In other news, Flexstone Partners taps IQ-EQ, Apex Group hires from Hamilton Lane & CanDeal Benchmark Solutions readies a reference rate.
New Links Will Help Users Manage iRecs Projects
Watson Wheatley, a London-based provider of securities reconciliation, and Daymi, an interactive operations playbook provider based in Stockholm, have launched a connectivity partnership that will enable operations teams to better manage recurring projects, routines and tasks, officials say.
“Using the API [application programming interface] connection that Daymi offers allows systems such as Watson Wheatley’s iRecs to push tasks and notifications in real-time to the platform allowing operations teams to manage recurring projects, routines and tasks,” according to the announcement from Watson Wheatley.
“After a recent introduction to Daymi and an exchange of ideas we saw the value in connecting the two systems,” says Tom Wheatley, chief operating officer (COO) for Watson Wheatley, in a prepared statement.
“This provides an overview of reconciliation tasks and exceptions to users who were not connected to iRecs already. We look forward to working on mutual integration projects in the near future,” Wheatley adds.
“At Daymi, our focus is on helping our clients efficiently manage and secure all their daily operations. After seeing the capabilities of Watson Wheatley’s product suite, we are confident that this partnership with Watson Wheatley will enable us to offer an even higher level of value,” says Carl-Fredrik Svensson, CEO, Daymi, in a prepared statement.
“Through the integration of Watson Wheatley’s automated reconciliation flows and by enriching Daymi’s processes and tasks with real-time progress updates, status, and audit trails, we believe our clients will experience increased efficiency in their daily workflows, oversight and audits,” Svenson says.
Watson Wheatley’s iRecs reconciliation tool “was originally built for one of the largest hedge funds in Europe and offers a highly automated solution for reconciling even the most complex instruments,” according to the recs vendor, which has expanded its product range to cover data aggregation and portfolio analytics.
Founded in 2018, Daymi focuses its offerings on how financial services firms secure their day-to-day and month-to-month operations, officials say. Daymi has 60+ financial services firms as clients in Europe, ranging from service providers, banks to asset managers.
Flexstone Partners Taps IQ-EQ for Fund Administration Services
Private equity firm Flexstone Partners has selected IQ-EQ to be its fund administrator and will be using IQ-EQ’s “expert carry modelling services” and IQ-EQ Cosmos, a proprietary portfolio monitoring platform, officials say.
The IQ-EQ offerings “will help provide visualization and real-time reporting of investment data across multiple asset classes, underpinned by a market-leading global data platform,” officials say.
IQ-EQ, led by its U.S. team, “has also entered into an asset purchase agreement with Flexstone’s previous service provider, MB Fund Administration, whereby 72 India-based employees have transferred to IQ-EQ — supporting a seamless transition to IQ-EQ and consistent service delivery. The team is based in Noida, a satellite city of Delhi,” according to IQ-EQ.
“Gaurav Arora, now IQ-EQ’s chief operating officer for Noida, leads the team that has transitioned to IQ-EQ from MB and will play a key role in the smooth operational transfer between providers and managing the Flexstone business locally,” according to IQ-EQ.
“We’re pleased that this shift to IQ-EQ allows us to continue to support Flexstone and deliver the highest quality of service, bolstered by IQ-EQ’s robust global platform and experienced international teams, who will now gain knowledge of this valued client,” Arora says in a statement.
“Flexstone Partners has built a 20-year track record of investing in the small- and mid-market private equity space. As Flexstone has continued growing – particularly in North America, Europe and Asia – we believe that IQ-EQ is the best partner to help take our business to great new heights,” says Hans DeWitte, managing partner at Flexstone Partners, in a statement.
Flexstone Partners, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Partners, has $10.1+ billion in assets under management and advisory, including more than 500 funds and over 4,000 portfolio companies, officials say. “The firm delivers customized private equity, real estate, private debt and infrastructure solutions with specific expertise in hard-to-access small- and mid-cap markets worldwide,” officials add.
IQ-EQ has $750 billion in assets under administration and is an Astorg portfolio company, officials say. Astorg is a global private equity firm with more than €20 billion of assets under management.
Apex Group Hires From Hamilton Lane for U.S. Country Head
Services provider Apex Group Ltd., has appointed Frederick Shaw from private markets investor Hamilton Lane to be its Country Head – United States, responsible for overseeing the delivery of Apex Group’s single-source solution to U.S. clients, officials say.
Shaw, who has two decades of experience in the financial services industry, held the role of chief risk officer and global head of operations for Hamilton Lane.
“During his tenure, Shaw led teams overseeing the company’s domestic and international regulatory compliance and risk management frameworks along with its global operations complex. Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2011, Shaw held senior compliance and operational roles in international banks and alternative asset management,” officials say.
For Apex Group, Shaw will oversee the company’s “rapidly expanding US business, which now employs over 600 people across 15 local offices,” officials say.
“The Group’s domestic US clients — as well as international clients investing into the U.S. — benefit from the efficiency of a single-source solution, including access to a broad range of services including digital banking, depositary, fundraising services, and pioneering ESG ratings and advisory solutions, offered globally and delivered locally,” officials say.
“Apex Group has successfully disrupted the US market, as an independent provider of a compelling single-source solution which supports the entire value chain of a business,” Shaw says in a statement.
The Bermuda-based Apex Group has more than 94 offices worldwide and 12,000+ employees in 38 countries, officials say.
CanDeal Benchmark Solutions to Launch Term CORRA on September 5
CanDeal Benchmark Solutions, a provider of benchmark administration and related services, has set September 5 of this year as the production launch date for the distribution of the new Term Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA) 1- and 3-month Reference Rates, officials say.
CanDeal/TMX Term CORRA “has been designed to be a robust benchmark that adheres to IOSCO’s Principles for Financial Benchmarks,” officials say.
“Term CORRA will be calculated and published by CanDeal Benchmark Solutions using price and trade data from CORRA futures contracts traded on the Montréal Exchange. CanDeal Benchmark Solutions will publish the rates on its website on a T+1 basis for free and they will be available in real-time on the day of calculation at 1 PM ET through TMX Datalinx or licensed data distributors,” officials add.
“The use of the rate will be restricted to the Term CORRA use cases developed by the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate working group (CARR). Market participants that develop or have products that align with CARR’s use cases referencing Term CORRA will need to enter into a commercial licensing agreement with TMX Datalinx,” officials add.
“Through our collaboration with TMX Datalinx to distribute these new rates, the market can look forward to a reliable interest rate measure,” says Andre Craig, president, CanDeal Data & Analytics, in a prepared statement.
“These forward-looking term rates are destined to replace CDOR with a risk-free, robust standard for transacting across the Canadian loan and derivatives markets,” says Louise Brinkmann, head of CanDeal Benchmark Solutions.
CanDeal Group provides electronic marketplace and data services for Canadian dollar debt securities and derivatives. CanDeal Data & Analytics (CanDeal DNA) offers dealer-sourced over-the-counter (OTC) content for pricing, analytics, and reference data to industry market participants, vendor channels, and solution providers, officials say. CanDeal Benchmark Solutions is an independent business unit.
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