Article 9 Conformance testing(Article 48(6) of Directive 2014/65/EU)

  1. (1)

    Trading venues shall require their members to undertake conformance testing prior to the deployment or a substantial update of:

    1. (a)

      the access to the trading venue's system;

    2. (b)

      the member's trading system, trading algorithm or trading strategy.

  2. (2)

    The conformance testing shall ensure that the basic functioning of the member's trading system, algorithm and strategy complies with the trading venue's conditions.

  3. (3)

    The conformance testing shall verify the functioning of the following:

    1. (a)

      the ability of the system or algorithm to interact as expected with the trading venue's matching logic and the adequate processing of the data flows from and to the trading venue;

    2. (b)

      the basic functionalities such as submission, modification or cancellation of an order or an indication of interest, static and market data downloads and all business data flows;

    3. (c)

      the connectivity, including the cancel on disconnect command, market data feed loss and throttles, and the recovery, including the intra-day resumption of trading and the handling of suspended instruments or non-updated market data.

  4. (4)

    Trading venues shall provide a conformance testing environment to their actual and prospective members which:

    1. (a)

      is accessible on conditions equivalent to those applicable to the trading venue's other testing services;

    2. (b)

      provides a list of financial instruments which can be tested and which are representative of every class of instruments available in the production environment;

    3. (c)

      is available during general market hours or, if available only outside market hours, on a pre-scheduled periodic basis;

    4. (d)

      is supported by staff with sufficient knowledge.

  5. (5)

    Trading venues shall deliver a report of the results of the conformance testing to the actual or prospective member only.

  6. (6)

    Trading venues shall require their actual and prospective members to use their conformance testing facilities.

  7. (7)

    Trading venues shall ensure an effective separation of the testing environment from the production environment for the conformance testing referred to in paragraphs 1 to 3.