Our free, fintech roundup covers: Shield working with Zoom; Gemini embracing Eventus; and LedgerEdge hiring a head of business development.
Pershing’s API Links to CAIS & iCapital Network
Clearing and custody services provider BNY Mellon Pershing has just launched enterprise-wide, application programming interface (API) capabilities to two alternative investment sponsors, CAIS and iCapital Network, underscoring Pershing’s efforts to help registered investment advisors (RIAs) connect to the alternative investments space, officials say.
CAIS and startup iCapital Network offer advisors “access to private equity, private credit, hedge funds and other alternative investments by offering a curated menu of select diligenced products, and providing an end-to-end technology platform and automated operational workflows,” according to Pershing officials.
“One of the major barriers to investing in alternatives is the manual steps involved in the process,” said Rob Cirrotti, managing director, global strategy, and product management at BNY Mellon’s Pershing, in a prepared statement.
“As advisors increasingly turn to alternative investments for diversification and uncorrelated returns, we are committed to streamlining the process by making it more digital and more seamless for them so they can drive greater efficiencies,” Cirrotti says.
Advisors will need to “pre-populate required documents — including the Pershing Private Investment Form — on the alternative investment platform where the product is offered,” according to Pershing officials. “These completed, executed documents will then be automatically uploaded to the Pershing platform, eliminating the need for manual uploads, and reducing the potential for human errors. Further, advisors will be able to use e-Signature on Pershing’s required form as part of these integrations.”
Through its Prime unit, Pershing offers alternative investment managers securities lending, capital introductions, and financing solutions, officials say. In addition, BNY Mellon can act as fund administrator and custodian of alternative investment assets across credit, hedge, private equity, and real estate funds.
Compliance Platform ‘Collects and Stores’ Zoom Data
Shield reports that its communications compliance and surveillance platform is now integrated with Zoom, the well-known audiovisual collaboration platform.
Shield notes in a statement that it now extends its “capture, surveillance and investigation tools across video, audio, chat and shared data files between parties communicating on Zoom.”
Shield adds that its platform collects and stores “all the applicable Zoom eComms data (including voice, video, shared files and metadata), enriches and structures the data, then analyses it using powerful AI (machine learning and Natural Language Processing — NLP) then connects it with structured data to find any relevant discussions or other communications centered on the financial marketplace (mentions of company names, stock prices, etc.)”
Crypto Exchange to Use Eventus Systems
Eventus Systems, a trade surveillance and risk management software platform provider, reports that Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, has selected its Validus platform for the exchange’s new trade surveillance monitor.
Gemini has adopted the cloud-based version of Validus “for market surveillance that identifies a wide range of potential market manipulation behaviors,” Eventus says in its statement.
Gemini was founded in 2014 by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, of Facebook saga fame, to “empower the individual through crypto,” per the statement.
LedgerEdge Names Head of Business Development
LedgerEdge, which characterizes itself as a “new ecosystem for the exchange of data and assets in the corporate bond market,” reports that it has hired Tim Cook as head of business development.
Cook’s mandate is to “lead a series of market-wide working groups in the coming months to validate and refine the technology and business approach,” according to the statement.
The groups headed by Cook will “adopt an industry-led and collaborative approach to address some of the biggest structural challenges in the corporate bond market,” according to the statement, which vows that, by “involving all sides of the market from the outside, LedgerEdge will ensure its platform is built by the industry, for the industry.”
Cook was formerly head of EMEA and APAC sales at LiquidityEdge, which was also founded by LedgerEdge founder David E. Rutter, the LedgerEdge statement notes.
LedgerEdge employs blockchain technology to “empower users to locate and promote liquidity in markets,” per the statement.
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