Enables Energy Trading Desks at Producers, Marketers and Financial Services Firms of Companies to Monitor Trading, Detect and Document Market Abuse and Protect Against Manipulation

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), the world's leading provider of market technology, today announced the launch of its SMARTS Surveillance for Energy.

The SMARTS Surveillance for Energy module enables those companies trading energy -- including producers, marketers and traditional financial services firms -- to proactively monitor trading across both physical and financial energy markets through its ability to detect suspicious trading behaviors, document all potential instances of abuse, and protect against market manipulation. These alerting capabilities include: price manipulation scenarios, banging the close/open, physical versus financial-related index manipulation, uneconomic trading, use of market power at discrete time intervals or contract markets, order book abuse (e.g. spoofing, layering, excessive corrections), quote stuffing, insider trading, front-running, collusion and parking trades.

"As regulators such as FERC, CFTC, ACER increase their focus on improving the integrity and transparency in the energy markets through global regulatory initiatives including REMIT, Dodd Frank and Order 670, market participants are monitoring proactively their energy trading activity," said Rob Lang, Vice President and Head of SMARTS. "In developing this module, we are proud to collaborate with both our customers and expanding beyond the community to include those producing energy or that trade energy assets for hedging purposes and are focusing much more attention on their surveillance practices both domestically and internationally."

To ensure compliance with global regulations and reduce a firm's exposure to risk, SMARTS Surveillance for Energy offering is designed to analyze every bid, offer, trade, amendment and cancellation in the context of a firm's own patterns as well as the patterns of all other market participants. Additionally, the new module benefits from the proven business technical and surveillance expertise of the SMARTS ecosystem, including a library of best practice alerts developed across the SMARTS user base.

With over 20 years of experience as the industry benchmark for real-time and T+1, cross-market surveillance platforms, NASDAQ OMX SMARTS technology powers surveillance and compliance for 36 marketplaces, 11 regulators and 90+ market participants across 65 markets globally.

About NASDAQ OMX Group

NASDAQ OMX (Nasdaq:NDAQ) is a leading provider of trading, exchange technology, information and public company services across six continents. Through its diverse portfolio of solutions, NASDAQ OMX enables customers to plan, optimize and execute their business vision with confidence, using proven technologies that provide transparency and insight for navigating today's global capital markets. As the creator of the world's first electronic stock market, its technology powers more than 70 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. NASDAQ OMX is home to more than 3,400 listed companies with a market value of over $8.5 trillion and more than 10,000 corporate clients. To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com:
http://www.nasdaqomx.com/.

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 NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS business and other businesses, 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.

-NASDG-

 CONTACT: NASDAQ OMX Media Relations Contact:
         
         Ryan Wells
         +1 (212) 231-5541 (office)
         +1 (646) 581-4286 (mobile)
         ryan.wells@nasdaqomx.com (email)



This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. via Globenewswire

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