In other news, ION targets cleared derivatives, QUODD has a new partner & AllianceBernstein fills a key post.
CACEIS to Acquire Part of RBC Investor Services
CACEIS, the asset servicing banking group of Crédit Agricole S.A. and Santander, and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) report that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) intended to result in the CACEIS acquisition of the European asset servicing activities of RBC Investor Services and its associated Malaysian center of excellence.
The proposed acquisition would include custody, global custody, FX, fund administration, transfer agency, middle office support, and securities lending, officials say.
RBC Investor Services provides asset services and holds assets under administration (AuA) in Europe of around €1.2 trillion, and assets under custody (AuC) in Europe of around €0.5 trillion.
Together, the combined entity of RBC Investor Services and CACEIS would have around €4.8 trillion in AuC and €3.5 trillion in AuA, as of the end of March 2022, officials say.
The final agreements between CACEIS and RBC will need “prior consultation with the relevant works councils of CACEIS,” the firms point out.
“The transaction will be subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and antitrust approvals, and is expected to take place by the end of the third quarter of the 2023 calendar year,” the firms add. — L.Ch
ION Launches XTP Spark for Cleared Derivatives
ION reports that it has launched XTP Spark, a trade processing solution for cleared derivatives that the vendor says can be deployed quickly. ION offers trading, analytics, treasury, and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities, and treasury management.
The new offering is based on ION’s XTP solution, and the vendor is pitching XTP Spark to “banks and brokers, commodity trading firms, or niche clearers who are starting their digitalization journey,” officials say.
“Users can spin up XTP Spark in weeks, transforming their back-office complexity into simplicity, for good,” says Francesco Margini, chief product officer for cleared derivatives at ION Markets, in a prepared statement.
XTP Spark offers real-time clearing and settlement capabilities and is intended to help securities firms streamline and automate post-trade workflows, officials say.
Options Technology & QUODD Form Partnership
Options Technology, a capital markets services provider, and QUODD, an on-demand market-data provider for the financial services industry, report the advent of a strategic partnership.
QUODD, part of NewSpring Holdings, delivers on-demand market data to the financial services industry, “enabling users to access pricing data for global Equities, Fixed Income, Indices, Options, Futures, and end-of-day pricing for global Mutual Funds. The strategic partnership is set to provide customers with optimized access to closing prices after local market close, alongside intraday delayed snap prices for international markets.”
In 2019, Options Technology received investment from Abry Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm.
Options was founded in 1993, originally as a hedge-fund technology services provider. The firm maintains offices in New York, Toronto, Chicago, London, Belfast, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Auckland.
Abry Partners was founded in 1989. Since then, the firm says, it has “completed over $82 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. Currently, the firm manages over $5.0 billion of capital across their active funds.” — L.Ch
AllianceBernstein Names Chief Responsibility Officer
Erin Bigley
Asset manager AllianceBernstein reports that Erin Bigley will be the firm’s chief responsibility officer.
In her new post, Bigley will “oversee the firm’s responsible investing strategy, extensive research, engagement, stewardship activities, corporate responsibility, and continued integration of responsible investing into key strategic decisions.”
In addition to her chief-responsibility-officer duties, Bigley joins the firm’s operating committee. She also is the co-chair of the firm’s women’s leadership council, which has a mandate that includes “convening senior leaders to cultivate an inclusive and diverse environment for women to build and broaden leadership roles at AB.”
Bigley replaces Michelle Dunstan, who has departed the firm to pursue an external opportunity, according to a statement. — L.Ch
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