Inactive

***UPDATE TO PAGE LIMIT AS OF 10/15/2020 - PLEASE NOTE THAT RESPONSES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S QUESTIONS MAY BE ANSWERED IN 5 ADDITIONAL PAGES TO YOUR 10 PAGE RESPONSE, MAKING THE TOTAL MAXIMUM PAGES 15 IF... ***UPDATE TO PAGE LIMIT AS OF 10/15/2020 - PLEASE NOTE THAT RESPONSES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S QUESTIONS MAY BE ANSWERED IN 5 ADDITIONAL PAGES TO YOUR 10 PAGE RESPONSE, MAKING THE TOTAL MAXIMUM PAGES 15 IF YOU ANSWER THE GOVERNMENT'S 19 QUESTIONS BELOW. Introduction: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks information and invites industry review of data processing and market surveillance services for the security-based swap (SBS) market. In particular, as described more fully herein, we are seeking services for any or all of the following: Develop, operate and maintain a secure technical solution that receives, ingests, stores, processes, and normalizes data from multiple swap data repositories (SDRs); Develop, operate and maintain a secure technical solution that provides web-based interfaces for accessing raw, normalized and enriched data, as well as customized dashboards and reports to the SEC and authorized regulators; Develop, operate and maintain SBS market monitoring and surveillance services that recognize and deploy custom patterns over the data which provide actionable tips and reports to the SEC; For any of these services, we would like information regarding well-established financial regulatory data platforms and surveillance service providers, but we will consider information from vendors having demonstrative experience in developing and operating relevant or related solutions. In all cases, the potential services must provide fully managed, robust and secure solutions for sensitive regulatory information. Background: The SEC regulates the U.S. SBS markets. An independent federal agency, it is led by a bipartisan five-member Commission and consists of a number of divisions and offices. The SEC’s Regulation SBSR[1] governs regulatory reporting and public dissemination of SBS transactions and is expected to become operative in early November 2021. Regulation SBSR will require each SBS transaction to be reported to a registered security-based swap data repository (“SDR”). A registered SDR must provide direct electronic access to the Commission (or any designee of the Commission). The SBS transaction data held in registered SDRs will enable more effective monitoring and surveillance of the SBS market. POTENTIAL FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES: The SEC seeks information about obtaining effective, efficient, and secure services that (1) ingest, process, normalize, store, and enrich SBS data that is received and maintained by registered SDRs; (2) provide unlimited access, including through an application programming interface, to SBS data and reports for the SEC and other authorized regulators (e.g., Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)); and/or (3) operate market monitoring and surveillance services of the SBS market on the Commission’s behalf based on the transaction data obtained from registered SDRs. Optimally, we are interested in services that address all three of the above items, but we will consider information concerning only one or more of the above items. Further, we are interested in established financial regulatory data platforms and existing market surveillance service providers, but we will consider information from vendors that are able to provide new surveillance architectures and services. In all cases, the potential services must provide fully managed, robust and secure solutions for sensitive regulatory information that meet or exceed the SEC’s security requirements, including the controls described by NIST 800-53. Ideal services would: Develop, operate, maintain, host and secure a data/platform service that receives, ingests, processes, and stores SBS data from each registered SDR, normalizes and consolidates those data, conducts analytics, and compiles and provides reports based on those data to the SEC; Develop data/platform services using industry best practices to pull/receive, normalize, and consolidate SBS data, as well as services that analyze the data, detect patterns, and generate reports; Operate services in compliance with industry standard service level agreements; Maintain services and tools in compliance with rule requirements and consistent with SEC needs; Host the services in a high-performance environment supplying compute and storage capabilities capable of matching demands; Receive, ingest and process SBS data from multiple registered SDRs on an intraday basis consistent and in harmony with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) processes for obtaining swap transaction data from CFTC-registered SDRs; Provide capabilities for normalizing SBS data from registered SDRs compliant with SEC schemas and technical requirements on a batch/micro-batch intraday basis; Operate services to verify, validate, correct, recollect and reprocess SBS data from the registered SDRs; Provide reports on matters such as identifying data submission and quality issues and other anomalous data, and showing updated and corrected transaction reports along with associated data lineage; Provide and maintain web services that produce human readable (e.g., JSON, CSV) response formats of SBS data extracts utilizing industry best practices, (i.e. RESTful and python APIs); Provide and maintain web services that produce human readable (e.g., JSON) responses to requests for metadata and reference data including but not limited to data inventory, lineage and error correction statuses; Capabilities to, on an ad-hoc or periodic basis, receive, ingest and process batch supplemental data from other U.S. regulators like the CFTC or international swap regulators; If and when relevant information-sharing arrangements have been concluded, combine SBS data with swap data from CFTC-registered SDRs and/or foreign regulators and trade repositories; Provide access and delivery of raw, normalized and enriched data sets to the SEC and authorized regulators on a continuous, on-demand basis; Provide customized reports and dashboards to the SEC and authorized regulators on a continuous, on-demand basis; Develop, operate and maintain SBS market monitoring and surveillance services based on the SBS data from registered SDRs; Identify patterns, and provide actionable tips, alerts, and reports concerning potential securities law violations (e.g., insider trading) to the SEC and support queries of the relevant transaction reports; Recommend enhancements and provide customization and continuous improvement of SBS monitoring and surveillance patterns, algorithms, models and approaches with the SEC staff and authorized regulators; Show demonstrated track record of robust data protection and storage of sensitive regulatory data systems and managed services; Secure the solution with FISMA moderate controls, and preferably using