Our free fintech roundup covers TRG Screen & digital rights management, HKEX’s CEO search, and a new chief information officer for CLS.
Acquisition Adds to SS&C’s Wares for Trust Companies
Securities systems and services provider SS&C Technologies recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire wealth management technology vendor Innovest Systems, based in New York City, for a total of $120 million in cash and stock, officials say.
SS&C officials say that this strategic acquisition is intended to complement SS&C’s services for trust companies. Innovest’s offerings target trust accounting, payments, and asset servicing via web-based technology.
“The purchase price will consist of $100 million in cash and $20 million in SS&C stock, with the value of the stock portion based on the trading price between April 20, 2020 and the date of the closing. The parties expect that the transaction will close in Q2 2020,” according to a statement from SS&C.
The acquisition will add more than 150 full-time employees to SS&C’s roster, officials say. Innovest has staff in New York, Sacramento, Calif., and Arlington, Texas.
The addition of Innovest’s solutions and team “will allow us to simplify wealth managers’ operations with a one-stop-shop for wealth and trust accounting and reporting,” says Bill Stone, chairman and CEO, in a statement.
TRG Screen Adds DRM to Platform
TRG Screen, an enterprise subscription spend management services vendor, has released the latest version of its enterprise spend management platform that includes a new rights management tracking functionality, officials say. The move is in response to demand for solutions that resolve rights management tracking.
The vendor’s platform is the Financial Information Tracking System (FITS), now in version 4.05, and targets recurring costs across multiple expense categories such as vendor contracts, procurement, invoicing, and expense allocations, and inventory management.
“Contractual rights management, also known as digital rights management (DRM), has been a hot topic … with data consumers concerned about tracking their contractual rights and staying within their obligations for data usage,” according to TRG Screen officials. “This release of FITS adds a new purpose-built repository to allow market data managers to store their contractual rights alongside their vendor commercial relationships and linked to their inventory of active entitlements and cost allocations.”
The upgraded platform helps market data managers “define which of the contractual rights can be shared with business users and internal developers, and the usage rights can be socialized internally to users through the FITS Order Management portal,” according to TRG Screen. “TRG Screen considers this a foundational release from which future features will be iteratively added over future FITS versions.”
TRG acquired Screen Group in January 2018 to become TRG Screen.
HKEX Begins Search for a New CEO
Charles Li, the current CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEX) has told the HKEX board that he will not seek reappointment as the top executive after his contract expires in October 2021.
“Mr. Li confirmed his full commitment to continuing to lead the organization until that date, or earlier, should a successor be appointed before such time,” according to an official statement from HKEX, which has formed a search committee.
The search will be led by HKEX Chairman Mrs. Laura M. Cha, who will be helped by HKEX Directors Apurv Bagri, Benjamin Hung and Rafael Gil-Tienda, officials say.
CLS Picks a Chief Information Officer
Thomas Barkhuff
CLS, a market infrastructure group for foreign exchange (FX) settlement, processing, and data solutions, has appointed Thomas Barkhuff as its next chief information officer, officials say.
Barkhuff joins from IT and business consulting services vendor CGI, where he was chief technology officer of the finance and insurance group, overseeing the global software engineering team and many finance and insurance products, officials add.
Over the past 30 years in financial services, Barkhuff held two chief information officer roles at TD Bank Group, and was a senior technology executive for Bank of America, officials say.
At CLS, Barkhuff will oversee technology and information security strategy and operations, including the delivery of IT services, applications, and infrastructure, “commensurate with CLS’s role as a systemically important financial market infrastructure,” officials say. “He will also play a central role in supporting CLS’s efforts to continue delivering market-wide solutions that provide transparency, mitigate risk and enable business growth for the FX market.”
Barkhuff will report to Marc Bayle de Jessé, CEO of CLS, and serve as a member of the provider’s executive management committee, officials say.
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