In other news, SEC pays whistleblowers $40M, FIGIs are available for crypto assets, and Options Technology gets ACTIV.
Silver Lake Buys ICE’s 9.85 Percent Stake
American private equity firm Silver Lake likes Euroclear Holding’s growth path and has purchased Intercontinental Exchange’s 9.85 percent stake in Euroclear for €709 million ($824.8 million), officials say.
Officials at ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), say the past investment in Euroclear has been successful,
“We have seen the critical services and sustainable infrastructure it provides to our industry, and it has been a successful investment for ICE,” says Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE Chairman and CEO, in a prepared statement.
The Brussels, Belgium-based Euroclear offers “post-trade security settlement, custody, collateral management, fund management and data services with €35.2 trillion of assets under custody and 284 million netted transactions settled in the 12 months ended June 2021,” officials say. Euroclear connects more than 2,000 financial institutions in 50 different markets and settles transactions in 50 currencies.
“As a leading technology investor, we look forward to contributing to Euroclear’s future growth, which is more than ever driven by innovation,” says Christian Lucas, co-head of Silver Lake EMEA, in a prepared statement.
The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2022, officials say. Moelis & Company served as ICE’s financial advisor and Stibbe served as legal advisor. Lazard was Silver Lake’s financial advisor and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Loyens & Loeff acted as legal advisors.
The Silver Lake acquisition will be subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. “Following Silver Lake’s investment, Silver Lake will request that a representative of Silver Lake join the board of Euroclear Holding SA/NV,” officials add.
SEC Whistleblower Award Payments Hit $40M
Two whistleblowers in the financial services industry will be getting large checks from the SEC — one for $32 million and another for $8 million — for helping the regulator with enforcement actions.
The $40 million in awards is the latest payment from an investor protection fund set up by Congress and funded by securities law violators who used monetary sanctions paid for by the SEC by securities law violators. The regulator has awards $1.1 billion to 218 individuals since the program got underway in 2012.
“The first whistleblower, whose information caused the opening of the investigation and exposed difficult-to-detect violations, will receive an award of approximately $32 million,” according to an SEC statement. “The first whistleblower also provided substantial assistance to the staff, including identifying witnesses and helping the staff to understand complex fact patterns.”
The second whistleblower received $8 million for providing “important new information during the course of the investigation but waited several years to report to the commission,” according to the SEC.
In order to claim their awards, whistleblowers “voluntarily provide the SEC with original, timely, and credible information that leads to a successful enforcement action,” according to the regulator. “Whistleblower awards can range from 10-30% of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million.”
Information about the whistleblower program can be found at www.sec.gov/whistleblower
Bloomberg & Kaiko Launch FIGIs for Crypto Assets
Market data, trading systems, and news giant Bloomberg and cryptocurrency market data provider Kaiko have eased a pain point for crypto assets by issuing the first series of financial instrument global identifiers, or FIGIs, for all Bitcoin and Ethereum instruments denominated in fiat currencies, officials say.
“All FIGIs are issued via OpenFIGI and Kaiko’s Instrument Explorer and are openly accessible to the public,” officials add.
The Object Management Group (OMG) oversees the open FIGI standard, which are unique markers “assigned to financial instruments including equities, derivatives, bonds, municipals, and currencies,” officials say. “In September 2021, FIGI was accredited as a U.S. national standard by the American Standards Committee, X9.”
The duo’s actions are in response to “the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency industry, there is a pressing need for standardization to bring consistency, transparency, and greater efficiency to the market,” officials say. “Earlier this year, Kaiko … took on the role of Certified Provider for Crypto FIGIs, working alongside Bloomberg as the Registration Authority for FIGI, under the auspices of the OMG.”
The FIGIs for crypto assets facilitate “interoperability between industry participants such as digital asset exchanges, data aggregators, custodians, service providers, and regulators,” officials say.
“Incorporating FIGIs at the infrastructure level enables a coherent view of market data across multiple providers and applications. FIGIs will be assigned at three levels of granularity: asset, currency pair, and trading platform. Application of the FIGI hierarchy in this way will provide all market players with greater transparency and a broader view across the sector,” officials say.
FIGI standards are “compatible with, and complement, alternative standards. Each instrument assigned a FIGI may also be tied at the asset level to an International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) with appropriate licensing or other identifiers, such as ISO’s Digital Token Identifier (DTI),” officials say.
Options Technology Buys ACTIV Financial
Options Technology, a provider of cloud-based, managed services and trading infrastructure support, has acquired ACTIV Financial, a real-time, delayed, historical, and multi-asset financial market data vendor, for an undisclosed amount, officials report.
The acquisition, backed by Abry Partners, will lead to a combination of capabilities.
“We believe that merging the ACTIV data feed and software capabilities on top of the Options global network and infrastructure is probably the most impactful deal in the sector in the last decade,” says Danny Moore, Options’ president and CEO, in a prepared statement.
“In addition, this acquisition further supports Options’ growth strategy, allowing clients to benefit from an extensive market data footprint and global trading connectivity built on and supported by best-of-breed technologies, industry-leading automation and world-class cyber security and monitoring,” according to a statement from Options.
The combined platform to come will “provide an increasingly comprehensive solution set to our new and existing customers,” says Avery Zuck, a principal at Abry, in a prepared statement.
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