S&P Global Completes Acquisition of Visible Alpha

S&P Global has completed its acquisition of Visible Alpha, a provider of industry and segment consensus data, creating a premium offering of fundamental investment research capabilities on S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Capital IQ Pro platform.

Founded in 2015, Visible Alpha provides consensus forecast estimates, key performance indicators, and analytics from in-depth sell-side analyst models and distributes the data through a variety of distribution channels including a web-based platform, APIs and feeds. It is backed by a group of investment banks that are key contributors of research and data to the platform. Their continued contributions will continue to enhance the depth and breadth of the overall Visible Alpha and S&P Capital IQ Pro offering.

Myanmar’s AYA Bank Implements SmartStream TLM Solution

SmartStream has implemented its Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) Reconciliations Premium Digital Payments Control solution at AYA Bank, Myanmar’s premier banking institution. The implementation marks an advance in the bank’s digital transformation journey.

The SmartStream solution is delivered as Software-as-a-Service and streamlines tasks including reconciliations, settlement, fee computation and dispute resolution. Using AI capabilities, it facilitates rapid system adoption and comprehensive management of the bank’s transaction lifecycles. It will also add a real-time oversight layer to further improve transaction transparency and automate accounting processes, the whole enabling AYA Bank to mitigate risks and reduce operational expenses.

ICE Benchmark Administration Releases Beta Extensions for ICE Swap Rate Benchmark

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) subsidiary ICE Benchmark Administration has released indicative Beta versions of its USD SOFR ICE Swap Rate Swap Spreads and EUR €STR ICE Swap Rates. The swap spreads and rates expand the ICE Swap Rate benchmark and are determined using IBA’s published ICE Swap Rate waterfall calculation methodology. They are available here.

The publication of the Beta settings follows a consultation and feedback process on IBA’s proposals to extend the current suite of ICE Swap Rate benchmark settings. The settings are being offered for an initial testing period for information purposes and to enable recipients to evaluate the settings and provide feedback to IBA@ice.com.

IBA will later announce when USD SOFR ICE Swap Rate Swap Spreads and EUR €STR ICE Swap Rates settings will be made available for use by licensees as a benchmark in financial instruments.

Droit and FINBOURNE Partner to Produce Position Reporting Solution

Droit, a provider of computational law and regulation, is partnering FINBOURNE Technology, a provider of cloud-based investment data management software, to deliver an end-to-end position reporting solution. The integration embeds Droit’s Position Reporting product that delivers determination of reporting obligations based on consensus interpretations of requirements from Endoxa, a consortium of six global financial institutions, into FINBOURNE’s financial data management platform LUSID. This enables sell-side and buy-side institutions to manage disclosure obligations for long, short and takeover panel reporting.

The unified approach also ensures consistency around complex regulatory interpretations, regulatory clarity and accuracy of reporting. As part of the joint solution, Droit translates and processes detailed guidelines from all major global jurisdictions, automating the decision-making process for shareholder disclosure reporting eligibility. For complete accountability, a traceable audit record is generated for each evaluated position.

Bloomberg Releases Tool for Sustainable Investment Screening

Bloomberg has released a tool that helps investors assess portfolios, funds and indices based on sustainability criteria and thresholds customised by the user. Available on the Bloomberg Terminal and based on the company’s ESG data, the solution facilitates a transparent screening process and can be used for both making investment decisions and to help clients with regulatory compliance.

Users can input their investment preferences by selecting from a wide range of criteria and calibrating precise thresholds from three categories: sustainability targets, exclusion or ‘no harm’ criteria, and good governance requirements. The tool then calculates a percentage figure that shows how much of a portfolio, fund or index is aligned with the user’s criteria and provides a detailed list of all holdings to quickly detect any outliers.

Investors can also use the tool to check, based on their own definitions, if funds align with regulatory obligations including the EU’s MiFID II suitability rules and Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the United Arab Emirates’ sustainable finance framework, the UK FCA’s forthcoming sustainability disclosure requirements, and future SEC guidance on ESG disclosures and fund labelling.

