In other FinTech news, BNY Mellon is working with Volante, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange building is expanding, and FINRA revamps its committee structure.
Duco to Expand Global Footprint
Duco, the cloud-based reconciliation and data-engineering technology company, reports the completion of a $28 million investment round by Insight Venture Partners, NEX Opportunities and Eight Roads Ventures, as well as an investment by Cristóbal Conde, the former CEO of SunGard.
Duco says its financial services technology allows banks, brokers, asset managers and exchanges to “normalize, validate and reconcile any type of data in Duco’s cloud, providing firms with on-demand data integrity and insight.”
Duco says it will use the $28 million to expand its global footprint, “with headcount growth in Europe and the US, the launch of an Asia office and an expansion of its … product set.”
The firm’s approach to solving complex data problems in financial services is “to empower experts with self-service solutions,” Duco’s CEO, Christian Nentwich, says in a statement. “We have gained considerable traction as the industry looks for intelligent answers to evolving new market realities.”
London-based Duco says new clients are “live in 24 hours, with results in 7 days and tangible business value in 30 days.”
BNY Mellon Employs Volante’s Systems
BNY Mellon has become the first bank to “successfully originate” a real-time payment (RTP) over Jersey City, N.J.-based Volante Technologies’ Clearing House RTP network, Volante says.
In addition to employing the RTP network, the bank is also using privately held Volante’s tech to launch a new service called BNY Mellon Tokenized Payment, which is meant to “further accelerate the transition from paper to electronic payments for their clients,” the tech firm says, noting that the Volante processor module enables BNY Mellon to allow a transaction to reach its recipient within 15 seconds or less.
The Clearing House deployment “further reinforces our core principle of using automation to reduce implementation time and cost for our customers,” Vijay Oddiraju, Volante ’s CEO, says in a statement.
Deutsche Börse to Expand Frankfurt Stock Exchange Building
Deutsche Börse Group officials report that its Frankfurt Stock Exchange building will undergo an expansion that includes an investment of €18.5 million ($23 million), by 2020.
In addition to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange trading floor, the building currently houses the Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which owns the building. The current lease with the Frankfurt Chamber extends until 2048.
The expansion plans call for the creation of a new conference center and an “interactive experience for the general public.”
“By converting the building, we are drawing the attention for issuers, institutional investors, private investors and the public more strongly to Frankfurt,” Theodor Weimer, CEO of the Deutsche Börse, says in a statement.
The Deutsche Börse Group’s head office is in the financial center Frankfurt/Rhein-Main, and its satellite offices are in Luxembourg, Prague, London, Zurich and Moscow, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo.
FINRA Overhauls Advisory Committee Structure
Self-regulatory organization (SRO) the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has unveiled changes to its advisory committees, including two new committees focused on the needs of clearing firms and capital acquisition brokers, officials say.
To revamp its advisory committees, FINRA will:
- Create a Clearing Firm Advisory Committee and Capital Acquisition and Placement Broker Committee to get feedback from these member-firm segments including issues facing small firms “whose customer accounts are carried at clearing firms and small firms engaged in capital raising activities;”
- Broaden the Membership Committee’s composition to include medium-size firms, independent dealers and firms affiliated with insurance companies;
- Disband the Independent Dealer/Insurance Affiliate Committee and Regulatory Advisory Committee, “as their respective purposes are being assumed by the Membership Committee;
- Rename the Compliance Advisory Committee and Small Firm Advisory Board as the Large Firm Advisory Committee and Small Firm Advisory Committee, respectively, to better reflect their respective purposes;
- And propose to the SEC that FINRA reorganize district committees into regional committees that “mirror the regions in which FINRA’s 11 districts are administratively grouped.” The proposal also urges eligibility and voting standards that will lead to committees that better reflect the industry in each region.
FINRA also published a special notice about the process for filling vacancies on various FINRA ad hoc and advisory committees, and the National Adjudicatory Council, District/Regional Committees, the FINRA Board of Governors and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation Board of Directors.
FINRA also introduced the online Engagement Portal that enables people to express “interest in FINRA service in a more streamlined manner,” officials say.
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