In other FinTech news, BNY Mellon Investment Management closes a key fund, NEX TriOptima targets initial margining, CME Group focuses in futures liquidity and Fenergo hits its stride.
BNP Paribas Asset Management Adds to Mutual Fund Suite
BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has launched an Emerging Markets Equity mutual fund that is described as actively managed and “features competitive initial net expense ratios of 0.75 percent for institutional shares; 0.90 percent for investor shares; and 1.15 percent for retail shares,” officials say.
The fund joins BNPP’s suite of mutual funds launched over the past year such as the Emerging Markets Total Return Fixed Income fund (December 2017) and the U.S. Small Cap Equity fund (January 2018), officials add.
The lead portfolio manager for the new fund is Quang Nguyen, head of global emerging market equities, officials say. He has more than 19 years of investment experience and will manage the fund from BNPP AM’s Boston office.
“These mutual funds are a natural step in the growth of our U.S. capabilities and offer a practical and cost-efficient way to assist investors in building an actively-managed diversified portfolio,” says Daniel Klein, CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management North America, in a prepared statement.
BNPP AM will be launching more mutual funds over the coming months, officials add.
BNY Mellon Investment Management to Close EACM Advisors
Asset manager BNY Mellon Investment Management reports its intention to wind down EACM Advisors LLC, its multi-manager and fund of hedge funds investment manager, as a standalone business.
EACM managed $3.9 billion in a combination of long-only and fund of hedge funds strategies.
EACM’s fund of hedge funds strategies will be closed to new investors and existing capital returned to investors in an orderly manner as investments are able to be redeemed, according to BNY Mellon officials.
BNY Mellon Investment Management adds that it will continue to manage $1.8 billion in long-only investments.
In addition, management recommended, and the Dreyfus Fund board approved, the liquidation of Dreyfus Select Managers Long/Short mutual fund, for which EACM is the portfolio allocation manager. It is currently expected that the liquidation of the fund would occur on or about the end of November 2018.
NEX TriOptima Targets Initial Margining Rules
NEX TriOptima, the infrastructure service provider for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, reports that its end-to-end solution on simple trade file can “simplify compliance” with initial margin rules.
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has “warned firms in-scope for September 2019/20 to act now to avoid missing the deadline,” according to a NEX TriOptima statement.
NEX TriOptima officials also note that, according to ISDA data, “dealers estimate that they could face over 1,000 newly in-scope counterparties and 9,000 new relationships in this final phase.”
TriOptima is a NEX Group business.
CME Group Launches Liquidity Tool for Futures Products
Citi will be using the CME Group’s new tool to measure futures market liquidity, intended as “a cost-effective and efficient way to analyze complex liquidity data of core futures products to inform their trading and hedging strategies,” officials say.
Offered to CME Group market users around the globe, the CME Liquidity Tool will enable traders “to measure current and historical liquidity of CME Group futures products across asset classes, free of charge,” officials say. The exchanges company will also offer “around-the-clock liquidity data” so that clients can act on “new trading opportunities in increasingly deep and liquid CME Group futures markets across time zones around the globe.”
“Citi plans to use the CME Liquidity Tool as an additional resource to help global clients better understand various products’ liquidity profiles throughout the 24-hour trading day,” says Stephen Christian, managing director for Citi Futures, Clearing and Collateral, in a prepared statement.
The CME Liquidity Tool offers a way “to view and export charts measuring market liquidity on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis, during periods of varying market volatility across North American, European and Asian trading hours,” officials say.
CME Group officials say that the tool measures market liquidity based on three key measures of market liquidity and cost: bid-ask spread, or the difference between the prices quoted to buy and sell futures; book depth, which is the number of contracts in both buy and sell orders at a given price; and cost to trade, which is the amount it will cost in ticks equal to the minimum bid-ask spread to buy or sell a specific order size.
Fenergo ‘Doubles Revenues, Turns to Profit & Expands’
Dublin-based Fenergo, a provider of client lifecycle management software and services for financial institutions, reports that the company “doubled its revenue to €58m [$75.6 million] for the year ending 31st March 2018, and expanded its global footprint into key regions across APAC, Europe & North America.”
Fenergo “doubled their year-on-year gross margin with an increasing proportion of revenue resulting directly from recurring software fees. The company also achieved a marked turnaround in profitability with a pre-tax profit recorded at €2.6m, along with its considerable investment in research & development approaching €10m.”
Fenergo says it is “now expanding into new market segments including asset and wealth management, as well as a move into commercial, business, private & retail banking.” Fenergo also notes that it added over 200 employees to its workforce during this period.
“This year has been about building on our strengths,” Marc Murphy, Fenergo CEO, notes in a statement.
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