In February 2020, the BRVM officially launched a new market surveillance platform called SMARTS Market Surveillance, developed by NASDAQ. This system, already used by more than 250 financial organizations in more than 50 countries, makes it possible to detect in real time forms of market manipulation, abnormal price movements, atypical trader behavior, and to automatically generate alerts on market abuse situations.
Concretely, SMARTS allows the BRVM to correlate price movements with publicly available information, fully replay a trading session, analyze historical data to identify recurring patterns, and target market participants at risk or suspected of abnormal practices.
Formally, this system places the BRVM among the emerging markets adopting international surveillance standards, in line with the expectations of the Regional Capital Markets Commission (CRMC) and institutional investors.
Reading: technological modernization without a market revolution
The adoption of SMARTS should not be read as a simple marketing gimmick. It is part of a broader modernization trajectory: integration into the MSCI Frontier Market indices, opening of new compartments, development of securitization products, and strengthening of transparency.
However, the real question is not the existence of the tool, but its level of operational implementation. West African stock markets are still characterized by low liquidity and a concentration of volumes on a small number of securities, an investor base still dominated by local actors and regional institutions, and a market culture where “pump and dump” behavior or one-off manipulation remains possible, especially on illiquid securities.
In this context, the surveillance technology may be technically advanced, but its effectiveness depends on several factors: quality and completeness of data, ability of surveillance teams to interpret alerts, and above all the political and regulatory will to actually sanction abuses.
Implications for market participants
For investors, the presence of a SMARTS system is a positive signal: it reinforces the perception of a market that is more closely monitored, more transparent, and more aligned with international standards. This can support confidence, particularly for foreign investors who are still hesitant to be exposed to the BRVM.
For brokers and listed companies, this means a more controlled environment, where market behaviors are traced, analyzed, and potentially sanctioned. This can limit certain market biases, but also increase pressure on compliance and governance.
For the BRVM and the CRMC, the implementation of SMARTS strengthens their ability to identify patterns of manipulation or coordination among participants, to produce more robust market analyses to support regulatory decisions, and to strengthen the credibility of the exchange among international partners such as indices, institutional investors, and partner exchanges.
However, technology does not resolve structural constraints: limited asset diversification, limited market size, and dependence on a small number of issuers. Surveillance can improve market integrity, but not its depth.
Outlook: what to monitor in the coming years
In the short and medium term, several indicators will help measure the real technological transformation of the BRVM. The first is the number and nature of alerts generated by SMARTS, and especially the rate at which identified cases are processed and sanctioned. The second is the publication, even partial, of surveillance reports or statistics on market behaviors, which would strengthen transparency. The third is the integration of surveillance AI with other data tools such as indices, risk scores, and ESG metrics, to produce more comprehensive market indicators. The fourth is the evolution of market liquidity and diversification: if surveillance helps attract new issuers and investors, then the impact will be tangible.
Finally, the open question is that of local ownership of these technologies. The BRVM uses a tool developed by NASDAQ, but the real technological transformation will be measured by the capacity of local teams to understand, adapt, and exploit these systems to address the specificities of the West African market, rather than limiting themselves to a simple technical compliance exercise.