In other news, Nomura plans a digital asset company, Encompass, Temenos and Gresham have executive shuffles, and Fenergo takes aim at risk and AML siloes.
OSSTRA to Debut a Repo Confirmation Service
In an effort to bring more automation to repo operations, post-trade vendor OSTTRA has launched a repo confirmation service that is built upon the MarkitWire electronic trade processing platform, officials say.
MarkitWire is from MarkitServ, which is part of the OSSTRA joint venture between CME Group and S&P Global. Formed last year, OSSTRA also includes Reset, TriOptima, and Traiana.
The new “OSTTRA Trade Processing for Repos” service is slated to go live during the third quarter of this year. “Testing is underway with more than 10 firms, including global banks, brokers and investment managers,” say officials who add that they want to make the repo market more efficient.
The repo market has “lagged behind the post-trade automation” that other asset classes have achieved, according to OSTTRA.
“By creating a legally confirmed record, updated through the trade lifecycle, the service will help meet growing regulatory demands to increase settlement efficiency, minimizing the need for reconciliation, and reducing trade confirmation processing times from days to minutes,” officials say.
Nomura Plans New Digital Asset Company
Nomura Holdings, Inc. (NHI) reports the creation of a new digital asset company that will offer institutional clients a “comprehensive suite of trading, investor products, and investment services.”
The new company is slated to launch later this year, according to a Nomura statement.
The new company will operate as a wholly owned segregated entity of NHI, the firm says, “with dedicated capital and resources to accelerate time-to-market and ensure the pace of innovation required in the digital asset ecosystem. Specialist staff from Nomura will be integrated into the new company in addition to external hires.
“Today’s announcement follows the establishment of Nomura’s Digital Company in April this year. The Digital Company was formed following a reorganization of Nomura’s Future Innovation Company, with one strategic intention of building Nomura’s presence in the digital asset space.” — L.Ch
Former Barclays Exec Joins Encompass
Encompass Corp., a provider of a know your customer (KYC) automation platform, has appointed “senior industry experts to a Transformation team charged with ensuring banks reap the benefits of automation initiatives,” Encompass says in a statement.
The team, “which is focused on helping define what success means in each individual business and facilitating organizational alignment on the transformation journey, includes former Barclays senior executive Howard Wimpory,” Encompass says. Wimpory will be based in London.
The group also includes Jo Scanlan and Darren Marion. Both are Asia-Pacific specialists and both are based in Sydney, Australia.—L.Ch
Temenos Picks a President for the Americas
Geneva, Switzerland-based Temenos AG reports the appointment of Roman Bartik as president for the Americas. His mandate is to “accelerate and scale expansion in the region,” according to a statement.
Bartik will be “responsible for all day-to-day operations, strategy and profitability in North and South America, effective immediately.” He also joins the company’s management board and reports to Erich Gerber, Temenos’ president and chief revenue officer.
Bartik has more than “30 years of experience building sales organizations for large technology companies in enterprise software and cloud services,” according to the Temenos statement, which also notes that his focus has been in “subscription-based models.”
He joins from SingleStore, where he was vice president and general manager of sales and sales development, per the statement. — L.Ch
Fenergo Solution Pools Data for Risk Assessment & AML
Fenergo, a know your customer (KYC) solutions provider, reports that it has launched a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that helps to centralize risk assessment processes and streamline anti-money laundering (AML) compliance efforts. The new FinCrime Risk solution will span all business lines and geographical locations, officials say.
“With rising financial crime, changing sanctions measures, and increased regulatory scrutiny, manual and siloed risk scoring solutions used by financial institutions often fail to accurately risk assess clients and counterparties,” according to Fenergo officials.
The offering exploits application programming interfaces (APIs), and “can be integrated seamlessly into any technology environment. … It features pre-configured Financial Crime Risk Model accelerators based on criteria recommended by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF),” officials say.
“It was important for us to design a product that can be used across a wide range of geographically dispersed financial institutions, from corporate and investment banks to universal banks and payment service providers,” says Stella Clarke, chief strategy officer for Fenergo, in a prepared statement.
Gresham Taps Duco for North American Sales Exec
Reconciliation and data services vendor Gresham Technologies has hired industry veteran Rob McGowan from Duco to be the company’s senior sales executive for North America, tasked with expanding Gresham’s efforts in the U.S. and Canada, official say.
McGowan, who joined during the first quarter of this year, is based in Gresham’s New York office and will sell “Gresham’s entire suite of data, regulatory, and technology solutions to both buy-side and sell-side institutions,” according to the vendor statement.
“Gresham’s acquisition of Electra Information Systems last year provided a launchpad for growth in North America,” says Rob Cohen, head of sales for North America at Gresham, in a prepared statement.
McGowan’s experience encompasses “reference data and reconciliation transaction reporting, alongside corporate actions, treasury confirmations, cash management, and intraday liquidity. Joining from Duco, Rob’s previous sales roles at SmartStream Technologies and RegTek Solutions have developed his deep understanding of complex middle-to-back-office problems,” according to a Gresham statement.
“From complying with FINRA’s Consolidated Audit Trail [CAT] demands to imminent Dodd-Frank reforms, the regulatory burden US financial institutions now face is consuming significant levels of cost and effort,” says McGowan, in a statement.
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