Pricing Partners Introduced a Quantitative Methodology to Generate Inflation Volatility Surface
Pricing Partners announced today that its Price-it library now includes analytical tools to estimate inflation volatility surface combining historical estimates and implied interest rates smiles surfaces. These analytical tools can provide reliable estimation of the smiled inflation surface on all major inflation indexes such as the European, French, Japanese, American or British HICP ones. This...
Legal Entity ID Working Paper Highlights Change in Regulatory Priorities and Potentially High Costs of Implementation
A recent working paper on the practicalities of establishing a legal entity identifier database highlights the tough challenges ahead and rather than promoting an extensive reference data collection exercise, it suggests that a ‘less is more’ approach is the only sensible way to proceed. The paper is a continuation of the research that was initially...
SEC Plans 7 July Roundtable on IFRS Preparedness and Regulatory Impacts
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has indicated that it will be holding a public roundtable next week to discuss the industry’s current state of preparedness for a move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The 7 July event will include three panel discussions on the subject of potential accounting system changes, as the US...
Bloomberg Symbology (BSYM) Enters Asian Markets
Ace Derivatives and Commodity Exchange, a Kotak Group anchored commodity exchange in India, has successfully completed integration of the Bloomberg Global Identifier (‘BBGID’). The Exchange supports Bloomberg’s Open Symbology (BSYM), and is the first exchange to adopt the BBGID in Asia. Dilip Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Commodity Exchange said, “We see Bloomberg’s Open...
MSCI Expands Family of ESG Indices
MSCI, a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, announced today the launch of 25 new MSCI ESG Indices, including: · MSCI Global ex Controversial Weapons Indices Nine new MSCI ESG Indices have been developed for use by institutional investors, including pension funds, and Universal Owners who wish to avoid investments in cluster bombs,...
UK FSA Highlights “Serious Weaknesses” Within Firms’ AML and Customer Data Management Practices
As part of its crackdown on the industry’s systems and controls around anti-money laundering (AML) data, especially for politically exposed persons (PEPs), which it stepped up last year, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has released the findings of a survey of these practices across the industry that highlights “serious weaknesses” in “many” firms. The...
J.P. Morgan Completes Industry’s First Two ‘Second Generation’ Outsourcing Transactions for Asset Managers
J.P. Morgan’s Worldwide Securities Services business (J.P. Morgan WSS) today announced it has successfully completed the industry’s first two migrations of assets from an existing middle and back office services provider to its own strategic platform, on behalf of fund managers Artemis Investment Management (Artemis) and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The range of services WSS...
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Extends Relationship with SunGard’s FastVal
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), one of Europe’s leading banks, has extended its relationship with SunGard’s FastVal, an independent valuation service for vanilla and complex over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. SEB’s prime services offering will now broaden its instrument type coverage through its use of FastVal, when offering its clients an outsourced service for the valuation and risk...
CFTC Announces the 22 Members of Kirilenko’s Data Standardisation Subcommittee, Google Bags a Slot
Following the announcement last month that it would be establishing a data standardisation focused subcommittee, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced the selection of the 22 members of the team (out of the 52 that applied), which includes (interestingly) Google engineering research director Marc Donner. The other members, who will be led in...
Fitch: Solvency II Set to Reshape Asset Allocation and Capital Markets
Fitch Ratings says in a newly-published report that Solvency II, the new regulatory regime for European insurers from 1 January 2013, is poised to transform how insurers allocate their assets, leading to shifts in demand and pricing for several asset classes. The report, entitled “Solvency II Set to Reshape Asset Allocation and Capital Markets”, highlights...