FedRAMP products. The solution will incorporate best practices for system vulnerability testing and related mitigations, oversight from a highly qualified and accredited Chief Information Security Officer, and best-in-class secure access monitoring tools RFI SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS/WHAT TO PROVIDE: Responses to this RFI shall be in a file size that shall not exceed 10MB. In addition, responses shall not exceed ten (10) pages in length and shall be submitted via email to ginnc@sec.gov by the deadline listed below. Information shall only be submitted electronically. ***UPDATE TO PAGE LIMIT AS OF 10/15/2020 - PLEASE NOTE THAT RESPONSES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S QUESTIONS MAY BE ANSWERED IN 5 ADDITIONAL PAGES TO YOUR RESPONSE, MAKING THE TOTAL MAXIMUM PAGES 15 IF YOU ANSWER THE GOVERNMENT'S 19 QUESTIONS BELOW. Responses shall include a capability statement that leverages the respondent's knowledge of legal developments, current requirements, and industry standards and best practices; describes the services available; and illustrates how it addresses the services identified in this RFI. Respondents shall also include the following information in their response: 1. Company Name 2. Company Address 3. Company social economic size/status for the associated NAICS (SB, WOSB, HubZone, 8(a), etc.) 4. Company Website 5. Company Telephone Number 6. Company Point of Contact (POC) for this RFI (please include telephone numbers and email addresses). 7. Understanding of the Request – briefly describe your understanding of the services requested 8. Description of Approach – briefly describe how you may provide/approach the services 9. Description of Demonstrated Experience – briefly describe your experience with the services described above or similar services QUESTIONS THE GOVERNMENT WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE RESPONSES ON TO ASSIST IT WITH FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF ITS RFP: Does the SOW provide a clear representation of the government’s needs? If not, what needs to be clarified or added? Based on your review of the Statement of Work, can this requirement be awarded to a single firm or a single team of firms or should this requirement be separated and awarded to multiple firms? Can this requirement be done successfully against a GSA Schedule/Schedules? If so, what category of GSA schedules would be best suited for this requirement and why? Is it best to procure this requirement via the open market or GSA? Why? Based on your review of the requirements/Statement of Work (SOW), can this entire requirement be set aside for a small business? In your view would the services be considered commercial or non-commercial? What is the best suited NAICS code for this requirement? The SEC realizes that multiple NAICS codes could apply to this requirement including 541511, 541512, etc. See attached SWAPS NAICS PSC Matrix. What is the preferred contract type for these services? Is a BPA or IDIQ contract route appropriate? If so, what contract type or contract types should be used against these vehicles, T&M, FFP, CPAF, FPIF, etc. or a hybrid? What evaluation criteria should the government consider using to ensure a best value award? Please be as specific as possible. What is an acceptable period of performance for this requirement? Do you envision the need for option periods? Do you envision a period of performance of multiple years (straight through performance, not requiring option periods)? What type of personnel and qualifications would be required for performance of the areas in the SOW? Based on this information identify the appropriate labor categories your company may consider proposing in response to an RFP. Which of these should be considered key personnel? You are encouraged to provide any staffing strategies you might develop to ensure that the contract is appropriately staffed through the period of performance. What type of Government Furnished Information would be required for the services Travel – The Government does not envision a need for travel. Do you envision needing travel to perform this requirement? If so, how would you cost out travel Other than labor costs, what other direct cost items are needed for completion of the requirements in the SOW? Using Excel, could you recommend a pricing structure for this requirement based on the attached draft SOW? If you have any suggestions, please show them. How long would you need to complete a responsive proposal? What additional information would you need the government to provide in a RFP to be able develop a responsive and adequately priced proposal? How helpful would an Industry Day be to your firm? Is there any information you feel can be provided via Industry Day that cannot be provided via an RFP? General comments or observations. TIMEFRAME Responses to this RFI are due by 4 p.m. EST on October 30, 2020. RFI DISCLAIMER: This is a Request for Information (RFI), as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201 (e). The SEC is issuing this RFI in an effort to understand market availability, technical characteristics, look and feel, price information, and functionality of the services described herein. Please note that this is for INFORMATIONAL and PLANNING purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to this RFI will not be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government will not pay for the information solicited or recognize any costs associated with the submission of the RFI. The purpose of this RFI is to provide an opportunity for industry to enhance the success of any future procurement to meet this requirement. Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government for program planning and acquisition strategy development. A determination by the Government not to issue a solicitation based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The SEC reserves the right to use any and all information submitted by, or obtained from, an interested firm in any manner the SEC determines is appropriate, including, but not limited to, the creation of a competitive solicitation. An interested party should avoid including any classified, business confidential, and/or proprietary information in its response. If an interested firm must submit such information, however, the information must be clearly marked, and the interested firm must provide sufficient justification as to why such information is business confidential and/or proprietary. The SEC will review the information and safeguard it appropriately. PLEASE SEND ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS RFI TO GINNC@SEC.GOV. PHONE CALLS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Contracting Office Address: 100 F Street, NE MS-4010 Washington, District of Columbia 20549 United States Place of Performance: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street N.E. Washington, District of Columbia 20549 United States Primary Point of Contact: NAME: Consuela Ginn EMAIL: GinnC@sec.gov