The Options Clearing Corp. (OCC), a Chicago-based equity derivatives clearinghouse, has reached an agreement with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), the largest pension fund in the U.S., to establish a liquidity facility that will allow the OCC to tap Calpers for cash in the event of a default at one of its counterparties,… Read More >>
More Firms Buy Than Build Analytics Systems for PM
Financial services firms are trending toward buying third-party solutions when they face the build-or-buy decision for implementing a performance measurement analytics system as revealed by panelists at Financial Technologies Forum’s Performance Measurement 2015 conference, held yesterday in New York City. The panel featured industry participants on hand to dissect the most important issues to keep… Read More >>
SWIFT Hires from Markit for Management Team
Financial messaging and systems cooperative SWIFT has hired industry veteran David Lefferts from financial information services vendor Markit, where he served in product development, cross-product strategy, and senior business development roles over eight years, officials say. At SWIFT, Lefferts will serve as a managing director, market initiatives for the Americas. Lefferts, who has more than… Read More >>
ClearStructure Appoints Global Head of Sales
ClearStructure Financial Technology, a provider of front-to-back office portfolio management systems, has appointed industry veteran Bret Price as global head of sales, officials say. Most recently, Price was a business development leader at SunGard where he drove the Insight Selling effort for revenue growth in the alternatives business, officials say. The appointment is a sign… Read More >>
RJO European Affiliate Buys Kyte Group from GFI
Chicago brokerage R.J. O’Brien and Associates’ (RJO) European affiliate R.J. O’Brien Europe Ltd. (RJO Europe) will acquire interdealer broker GFI Group’s subsidiary The Kyte Group Ltd., officials say. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the UK Financial Conduct Authority has approved the transaction, which is expected to close no later than March 17,… Read More >>
Temenos Jolts Fund Administration Market
Temenos Group, maker of the T24 core banking solution, is moving to aggressively take advantage of the “fast-growing fund administration market” via the $248.7 million (€235 million) acquisition of fund administration software vendor Multifonds, which has been in the market since 1995 and has more than 30 of “the world’s largest financial institutions” on its… Read More >>
Our Special Report on the Key Ops Issues for 2015
Making predictions about the Top Ops issues for 2015 is more challenging than you might think, given the many facets of securities operations. We began our predictions coverage at the end of 2014 by reaching out to industry analysts and participants such as Virginie O’Shea, a senior analyst with Aite Group; Tim Lind, global head… Read More >>
OpenGamma Embraces Open Source Margining
OpenGamma, a London-based, privately held provider of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading solutions, says it is “working with dealers and other OTC derivatives market participants to deliver an open source model to calculate the margin on bilateral derivatives trades.” The solution will “implement the final Standard Initial Margin Methodology,” being developed by the International Swaps and… Read More >>
Cronos Consultants Group Partners with Misys
Misys, a financial software and systems vendor, has signed an agreement with Cronos Consultants Group to become a member of the Misys InFusion partner program. The program is in effect in the UK and Ireland, officials say. The companies are long-time collaborators, according to a Misys statement, with Cronos “providing consulting, system integration, infrastructure and… Read More >>
Brandywine Deploys SunGard’s Apex Collateral System
Investment manager Brandywine Global has selected the Apex Collateral solution from SunGard Financial Systems to “help support its growing collateral management business,” according to a company statement. Some of Brandywine’s most pressing requirements when choosing the solutions were “the ability to comply with increased regulatory demands and improve the client experience by reducing counterparty risk,”… Read More >>