In other news, CME readies crypto reference rates & indices, Goldman Sachs acquires, and an industry veteran returns to Bovill.
Xignite Partners with ESG Book
A vendor of market data application programming interfaces (APIs), Xignite has launched an API for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data that accesses the real-time sustainability dataset of ESG Book, a data vendor partnering with Xignite.
The XigniteGlobalESG API encompasses “public companies domiciled in North America, EMEA, APAC, and Latin America. In addition to ESG scores, this API provides Global Compact scores, involvement data, temperature scores, and raw emissions data,” according to Xignite
The new API is being pitched at brokerage, wealth, and media customers as way to “increase user engagement and retention with state-of-the-art sustainability trading products,” Xignite officials say.
“As ESG investment has gone mainstream, today’s digital investors, institutional investors, and corporations alike require ESG data to help them answer questions that range from a company’s workforce diversity to its commitment to a net-zero future,” according to Xignite officials. “In this context, brokers and wealth managers can use ESG data to increase client engagement around their portfolios and differentiate their offerings in a very fragmented marketplace.”
“With the recent SEC announcement of proposals for climate disclosure, the momentum for sustainability data in the U.S. just keeps on building. If you do not offer ESG data and portfolio analytics to your clients today, you will run into growth and retention challenges,” says Stéphane Duboi, the CEO of Xignite, in a prepared statement.
Xignite’s new ESG API is designed to fast track the launch of ESG powered products. Transparent, well-structured and easy to understand ESG datasets eliminate the need for robust in-house ESG expertise. Advanced screener endpoints further simplify development by eliminating the need to maintain a database.
CME & CF Benchmarks to Launch Crypto Reference Rates & Indices
CME Group, the derivatives exchanges company, and CF Benchmarks, a provider of cryptocurrency benchmark indices, report that they have plans to launch 11 new cryptocurrency reference rates and real-time indices, to be calculated and published daily by CF Benchmarks, beginning April 25.
“These reference rates and indices are not tradable futures products,” officials note.
The rates and indices to come include: Algorand (ALGO); Cosmos (ATOM); Solana (SOL); Bitcoin Cash (BCH); Litecoin (LTC); Stellar Lumens (XLM); Cardano (ADA); Polkadot (DOT); Chainlink (LINK); Polygon (MATIC) and Uniswap (UNI).
“As the digital asset market continues to expand, there is an increasing demand for reliable, standardized cryptocurrency pricing information based on robust, regulated reference rates,” says Tim McCourt, CME Group global head of equity and FX products, in a prepared statement.
The new benchmarks capture more than 90 percent of the “total investible cryptocurrency market cap today,” and have been designed to allow traders, institutions and other users to manage cryptocurrency price risk and price portfolios, and create structured products like ETFs, McCourt says.
Crypto exchanges and trading platforms will provide pricing data for benchmarks, including Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and LMAX Digital beginning May 3, officals say. “Each coin will trade on a minimum of two of these constituent exchanges.”
Goldman Sachs Acquires NN Investment Partners
Goldman Sachs Group reports that it has acquired NN Investment Partners from NN Group N.V. for €1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) and will integrate NN Investment Partners with Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).
The transaction specifies that GSAM “has entered into a long-term strategic partnership agreement with NN Group to manage an approximately $180 billion portfolio of assets, reflecting the strength of the business’ global insurance asset management capabilities and alternatives franchise,” according to Goldman Sachs.
NN Investment Partners has incorporated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors “across its product range, with ESG criteria integrated into approximately 90 percent of assets under supervision,” according to Goldman Sachs. GSAM will “leverage the expertise of NN Investment Partners to complement its existing investment processes, helping the firm to deepen ESG integration across its product range and deliver on clients’ sustainable investing priorities.”
The integration will put GSAM among the top five active asset managers globally, officials say. NN Investment Partners has more than 900 employees, who will join “the Goldman Sachs family and the Netherlands becoming an important location in Goldman Sachs’ European business and a center of excellence for sustainability in public markets investing,” officials say.
The acquisition will raise Goldman Sachs’ assets under supervision to “approximately $2.8 trillion,” officials say.
With the acquisition, GSAM now offers “franchises in fixed income, liquidity, equities, alternatives and insurance asset management. It also brings assets under supervision in Europe to over $600 billion, aligning with the firm’s strategic objectives to scale its European business and extend its global reach,” officials say.
Industry Veteran Returns to Bovill
Mark Spiers
Bovill, a financial services regulatory consultancy, reports that an industry veteran, Mark Spiers, will return to the company as a partner from PwC and will oversee the wealth and financial crime practices.
Spiers, who has more than 20 years’ experience, served as part of Bovill’s leadership team between 2013 and 2019, officials say. His return will begin April 25 and he will re-join the executive committee.
During his prior stint Bovill, Spiers led teams “specializing in banking, investment management and lending for over six years,” officials say. He initiated Bovill’s “five-year support of the US Monitorship of HSBC and leveraged our expertise and experience to establish a dedicated financial crime team.”
For the past two years, Spiers has been a director in the asset and wealth management advisory practice at PwC, officials say. “He has extensive experience in the wealth management and banking sectors as well as in financial crime. Before joining Bovill, he had worked in multiple compliance roles including as a money laundering reporting officer in several large international investment banks, including UBS and Kleinwort Benson.”
Bovill, which was established in 1999, has headquarters in London and offices in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
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