This week we also feature FinTech news from HSBC and Fenergo, the DTCC’s FICC subsidiary, and the Symbiont-Hundsun Technologies partnership.
LOU Accreditation Comes in Time for MiFID II
Bloomberg, which made its fortune in market data, trading systems and news, is stepping into the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) realm as an accredited Local Operating Unit (LOU) of the Global LEI System (GLEIS), officials say.
The company has received “approval to issue and maintain” LEIs, and joins the network of LOUs that have the blessings of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). LOUs create, assign and maintain LEIs, which were intended to provide greater transparency into financial markets and mitigate risk for market participants.
For those that need “or are required to obtain an LEI” can do so via Bloomberg’s portal to register for a new LEI and “maintain, renew, or even transfer existing LEIs” from other LOUs to Bloomberg, officials say.
Entities will be able to apply for LEIs through the Bloomberg LOU:
- Directly through the Bloomberg LOU website at lei.bloomberg.com
- Via Bloomberg’s Entity Exchange, a platform for sharing data and documents related to opening and maintaining trading accounts;
- On the Bloomberg Terminal at LEI <GO>;
“Accreditation is the process by which GLEIF evaluates the suitability of organizations seeking to operate within the Global LEI System as issuers of LEIs and custodians of LEI reference data,” says Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, in a prepared statement. “Becoming a member of the Global LEI System via GLEIF accreditation is a globally recognized designation of commitment to data quality and customer service.”
The LEI is coming into focus “because of MiFID II’s January 2018 implementation deadline. MiFID II has a clear directive: ‘No LEI, No trade,’ ” says Steve Meizanis, head of entity content management at Bloomberg, in a prepared statement. ‟U.S. institutions that want to continue doing business with trading counterparties in Europe will need to obtain an LEI in order to comply with MiFID II and other regulatory mandates in Europe and around the world. We look forward to helping Bloomberg clients and other organizations adhere to these requirements by providing a seamless and cost effective way for them to request and maintain their LEIs.ˮ
HSBC to Use Fenergo Platform
HSBC Group has deployed the client management system from Fenergo, a vendor that also offers solutions for regulatory onboarding and entity data management, officials say.
The bank will deploy the client lifecycle management platform across its global banking and markets division and aims to “digitalize the client onboarding journey across multiple jurisdictions,” say Fenergo officials. The bank hopes to have a common platform for global compliance, better operations, faster onboarding and better client experiences.
SEC Rule Changes Help DTCC Subsidiary
DTCC officials say that recent SEC rule changes will the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC), a DTCC subsidiary, to widen the availability of central clearing in the repo market.
“The rule approvals will allow institutional investors to participate in FICC either directly in the new Centrally Cleared Institutional Triparty (CCIT) Service or indirectly through a sponsoring member bank,” say officials of the post-trade infrastructure services provider. The CCIT Service serves as a central counterparty (CCP) platform in the U.S. to clear tri-party repo and debt transactions. It is an expansion of the FICC’s GCF Repo Service and facilitates the trading of FICC-cleared general collateral tri-party repos with each other based on rate, term and underlying product throughout the day “without requiring intra-day, trade-for-trade settlement on a delivery-versus-payment (DVP) basis,” DTCC officials say.
“The repo market is a critical source of funding for broker-dealers and an important cash management tool for institutional counterparties. We believe the larger group of market participants able to use central clearing through the CCIT Service and sponsored membership program strengthens the entire marketplace,” says Murray Pozmanter, DTCC managing director and head of clearing agency services, in a prepared statement.
Symbiont Partners with Hundsun Technologies
Symbiont, a smart contracts platform provider, has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese software provider Hundsun Technologies that includes an investment by a Hundsun division in Symbiont’s Series A-1 funding round, officials say.
The strategic partnership will bring Symbiont’s smart contracts software to Hundsun’s customer base in China and Hong Kong.
Hundsun is a financial technology vendor serving China’s institutional securities, banking and insurance industries, officials say. The company’s shares are publicly traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and its market capitalization is approximately CNY 24 billion.
The investment represents a first for Hundsun in the United States and with a distributed ledger technology vendor, officials say. In addition, Symbiont’s board of directors has granted Hundsun a board observer seat.
The Chinese vendor picked Symbiont because of its distributed ledger technology (DLT) stack, says Guan Xiaolan, executive president of Hundsun, in a prepared statement. “Its data layer is protected by market-leading security and privacy solutions, and its smart contracts have a proven ability to automate complex business logic, such as highly tailored employee compensation waterfalls for private companies,” Xiaolan says.
InvestCloud and Private Client Resources Integrate Offerings
Fintech vendor InvestCloud and Private Client Resources (PCR), a provider of total wealth aggregation services for ultra high-net-worth (UHNW) families and their advisors, are partnering to offer their technology to wealth managers, family offices, private banks and other financial institutions, officials say.
The combined digital communication and data aggregation solution is intended to give clients a wider view of “their total wealth that is available any time and on any device,” officials say. For instance, PCR’s digital enrollment system, which offers an e-signature workflow for Letter of Authorization processing, is now built into InvestCloud’s CRM system to ease on-boarding.
The product integration also offers consolidated entity and ownership management, officials add.
“Our partnership is focused on solving the information quality and availability problem that has plagued dozens of software providers that leave operationalizing data management to their clients,” says Mark Trousdale, chief marketing officer at InvestCloud, in a statement. “To be useful, wealth data must not only be complete but also ensured accurate to support complex performance, attribution and risk analytics.”
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