OpRisk Europe: Banks must be aware of HFT risks

Banks need to be conscious of the risks posed by their high-frequency trading business, says internal audit director at Barclays Bank

Banks need to be aware of the risks posed by their high-frequency trading (HFT) activities, according to David Ramirez, director of internal audit at Barclays Bank.

Much of the regulatory focus on high-frequency trading has so far been on the potential systemic risk implications – meanwhile, the continual push to speed up transactions can pose risks of its own, Ramirez said. Order placement and booking is comparatively rapid – 60–70% of the latency time is taken up by the calculation of the