Charles River Embraces IBOR; Gains Client in Luxembourg
Charles River Development (CRD) is integrating support for investment book of record (IBOR) in version 9.2 of the its Investment Management Solution (IMS) flagship order management system, following completion of beta testing with global client partners, officials say.
The company describes its IBOR support as a multi-asset, multi-currency solution that combines trade and non-trade transactions for accurate management of current/historical positions and tax lots. It can distribute position keeping data to other systems, including those for performance and risk.
The IBOR features are designed for institutions that rely on feeds from custodians and prime brokers, or that wish to address the challenges of sourcing accurate trade-date positions by separating investment management functions from the back-office, the company says, adding that wealth managers also can benefit by consolidating positions from multiple accounting platforms and overcoming the deficiencies of legacy systems in supporting newer multi-strategy products, such as unified managed accounts.
In related news, BCEE Asset Management (BCEE-AM), a subsidiary of state-owned Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg, is now live on the IMS for automated portfolio management and compliance across its equity, fixed income and foreign exchange operations, according to a Charles River statement.
“Charles River has eliminated our portfolio managers’ reliance on outdated front-office technology and reduced the use of spread sheets,” says Claude Hirtzig, conducting officer, BCEE-AM, in a statement. “We now can make better investment decisions and more easily adhere to all company and regulatory mandates by automatically monitoring every step of the trade process.”
UK Regulator Approves CME’s Euro Exchange
Derivatives exchange company CME Group has received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for a London-based derivatives exchange, CME Europe Ltd, which the company expects to launch on April 27.
The exchange also has received approval to list its first commodity products, CME reports, and will launch a suite of FX futures products on the same date, subject to final regulatory approval.
CME Europe will launch with a suite of contracts, including biodiesel, and 30 FX futures products, including both continuous linked settlement (CLS) and non-CLS currencies. Among them will be major currencies (CLS-settled), non-CLS physically settled currencies, CLS-settled currencies, and non-CLS cash-settled currencies.
“Our European customers are increasingly looking for ways to manage risk and access liquidity in a local jurisdiction,” Terry Duffy, CME group executive chairman and president, says in a statement. “In addition, the combined move to central clearing and [to] London serving as the center of global foreign exchange trading will mean our new exchange is well positioned to serve all of Europe.”
CME’s strategy “continues to be focused on organic growth,” says William Knottenbelt, senior managing director, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) for CME Group, in a statement. The launch of clearing for over-the-counter interest rate swaps through CME Clearing Europe last year, the new European Trade Repository this year and the upcoming launch of CME Europe solidifies the CME Group’s international strategy.
Lombard Risk and Broadridge Form Strategic Alliance
Lombard Risk Management plc, a provider of integrated collateral management, regulatory compliance and reporting solutions, and Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., which offers solutions for corporate action issuers, have formed a strategic alliance intended to address “changing industry needs” in the collateral management sector.
Those changing needs include the “move toward greater transparency and the increasing cost of collateral,” according to the two companies.
They expect their alliance to result in integrated collateral management offerings, combining Lombard Risk’s technology with Broadridge’s applications and infrastructure, according to both companies.
“We are delighted that our firm and technology have been chosen by Broadridge to power their collateral management platform,” John Wisbey, founder and CEO of Lombard Risk, says in the statement. “Our alliance will extend the use of Lombard Risk’s technology and our joint expertise within key markets and segments, particularly in the important North American market.”
Collateral management support is “a natural extension of Broadridge’s product portfolio,” says Michael Hopkins, president of securities processing solutions fixed Income & risk at Broadridge, in the statement. “We process more than $5 trillion of fixed income and equity trades on average per day and have a significant inventory of data already residing on our platforms.”
Clearstream Rolls Out Bilateral Collateral Management Service
Clearstream, an international central securities depository that provides the post-trade infrastructure for the Eurobond market and services for securities from 53 domestic markets worldwide, is rolling out OTC Collateral, a bilateral collateral management service intended to strengthen the over-the-counter (OTC) processing capabilities of the Global Liquidity Hub, the company’s integrated risk and liquidity management solution.
The full lifecycle of bilateral collateral management activity will now be supported via the Global Liquidity Hub, the company reports, from credit support annex review and administration, mark-to-market, margining, dispute management and portfolio reconciliation to payment and settlement follow-up and reporting.
OTC Collateral targets customers trying to overcome collateral fragmentation and to optimize allocation by enabling them to cover OTC, tri-party and central counterparty (CCP) exposures from a single collateral pool, according to a Clearstream statement.
While OTC Collateral is complementary to the vendor’s existing tri-party offering and focuses on the immediate market need for OTC derivative exposures, all types of bilateral collateral management activity are in its scope, including bilateral repo, securities lending and special collateral agreements, company officials say.
Clearstream’s tri-party collateral management services and the bilateral service OTC Collateral are part of the TradeCycle product suite for cleared and uncleared derivatives that Clearstream offers in collaboration with Commerzbank.
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