Online Meeting of FEAS WG Highlights TSE’s Digital Surveillance Innovation

Online Meeting of FEAS WG Highlights TSE's Digital Surveillance Innovation

Tehran Securities Exchange Posted

Tehran Securities Exchange (TSE), in collaboration with the Federation of Euro-Asian Capital Markets (FEAS), held the online meeting of WG on Tuesday, September 9, to advance digital oversight of capital markets.

The session, attended by Mohammadreza Shahnazari, Deputy for Market Surveillance, and Reza Ghafouri, Director of Market Surveillance, underscored TSE's commitment to combating
market manipulation through technology-driven regulation. Habib Ghazanfari, Head of Market Integrity Watch, introduced TSE's newly launched Digital Surveillance Framework, outlining global challenges posed by social media platforms such as Telegram, X (former Twitter), and Instagram in distorting investor behavior and asset prices. He highlighted historical cases of coordinated pump-and-dump schemes and emphasized TSE's proactive response: the creation of a dedicated Social Media Surveillance Task Force to detect and neutralize manipulative content in real time.

"The Market Integrity Watch is now working on automating their processes to improve violation detection speed and accuracy", he said. He highlighted the difficulties in tracing the original publication of content compared to other platforms and mentioned the increasing use of videos and pictures, which complicates analysis. He also touched on the challenges of proving intention behind posts, dealing with account deletions or changes, and monitoring private channels and groups. Despite these challenges, he emphasized that overcoming them has provided valuable insights for future steps. Zahra Ramazani, a Market Integrity Officer, detailed the technical tools underpinning this initiative, including AI-powered Persian-language sentiment analysis, anomaly detection algorithms, and cross-platform monitoring systems that track suspicious posting patterns across encrypted and public channels. These tools enable regulators to move from reactive
investigations to predictive prevention.

She explained how they analyze trading activity and social media discussions to identify potential market manipulation and maintain stability. The process involves detecting unusual
price fluctuations, cross-referencing with social media content, and using Python for data integration and analysis. The insights gained from this monitoring help regulatory bodies take
timely actions to protect investors and ensure market fairness.

The meeting concluded with a presentation by Fatemeh Nazemi, another Market Integrity Officer who presented two verified cases of market manipulation via social media. In one case,
a Telegram network artificially inflated a small-cap stock price by over 50% using fake news; in another, impersonators misled retail investors into buying illiquid securities. Both incidents led to
regulatory sanctions, trading suspensions, and legal referrals - demonstrating TSE's growing capacity to enforce accountability in the digital sphere.

News -14 September 2025

The meeting concluded with an emphasis on the critical importance of strengthening innovative regulatory approaches and enhancing the preparedness of capital markets to address evolving
challenges in the digital space.

The establishment and regular convening of this Working Group under the oversight of the Tehran Securities Exchange's Market Surveillance Directorate reflects TSE's firm commitment
to leveraging advanced technologies, fostering international cooperation, and pioneering innovation in market surveillance - all aimed at safeguarding the integrity, security, and transparency of Iran's financial markets against today's digital threats.

The news link on TSE website - https://www.tse.ir/en/news/details/97161