Vela’s Statement on Coronavirus - March 30, 2020

In response to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, we are providing regular updates on the steps Vela has taken to ensure the safety of all of our staff and customers, which is our number one priority.

We are also sharing more information on the process and procedures we have implemented to ensure the continuous operation of our business without any interruption or risk to the critical functions that our clients rely on.

Since early March, in the interest of protecting all Vela employees and customers and ensuring the continued orderly functioning of our business, we have implemented the following precautionary steps:

• We have introduced a mandatory work from home policy for all employees and prohibited all employee and visitor access to Vela offices until further notice.
• We have introduced a ban on all business travel until further notice.
• We have provided all employees with information on best practices while working from home and run an internal cybersecurity awareness campaign to counter any increase in phishing or fraudulent emails during this time.
• We have introduced a global, enhanced change control policy that requires executive-level approval for any production change to limit these to only business critical changes.
• We continue to emphasize the importance of all employees following government advice on social distancing and isolation as well as general advice on how they can help prevent the spread of infection.

As a business that supports the capital markets community, we are fully enabled for remote working, something which has been offered to employees for many years and regularly tested at scale. Earlier in March we completed a full infrastructure review and conducted a Business Continuity Planning (BCP)/Work from Home test across all Vela offices in New York, Chicago, London, Belfast and Manila ahead of mandating that all employees work from home for the foreseeable future.

Due to the potential for this to be a sustained period of remote working, we have set up additional regular checkpoints across virtual teams to support increased levels of engagement and communication, while also providing guidance on best practices when working from home to encourage interaction and collaboration.

We would also like to assure all clients that given the ongoing volatility within the markets, our teams are working tirelessly to ensure that Vela software, products and services are operating at optimum levels. We are constantly reviewing data rates and capacity across our Infrastructure and environments to ensure their continued ability to handle the unprecedented increase in market data rates driven by volatility within the markets. While this volatility continues, our enhanced change control policy will remain in place.

Vela’s Executive Team is constantly monitoring the situation and adapting our response as necessary and we will publish regular updates as required.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager.

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