In other news, CitiFX consolidates platforms, TT & Bantix collaborate & Kepler Cheuvreux taps Opensee.
Expiration Date Coming for CDOR
It’s the beginning of the end for the LIBOR-based, Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR) as the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) are urging market participants to move away from the CDOR benchmark.
The CSA is “the council of securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, coordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets,” officials say.
The regulators explain that CDOR “is a domestically important interest rate benchmark that is used by market participants across a wide range of financial products and contracts, including derivatives, bonds and loans.”
Last month, the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate Working Group (CARR) announced that there were efforts are underway to replace CDOR with the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA).
Last year, on May 16, 2022, “Refinitiv Benchmark Services (UK) Limited (RBSL), the administrator of CDOR, announced that CDOR will cease publication after Friday, June 28, 2024. The Ontario Securities Commission and the Autorité des marchés financiers, as co-lead authorities for RBSL and CDOR, authorized the cessation,” officials say.
“The cessation of CDOR is consistent with international restructuring of interest rate benchmarks,” says Stan Magidson, CSA chair and chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission, in a prepared statement. “It is important that market participants make appropriate transition arrangements to prevent business and market disruptions following the cessation date.”
The staff notice “provides market participants with information about certain developments and transition issues regarding the upcoming cessation, including the expected related cessation of the issuance of bankers’ acceptances,” officials add.
CitiFX Combines Platforms into Velocity 3.0
CitiFX officials report that they have consolidated its eFX trading platforms for corporate and professional investor clients into a new system Velocity 3.0.
“Velocity 3.0, the new single dealer is an operating system that delivers CitiFX Pulse, Citi Velocity Trading, Citi Velocity Research and CitiFX Click. The platform rebuilds CitiFX’s client user interface in HTML 5 on a strategic web code base,” according to a Citi announcement.
The Velocity 3.0 platform allows clients to “mix-and-match the best of what CitiFX has to offer, delivering eFX à la carte via a host of connectivity solutions,” officials say.
The HTML architecture framework “boosted performance across the platform … delivering the best of both proprietary and third-party solutions to meet our clients’ ever-changing needs,” says Ala’a Saeed, global head of electronic platforms for CitiFX, in a prepared statement.
The new platform targets the fragmentation that resulted from platform proliferation that led to challenges with “liquidity availability, operational resilience and transparency,” officials say.
“By leveraging the latest in cloud technology and the use of Micro Front Ends, Velocity 3.0 is an agile, scalable solution allowing for rapid addition of new features and allows Citi to respond to client feedback promptly,” says Jon Lofthouse, global head of markets technology at Citi, in a statement.
TT Platform Adds Bantix’s QuikStrike
Trading Technologies International (TT), a global provider of trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, and Bantix Technologies, an options software development company, partnered to make Bantix’s QuikStrike options analysis software application, available via the TT platform, officials say.
“The move brings TT users trading listed derivatives, including options on futures, a suite of new capabilities to enhance and streamline their trade execution workflow, including options pricing, sophisticated analytics and data retrieval, historical volatility tools, risk analysis, custom reporting and comprehensive market information,” according to the announcement. “The QuikStrike interface will be accessible through TT via a single click.”
“Our pre- and post-trade analysis tools are a perfect complement to TT’s best-in-class trading software. We look forward to advancing the user’s context-sensitive experience further as well as expanding the exchange and product coverage we currently offer,” says Nick Howard, CEO of Bantix, in a prepared statement.
Kepler Cheuvreux Deploys Opensee’s Analytics Solution
Paris-based Kepler Cheuvreux has adopted Opensee’s cloud service for trade management and execution analytics, and will deploy solutions developed to fit its needs, officials say.
“The solution enables users to conduct unlimited independent analysis of all their internal and third-party trading data, with tools to identify the drivers of performance and how to achieve optimal trade execution at lower costs. Kepler Cheuvreux intends to offer the service to its clients after an initial phase of internal use,” according to the announcement.
The firms KCX execution service “is constantly on the hunt for technology that delivers a competitive edge. We were among the first to identify the massive potential Opensee’s platform offered in taking trade analytics to the next level. Our clients will gain fast, actionable intelligence without relying on us to intermediate. This solution brings full transparency, adds value to our service and allows us to forge better client relationships,” says Chris McConville, global head of execution services and trading at Kepler Cheuvreux, in a prepared statement.
“Opensee and KCX are fully committed to continuously improving the performance of our execution analytics solution, ensuring that we meet the high expectations of our clients and providing them with the insights they need in a continuously evolving market landscape,” says Anvar Karimson, chief technology officer (CTO) for Kepler Cheuvreux, in a statement.
In addition to KCX, Kepler Cheuvreux specializes in research, fixed income and credit, structured solutions, corporate finance and asset management, officials say. The firm has 600 employees in 13 major financial centers in Europe and the U.S.
Opensee offers multidimensional data analytics to financial institutions for their efforts in risk management, liquidity searches, trading, and market and ESG data management, officials say.
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