In other FinTech news, Quantitative Brokers debuts two algorithms, Refinitiv uses Amazon’s clouds, and tZERO Security Tokens are launched.
Tom Wheatley, COO, Watson Wheatley
BennBridge Rolls Out iRecs Platform
London-based BennBridge Ltd. a multi-boutique investment firm, has implemented the iRecs trade reconciliation platform from Watson Wheatley Financial Systems, officials report.
Tom Wheatley, chief operating officer (COO) for Watson Wheatley, reports that the BennBridge project requirements “were relatively complex” but that the application was successfully rolled out to the operations team.
“The deployment of iRecs covers daily reconciliation of positions, trades, balances and cash flows as well as P&L, NAV [net asset value] and DTCC reconciliations,” according to a Watson Wheatley statement. The vendor’s suite will help BennBridge achieve “a high level of automation and control while providing a scalable platform for future growth,” officials add.
“Following a thorough market review and due diligence process, it was clear Watson Wheatley would be able to fully meet our multi-boutique, multi-strategy reconciliation requirements,” says Ben Battye, head of operations at BennBridge, in a prepared statement. “Tom and his team excelled in their delivery of a bespoke, tailored solution for BennBridge that has further enhanced our operational infrastructure and control environment. This has in turn allowed our operations team to harness efficiencies and take significant steps towards the future goal of full reconciliation automation.”
BennBridge, which is the U.K. subsidiary of the Bennelong Funds Management Group, a multi-boutique investment firm based in Melbourne, Australia. BennBridge, which manages AUD0.9 billion ($6.4 million), strategically partners with specialist fund managers and “provides a structure that gives our boutiques the same quality support offered by large institutional firms, but enables them to operate in a more personalized and entrepreneurial environment,” officials say.
Based in Oxfordshire, U.K., Watson Wheatley’s clients include hedge funds, long-only asset managers and commodities traders. Its principal products are iRecs, Importer and “reconciliation as a service,” officials say.
Quantitative Brokers Launches Latest Execution Algorithms
Quantitative Brokers, a Manhattan-based provider of algorithms and data-driven analytics to clients in the futures and U.S. cash treasury markets, reports the launch of two new algorithms, called Octane and the Roll. They join Bolt, Strobe, Legger and Close, QB’s existing suite of so-called best execution algorithms.
Octane is a liquidity-seeking strategy designed to execute when urgent completion is the primary objective, QB says, while the Roll is QB’s first algorithmic strategy specifically built for futures rolls, or listed calendar spreads.
Refinitiv Expands Real-Time Financial Data via Amazon’s Cloud
Refinitiv, formerly known as Thomson Reuters’s financial and risk business, reports that its Elektron real-time data delivery using Amazon’s web services, is being expanded.
The expansion is in the service of meeting “high demand from clients across the globe,” the firm says in a statement.
Refinitiv further specifies that a “recent survey of 250 financial firms” found that over 90 percent of firms surveyed said that they “will use public cloud for the majority of their market data needs in less than four years and 24 percent “expect to use public cloud for the majority of their market data needs within just one year.”
The Elektron real-time cloud delivery is intended to simplify access to real-time price information across the financial community and beyond by taking away the need to invest in on-premises infrastructure, officials say. It also helps clients be nimbler by aiding time to market for businesses that need access to real-time data.
Since the service launched in July, customers from Australia, Hong Kong, Europe and the U.S. have signed up, Refinitiv adds. Refinitiv provides data and infrastructure to more than 40,000 institutions in more than 190 countries, according to the vendor’s statement.
tZERO Issues Preferred tZERO Security Tokens
tZERO, a specialist vendor in blockchain systems for capital markets, reports finishing the disbursement of its preferred tZERO security tokens to investors who had fully funded signed agreements for future equity prior to the August 2018 close of the company’s security token offering (STO).
tZERO specifies that it raised $134 million from more than 1,000 investors during its STO. tZERO deployed its token contract, minted its security tokens, and issued its tZERO custodial wallet for investors on Oct..12, 2018, officials say.
To ensure compliance with federal securities law and regulations, and in accordance with the terms of the tokens themselves, the tokens will be locked up in the custodial wallet until January 10, 2019 (90 days after issuance), the company says.
“After the 90-day period expires, tZERO intends on offering holders the opportunity to trade tokens, pursuant to private resale transactions, with other accredited investors on a platform that tZERO is in the process of developing with a broker-dealer partner. In addition, tZERO intends that new investors who are accredited will also be able to open an account to buy tokens following the 90-day period,” according to tZERO.
tZERO, a portfolio company of Medici Ventures, Overstock.com’s blockchain subsidiary, was founded in 2014.
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