- Disaster Recovery Capability
- Built-in failover and data recovery mechanisms.
- High Availability Uptime
- Guaranteed minimum system uptime.
- Penetration Testing Frequency
- Schedule for regular security penetration/vulnerability tests.
- Physical Data Center Security
- Data centers conform with industry physical security standards.
- Scalability Metrics
- The scale to which system performance can be expanded.
- Security Incident Response
- Documented and tested incident response processes.
Support, Usability & Training
Tools, documentation, and services designed to optimize user effectiveness, minimize risk of errors, and provide support.
- Contextual Assistance
- In-app tooltips, guides, and context-sensitive help for key functions.
- Customer Support Availability
- Hours per day that product support is available (e.g., 24/7).
- Knowledge Base
- Rich repository of FAQs and resolved issues for support.
- Multilingual Support
- Availability of user interface and documentation in multiple languages.
- Online Help & Documentation
- Comprehensive, accessible, and searchable system user guides.
- Release Notes / Update Notifications
- In-product or emailed communications for new releases and critical patches.
- System Customization Level
- Extent to which users can tailor features or workflows to their specific needs.
- Ticketing System
- Integrated issue and feature request tracking.
- Training Programs
- Availability of product training for staff and compliance officers.
- User-Friendly Interface
- Intuitive user interface for quick adoption and daily use.
Trade Surveillance
Functionality specific to monitoring trading activities and identifying market abuse, insider trading, and conflicts of interest.
- Alert Investigation Workflow
- Structured processes and tools to review and escalate detected trade alerts.
- Conflict of Interest Detection
- Automatic detection of potential conflicts based on employee accounts and trade history.
- Coverage of Instrument Types
- Number of supported asset types for surveillance (equities, derivatives, FX, fixed income, etc.).
- Exchange & Venue Coverage
- Ability to monitor trades across global exchanges and trading venues.
- Fairness Monitoring
- Surveillance for best execution, front running, and trade allocations.
- False Positive Rate
- Average proportion of trade alerts that are mistakenly flagged.
- Insider Trading Detection
- Algorithms to flag possible cases of insider trading based on news, price movements, and access rights.
- Market Manipulation Alerts
- Detection of market manipulation patterns such as spoofing, layering, and wash trading.
- Supervisory Dashboard
- Centralized view for compliance officers to monitor and prioritize potential trade violations.
- Trade Reconstruction Tools
- Ability to reconstruct order and trade histories for audit and investigation.
User Management & Access Controls
Tools for managing users, roles, permissions, and access security to sensitive data and features.
- Concurrent User Support
- Maximum number of users able to use the system simultaneously.
- Deprovisioning Automation
- Automated removal of access rights upon employee departure or role change.
- IP Whitelisting
- Restricting access only to users from approved network locations.
- Multi-factor Authentication
- Requirement for two or more forms of identity verification.
- Permission Templates
- Ability to create, save, and apply reusable permission settings across user groups.
- Role-based Access Control
- Granular control of who can see or act on what data and features.
- Segregation of Duty Support
- Helps implement separation of critical tasks to different users for internal controls.
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Support for central authentication and SSO standards.
- Temporary Access Management
- Time-limited or project-based access assignments.
- User Audit Logs
- Tracking of each user’s actions for security and compliance audits.