In other news, Bloomberg focuses on funds, Citi Securities Services links to CCASS, Northern Trust reaches out to asset owners, Fenergo blends KYC & transaction compliance.
150+ Clients Sign Up for SS&C’s Trade Matching Service
Citing the U.S. funds industry gearing up for T+1 trade settlement next year, SS&C Technologies reports that “more than 150 clients are using its Trade Matching & Settlements Service to support post-trade execution functions.”
“Using SS&C’s Trade Matching & Settlements Service has enabled us to ensure we can always meet our trade settlement obligations in the shortest possible timeframe,” says Guy Fiumarelli, chief operating officer (COO), head of operations, Itaú USA Asset Management Inc., in a prepared statement.
The Trade Matching & Settlements Service “supports post-trade execution functions such as trade matching/affirmation, trade communication and settlements/fails management,” according to SS&C officials. The service is available as a stand-alone service or in conjunction with other SS&C fund services.
In addition, SS&C’s solution “integrates with numerous matching platforms, supports multiple formats of trade instructions delivery, and captures real-time settlement statuses from custodians and prime brokers,” according to the vendor. “The service uses best practices for storing, communicating, and validating standard settlement instructions (SSIs) across global markets to facilitate timely settlements.”
“In practice, T+1 means some managers operating in U.S. markets will only have a few hours to match or affirm trades and prepare them for settlement, which can be challenging for firms without established automated matching systems,” says Parthiv Patel, managing director, SS&C GlobeOp, in a prepared statement.
Bloomberg Launches Funds Data Solution Offerings
Financial news and data giant Bloomberg reports that it has launched what is called the Funds Data Solution, a product set that encompasses more than 135,000 unique funds and 12,000 exchange traded products. The solutions will be available as foundational data, holdings, corporate actions, ESG, risk, and regulatory data products.
The solutions in Bloomberg’s Funds Data Solution group will be accessible via Bloomberg Data License file delivery and the new set of offerings aligns “with the funds data available on the Bloomberg Terminal,” officials say.
The new access to data about funds and exchange traded products is intended to help clients act on fast-changing investment opportunities and to better support portfolio construction, risk management, due diligence, and operations, officials say.
The new solution set offers data on “mutual funds, fund of funds, closed/open-end funds, unit trusts and more as well as exchange traded products (ETPs) including ETFs, ETCs, and ETNs,” officials say. “Customers can access reference and pricing data as well as look through to underlying portfolio holdings to inform portfolio construction, benchmarking, rebalancing, tracking risk and positions, trading, and order workflow processes.”
The Bloomberg Funds Data Solution set “integrates with other Bloomberg data solutions by using standardized identifiers, such as the Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI), proprietary Bloomberg identifiers, and detailed metadata. This approach along with consistent delivery formats, results in clear identification of each fund and its share classes so customers can intuitively compare, analyze, select, and monitor funds to meet their investment, risk, or operational needs,” officials say.
Bloomberg’s fund-oriented offering also can be used to “analyze funds according to specific ESG goals,” when Bloomberg “combines its holdings data with its premium security-level data to deliver objective, granular fund-level ESG scores and analytics so customers can drill down to determine if a fund truly meets sustainability criteria,” officials say.
The Bloomberg Fund Analytics product focuses on the liquidity, credit, and interest rate risk exposure of a fund with fund-level risk metrics based on Bloomberg’s risk data solutions, officials say.
“With the introduction of Bloomberg’s Funds Data Solution, customers can now access their fixed income, equities, derivatives, and funds data in one place making it easier to devise investment strategies, evaluate performance, support compliance workflows, and more,” says Maureen Gallagher, head of Enterprise Reference Data at Bloomberg, in a prepared statement.
Citi Securities Services Links to Hong Kong’s CCASS
Citi Securities Services has launched a fully automated solution that connects to Hong Kong’s central clearing and settlement system (CCASS) and improves Citi’s custodial capability in post-trade instruction and settlement processing, officials say.
The proprietary technology includes a module to help clients “benefit from more timely and enhanced settlement of their trades in the Hong Kong market depository,” officials say. “The solution improves overall processing capability for users, in addition to providing greater flexibility, that is not constrained by the current fixed schedule of settlement batches in the market.”
Citi created this capability “to meet the growing demand from clients for quicker settlement due to a variety of reasons, including efficient collateral management and expeditious trade settlement confirmation for reporting purposes,” according to the announcement.
“This enhancement plays a role in improving overall operational resilience thanks to greater settlement flexibility. Citi continues to invest heavily in technology and connectivity to financial market infrastructures (FMIs), and this latest enhancement further complements Citi’s custodial service capabilities,” officials add.
“In 2020, we were the first sub-custodian in Hong Kong to offer our clients real-time notification of the trade matching status. The latest solution is a continuation of our efforts to provide a complete suite of services that are as close to real-time as possible,” says Aditya Sharma, APAC head of custody, Citi Securities Services.
Northern Trust Launches ‘A-Suite’ Hub for Asset Owners
Custodian Northern Trust has launched a “community and content hub, called A-Suite by Northern Trust Asset Servicing,” intended to offer “a space for asset owners to learn, collaborate, and move the needle on issues that matter most to them.”
A-Suite is described as “a first-of-its-kind destination for global asset owners and allocators. Empowering asset owners with the latest insights, research, and networking opportunities,” officials say
Northern Trust has more than 1,800 global asset owner clients across corporations, not-for-profits, public funds, insurance companies, central banks, superannuation, and sovereign wealth funds, officials say.
“For example, Northern Trust serves 62 percent of the top 100 U.S. corporate pension plans; 30 percent of the top 100 public pensions; 70 percent of the top 50 U.S. healthcare plans, and 144 Canadian allocators across eight provinces, including three of the ‘Maple 8 (largest)’ pension plans,” according to officials.
The goal of A-Suite is to help clients “optimize returns so they are able to best serve their constituents and communities,” says Melanie Pickett, head of Asset Owners, Americas at Northern Trust, in a prepared statement.
Fenergo Combines KYC & Transaction Compliance Technologies
Fenergo, a digital know your customer (KYC) and client lifecycle management (CLM) solutions vendor, has launched KYC & Transaction Compliance, an offering for fintechs that combines KYC and transaction monitoring for “continuous monitoring of the customer profile,” officials say.
The new offering is “a single, integrated software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution” that is intended to detect “money laundering and terrorist financing, in real-time.”
The combination of KYC and transaction data monitoring eliminates siloes and offers “a holistic, 360-degree view of each customer profile — which receives continuous updates from entity data providers, screening providers, and transaction systems,” officials say. “The insights from the transaction monitoring system can trigger events like Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) checks, prompt a KYC data refresh, or adjust risk ratings based on the outcome of true positive alerts, ensuring customer profiles stay up to date instantaneously.”
KYC & Transaction Compliance “uses a single API to draw data from multiple key sources, like screening and data providers, allowing powerful low-latency A.I. [artificial intelligence] technology to rapidly analyze complex historical transaction data and flag suspicious activity,” officials say.
The new offering targets false positives, and “suggests changes to thresholds and predicts and ranks transactions and alerts based on the likelihood of true and false positives using previous data,” officials say.
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