In our first update, Principal Global Investors (PGI) streamlines its research evaluation process, Cordium takes on MiFID II documentation and FlexTrade works with Dataminr.
(Editor’s note: Many securities firms, vendors and service providers are gearing up for the MiFID II deadline of Jan. 3 1018. To help readers keep up, FTF News will be running frequent updates on what industry participants are doing to ease the burden of these industry reforms.)
PGI Streamlines Equity Research Valuation and Payment Administration
Securities firm Principal Global Investors (PGI) has enhanced its process globally for managing equity broker and research evaluation by choosing to work with Visible Alpha’s ONEaccess platform and ITG, an independent broker and financial technology provider, officials say.
This combination helps the firm better monitor its research processes via the additional efficiencies across its global equity products “while also allowing the firm to meet their MiFID II requirements,” officials say.
The engagement with Visible Alpha and ITG enables the firm’s 100 equity research professionals “to discover corporate access events, set up custom valuation frameworks for their interactions with brokers and research providers in a granular way, and oversee payment of these interactions in a seamless global workflow,” officials add.
“Implementing a robust process for managing research consumption has been top-of-mind for us at Principal Global Investors long before the MiFID II regulatory guidelines were revealed,” says Jennifer Sadiq, director of equities at Principal Global Investors, in a statement. “By partnering with ONEaccess and ITG, we feel confident about our ability to comply with MiFID II regulatory demands and implement a sustainable and transparent process for research consumption and valuation to best meet our client needs.”
The enhanced research management and evaluation process includes the ONEaccess Platform for Research Valuation that allows asset managers to “monitor, aggregate and analyze all of their interactions with research providers in one place,” officials say.
In addition, the ITG Research Payment Account (RPA) facilitates the funding of RPAs “with either a CSA commission or a research charge alongside the execution in a manner that can be operationally similar to a traditional Commission Sharing Agreement (CSA),” officials add. “The ITG RPA can also be funded with a direct research charge to investors or from a firm’s own P&L. RPA accounts managed by ITG are held in a bank account in the name of the asset manager at one of several major global banks, segregated from brokers’ funds and controlled by the asset manager.”
The integrated solution from ITG and ONEaccess became available in March 2017.
Cordium Debuts MiFID II Documentation Service
Cordium, a governance, risk and compliance services vendor, has launched its MIFID II Infrastructure Collateral Service to enhance its MIFID II compliance offerings for investment firms, officials say.
With the looming Jan. 3, 2018 deadline in mind, the service targets compliance teams by providing “a complete set of policies, procedures, manuals and related documentation required for adherence to MiFID II,” officials say. Cordium’s collateral is targeting the structure and business needs of investment firms, and “eliminates the arduous task of creating the complete set of required documentation in-house.”
The service and its materials were developed via Cordium’s “expertise in Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) supervision, EU directives, regulatory change management, and compliance programs,” officials say. “All essential MiFID II areas are addressed in detail including trade reporting, transaction reporting, best execution and dealing commissions.”
“Updating policies and procedures is an essential, yet sometimes underappreciated, aspect of MiFID II compliance,” says Jon Wilson, project director at Cordium, in a prepared statement. Cordium has offices in London, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Malta and Hong Kong.
FlexTrade Targets MiFID II Best Ex via News Alert Integration
To help firms meet MiFID II’s best execution requirements, transaction systems vendor FlexTrade has integrated a global macro news alert feed within the FlexTRADER execution management system (EMS) interface via Dataminr, an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems vendor, officials say.
“With MiFID II on the horizon, the requirement to take ‘all sufficient steps’ to achieve best execution has driven our clients to explore alternative sources of data,” says Andy Mahoney, head of sales at FlexTrade, in a prepared statement.
The integration works via the trader’s Dataminr account and customized watchlists, which can be created to make certain “only the most relevant and directly impactful breaking news is delivered,” officials say.
“From these watchlists, alerts are created which flow from Dataminr in real-time and are displayed in a column by the number received. Alerts can be used to trigger automated actions or trades alongside other characteristics of the order and real-time events coming from a variety of other news sources. Additionally, alerts written in a foreign language can be translated into English,” officials add.
“For example, within a financial markets search, traders can choose to select alerts based on sub-categories including foreign exchange and fixed income,” officials say. “Watchlists may be created based on assorted criteria which can include company name, topics (finance, global awareness, general news etc.) and/or industry sectors (banking and finance, insurance, media etc.) to name a few.”
The Dataminr alerts will show up in the standard FlexTRADER alerts framework based on the trending topic, industry sector and region to give traders a full view on content that may impact their transactions, officials say.
Your firm not ready for MiFID II either? Attend the FTF Navigating the Maze of MiFID II event on Sept. 18th to get answers and collaborate with peers.
Need a Reprint?