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The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

FRSGlobal Developing World’s First Theoretical Foundation for Fair Value Pricing of Emission Linked Derivatives

FRSGlobal today announced that it is working with the Institute of Data Analysis and Process Design of Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW) to create the world’s first theoretical foundation to gauge fair value pricing of emission linked derivatives contracts. This CTI project is being led by Professors Wolfgang Breyman (ZHAW) and Jury Hinz (National...

Fiserv’ Financial Institution Services Business Experiences 3.3% Revenue Decrease in First Quarter

Following on from the disappointing last quarter of 2009 for its Financial Institution Services business, Fiserv has yet again experienced a revenue decline for the division in the first quarter of this year. The business experienced a decline in revenue of 3.3% or US$16 million from US$488 million in the first quarter of 2009 to...

Regulators are Cracking Down on Counterparty Identifiers in Line with the MiFID Review

The UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) recent fining of German bank Commerzbank for its transaction reporting failures is just one instance of the regulator’s current focus on the data details of a firm’s business. One of the underlying problems in Commerzbank’s case was the incorrect allocation of counterparty codes and the use of proprietary codes for...

Private Equity Wins the Day with US$3.4bn Acquisition of Interactive Data; Breakup on the Cards?

As predicted by Reference Data Review back in January, the likeliest candidate out of Interactive Data’s array of potential suitors has stepped up to acquire Pearson’s stake in the business and the common stock from shareholders for a total of US$3.4 billion. Private equity houses Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus are equal equity partners in...

S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies Expands Coverage Beyond Rated Universe with Quantitatively Derived Corporate Credit Health Assessments

S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies, an independent and analytically separate business unit within Standard & Poor’s that provides users with market intelligence and analytic insight for risk-driven investment analysis, announced the launch of a new credit evaluation benchmark on its Global Credit Portal investor analytics platform. Called the Credit Health Panel, the new feature provides...

US Republican Senator Shelby Attacks Idea of Office of Financial Research as Waste of Time and Money

Given the political wrangling going on over the proposed US Financial Services Bill that is making its way through the Senate at the moment, it was only a matter of time before discussions turned to the proposed data utility in the form of the Office of Financial Research. At the end of last week, US...

European Issuers Unconvinced of Benefits of Moving to XBRL, Says Capita Registrars’ Kempe

Just because there are market inefficiencies in the US that require the introduction of XBRL to be solved, doesn’t mean that Europe should follow suit, contended Michael Kempe, chief development officer for Capita Registrars, which looks after issuers in the UK and Irish markets. The European market is much less paper driven than the US...

Focus on Corporate Governance Could Prove a Boon for Proxy Voting Automation, Says Computershare’s Sarkar

The recent regulatory and market interest in the area of corporate governance could prove to be beneficial for the drive to further automate the proxy voting space, said Naz Sarkar, director of Computershare Investor Services, which provides online shareholder services. By calling for the voting process to be made easier and for more shareholders to...

IMF Looks at Data Challenges of Better Supervision of the Global Markets

In a similar vein to the rest of the global regulatory community, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is examining how it can better monitor the financial markets and the data concerns related to that challenge. In a paper published earlier this week, the IMF indicates how it plans to map the interconnectedness of financial institutions...

Data Repositories are Focus of Ongoing European and US Regulatory Discussions

Recent letters between Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s internal market and services commissioner, and US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner indicate that data sharing is very much at the top of the regulatory agenda at the moment, especially with regards to derivatives. The issue of trade data repositories is at the heart of the debate, as...