Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) Taps NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS for Pan-European Market Monitoring of EU Wholesale Energy Markets

1/22/2013 8:00 AM EST

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
Press release

Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) Taps NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS
for Pan-European Market Monitoring of EU Wholesale Energy Markets

NEW YORK, 2013-01-22 14:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NASDAQ OMX (Nasdaq:NDAQ) has
been selected to deliver its SMARTS Integrity market surveillance system to the
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), a central EU
institution in the creation of a Single Energy Market to the benefit of all EU
consumers, to monitor the European wholesale gas and electricity markets
covering both spot trading and derivative markets across Europe in accordance
with the obligations under the REMIT legislation. 

The REMIT legislation, otherwise known as Regulation (EU) No 1227/2011 of the
European Parliament and the Council on wholesale energy market integrity and
transparency, came into force in December 2011 in order to prohibit market
manipulation and insider trading in EU wholesale energy markets. ACER is the
central EU institution tasked with the market monitoring of pan-European
wholesale energy markets and with data collection from market participants as
soon as the REMIT implementing acts on data collection apply, currently
expected in the first half of 2014. 

SMARTS Integrity — provided by OMX Technology AB and selected through an open
tender in competition with a number of market surveillance providers — will
provide ACER with a surveillance platform to address three top priorities the
Agency considers essential in complying with REMIT. These are the ability to
detect insider trading, market manipulation and attempted market manipulation
across European markets. The solution will amalgamate trading across every
European energy market under REMIT and provide ACER with a consolidated view on
a pan-European basis. In addition to the ACER implementation, the system will
be available for sublicensing to National Regulatory Authorities to enable them
to meet their tasks in monitoring wholesale energy markets at a national level. 

NASDAQ OMX's surveillance solution will support ACER in gaining consumer and
other market participants' confidence in the integrity of electricity and gas
markets, as well as ensuring prices set on wholesale energy markets reflect
fair and competitive interplay between supply and demand, while stifling any
profits gained from market abuse. 

"We are honored to be chosen to work with ACER on their historical and
groundbreaking regulatory efforts in the Pan-European energy and derivative
markets," said Paul McKeown, Vice President of Market Technology, NASDAQ OMX.
"As the world's leading market surveillance solution, SMARTS is dedicated to
collaborating with regulatory authorities such as ACER and the Financial
Services Authority (FSA) to investigate market abuse and maintain market
integrity through our best-in-class technology. This project is a ground
breaking initiative in terms of delivering pan-European market surveillance." 

About NASDAQ OMX:

The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels
economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of
a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the
U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 25 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central
securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income,
derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more
than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.99%
uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and
emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world's securities
transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the
benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed
companies worth $6 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we
give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world
takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn
more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500) 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made
under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about
SMARTS Integrity and NASDAQ OMX's other products and offerings. We caution that
these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may
differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties
or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are
not limited to factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and
periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We
undertake no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking
statements. 

                                      NDAQG


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