In other FinTech news, EBS Quant Analytics embraces streaming, Bank Audi likes BNY Mellon, and Itiviti has a new CEO.
ISDA Wants CDM to Restructure the Market
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has published the “full version of the ISDA Common Domain Model (CDM) for interest rate and credit derivatives,” which ISDA officials hope will serve as “a common blueprint” for restructuring the foundations of the market.
To facilitate that restructuring, ISDA will open CDM access to the market beyond ISDA members and hopes to develop “a broader user community for the CDM and further develop opportunities for deployment,” according to ISDA. “Current projects involving the ISDA CDM include rates clearing and collateral management solutions.”
The CDM is an industry-first that attempts to “tackle the lack of standard conventions in how derivatives trade events and processes are represented,” according to the ISDA officials. “Developed in response to regulatory changes, high costs associated with current manual processes and a demand for greater automation across the industry, the ISDA CDM for the first time creates a common blueprint … paving the way for greater automation and efficiency at scale.”
The ISDA CDM has been developed over the past two years, “and has involved extensive input and participation from buy- and sell-side firms, technology providers and infrastructures,” say ISDA officials. “With the launch of the full, open-access version for interest rate and credit derivatives, ISDA will continue to work with ISDA members and non-members to develop industry wide solutions that leverage new technologies like smart contracts, blockchain and cloud.”
The derivatives infrastructure in place now “is hugely inefficient and costly, and there’s virtually no way to implement scalable automated solutions across the industry,” says Scott O’Malia, ISDA’s CEO in a prepared statement. “That’s because each firm and platform uses its own unique set of representations for events and processes, which requires continual reconciliation of data to ensure the parties to a trade have the same information.”
The ISDA CDM will create “a consistent, transparent and accurate blueprint of the market that can be used by all participants, infrastructures, platforms and regulators,” O’Malia adds. “This will enable firms to develop automated solutions that can be interoperable and scalable in a way that has never been done before.”
ISDA says CDM 2.0 will:
- Provide a full set of representations for interest rate and credit derivatives;
- Include an initial representation of equity swaps products;
- And provide representation for the ISDA Credit Support Annex (CSA) for initial margining requirements.
“This work is due to be completed in the second quarter of 2019, alongside an expansion in product scope to cover forwards and the foreign exchange asset class,” ISDA officials say. “In addition, to ensure consistent implementation by ISDA CDM users, the ISDA CDM 2.0 will incorporate changes being made as part of a project to update the 2006 ISDA Definitions, including a refreshed list of floating rate options and modifications responding to benchmark reform initiatives.”
In addition, ISDA will establish a governance framework in mid-2019 that will consist of “an executive committee and two forums of technical and product/domain experts, which will be open to ISDA’s diverse membership,” officials say. “ISDA staff will continue to coordinate non-member feedback in the governance framework and through open calls and working groups for the ISDA CDM user community.”
EBS Quant Analytics to Launch API Streaming Service
The CME Group’s EBS, a provider of electronic trading platforms and technology services in foreign exchange (FX) markets, reports that it will launch a new application programming interface, or API, streaming service on its Quant Analytics platform.
The platform was previously known as NEX Quant Analytics.
Its new iteration is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2019 and will stream trade information, market impact and alpha calculations on a trade-by-trade basis to clients EBS says in a statement.
The Quant Analytics platform provides “insights that allow clients to analyze trade flows, optimize execution efficiencies and benchmark their performance against the EBS community, including statistics on averages for like for like trades,” according to the statement.
“The new API streaming service means that EBS clients can analyze their individual and relative performance … by consuming the data in real-time and in their own environments, ultimately helping them grow volumes and revenues,” Seth Johnson, CEO of CME Group’s Cash Markets unit, says in a prepared statement.
Bank Audi Taps BNY Mellon for GDR Services
BNY Mellon reports that it has been appointed by Bank Audi, which it characterizes as the largest Lebanese bank by assets, as the successor depositary bank for its global depositary receipt (GDR) program.
Each Bank Audi GDR represents one ordinary share and trades on the Beirut Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange under the symbols “AUSR” and “BQAD,” respectively, per the bank.
BNY Mellon reports that it acts as depositary for 809 sponsored American and global depositary receipt programs as of Dec. 31, 2018.
And, as of December 31, 2018, BNY Mellon had $33.1 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.7 trillion in assets under management, the bank notes.
Itiviti Picks Robert Mackay to Serve as CEO
Sweden’s Itiviti, a technology and service provider to financial institutions, reports the appointment of Robert N. Mackay as the company’s new CEO, beginning April 1.
Mackay was selected by the board of directors “by virtue of his experience as a successful industry executive with a strong track record and customer focus,” according to the firm’s statement.
He joins Itiviti from Fidelity National Information Services, where most recently he was chief operating officer (COO) for the FIS cross-asset trading and risk business unit, officials say. His previous management experience includes positions as COO for hedge funds, and risk and managing director posts for alternative investment firms.
Itiviti, owned by Nordic Capital, spotlights its “presence in all major financial centers,” with “around 2,000 customers in over 50 countries.”
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