Misys, Broadridge, SWIFT, Colt and Xenomorph also have FinTech news.
ESMA Also Blesses ICE Clear Europe
The Bank of England (BofE) has just updated its list of U.K. authorized central counterparty clearinghouses (CCPs) to include the authorization of ICE Clear Europe Ltd., officials say.
Part of the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., ICE Clear Europe provides central counterparty clearing and risk management services for interest rate, equity index, agricultural and energy derivatives, European credit default swaps (CDS), officials say.
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) officials also added ICE Clear Europe to its list of authorized CCPs under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
The EMIR legislation requires CCPs to be authorized by a college of supervisors in order to offer CCP services in the European Union, officials say. Once a CCP has been authorized or recognized within the E.U., EU firms can use these CCPs to fulfil their clearing obligations.
Misys Unveils Platform-as-a-Service Strategy
Systems and software vendor Misys has just unveiled its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) strategy, which the company says will open up its FusionFabric platform and core systems to third parties “to drive innovation and collaboration across financial services,” officials say.
“Creating a platform that enables the financial services community to build on top of our trusted solutions and services will not only reduce banks’ costs, it will also facilitate open collaboration, agility and innovation,” says Robin Crewe, global head of product development at Misys, in a prepared statement.
The PaaS solution via FusionFabric.cloud technology should “enable banks, fintechs, consultants and students to develop, deploy and operate apps in the Misys FinCloud or on-premise,” vendor officials say. The vendor will be encouraging the development of third-party apps that can also be commercialized via the Misys FusionStore portal.
Misys offers banking, capital markets, investment management and risk management solutions.
Broadridge Expands ‘Opportunity Hunter’
Broadridge Financial Solutions is expanding its predictive analytics solution Opportunity Hunter to help fund firms “to strategically identify their best sales targets,” vendor officials say.
The prospecting platform not only caters to registered investment advisors (RIAs) but also independent and regional broker-dealers (IBDs), “one of the fastest growing distribution investment channels,” officials say.
“According to Broadridge’s Fund Distribution Intelligence, RIAs and IBDs held more than $4.35 trillion in long-term mutual fund and ETF assets at the end of this year’s second quarter,” report vendor officials. “During that period, IBDs increased assets by $79 billion over the prior quarter, the largest increase of any distribution channel.”
To capitalize upon the growth among the IBD segment, Opportunity Hunter now lets fund firms “identify IBDs based on actual shareholder positions, giving them instant intelligence on location, clients, sales and fund comparisons,” Broadridge officials say.
“Before Opportunity Hunter, fund firms had been relying on static, broad datasets that provided general industry information about RIAs and IBDs, making targeting extremely inefficient and challenging,” says Dan Cwenar, president, enterprise data and analytics, Broadridge, in a prepared statement.
Opportunity Hunter offers access to more than 13,000 RIAs and more than 1,500 IBDs with geographic searches to filter research to specific target locations, officials add.
Argentina’s CSD Joins SWIFT
Argentina’s central securities depository (CSD) Caja de Valores is operational directly on SWIFT’s network as an effort “to increase efficiency and resilience in Argentina’s capital markets,” officials at the financial messaging and systems cooperative.
By joining the network, Caja de Valores CSD is executing its international transactions via SWIFT.
“This is a critical milestone that will help enhance our global competitive prowess,” says Alejandro Berney, CEO of Caja de Valores, in a prepared statement. “By connecting directly to SWIFT, automating and standardizing our operations, we can better support the growth of our local capital markets and attract foreign investment,” Berney says.
Sapient Global Markets Launches Data Platform
Sapient Global Markets have launched Sapient Synapse, a platform “offering a more intuitive way for firms to capture and manage data requirements through a series of highly visual, web-based tools,” say Sapient officials.
By using closer collaboration across organizational silos, Synapse “creates a more efficient way for firms to track, view and analyze data usage and understand how user actions affect other systems and process,” officials say. “As a result it can accelerate project delivery, increase accountability and support improved client service through the ability to see where data-related issues occur.”
Tokyo Commodity Exchange to Use Colt Market Data
Colt, a provider of on-demand network and communications services, has become a market data provider for the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) in conjunction with the scheduled migration of TOCOM’s derivatives trading to the J-GATE trading system operated by Japan Exchange Group, officials say.
Trading firms will be able to “access ultra-low-latency TOCOM ITCH1 market data in raw format for all TOCOM products, including its key gold, rubber and oil contracts,” Colt officials say.
“The migration of TOCOM trading to the J-GATE trading system will make it easier for local and international traders to trade Japanese commodities products – which are becoming increasingly popular with investors – at lower latencies,” according to Colt.
Xenomorph Joins Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance
Data and analytics vendor Xenomorph, has joined Microsoft’s Enterprise Cloud Alliance to strengthen the long-standing relationship between the two vendors, officials say. The new agreement will ensure additional support and deployment options for customers of Xenomorph’s TimeScape EDM+ enterprise data management platform and TimeScape MarketPlace data and analytics as-a-service offering.
The vendor has “a number of banks and vendor partners using our cloud-based data and analytics service, which has been delivered via the Microsoft Azure cloud platform since its launch, as well as others that are deploying our TimeScape EDM+ platform over the same infrastructure,” says Xenomorph CEO Brian Sentence, in a statement.
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