In other news, BlackRock works with SpiderRock, Exchange Data International has a new partner, and BNP Paribas Securities Services adds ESG links.
SmartStream System to Use Acadia’s Margin Manager
Post-trade solutions vendor SmartStream Technologies is partnering with Acadia, the former AcadiaSoft, which changed its name and mission from a collateral management automation provider to an integrated risk management services vendor for derivatives transactions, officials say.
The SmartStream TLM Collateral Management solution “will work alongside Acadia’s interest statements workflow,” which is part of the Acadia Margin Manager platform, officials say.
“The solution will dispatch interest statements, reconcile, and resolve issues with counterparties in a standardized messaging format,” according to the vendors. “This will remove the reliance on email exchanges and often lengthy, complicated dispute resolution by uploading statement data. In addition, Acadia’s matching engine will pair statements, highlight discrepancies, and produce final interest statements for clients and their relevant counterparties.”
Richard Barton, Head of Product Management, Acadia, states: “We are delighted to be working alongside SmartStream, who have successfully served clients in the collateral management space for years, and we are confident this will further enhance its service in many areas including: margin and risk mitigation – which will efficiently meet all sell-side, buy-side and fund administrator requirements”.
The combination “provides integration with a powerful collateral solution and a user-friendly dashboard, allowing for quick exception management, including a complete audit trail with final statements,” says Jason Ang, program manager, TLM Collateral Management, SmartStream, in a prepared statement.
BlackRock Invests in SpiderRock Advisors
Asset management giant BlackRock is making a minority investment in SpiderRock Advisors as part of a strategic venture to “expand access for wealth firms and financial advisors to professionally managed, options-based separately managed account (SMA) strategies,” officials say.
The effort “builds on BlackRock’s position as a market leader in personalized SMAs, including the recent acquisition of Aperio,” according to BlackRock officials. Accessing the capabilities of SpiderRock Advisors “will offer wealth management firms and financial advisors more tools to deliver tax-efficient, personalized portfolios and risk management solutions.”
The Chicago-based SpiderRock Advisors provides customized options strategies in the U.S. wealth market and manages approximately $2.5 billion in client assets as of March 31, 2021, officials say.
SpiderRock’s strategies are available via major registered investment advisor (RIA) custodians “and are focused on risk management and yield enhancement for diversified portfolios as well as concentrated stock positions,” officials say. “BlackRock’s market leaders and consultants in U.S. Wealth Advisory will serve as the primary distribution and marketing team in introducing SpiderRock Advisors’ advisory services and strategies to wealth firms and financial advisors.”
Exchange Data International Partners with XTAL Strategies
Exchange Data International (EDI), a provider of corporate actions, pricing, and reference data services, has signed an exclusive partnership with XTAL Strategies, to support XTAL’s new regulated private market benchmark initiative, officials say.
The benchmarking initiative targets firms anticipating “the EU Benchmark Regulation (BMR – EU 2016/1011), coming into force in 2022, and will require EU-supervised users of indices to only use benchmarks that comply with the EU BMR. The EU regulation will impact investors and financial service providers globally,” officials add.
“XTAL Strategies predicts the adoption of EU BMR standards will make current private market investor benchmarking tools obsolete, leaving some investors without an underlying objective benchmarking reference. XTAL Private Market Benchmarks aim to fill that gap,” officials say.
“EDI has linked up with XTAL to gather detailed information to construct private equity indices on unlisted private market funds,” says Jonathan Bloch, CEO at EDI, in a prepared statement.
“With broader segments of investors and regulators paying increasing attention, market participants will demand and rely upon benchmarks that are accurately calculated, objective and unbiased,” Massimiliano Saccone, CEO at XTAL says in a statement.
BNP Paribas Securities Services Adds Links to ESG Offerings
The Manaos ESG/sustainability marketplace of BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPSS) has bolstered its offerings with the onboarding of two new partners — Util and V.E, part of Moody’s ESG Solutions, officials say.
Manaos is described as “an open servicing platform designed for institutional investors to manage their post-trade investment data, aims to become the leading marketplace for sourcing ESG data and monitoring and reporting on sustainability,” according to BNPSS officials. The Open ESG strategy of Manaos targets partnerships to offer access to a variety of ESG data and analytics tools.
Util’s machine learning models are available via Manaos to “quantify the degree to which every listed company positively and negatively impacts the 17 UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) and their 169 targets,” officials say. “To objectively evaluate a company’s real-world impact, Util focuses on the effects of its products and services and draws conclusions from peer-reviewed journals.”
Manaos also offers data, scores and assessments from V.E. to “help investors to better understand their exposure to ESG risks and opportunities, and facilitate reporting, innovation and active engagements with companies,” officials add.
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