Investment Manager River Global Implements Bloomberg Solutions for New Tech Stack

A win for Bloomberg with UK-based investment manager River Global implementing a suite of the company’s solutions as its new tech-stack to support front-to-back office investment workflows. Solutions adopted by the investment manager include Bloomberg AIM for order and investment management and BQuant Enterprise for quantitative analysis.

“By adopting Bloomberg’s integrated offerings, we have seamless connectivity in our workflow, ensuring efficiency and accuracy across our front, middle and back-office operations,” says Phil Jones, product and operations director at River Global. “Bloomberg is our vendor of choice for our investment tech stack and we look forward to continuing our work together as we optimise strategies and scale the business.”

CUSIP Global Services Adds AI Search Functionality to CGS CUSIP Access

CUSIP Global Services (CGS) has added AI-powered search functionality to CGS CUSIP Access allowing users to perform advanced searches using plain text and eliminating the need to enter values into separate boxes in an advanced search window. The AI search tool uses a large language model (LLM), the GPT-4 model provided by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, to accurately extract the name and value of a search field from a user-entered search prompt in natural language. It then translates the prompt into a valid structured query, which is executed by the system to retrieve precise search results.

The AI search tool has also been incorporated into the Excel ADD-IN, allowing Excel ADD-IN users to search either by identifiers or by using the AI search tool and get return data in an excel workbook.

Snowflake Expands Toronto Office to Support Growth in Canadian Market

Snowflake has expanded and relocated its Toronto office to support strategic growth in the Canadian market and growing headcount. Located in the city’s business and technology core, the new Toronto office will serve as the company’s Canadian headquarters. Snowflake first opened in Canada in 2022, making Toronto home to one of the company’s five global Snowflake Engineering Hubs.

As part of the company’s growth strategy, Snowflake Canada is on track to double its team in 2024 and further build out its Canadian presence. The Toronto office is continuing to hire for positions across engineering, sales, and more as the organisation scales to meet increasing demand from customers.

EDM-as-a-Service Provider Rimes to be Bought by Rothschild Unit

Enterprise data management (EDM) services provider Rimes is to be acquired by the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co.

Rimes investor EQT and its co-shareholders didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal to Five Arrows, but Bloomberg estimated the transaction values the business at between €800 million (US$862m) and €900m.

New York and London-based Rimes was founded in 1996 and its cloud-based EDM-as-a-service technology platform is used by 60 of the world’s 100 largest asset managers, the company said in a statement. Its customers oversee more than $75 trillion.

Rimes has been a long-time supporter of A-Team Group and its representatives have regularly occupied speaker seats at the group’s summits and webinars.

The Five Arrows Long Term Fund (FALT) and Five Arrows Principal Investments (FAPI) make up Five Arrows, which focuses its activities on the B2B data and software sectors.

Rimes chief executive Brad Hunt said the company has grown significantly in the past few years.

“Today, Rimes combines the customer-centric ethos and deep domain expertise that has differentiated us since 1996 with the industry’s most modern technology and an innovative, comprehensive product offering designed to address the investment data challenges of the future,” Hunt said in a statement. “We look forward to joining forces with Five Arrows to build upon our strong momentum going forward.”

Seif Khoufi and Constantin Sabet d’Acre, managing director and director of FALT, said in a joint statement that they believe Rimes is “uniquely positioned to continue to support its customers’ expanding needs”.

The deal is yet to be approved by regulators, but in a statement Rimes said it expected the sale to be passed in the coming months.

DSB Announces 2024 Consultation Schedule for OTC Derivatives Reference Data Services

The Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) has outlined its 2024 consultation plan focusing on the OTC International Securities Identification Number (ISIN), Unique Product Identifier (UPI), and Classification Financial Instrument (CFI) services. The consultation paper will be released on 30 April 2024, allowing for feedback until 31 May 2024, and concluding with a Final Report on 16 July 2024.

For the first time, the consultation will include the new UPI services. Key topics will include user type functionality, the Traded on a Trading Venue (ToTV) Service; and fair cost apportionment across service provisions. The consultation, in conjunction with the ongoing complementary work of the DSB industry representation groups, aims to align DSB services with evolving market practices, technological advancements, and regulatory demands.