London Metal Exchange (LME) officials are seriously considering closing their 144-year-old open outcry futures trading floor, dubbed the Ring, but it’s unclear if this action is a sign that other outcry trading venues will follow suit. The Ring has been shut down for the past 10-plus months by the pandemic lockdown, and in that time,… 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 >>
Northern Trust to Cut 500 from Global Staff
Custodian and service provider Northern Trust confirms that it will be shrinking its global workforce by approximately 500 positions, which is less than 2.5 percent of its total staff, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing low interest rates. The staff cuts follow Northern Trust Corp.’s report of a third-quarter net income… Read More >>
Keep Hope Alive for 2021
It’s next to impossible to predict what the major trends in securities operations will be in 2021. The industry is still focused on what the new world will be after the fatal COVID-19 pandemic is defeated by vaccines and new behaviors. We may be in a holding pattern for at least the first six months… Read More >>
Layoffs Are Key to ABN Amro’s Digital Transformation
Dutch banking giant ABN Amro will begin a two-year staff trimming process that will reduce its global workforce by 15 percent — a key part of an $840 million streamlining said to be essential to its digital transformation, according to an announcement on Nov. 30. Media outlets and financial markets analysts have estimated that the… Read More >>
Mutualized Ops Automation Cuts Costs by 20%: DTCC
Post-trade systems and services provider DTCC is making its case for the cost-cutting value of mutualized, automated securities operations after surveying nine global broker-dealers that use its key offerings. The DTCC defines mutualization as “sharing the cost of utilitarian functions” that involves the adoption of “a no-touch processing workflow,” officials say. “Ultimately, the scale and… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Sells Postbank Systems to TCS
Sale Underscores Deutsche Bank’s Transformation Deutsche Bank is selling Postbank Systems AG to outsourcing giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a key milestone in the bank’s efforts to streamline operations and transform itself. “Under the terms of the transaction, TCS will acquire 100 percent of the shares of Postbank Systems AG from Deutsche Bank AG,” according… Read More >>
U.K. Regulator Orders FNZ to Undo GBST Acquisition
A U.K. regulator is ordering wealth management vendor FNZ to undo its controversial takeover of GBST and sell the back-office technology vendor because, the regulator argues, the merger could lead to a “reduction in the quality of service and higher prices” for retail investment platforms. The acquisition was completed before the U.K. Competition and Markets… Read More >>
RBC Capital Markets Launches AI-Based Trading Platform
‘Aiden’ Yields Solution to Cut VWAP Slippage Securities traders at RBC Capital Markets and scientists who specialize in artificial intelligence (AI) at vendor Borealis AI have been collaborating to deliver Aiden, an AI-based electronic trading platform that exploits “deep reinforcement learning” to facilitate better trading results and insights for clients, officials say. “In doing so, both… Read More >>
EBS’s EMS to Link to IHS Markit’s thinkFolio
EBSI Connectivity Slated for Q4 EBS, a provider of electronic trading platforms and IT for foreign exchange markets, will be offering connectivity between the EBS Institutional (EBSI) execution management system (EMS) and thinkFolio, a multi-asset investment management platform from vendor IHS Markit, vendor officials say. The new service is slated to be available during the… Read More >>
