In other FinTech news, Northern Trust works with Temenos, Thomson Reuters partners with Finbourne, and Broadridge debuts a wealth management offering.
First Japanese Custodian Bank Signs Up for Alert Service
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank is the first Japanese global custodian firm to use the Alert Global Custodian Direct (GC Direct) service to provide standing settlement instruction (SSI) data to its clients, report officials of the DTCC, a major post-trade services and systems provider.
The agreement enables SuMi Trust USA to serve its clients via the Alert online global database of account information and SSIs, officials say.
“SuMi Trust USA is enthusiastic about being the first Japanese global custodian utilizing GC Direct,” says Douglas Shivers, head of global custody administration at SuMi Trust USA, in a prepared statement. “By introducing GC Direct, SuMi Trust USA is pleased to enhance both the information-provision and services that contribute to our clients’ investment activities and operations.”
“We’ve had much success with other global custodians in the past few years in enabling greater control in the settlement process, increasing data quality and staying aligned with best practices. We look forward to delivering the same benefits to SuMi Trust USA,” says Bill Meenaghan, executive director of DTCC Alert, in a statement.
The Alert offering is part of DTCC’s Institutional Trade Processing product suite and targets investment managers, brokers/dealers and custodian banks, officials say.
“With GC Direct, custodian banks can electronically manage settlement instructions on behalf of their buy-side clients which has resulted in a significant reduction in SSI related fails across custodian bank users, with some custodians achieving reductions in fails by over 50 percent,” DTCC officials say.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd., SuMi Trust USA acts as the central base of SuMi Trust Group’s global custody services, “coordinating a network of more than 90 markets around the world,” officials say.
Temenos Extends Transfer Agency Deal With Northern Trust
Geneva-headquartered Temenos, an enterprise software vendor for banks and financial services, reports a multi-year deal with Northern Trust, a custodian bank founded in Chicago. The agreement extends existing Temenos investor-servicing contract.
The Temenos Multifonds investor platform will support a migration of funds acquired through Northern Trust’s purchase of UBS Asset Management’s fund servicing units in Luxembourg, the firm says.
The acquisition will establish Northern Trust as a top 10 asset servicing provider in terms of assets under administration in Luxembourg, according to a statement. Northern Trust acquired UBS Asset Management’s traditional fund administration services business in Luxembourg in 2017.
Luxembourg-based Multifonds, a software provider for the alternative and traditional fund industry, has been acquired by Temenos.
Thomson Reuters & Finbourne to Partner for Hosting Solutions
Thomson Reuters, the news, market data, trading systems and financial software vendor, and London-based Finbourne Technology report an agreement to employ Finbourne’s Lusid, a cloud-based investment management platform, for Thomson Reuters’ client and transaction data.
Lusid is an event-based ledger, with published application programming interfaces, or APIs, that “allow in-house and third-party solutions to interface with portfolios, holdings or transactions,” the firms say.
The partnership, the two companies point out in a statement, is “designed to benefit customers by offering increased cost efficiency, better management of data used for compliance efforts and bolster struggling legacy investment-management systems. It builds on Thomson Reuters open-platform strategy, which seeks to meet customer needs by providing open access to in-house solutions as well as to partnered solutions.”
Broadridge Unveils Cloud-based Smart Insights
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., a fintech specialist that spotlights its recent addition to the S&P 500 Index, reports the debut of its new cloud-based wealth management solution, called Broadridge Smart Insights, which helps advisors “connect more meaningfully with clients and prospects,” according to a statement.
Smart Insights “helps advisors sharpen their client acquisition strategy by providing detailed profiles and insights into clients who are an optimal ‘fit’ for their practice,” Broadridge says, noting that its solution “combines consumer demographic, financial and behavioral information and Broadridge data sets with machine learning and proprietary technology on a secure, multi-channel platform.”
According to a recent white paper published by ESI ThoughtLab and Broadridge, “only 25 percent of wealth advisors leverage data and analytics to understand clients and fewer than 10 percent use AI within their current practices.”
Smart Insights “will score prospect and advisor attributes to enable advisors to pursue relationships that are most likely to be successful,” the firm adds.
Broadridge employs approximately 10,000 full-time associates in 16 countries.
Need a Reprint?