Our free FinTech roundup also covers BrokerTec Quote for the U.S., AcadiaSoft’s latest APAC foray, and Vega's embrace of Bloomberg.
German Bank Uses CloudBees
Germany’s second-largest bank, DZ Bank has revamped the software development and operations environments that support its trading floor via the offerings of London-based vendor CloudBees, Inc., officials say.
The bank is using continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) support systems from CloudBees for “the single most important application within the bank: its trading platform,” officials say.
DZ Bank “made the decision to transform to a DevOps environment about four years ago. They standardized process flows across software teams, incorporating repeatable, auditable processes while accelerating the release of new software features to production,” according to CloudBees officials.
“They began this initiative with the single most important application within the bank: its trading platform. This platform supports about 1,000 users each day, executing trades, and another 2,000 users managing back-office functions including risk control and reporting,” officials say.
“We started our DevOps journey about four years ago with a single application. That application happened to be the most business-critical application within the bank — our trading platform,” says Julius Von Rosen, DevOps evangelist for DZ Bank, in a prepared statement. “The platform needs to be working 24×7. Our main business challenge with this initiative was to get to market faster. We needed to deploy more quickly and more frequently, but with a consistent, secure, and repeatable process.”
The bank had “various processes in place and standardized on a single common process for building components and one way of performing automated deployments,” according to CloudBee. When the project got underway, “about 200 developers supported the trading platform.”
“The reimagined process for the trading platform went live in a single weekend, without any disruption. Now they had a repeatable process in place for software delivery,” according to CloudBees officials.
“One success led to another and we were now able to work very fast, getting deployable code through the testing process and into deployment. We were able to run weekly reconciliations on repeatable deployable codebases, allowing reliable and traceable user acceptance tests,” Von Rosen says via the statement.
BrokerTec Quote Launches for U.S. Repo Markets
BrokerTec has launched a dealer-to-client request for quote (RFQ) trading platform BrokerTec Quote for the U.S. repo market via BrokerTec Americas, LLC, officials say.
“The addition of U.S. treasury repo to the BrokerTec Quote platform follows its successful launch for European repo, European sovereign debt and UK gilts repo market users in June 2019,” officials say.
“Repo market participants are increasingly focused on efficiencies, which is driving greater electronification of overnight and short-term lending markets amid increasing economic uncertainty,” says John Edwards, global managing director, BrokerTec, in a prepared statement.
Clients using BrokerTec Quote can “automate their audit trail from start to finish and access BrokerTec Analytics, which provides clients with historical and individual trade performance data to better understand the cost to trade and inform future trading decisions,” officials say.
BrokerTec, a maker of electronic transaction processing systems for fixed income markets, is a part of CME Group, which consists of exchanges and other marketplaces for trading futures, options, cash, and over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
AcadiaSoft Makes APAC Push for UMR
AcadiaSoft, a risk and collateral management services vendor for non-cleared derivatives, launched an effort “to make its products and solutions more accessible to the APAC region as Phase 5 and 6 firms fall into scope for the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR),” officials say.
“AcadiaSoft will expand functionality for key products in APAC, including IM Threshold Monitor,” according to the vendor. “Firms will be able to electronically agree to IM Threshold Monitor terms using an industry standard side letter as per local regulatory requirements in the APAC Region. AcadiaSoft will also provide more ways for APAC firms to access its industry-standard tools, such as IM Exposure Manager, and add more local-language resources for Japanese and Korean firms.”
The pending Phase 5 deadline is a major UMR threshold “for many institutions in the APAC region, and the challenges in this region are unique, with many disparate local regulations and language barriers,” says Takashi Nagai, head of business development, APAC, in a prepared statement. “We are working closely with clients across the region to ensure they are equipped with our best-in-class solutions and local resources as they navigate the final phases of the Uncleared Margin Rules.”
The product expansion follows AcadiaSoft’s launch of a Japanese legal entity, AcadiaSoft Japan GK to offer sales, marketing and account management functions, officials say.
AcadiaSoft has also launched a Japanese-language website to make it easier for Japanese firms to learn about and engage with AcadiaSoft, officials say. The vendor has been present in APAC for nearly five years.
Vega Selects Bloomberg’s Port Enterprise
Wealth management firm Vega Investment Managers will be using Bloomberg Port Enterprise, a portfolio and risk analytics solution that offers risk and attribution models, and detailed portfolio analytics, officials say.
Vega is the wealth management specialist of Natixis and Groupe BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France, officials say.
“Bloomberg’s Port Enterprise and AIM solutions are helping our portfolio and risk managers collaborate more efficiently … and enabling us to use the same analytics across departments,” says David Tourte, Vega’s chief risk officer (CRO), in a prepared statement.
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