Our free FinTech roundup covers Carlyle Group & Calastone, FXAll & Integral, and Janney Montgomery Scott & Hearsay.
100 Firms & 80 Organizations Took Part in the SCI Tests
Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) reports that it led “a successful business continuity test” on Saturday, Oct. 24, an annual effort mandated by the SEC’s Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (SCI).
The industry-wide test was combined with a large-scale connectivity evaluation.
“Regulation SCI requires that each SCI entity designate members and participants to take part in an annual business continuity and disaster recovery plan test, and SIFMA facilitates a coordinated testing program for the industry as part of our business continuity planning and disaster recovery work,” says Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., CEO of SIFMA in a prepared statement. “Reg SCI entities completed their testing requirements in parallel with the SIFMA industry test.
The exercise “involves test transactions for equities, options, fixed income, settlement, payments, and market data,” Bentsen says. “Participants in the SIFMA test included approximately 100 securities firms and 80 market organizations. During the test, approximately 2,000 communications connections were established between securities firms and banks and the exchanges, markets, and utilities.”
The Reg SCI exercise “included simulated trading days for all Reg SCI exchanges and ATSs, along with simulated post-trade activity for clearing utilities, as well as simulated regulatory trade reporting,” Bentsen adds. “The successful test underscores the ability of the securities industry to operate through adverse conditions, which is particularly important given the COVID-19 global pandemic.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has determined that the assets, systems, and networks of the financial services industry are “whether physical or virtual, are so vital to the U.S. that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security and national public health or safety,” Bentsen notes. “Now more than ever, with cybersecurity an ever-increasing threat and a global health crisis, business continuity testing and preparedness is essential.”
Carlyle Group Acquires Majority Stake in Calastone
Funds transaction technology vendor Calastone, founded in 2007, which characterizes itself as the “largest global funds network,” reports that private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, will acquire a majority stake in the business from its current shareholders, who include Octopus Ventures and Accel.
“Funds affiliated with The Carlyle Group will support Calastone in accelerating its growth,” say officials, who add that the growth plans will target the vendor’s product suites and applications for international expansion.
Calastone management retains a minority stake. Barclays acted as advisors to Calastone throughout the transaction, according to Calastone officials.
Calastone is headquartered in London and has offices in Luxembourg, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, New York, and Sydney, the company says. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,800 people in 31 offices across six continents, per the statement. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the statement adds.
Commenting on the acquisition, Julien Hammerson, CEO for Calastone, thanked, among others, industry veteran Cristóbal Conde, who has been the company’s chairman of the board since 2014.
Refinitiv FXAll Extends Partnership with Integral
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ntegral, a foreign exchange (FX) technology provider, reports that its long-established partnership with Refinitiv has been extended on a multi-year basis.
The renewal means that Integral and Refinitiv will “ensure that customers of Refinitiv’s multi-dealer platform can continue to use Integral’s price engine technology in the seamless way they are used to,” Integral officials say in a statement.
Integral’s pricing engine infrastructure “provides the tools for market participants to reliably auto-price their clients and seamlessly construct and distribute prices via the [Refinitiv] FXall platform,” the Integral statement adds.
Refinitiv FXall provides dealer-to-client trading and workflow solutions for more than 2,300 institutions worldwide, including asset management firms, banks, broker-dealers, corporations, and hedge funds, with liquidity from more than 200 bank and non-bank market makers, per the Integral statement.
Integral, founded in 1993, spotlights its “development, support, and sales offices in Palo Alto, New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore, and Bangalore.”
Janney Montgomery Scott Adopts Hearsay’s Tools
Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, a wealth management, financial services, and capital markets firm, is employing “compliant digital communications tools” from vendor Hearsay Systems, the companies report.
Hearsay offers support for digital, social media, and related document storage, management, and compliance.
Janney Montgomery Scott’s “advisor-centric digital marketing hub” is of particular use during the pandemic because it allows financial advisers to “rethink and reinvent how to engage with clients and prospects with the limitation of conventional in-person meetings resulting from COVID-19,” officials say.
The wealth management firm characterizes itself as an “independently-operated subsidiary of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company” and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC).
Hearsay Systems, with headquarters in Silicon Valley, has “locations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.”
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