In other news, the DTCC makes a major promotion, FINRA warns against a phishing attack, Fenergo fills out its exec team, and BlackRock works with Cassini Systems.
CloudMargin & Ivno Bring DLT to Collateral & Margining
CloudMargin, maker of a cloud-native collateral and margining solution, is working with Ivno, a financial markets tokenization vendor, to develop a collateral management solution that uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cloud computing, officials say.
Their new strategic partnership will leverage Ivno’s DLT strengths and CloudMargin’s collateral management capabilities, officials say.
Described as a “first-of-its-kind partnership,” the two vendors want their future offering to minimize “transfer costs, settlement failures and cash trapped in transit,” officials say. They also hope to optimize liquidity via tokenization solutions, and to “deliver significantly improved operational and treasury efficiencies.”
The combined effort “will give clients the ability to instantaneously record and immediately settle tokenized asset transactions while maintaining a legal look-through to the underlying asset,” officials say. The vendors also intend to help clients optimize operational processes and intraday cash flow and have the ability “to post and receive collateral outside normal banking window cut-offs.”
“We believe that Ivno’s Tokenization technology represents a practical application of blockchain technology to solve settlement challenges within collateral management; it offers a compelling use case that gives firms a centralized secure ledger where all parties – counterparties and their respective custodians – have access to the same information to settle instantly, thereby accelerating the settlement process,” says Simon Millington, global head of business development at CloudMargin, in a prepared statement.
DTCC Promotes for Head of Strategy Post
Jennifer Peve
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., the well-known securities operations infrastructure for the financial services industry, reports the appointment of Jennifer Peve to head its strategy and business development.
Peve’s mandate includes “overarching responsibility for the firm’s global corporate strategy, digital product development and strategic partnerships and alliances,” according to a statement. She joined DTCC in 2015 as an executive director in the business development and fintech strategy office.
Peve was moved up to managing director in 2018. She will report to DTCC President & CEO Michael Bodson, and also will join the organization’s management committee. The appointment is effective July 2, 2021.
FINRA Warns Against Phishing Campaign
The self-regulatory organization FINRA has issued an alert, Regulatory Notice 21-22, to its members about a phishing campaign, dubbed “FINRA SUPPORT” from the Domain Name “westour.org,” officials say.
“FINRA warns member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails … purporting to be from ‘FINRA SUPPORT’ with the email address ‘support@westour.org.’ The email asks the recipient to pay attention ‘to the report attached below that requires your immediate response’ and states that ‘[t]he attachment contains our updated Public Policy information.’ The emails may not include an attachment,” according to FINRA.
“FINRA recommends that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident. The domain of ‘westour.org is not connected to FINRA and firms should delete all emails originating from this domain name,” according to FINRA. “FINRA reminds firms to verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email prior to responding to it, opening any attachments, or clicking on any embedded links. FINRA has requested that the Internet domain registrar suspend services for ‘westour.org.’ ”
More about the FINRA alert can be found here: https://bit.ly/2T1Rk1H
Fenergo Adds Industry Vets to Exec Team
Stella Clarke
Fenergo, a provider of know-your-customer and client-lifecycle management software for financial institutions, reports the appointments of Stella Clarke as chief strategy and marketing officer, and Alan Molloy as chief product officer.
Clarke most recently held roles at Murex where she led the global marketing practice. She also served in many roles at DBS Bank in Singapore including head of technology and operations in wholesale banking for treasury and markets, and wealth management, officials say. Molloy has worked for a range of firms including Paddy Power, FINEOS, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and McKinsey.
The vendor characterizes the recent hires as facilitating the “next phase of growth by strengthening and executing corporate, go-to-market and product strategies.”
With headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, Fenergo currently employs more than 850 people and has offices in North America, the United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Asia Pacific, and the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement.
BlackRock’s Aladdin to Get Cassini’s Analytics
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and Cassini Systems, a provider of pre-and post-trade margin and collateral analytics for derivatives markets, report that the two companies have entered into a strategic partnership to integrate Cassini analytics into BlackRock’s Aladdin platform.
The integration will allow mutual clients to factor margin-based analytics into their pre-and post-trade decision-making, officials say.
The Aladdin-Cassini integration will “empower traders, portfolio managers, and operations professionals to better understand and control margin requirements at all stages of the trade lifecycle,” the companies say. “This includes the ability to analyze drivers and movement in margin exposure, identify opportunities to optimize collateral, and maximize margin efficiencies across the entirety of a firm’s book of business.”
BlackRock and Cassini will first offer joint pre-trade initial margin capabilities in September, per the announcement.
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