In other news, SWIFT has a new exec overseeing the Americas, TORA opens in London, BondWave updates Effi, and Transcend hires from JPMorgan.
Raymond James Deploys Syn-TAC Upgrade
Raymond James officials report that they have renewed an existing contract for GBST’s middle-office post-trade solution, Syn~TAC, in a bid to boost the firm’s straight through processing (STP).
A GBST client for more than seven years, the firm has also completed an upgrade to the latest version of Syn~TAC, officials say. The firm also notes that it has “experienced more than a 40 percent increase” in STP via the GBST offering.
The firm’s upgrade of Syn~TAC “will enable it to offer an even greater level of automated post-trade allocation service to buy-side clients than previously available … It will facilitate the management of exceptions across multiple Electronic Trade Confirmation (ETC) providers to further enhance STP times with limited user interaction required,” according to GBST officials.
“Upgrading to Syn~ 3.3 was key to further advancing the automation function in our middle-office environment,” says Susan Horn, managing director, global equities, and investment banking at Raymond James, in a prepared statement.
“We commenced the upgrade on a Friday after the U.S. markets closed and were ready when the first trade was processed from our London office early Monday morning. As a result of the upgrade, we will now be able to accommodate future trading volumes in excess of our substantial growth over the past two years,” Horn says.
“The new release of Syn~TAC also allows Raymond James to provide an alternative Financial Information eXchange (FIX) messaging service to its client base, as the DTCC moves away from and retires its antiquated Oasys ETC services,” according to GBST officials. “Syn~TAC will accommodate DTCC’s CTM step-out trading functionality to ensure Raymond James’ client base can migrate before the October 2021 deadline.”
Raymond James manages $1.18 trillion in client assets, $7.6 billion of shareholder’s equity, and has more than 8,400 financial advisors, officials say. — EMG
SWIFT Names Chief Executive, Americas & UK
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, better known as SWIFT, reports the appointment of John Hunter as chief executive of the Americas and United Kingdom region. He was most recently a managing director at JPMorgan Chase and is an industry veteran with experience in “cash management, payment services and innovation,” per the statement.
Hunter’s focus at SWIFT will be on “strategic customer relationships across these major markets, with a focus on enabling the industry to transform and create new services based on SWIFT’s underlying infrastructure.”
The goal is to “enable instant and frictionless international transactions and rich data services across more than 4 billion accounts in 200 countries around the world,” according to the statement.
Hunter has worked in financial services positions at Accenture, Adobe and Hewlett-Packard, according to SWIFT, which is a “member-owned cooperative” that provides “financial messaging services.”
SWIFT is headquartered in Belgium. — L Ch.
TORA Opens London Office, Adds Staff
TORA, a provider of a cloud-based order and execution management system and a portfolio management system, reports its expansion in the United Kingdom.
The provider has added a London office and hired Peter Rank and Chris Hopton.
Rank, who joins from Axe Trading and Bloomberg AIM, will be sales manager, Europe. And Hopton, who joins from Trading Screen and SS&C Technologies, will be a professional services manager. — L Ch.
BondWave Updates Portfolio Analytics Suite
Fixed income solutions vendor BondWave has released an enhanced version of its portfolio and transaction analytics suite Effi 3.19, in order to meet client requirements for higher rates of efficiency and productivity.
Vendor officials report that the Effi enhancements are:
- BondAlert Emails: “Email notifications now include totals and details about specific alerts, improving users’ ability to know if an action is urgently required. With customization capabilities, users can also control the frequency of bond event emails, allowing for the hourly or daily bundling of events for those who do not wish to receive immediate alerts;”
- Market Calculator Autosave: “Saving calculations in the Market Calculator is currently a manual step but with several adjustments made to improve the user interface, Effi now provides the flexibility for users to save calculations the way they want. Options include manual, autosave or a combination of the two. Additionally, an exceptions column has been added to the market calculator and saved calculations widgets, providing a central place for users to see if an exception has occurred and the ability to sort through multiple calculations by the number of exceptions;”
- Unknown Securities: “Users may now add positions for holdings that don’t have a standard security identifier, or one that is not recognized by Effi. This allows non-standard positions to appear onscreen and within reports for users and their customers;”
- And Report Fields & Functionality: “Effi Reports now include several requested fields and components with improvements to fixed income analysis, next optional call, cash flow, redemption, exposure and amortization/accretion.”
BondWave is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P. — EMG
Transcend Taps JPMorgan for New Executive Director
Jason Arboreen
Transcend, a provider of analytics, optimization, and automation for collateral, liquidity, and funding, reports that Jason Arboreen has joined the firm.
His mandate includes helping firms “optimize collateral usage across business lines to both maximize value and overcome the complex challenges of today’s unique financial infrastructure,” Transcend says in a statement.
Arboreen joins with more than 20 years of financial industry experience. Most recently, he was an executive director at JP Morgan, per the statement. Prior to JPM, Arboreen was at UBS and Goldman Sachs, Transcend says. — L Ch.
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