In other news, BNP Paribas creates ‘Private Assets,’ Cboe Clear Digital achieves a key certification & Credit Suisse trades tokenized investment products.
Anadolubank Deploys MXGO Solution
Turkish bank Anadolubank has gone live with a treasury and trading platform from vendor Murex to build a front-to-middle-office platform across multiple asset classes including FX, FXD, money markets, fixed income, interest rate differential (IRD) and SecFin that will help the bank expand its treasury and capital markets businesses.
Anadolubank is using Murex’s MX.3 platform via the prepackaged MXGO solution, officials say. “MXGO is a modular front-to-back-to-risk business solution based on the MX.3 cross-asset platform, which can be deployed on-premises, on the cloud or via a fully managed SaaS approach,” according to Murex. The bank is hoping the MXGO will help it “optimize time to market and total cost of ownership while upscaling its pricing, risk-monitoring and position-keeping capacities.”
“It was strategic for us to realize the business value of MX.3 through a fast and efficient implementation,” says Tunç Bergsan, chief information officer for Anadolubank, in a prepared statement. “By adopting an out-of-the-box solution and adjusting some predefined parameters, we meet our requirements while following best practices,” Bergsan says.
“We were encouraged by the pace — we have gone live in a very short time-to-market with a multi-asset class platform that has real-time portfolio management,” adds Murat Ural, deputy general manager for Anadolubank, in a statement.
Anadolubank has more than 110 branches in Turkey and more than 1,650 employees, offering a wide range of services to its retail and corporate client base, officials say. In addition, Anadolubank has had a subsidiary in the Netherlands since 2007.
BNP Paribas Launches ‘Private Asset’ Group
BNP Paribas reports that a new business unit, dubbed Private Assets, within the firm’s Investment and Protection Services (IPS) division, is an effort to make the bank “a leading European player in private asset management.”
The Private Assets unit “will pursue ambitious goals of fundraising from third party clients, from major institutional investors to individual investors, supported by the bank’s various distribution networks as well as its partners,” according to bank officials.
The new business unit within IPS, which includes asset management, wealth management, insurance and real estate, will “prioritize development in two key areas:
- “Direct management focused on a defined range of verticals: corporate financing, real assets (infrastructure and commercial real estate debt) and individuals’ financing (with Dutch mortgage specialist Dynamic Credit Group);” and
- “Indirect management focused on investment in private asset funds and advisory in fund selection.”
The Private Assets will be “integrated within BNP Paribas Asset Management [BNPP AM] and operational as of January 2023,” according to the bank. “Private Assets will combine private asset management expertise across IPS and will operate in close collaboration with BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) and the Group’s distribution networks.”
Officials add that the new Private Assets group “will bring together the private asset management expertise of the IPS division,” including: the private asset management activities of Principal Investments and its subsidiary BNP Paribas Agility Capital; the third-party private asset management activities of BNPP AM, “currently carried out by the Private Debt & Real Assets (PDRA) teams;” and part of BNP Paribas Cardif’s private asset management activities (investment activities through a fund selection advisory mandate).
“Private Assets will be headed by David Bouchoucha … reporting directly to Sandro Pierri, Chief Executive Officer of BNPP AM,” officials say.
Cboe Clear Digital Receives SOC 1 Type II Certification
Cboe Digital reports that it has completed “an independent Service Organization Controls (SOC) audit of its clearing services platform, Cboe Clear Digital, and received a SOC 1 Type II certification, completed by a large national public accounting firm.”
In fact, “the SOC 1 Type II examination reviewed Cboe Clear Digital’s design, implementation and operating effectiveness of its financial transaction operations and reporting controls,” according to Cboe officials.
The SOC 1 Type II audit “demonstrates Cboe Digital’s continued commitment to the highest levels of financial and operational controls,” says John Palmer, president of Cboe Digital, in a prepared statement. “Independent audit of our operations and security compliance is one thing our institutional partners expect, to foster trust and verify the critical controls that must be in place when choosing to participate on crypto exchanges and clearinghouses.”
Beyond the SOC 1 Type II certification, Cboe Digital has a SOC 2 Type II certification that “reviews Cboe Clear Digital’s security, system changes and upgrades, systems availability, protection of customer funds and information and auditing procedures as well as the internal standards by which Cboe Digital staff hold themselves accountable,” officials say.
Cboe Digital operates a regulated exchange and clearinghouse with designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organization (DCO) licenses from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), officials say. Cboe Global Markets offers market infrastructure and tradable products, including trading, clearing and investment solutions to market participants around the world.
Swiss Firms Trade & Settle Tokenized Investment Products
Credit Suisse, Pictet, and Vontobel have “conducted a proof of concept to issue tokenized investment products recorded on a public blockchain and traded on BX Swiss, the Swiss regulated stock exchange,” officials say.
“The three processes of the proof of concept — issuance, trading and settlement – took place within hours, whereas in a traditional financial environment they take days,” according to the announcement. “The Capital Markets and Technology Association’s (CMTA) token standard and Taurus’ tokenization technology have been used to issue tokenized investment products.”
“For the first time, key players in the Swiss financial industry successfully developed and tested a novel settlement mechanism for tokenized investment products on a public blockchain testnet infrastructure. A smart contract, developed by … the CMTA, allows for streamlined processes, reduces complexity, raises security, and eliminates counterparty risks from trades,” officials say. “The CMTA’s proof of concept marks a milestone for the Swiss financial industry.”
Transactions via “tokenized securities are settled in fiat currency — the Swiss franc — through a smart contract and targens’ payment bridge DLT2Pay,” officials say. “The financial industry is taking advantage of the blockchain technology to increase security and efficiency and reduce complexity.”
Some of the key steps of the proof of concept are:
- The issuance of tokenized investment products recorded on an Ethereum test blockchain;
- The trading of these products in Swiss francs on a regulated Swiss securities exchange, and
- The settlement of trades through a smart contract developed by the CMTA.
“These three distinct operations — issuance, trading and settlement — all happened within hours, when they take days to unfold in a traditional financial environment,” officials add.
“Vontobel and Pictet each issued an actively managed equity certificate representing a basket of equities, while Credit Suisse issued a structured note, which were associated with digital tokens recorded on an Ethereum test blockchain, a process commonly referred to as ‘tokenization.’ These securities were then traded on the platform of BX Swiss, a FINMA regulated Swiss securities exchange,” according to the announcement. “The trades were settled bilaterally on the blockchain.”
“The proof of concept lays the foundation for an alternative Swiss post-trade infrastructure that functions without central parties (central counterparty and central securities depositary) and enables participating banks to benefit from cost advantages along the entire value chain of securities transactions (issuance, settlement and custody),” officials say.
The CMTA is a not-for profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that “brings together experts from the financial, technological and legal sectors to promote the use of new technologies in capital markets. The association provides a platform to create open industry standards around issuing, distributing and trading securities in the form of digital tokens using distributed ledger technologies,” officials add.
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