In other FinTech news, CalPERS picks a top investment officer, GAIN embraces cloud-based surveillance, a U.K. firm turns to Eagle, and the DSB lowers user fees.
Symphony to Enhance DTCC Exception Manager Service
The New York City-based Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), a post-trade market infrastructure provider for the financial services industry, reports that it has signed an agreement with Symphony, a cloud-based messaging and collaboration platform.
The agreement “significantly expands communication and collaboration capabilities within the DTCC Exception Manager (DXM) service,” DTCC says in a statement, which also points out that “an exception” refers to “a transaction that requires user attention, to ensure the transaction settles successfully.”
DXM was launched early in 2018 to “provide a central industry platform to publish, manage, and communicate exceptions throughout the trade settlement lifecycle process,” according to the statement, which also notes that “DXM supports all securities transactions globally, capturing exception details from custodians, broker dealers, prime brokers and CSDs and standardizing exception processing to enable faster issue resolution.”
CalPERS Names New Chief Investment Officer
Officials at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) report that Yu Ben Meng has been named chief investment officer at the pension fund.
Meng will report to CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost.
Meng, 48, is returning to CalPERS after serving as the deputy chief investment officer at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for the past three years, CalPERS notes in a statement, which also points out that before SAFE Meng was at CalPERS for seven years.
Before joining CalPERS in 2008, Meng worked at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) as a senior portfolio manager, Lehman Brothers as a risk officer, and Morgan Stanley as a fixed income trader, according to a prepared statement.
GAIN Capital Deploys Cloud-based Market Surveillance Platform
A non-clearing futures commission merchant (FCM) GAIN Capital Holdings has gone live with a cloud-based version of the Validus regulatory technology platform from Eventus Systems, officials say.
The Bedminster, N.J.-based firm will use the Eventus platform to manage the market surveillance program for its futures operation, officials say.
“GAIN’s businesses include global contracts for difference (CFD) and foreign exchange (FX) brands FOREX.com and City Index,” officials say. “Its futures group, which provides access to listed derivatives trading on over 30 global exchanges.”
GAIN connects to exchanges and its clearing firm through CQG, Inc., a provider of trading, market data and technical analysis tools, officials say. “As a CQG FCM partner, GAIN offers CQG’s suite of trading tools to its customers, administered through CQG’s Customer Account Service Tool (CAST), for control over account set-ups, risk settings and other matters,” officials say.
“Eventus was highly recommended by another FCM, and we continued to hear great things about the people and the platform so we wanted to see it in action,” says Heather Krakora-Grimm, GAIN capital director of compliance, in a statement.
“As a non-clearing FCM with largely retail clients, our needs were unique; everything we do flows through CQG. Eventus was able to work with us and CQG to address our unique requirements.”
GAIN provides trading technology and execution services to retail and institutional investors via multiple access points to over-the-counter (OTC) markets and global exchanges across asset classes, including foreign exchange, commodities and global equities, officials say.
U.K. Firm Replaces Legacy System with Eagle Platform
U.K.-based Newton Investment Management is replacing its legacy investment accounting platform with one provided by Eagle Accounting, Newton reports.
“Newton has utilized Eagle’s data management capabilities since 2001 and is its longest standing UK-based client,” according to a statement.
Eagle Investment Systems LLC is a BNY Mellon company. Newton is also a subsidiary of BNY Mellon and tallies assets under management of $67.1 billion as of June 30, 2018, according to the statement.
DSB Offers User Fee Discounts for OTC Instruments
The London-based Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) recently announced service improvements for 2019, and a discount for user fees next year that is 4 percent below 2018 levels. The action assumes that there will be “a similar uptake” via the service among the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives community,
The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) is developing the DSB as “a fully automated global numbering agency to meet the operational and regulatory requirements of the over-the-counter derivatives markets,” DSB officials say.
“The DSB is a fully automated generator of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) for OTC derivatives. The DSB is the first numbering agency designed to operate on a global basis to meet the particular requirements of the OTC derivatives markets including near real-time allocation of ISINs,” according to DSB officials.
“The 2019 financial projections incorporate additional service improvements requested by industry during the 2018 consultation process, including increased operational hours to 24 / 6.5 and improved email support response times,” DSB officials say. “Enhancements to the OTC-ISIN functionality are also planned for later in 2019 to enable real-time updates to DSB reference datasets such as currency codes and benchmark reference rates. Costs related to this enhanced functionality will be amortized from 2020, after the functionality is operational and in accordance with the DSB capital expenditure model approved through industry consultation.”
The DSB’s 2017 financial audit is complete and “we are delighted to confirm the 2017 build and operating costs of the service were well under budget,” says Emma Kalliomaki, DSB managing director, in a prepared statement. “Under the cost recovery principles of the DSB, these savings will be passed back to users in 2019,” Kalliomaki says.
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