In other FinTech news, BNY Mellon hires a global head of investor relations, SS&C’s Eze expanded last year, Volante supports SWIFT, and Ideal Prediction launches a monitoring service.
Apex Hoping SaaS Solution Will Help Growth
Fund administrator Apex Group Ltd., touted as the world’s fifth largest fund administrator, has signed on to use GoldenSource’s its centralized pricing and reference data services, officials say.
Apex will use GoldenSource’s enterprise data management (EDM) software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to improve operating and cost efficiencies “through the standardization of data management across multiple business functions,” officials say. The firm hopes the platform will support its growth trajectory via the integration of systems and applications.
“It’s no simple task when integrating the data infrastructure of separate businesses,” says Chris Mulhern, global head of operational strategy, in a prepared statement. “We’re looking to standardize, streamline and reduce point-to-point integrations, duplication and the need for reconciliations. A centralized data infrastructure is the best way forward for us,” Mulhern says.
“We will track and monitor all processing real time, helping to operate and make changes at a higher frequency,” says Jon Hallam, global head of on demand services at GoldenSource, in a statement.
The Apex Group offers services to asset managers globally, from fund administration and corporate services to middle office, banking and depositary solutions, officials say. The company’s total asset under administration (AUA) is now $600 billion with offices in more than 40 locations worldwide. Apex administers the investments of some of the largest funds and institutional investors in the world.
BNY Mellon Names Global Head of Investor Relations
BNY Mellon has announced the appointment of UBS veteran Magda Palczynska as global head of investor relations. Palczynska will joins the company on March 4, 2019, and will report to Scott Freidenrich, the company global treasurer.
At UBS, Palczynska has served in senior investor relations and finance roles in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York during nearly two decades at the global banking giant, officials say. Her most recent post was as head of North America and Asia Pacific investor relations and global head of debt investor relations. She has also served as a senior executive at a private equity-owned start-up in the luxury sector.
SS&C Eze Reports 2018 Expansion
SS&C Eze, a unit of SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. and a provider of investment management software services, reports “more than 280 new wins across its core set of products” in 2018.
In a statement, SS&C Eze spotlights its partnerships with “more than 2,500 buy- and sell-side institutions, from emerging hedge funds to large asset managers, in 45 countries.”
Last year was momentous for Eze, Jeffrey Shoreman, senior vice president and general manager of SS&C Eze, says in a statement that takes particular note of the firm’s 2018 investments in “research and development focusing on capacity, speed and workflow improvements.”
“We enhanced our technology and service offerings, ensuring our clients are in the best position to meet market and regulatory challenges, achieve investment alpha and grow,” Shoreman declares in the statement. “Now, as part of SS&C, we aim to leverage our synergies across the front-, middle- and back-office and outsourced services to deliver greater value to our customers.”
SS&C, founded in 1986, is headquartered in Windsor, Conn. It counts approximately “13,000 financial services and healthcare organizations, from the world’s largest institutions to local firms” as clients for its products and services.
Volante Supports SWIFT 2019 Standards Release
Volante Technologies Inc., a provider of software intended to “accelerate digital transformation and modernization” in financial services, reports that it supports the latest SWIFT standards release.
On February 22, 2019, SWIFT issued its latest standards release, which includes changes for payments messages and to the SWIFT global payments initiative, which, in turn, includes “mandatory changes mostly relating to the UETR (Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference). In this SWIFT release all users of Category 1 and 2 messages will be impacted,” whether or not they use the SWIFT global payments initiative (gpi) service.
Volante’s support for the latest SWIFT standards incorporates the “necessary changes to the messages as well as … full support” for SWIFT’s global payments initiative.
Volante, founded in 2001, today counts clients at more than 90 financial institutions in 35 countries.
Ideal Prediction Launches Voice & Algo Monitoring Service
Ideal Prediction, a trading analysis and data science company for capital markets, reports the launch of Scope, which it characterizes as an “automated monitoring service, which analyzes the behaviors of voice traders and trading algorithms in line with the principles of the FX global code (FXGC).”
The FXGC itself, first promulgated in May 2017, is a “set of global principles, developed in partnership by Central Banks and Market Participants to provide a common set of guidelines, which promote the integrity and effective functioning of the wholesale FX market,” per Ideal Prediction.
FX market participants are expected to “review the behaviors of humans and algorithms, embed the principles into their day-to-day operations, sign a commitment to the FXGC, and post such evidence on public registers,” the firm notes.
Ideal Prediction points out that Scope is “already in production,” and that it “automatically monitors order and trade activity, evidencing that humans and algorithms adhere to governance and risk controls. It specifically highlights potential issues like last look, spoofing, flashing, layering, order violations, limit breaches, and P&L flags.”
