In other news, ex-CFTC Chair Giancarlo has a new position, FactSet works with ICE, Nomura taps Barclays, and LiquidityDirect adds a key service.
SteelEye Raised $17 Million to Fund Growth
SteelEye, a compliance technology and data analytics vendor based in the United Kingdom, reports that it plans to expand into North America.
Founded in 2017, SteelEye offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) based regulatory-technology platform for “banks, brokers, and asset managers” that is meant to simplify their compliance processes, officials say. In addition to the European Union and the United Kingdom, SteelEye’s SaaS platform will now also address U.S. market regulations.
The vendor calls the COVID-19 crisis “a major driver behind the move, with the pandemic inundating compliance teams with investigations and creating an urgent need to explore new monitoring measures for regulated employees while working from home,” according to a company statement, which also notes that $17 million was raised in 2020 to “support the company’s growth.”
The funding came in two rounds — the first was led by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures (FISV) in conjunction with existing investor Illuminate Financial, officials say. The second round was completed in December 2020 via American investor Beacon Equity Partners leading the round. Ed Mullen, the founder of Beacon, is slated to join the SteelEye board of directors.
Ex-CFTC Chairman Gets Back in the Game
J. Christopher Giancarlo
Baton Systems, based in Fremont, Calif., has engaged former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo as a senior advisor to the company.
Giancarlo was unanimously confirmed as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission by the U.S. Senate on August 3, 2017. Prior to becoming chairman, he was acting chairman from January 20, 2017, and was nominated to serve as the chairman on March 14, 2017. That term expired in April 2019. He became a CFTC commissioner on June 16, 2014.
Formerly, Giancarlo was the executive vice president of GFI Group Inc., a New York-based firm that offers wholesale market brokerage services, and is majority-owned by BGC Partners Inc.
Baton Systems, founded in 2016, is a provider of post-trade processes and procedures and blockchain technology for capital markets.
FactSet to Offer ICE Liquidity Indicators
FactSet, a financial information and analytical applications vendor, is making ICE Liquidity Indicators available via FactSet’s Portfolio Analytics, officials say.
The liquidity indicators, a service of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), provide market assessments of liquidity risk “across multiple asset classes,” say officials who that the service is guided by a transparent methodology. The service is intended to help firms manage fund liquidity risk and create portfolios within regulatory requirements.
“Leveraging ICE Liquidity Indicators through FactSet provides portfolio-specific liquidity analytics and helps the team at Jupiter provide enhanced liquidity risk management on behalf of our clients,” says Veronica Lazenby, chief risk officer (CRO) at Jupiter Fund Management in a prepared statement.
“Recent market moves and dislocations continue to highlight how important it is for firms and clients to manage and understand this specific kind of risk holistically for effective portfolio management, as well as for regulatory compliance,” Lazenby says.
Nomura Taps Barclays for Chief Information Officer
Sameer Jain
Nomura Holdings, Inc., a Japanese financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group, reports the appointment of Sameer Jain as chief information officer, wholesale. Jain, who will have responsibility for wholesale IT and operations, will be based in New York.
Previously, Jain held senior technology positions at Barclays, including group chief technology officer and co-chief information officer for the investment bank, officials say. Before joining Barclays in 2006, he was director, global head of credit derivatives technology at UBS. Nomura was founded in 1925.
FICC-Cleared Repos Available via LiquidityDirect
LiquidityDirect, BNY Mellon’s short-end investment portal, can now handle repos cleared via the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC), which helps BNY Mellon offer a single point of contact for investment instruments, collateral management, treasury services and asset servicing, officials say.
“Since BNY Mellon launched its sponsored member program at FICC in June 2017, the sponsored cleared repo sector has enjoyed strong growth, climbing from approximately $30 billion in daily volume in early 2017 to peak at over $525 billion in March 2019. Daily volumes have remained consistently above $200 billion in recent months,” according to BNY Mellon officials.
Sponsoring firms such as BNY Mellon can “provide cleared repo to end-users that would otherwise be ineligible to access the FICC clearinghouse,” officials say. This allows clients “to invest and raise cash in cleared repo without the financial obligations of full clearinghouse membership.”
LiquidityDirect, launched in 1997, serves as a portal for investing in money market funds such as treasury funds, government funds, prime funds, taxable and tax-exempt funds, and offshore money funds.
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