I think our lead fintech news brief about Instinet and Credit Suisse completing multiple equities transactions in T+0 via blockchain/distributed ledger technology [https://bit.ly/2OwJJWJ] may have more significance than at first glance. These two major players used the Paxos Settlement Service from Paxos Trust Company, a self-described infrastructure provide, to settle U.S.-listed equities trades on a… Read More >>
Wall Street Bonuses Up 10% for 2020: Report
A 10 percent rise in bonuses for Wall Street securities industry participants reflects how trading firms were able to overcome the pandemic-related challenges of 2020, says Thomas P. DiNapoli, comptroller for the state of New York, via his annual report upon payments made to employees beyond their salaries. However, trading firms have been relying on… Read More >>
Broadridge Acquires Itiviti for $2.5 Billion
Post-trade provider Broadridge Financial Solutions will be able to offer front-to-back-office systems and networking via its acquisition of vendor Itiviti Holding AB for approximately $2.5 billion from Nordic Capital. The all-cash transaction is valued at €2.143 billion and will add trading and connectivity technology offerings to the list of systems that Broadridge offers, officials say…. Read More >>
Electra Expands Global Operations & Adds Staff
Electra Information Systems, a provider of reconciliation and other post-trade services, is adding data centers and staff to improve its global infrastructure for operations processing that supports a growing number of clients across the United Kingdom (U.K.), Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions, officials tell FTF News. In particular, Electra has added data centers in Sydney,… Read More >>
Northern Trust Launches Holistic Consulting for Op Risk
When the pandemic compelled Ops staffs to work remotely, it’s likely that many firms got new perspectives on the operational risks plaguing their front, middle, and back offices. Custodian and service provider Northern Trust is hoping that its new take on the matter — its bespoke Operational Risk Consulting service — will help firms bolster… Read More >>
Client Surge Spurs Xenomorph to Open Boston Office
Boston Office to Serve Surge of New Clients London-based Xenomorph Software, an enterprise data management (EDM) and analytics solutions provider, has opened an office in Boston — its second office in North America — in response to a surge of new asset management and hedge fund clients in the Boston area. Xenomorph opened its first… Read More >>
Finastra & HCL to Move Treasury to the Cloud
Digital Venture Could End Manual Processes Financial operations systems vendor Finastra is partnering with HCL Technologies and its cloud-native services to offer “treasury management technology in the cloud to smaller banks” based in Northern Europe, North America, India and the Philippines, officials say. “Historically, many banks have been reliant on manual processes for treasury management,… Read More >>
CMA Rethinking Veto of the FNZ-GBST Merger
The unraveling of the GBST-FNZ merger has been put on hold as FNZ is getting a second hearing before the U.K. regulator that ordered FNZ to divest itself of the back-office technology provider, which it purchased in 2019. Toward the end of last year, FNZ challenged the order of the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) by… Read More >>
‘HUB’ Launched to Overhaul Asset Management Ops
Pimco, State Street, Man Group & Others Back HUB A new technology and services provider, dubbed HUB, is being launched by investment manager Pimco, U.K. firm Man Group, custodian State Street, vendors IHS Markit and Microsoft, and consultancy McKinsey & Co. in an effort to offer a cloud-based platform “built by asset managers for… Read More >>
CAT Reporting Teaches Sell Side New Lessons
Despite the pandemic, sell-side firms in 2020 met a very challenging first-round of compliance with the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) trade data surveillance regulatory initiative, learning firsthand that gathering, cleansing, and reporting interfirm transaction data to regulators is much easier said than done. Yet firms are applying lessons learned and more to the CAT deadlines… Read More >>
