In other news, SimCorp has a new CEO, Citi expands in South Korea, and Exegy hires from SS&C.
SmartStream Air Version 4 Gets an A.I. Refresh
Post-trade solutions vendor SmartStream Technologies recently launched SmartStream Air Version 4, an application update that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology to support real-time and continuous reconciliation processes, officials say.
The update “will allow customers to use a much wider range of processing, including payment reconciliations, which is currently seeing a high level of interest,” vendor officials say. “The new version will manage large volumes of data in a variety of non-standard formats and structures, it will check for accuracy and completeness on a continuous basis, without the need to reload unmatched items.”
SmartStream Air Version 4 exports data to “a data lake, allowing it to be easily used for any report writing tools such as Power BI or Tableau,” officials add.
SmartStream Air “has been proven and tested in a number of Tier one banks — we are confident that this latest release is spearheading the future for reconciliations processing,” says Andreas Burner, chief information officer for SmartStream, in a prepared statement.
SmartStream Air Version 4, which is a cloud-native solution, will be integrated with the event streaming platform from vendor Kafka “for all unified distribution of real-time messaging,” officials add.
SimCorp’s New CEO Tasked with Transforming the Company
Christian Kromann
SimCorp’s board has promoted its chief operating officer Christian Kromann to succeed Klaus Holse as CEO, effective Sept. 2, and wants Kromann to transform the company from software vendor to a technology-enabled service company, officials say.
Kromann has been SimCorp’s COO and a member of the executive management board since August 2019.
Overall, Kromann brings to the CEO post “extensive international experience, including North American focus, executional strength, and commercial insight,” according to SimCorp officials who not his “dedication to execution and strong client focus.”
In addition to the promotion for Kromann, Holse, who has been with SimCorp for nine years, will stay on “as a member of the Executive Management Board for the rest of the year and then as senior advisor until the end of Q2 2022 to ensure a smooth transition,” officials say.
Citi Securities Services Opens Office at BIFC Tower
Citi has opened a Citi Securities Services office in Busan, South Korea, located in the Busan International Finance Center (BIFC) skyscraper, in response to growing demand for Citi’s custody and fund services as Korean investors send more to global markets, officials say.
“As a global custody and fund services provider for Korean domestic investors who want to invest in major securities markets, including the U.S., Mainland China and Hong Kong, Citi has provided global custody services to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) for a number of years,” according to a statement from Citi. “Citi’s BIFC office will be staffed by employees dedicated to providing global custody services to the KSD in performing global securities depository/settlement services with greater efficiency.”
The BIFX complex was established by the Busan Metropolitan City Government to help Busan become a financial hub. Busan City approved Citi in December 2020 to become one of the first BIFC international tenants, officials say.
Citi Securities Services has more than US $28.5 trillion in assets under custody and administration and a proprietary network across 63 markets, according to Citi.
Exegy Taps SS&C for New Chief Revenue Officer
Craig Schachter
Exegy Inc., which specializes in low-latency market data and execution processes and procedures, predictive trading signals, and hardware-acceleration technology, reports the appointment of Craig Schachter as chief revenue office (CRO), a newly created post.
He will be responsible for “setting and leading the organization’s global go-to-market strategy and execution, with a focus on superior business outcomes for the customer base,” according to the vendor’s statement. He joins with more than 25 years of sales experience at software, data, and service companies, per Exegy.
Prior to joining, he was responsible for “relationship management across SS&C Technologies’ Financial Services Group. He also held senior leadership roles at Finastra, FIS, SunGard, and Xcitek/XSP,” the statement points out.
Exegy spotlights its provision of “market data and execution solutions, predictive trading signals, and hardware trading platforms to … firms in the financial services industry.” — L.Ch
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