In other news, the federal government launches resources to stop ransomware, Napier expands in Dubai, and Broadridge has a new partner.
Proposed J.V. Seen as Complementary
CME Group, an operator of derivatives trading venues, and IHS Markit, an information and analytics vendor, have gotten the blessings of the European Commission for their joint venture of post-trade services.
“The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control over a newly created joint venture by IHS Markit Ltd. (IHSM) of the U.K. and CME Group Inc. (CME) of the U.S.,” according to EC officials. “The joint venture will consist of IHSM’s over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and foreign currency trade processing business (MarkitSERV) and of CME Group’s OTC [over-the-counter] derivatives optimization businesses (Traiana, TriOptima and Reset).”
The joint venture “will provide trade processing and trade/portfolio optimization services in a number of asset classes. … The proposed transaction is largely complementary, and results in a few technically overlapping areas between the companies’ activities relating to trade processing products,” according to the EC.
“The Commission’s investigation also showed that any strategy to foreclose competitors following the transaction would be unlikely. Therefore, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure,” according to EC officials. — EMG
Feds Launch One-Stop Ransomware Resource
The U.S. government has launched a new website to combat ransomware attacks.
The site is StopRansomware.gov and it provides cybersecurity resources from multiple agencies to “individuals, businesses and other organizations,” according to a federal government statement. Agencies involved in the program include the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The StopRansomware.gov site also includes resources and content from Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Justice’s FBI, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services.
“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting Americans from the rise in ransomware attacks that we have seen in recent years,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland says in the statement. “Along with our partners in and outside of government, and through our Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force, the Department is working to bring all our tools to bear against these threats. But we cannot do it alone. It is critical for business leaders across industries to recognize the threat, prioritize efforts to harden their systems and work with law enforcement by reporting these attacks promptly.” — LCh
Compliance Provider Adds Dubai Office
Napier, which characterizes itself as a “provider of advanced anti-financial crime compliance solutions,” reports that it has opened a new office at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
DIFC is a leading financial center in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, the company says in a statement.
The new office is in “the recently inaugurated Innovation Hub, part of the Dubai Future District,” where Napier will be at “the center of the region’s largest collection of financial services companies,” the company adds.
Napier is headquartered in London and “has a presence in North America, Australia and Dubai, while its foothold in APAC [i.e., the Asia-Pacific region] was also strengthened recently with key senior hires from the industry and the addition of new offices in Singapore and Kuala Lampur,” per the company. — LCh
Broadridge In Partnership with OpenFin
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., a post-trade systems and services provider, reports that it will utilize OpenFin’s operating system for financial desktops.
Asset managers using Broadridge’s next generation portfolio and order management system (OMS) will benefit from applications with configurable layouts and intuitive workflows, the company says in a statement.
The effort is intended to help traders and portfolio managers “increase productivity by reducing the effort and time navigating across multiple windows and screens,” Broadridge adds, while “notifications will also keep users up to date with the most relevant insights.”
OpenFin deploys more than 3,500 desktop applications to more than 2,400 buy-side and sell-side firms, the company notes, and its investors in the company include Bain Capital Ventures, Barclays, CME Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, NYCA Partners, Pivot Investment Partners, Standard Chartered and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital among others.
Broadridge’s technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of approximately U.S. $10 trillion of equities, fixed income, and other securities globally, per the vendor. — LCh
Need a Reprint?