In other news, we cover Transcend's CCP Central, Collabware & FINRA, and new hires at Apifiny, Northern Trust, BNY Mellon & Exactpro.
ARRC Wants CME Group to Serve as Administrator
The push to replace LIBOR advanced with the news that derivatives exchanges operator CME Group is in the lead to administer forward-looking Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) term rates.
The Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC), which oversees SOFR, has picked CME Group “following a robust request for proposals (RFP) process,” according to CME Group.
“CME SOFR Term Reference Rates for 1-month, 3-month and 6-month tenors became available for licensing on April 21, 2021. CME Term SOFR Reference Rates can be accessed from the CME Group website, the CME Market Data Platform or various licensed data vendors,” according to CME Group officials.
ARRC officials say they will recommend CME Group as the administrator “once market indicators for the term rate are met,” according to a press release.
“The identification of CME Group as the strongest proposal to administer SOFR term rates leaves one final step in this work, the ARRC’s recommendation of a forward-looking SOFR term rate. Given that continued progress in developing SOFR derivatives market liquidity is readily achievable, a recommended term rate is now in clear sight,” says Tom Wipf, ARRC chairman and vice chairman of Institutional Securities at Morgan Stanley. “Today’s announcement should allow market participants to plan ahead for the recommendation of CME Group as the term rate administrator soon.”
ARRC officials describe the CME Group’s submission “as the strongest proposal after a thorough evaluation of the RFP [request for proposal] responses. The ARRC evaluated proposals based on four specific criteria: technical criteria, firm criteria, public policy criteria, and calculation methodology criteria. The ARRC has conclusively identified CME Group’s proposal as having most effectively met those criteria,” according to the ARRC press release.
The CME Term SOFR Reference Rates “provide an indicative, forward-looking measurement of SOFR rates, based on market expectations implied from leading derivatives markets,” according to the CME’s website.
“CME Term SOFR Reference Rates are administered by CME Group Benchmark Administration Limited (CBA) which is registered under Benchmarks (Amendment and Transitional Provision) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/657) is authorized and supervised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is aligned to the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks,” CME Group officials say.
More information about the CME Term SOFR Reference Rates can be found here https://bit.ly/3wq1uai
Transcend’s ‘CCP Central’ Targets Margining & Collateral Management
Transcend, an inventory, funding and liquidity management vendor has just launched a platform to connect and automate margin and collateral management activities across a network of central clearing counterparties (CCPs), and named it CCP Central, officials say.
“Transcend’s CCP Central solution specifically targets the many challenges associated with manual and siloed CCP margin activity,” according to the vendor. The new platform offers pre-built connections to CCPs, optimization capabilities, and straight through collateral processing.
The CCP Central solution provides:
- Connectivity across CCPs, exchanges, and internal platforms for client and house collateral;
- Analysis of margin calls and balances, collateral schedules, positions, and transactions, and RQVs for margin requirements;
- Collateral optimization across CCPs and trading enterprises;
- Straight through processing (STP) for funding decisions;
- Monitoring and alerting frameworks to find risk exposures
“Transcend’s clients have been asking for a single place to monitor, manage and automate funding activities across their global network of CCPs,” BJ Marcoullier, head of business development at Transcend, in a prepared statement.
Apifiny Taps Goldman Sachs for CTO Post
Jason Jiang
Apifiny, a digital asset trading and mining network company, has hired Jason Jiang as chief technology officer (CTO) “in preparation for the company’s anticipated, planned public offering,” officials say.
Before joining Apifiny, Jiang served as vice president at Goldman Sachs, overseeing technical development efforts within the investment bank’s Global Markets Division, overseeing quantitative trading, electronic market development, and custom algo research groups, officials say. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Jiang was a vice president and software development manager for the financial modeling group at asset manager BlackRock, where he designed and developed that firm’s “fixed income analytics system (ANSERTM) from scratch.”
Jiang has “22-plus years of experience designing and building professional trading solutions … [and] in building ultra-low latency trading and risk management systems and co-location, exposure to the full technology stack from hardware, networking, and full software development life cycle (SDLC) to automated trading controls,” according to Apifiny officials.
At Apifiny, Jiang will lead the development and improvement of the company’s digital asset trading platform “for professional traders across a wide range of exchanges and across the globe,” officials say.
“Right now the crypto market is highly fragmented, consisting of many trading ‘lakes’ but no canals connecting them. Apifiny aims to be that network of canals,” Jiang said in a prepared statement.
FINRA Adds Collabware to Compliance Vendor Directory
Based in Vancouver, B.C., Collabware, an archive, discovery, and records management software vendor, reports that it has a new listing in the regulator Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Compliance Vendor Directory (CVD).
The CVD helps FINRA members find vendors offering solutions and services for “nine priority areas, including data management, information archiving and cybersecurity,” officials say.
Collabware offers a cloud-automated archiving solution Collabspace that helps trading firms “meet and adhere to FINRA’s content management, personal information security and data storage regulations.”
Northern Trust Hires from Capgemini for Asset Servicing Post
Northern Trust has hired Arthur Hill to be senior vice president, head of product management for asset servicing. Hill joins from Capgemini, where he was a senior director for its insurance and financial services group.
Hill has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and insurance industry, with a “history of spearheading sophisticated transformation and technology programs with a global reach,” according to Northern Trust’s statement.
Hill will be based in Chicago, where Northern Trust was founded in 1889. As of March 31, 2021, Northern Trust had assets under custody/administration of US$14.8 trillion, and assets under management of US$1.4 trillion. the statement notes.
Goldman Sachs Veteran Joins BNY Mellon
Laide Majiyagbe
BNY Mellon has appointed Laide Majiyagbe to be its head of financing and liquidity. Her mandate includes oversight of BNY Mellon’s securities finance, liquidity services and collateral segregation businesses, according to the investments company. The position is newly created and Majiyagbe will oversee the strategic direction for BNY Mellon’s financing, collateral and short-term liquidity offering and drive continued product integration between the businesses under her remit, per the statement.
She joins from Goldman Sachs, where she spent 14 years, most recently as global head of liquidity projections in the firm’s corporate treasury division, the statement notes.
BNY Mellon also spotlights its $41.7 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $2.2 trillion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2021.
Exactpro Fills Key APAC Business Development Post
Exactpro, a software testing services provider for financial market infrastructures, reports the appointment of Hiroshi Matsubara as director of business development for the Asia-Pacific region.
His mandate includes “responsibility for leading the firm’s expansion in the region effective from 17 May 2021.”
Matsubara joins after forming Pine Grove Research, his own consultancy firm, which is “focused on new technologies in financial markets,” according to Exactpro’s statement.
Previously, he spent 17 years overseeing product marketing and communication activities in Fidessa (now ION Group) in Asia after holding various product marketing positions in both Japan and the UK and U.S., according to the statement.
He began his three-decades long career at Reuters in 1987, per the statement.
Exactpro, based in the United Kingdom, characterizes itself as a “provider of software testing services technology that underpins global financial markets. The firm is experienced with trading, clearing and settlement platforms, market surveillance systems, market data systems, collateral and risk management systems, and post trade infrastructures.”
Need a Reprint?