In other news, BBH partners with Tourmaline Partners, TS Imagine & Cassini Systems collaborate, and Bloomberg launches a liquidity discovery tool.
Solution Uses DLT Workflows from Baton Systems
Baton Systems has launched a real-time solution for cash settlement based upon distributed ledger technology (DLT), dubbed Core-Payments, which tracks and reconciles inbound cash settlements and helps firms “orchestrate the release of outbound cash payments,” officials say.
The new solution, which Baton Systems says is being deployed by a tier one bank, “leverages Baton’s DLT workflows” to manage inbound cash settlements and facilitate outbound cash payments — all based upon “configurable rules and real-time data,” officials add.
“This will give market participants real-time visibility and greater control of their settlement functions, as well as enhanced cost management, as well as continual calculation of counterparty settlement risk exposure,” according to the vendor in its announcement.
Vendor officials say that Core-Payments “reduces the need for manual intervention across key reconciliation and control processes, including netting and pre-settlement affirmation, accelerating the completion of key functions and reducing operational costs whilst increasing control and visibility,” according to Baton Systems.
“With the shortening of the settlement cycle to T+1 in the US now less than 250 days away, the launch of Core-Payments comes at a pivotal time for market participants, providing them with real-time visibility and greater control of their settlement functions, as well as enhanced cost management and related growth opportunities,” according to Baton Systems. The new offering provides calculation of counterparty settlement risk exposure, and a clear view of current and forecasted funding requirements.
The Core-Payments platform can be deployed in a modular fashion, “providing users with a flexible set of user interfaces across a range of modules including visualization, netting/pre-settlement affirmation, controlled settlement, and analytics,” officials say. “Additionally, all data inflows and outputs are supported by a range of APIs and integration protocols.”
Founded in 2016, Baton Systems has “handled more than 68 million transactions … and has facilitated the settlement of more than $7.1 trillion of cash and securities,” officials add.
BBH Clients Can Outsource Trading via Tourmaline
Tourmaline Partners provides its clients with flexible, front office trading solutions to meet demand for outsourced trading, expected to grow 45% in 2023[1],
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) will offer to its clients a link to outsourced trading execution services of Tourmaline Partners, which will provide front office trading solutions in global equities, derivatives, and ETFs, officials say.
Based in Stamford, Conn., Tourmaline employs “more than 35 highly experienced traders and provides full trade support in clearing, settlement, and TCA reporting, as well as comprehensive research funding via CCAs, CSAs, attribution, and aggregation,” according to Tourmaline announcement.
BBH is able to offer Tourmaline’s services via the BBH Connector program, which asset managers can use to “combine their usage of Tourmaline’s trading solutions with BBH’s technology, data services, and FX trading solutions,” in an effort to create an optimal operating model officials say.
The link to Tourmaline will offer BBH clients:
- The ability to outsource trading, “fully or partially, while easily integrating with BBH’s investment operations platform and managing the full trading lifecycle;”
- A way to connect to “preferred solutions with BBH’s efficient and scalable data delivery solutions. Option to easily leverage BBH trade management solutions to provide a hosted service for trade capture, matching, settlement monitoring, and fail management;”
- Integration with the asset manager’s operating model through BBH’s data integration engine, Infomediary.
The Tourmaline customized trading solutions will “complement BBH’s robust foreign exchange and investment operations solutions and provide clients with choice and flexibility in their operating model. This expands BBH’s Connectors program, a cohort of specialist third-party fintech and service providers that can help drive outcomes for BBH clients,” according to the official announcement.
“This announcement is great news for the industry. BBH and Tourmaline are two first-class organizations that have been our partners for a long time. Through their respective solutions we are able to augment our internal capabilities with stellar external expertise and build our best-of-breed operating model,” says Evan Fire, chief operations officer (COO) at Pzena Investment Management, in a prepared statement.
“With Tourmaline we have enhanced our trading effectiveness and increased operational resiliency. Our use of BBH for trade messaging and FX trading helped increase STP resulting in a dramatic increase in efficiency and improved execution quality,” Fire says.
TS Imagine & Cassini Focus on Prime Brokers & Hedge Funds
TS Imagine, a cross-asset provider of real-time trading, portfolio, and risk management solutions for financial institutions, and Cassini Systems a provider of pre-and post-trade margin and collateral analytics for derivatives market participants, have signed a strategic partnership that will allow margin and collateral analytics to become available through TS Imagine’s product suite.
The strategic partnership means that “users of TS Imagine’s technology will benefit from access to Cassini’s intelligent analytics across over the counter (OTC) and exchange traded derivatives (ETD) products, complementing the firm’s existing suite of proprietary cross-asset analytics,” officials say. “Cassini’s highly specialized offering will give investment and risk teams front-to-back margin and cost analysis across the entire lifecycle of a trade.”
Cassini’s front-to-back-office solution covers margin, collateral and cost analytics “for all classes of cleared and uncleared OTC derivatives as well as futures and options. The partnership allows integration of these core competencies within TS Imagine’s product suite, enabling users to bring post-trade analytics into the pre-trade process,” officials say.
“With this integration, TS Imagine users will now be able to calculate margin requirements and optimize collateral usage in derivatives markets, as well as analyze drivers and movement in margin exposure, reduce initial margin levels and maximize margin efficiency,” officials say.
Bloomberg Introduces Bridge AXE Liquidity Discovery Tool
Bloomberg launched Bridge AXE, described as an extension of the Bloomberg Bridge intermediated workflow that allows participants to anonymously post to other Bridge participants, and identify trading interests using Bloomberg’s best-in-class liquidity discovery tools, officials say.
“Bridge AXE allows the buy-side to discreetly propose, identify, and engage with trading interests from other Bloomberg Bridge participants. Participants can then launch targeted RFQs into Bloomberg’s trading venues/systems to begin an intermediated negotiation — anonymous to the axe contributors,” according to Bloomberg.
“Bridge AXE supports the growing role of the buy-side as price makers in all-to-all trading, as they can now contribute trading interests anonymously to the Bloomberg Bridge network. We believe that Bridge AXE gives users increased flexibility on how they transfer risk and will build upon the continued success of Bloomberg Bridge,” says Katharine Furber, head of emerging markets trading at Bloomberg, in a prepared statement.
“Clients are increasingly looking to Bloomberg to help them identify and remain informed about evolving liquidity trends and insights. Bridge AXE is yet another milestone demonstrating Bloomberg’s commitment to maximizing the capabilities that an all-to-all network affords,” Furber says.
Bloomberg Bridge trades are intermediated and settled by Goldman Sachs, officials add.
The Bridge AXE announcement follows the launch of Bloomberg Bridge in the second quarter of 2022, “which has grown to more than 650 active client firms and has seen average monthly negotiated volume growth of 16 percent as of August 2023,” officials say.
Bloomberg continues to invest in liquidity discovery tools to facilitate efficient communication between the buy- and sell-sides and has further enhanced this offering, by extending pre-trade price discovery in connection with an all-to-all environment.
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