Council of Europe Development Bank Implements Bloomberg MARS Front Office

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has adopted its Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset Risk System, MARS Front Office, to enable the bank to assess the impact of trading activity on the risk profile of its books.

MARS Front Office will provide the CEB with consolidated pricing and risk analytics, including pre-trade and daily post-trade valuations, Greeks and scenario analysis. The bank will also use Bloomberg’s new ‘PnL Explain’ reports, which show fluctuations in market value and the contributions of the various underlying market factors.

The CEB is a long-standing customer of Bloomberg and also uses BVAL Derivatives, a pricing service that provides independent valuation for derivatives, and MARS XVA for counterparty risk management.

FSB and IMF Report on G20 Data Gaps Initiative

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have published their Sixth Progress Report – Countdown to December 2021 on the implementation of the Second Phase of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2). The report highlights significant progress in closing identified policy relevant data gaps during phases 1 and 2 of the Data Gaps Initiative, and the value of the initiative through the Covid pandemic in helping policymakers access key information to assess developments and risks in financial and non-financial sectors.

While some DGI-2 recommendations will not be completed by the end of 2021 and firms will continue to implement them, four data priorities that are likely to be covered by a new DGI are: climate change; household distributional information; fintech and financial inclusion data; and access to private sources of data and administrative data, and data sharing. A detailed workplan for the new initiative will be developed.

Milestone Group Offers Fair Value Control Solution

Milestone Group, an investment technology specialist recently acquired by BNY, has released a Fair Value Control solution for teams responsible for the administration and compliance of the fair value process, and ensuring funds’ securities are correctly valued in accordance with policy set by governing parties. The solution uses the pControl funds platform and includes workflows providing automation, transparency, and control of the end-to-end fair value determination process. It also unifies stakeholders involved in the process by providing a centralised solution for monitoring, decision-making, and implementation of fair value prices.

BSO Partners with EllaLink to Develop Financial Markets Between Europe and Latin America

Infrastructure & connectivity provider BSO has partnered with EllaLink, the express optical platform between Europe and Latin America, to put in place the necessary ultra-low latency connectivity and infrastructure to enable trading firms from around the world to access B3 and other Latin American markets.

To date, European and Asian firms wanting to trade the Brazilian markets have had to transit through the US. EllaLink’s reduced cross-Atlantic latencies between Europe and Brazil are expected to make previously uneconomic trading strategies more viable.

MarketFactory Partners with Tradefeedr

MarketFactory, part of ION Markets, has established a strategic partnership with Tradefeedr, the independent FX data and analytics provider, to broaden access to trading information for clients of both companies.

By integrating the two platforms, the partnership aims to deliver a seamless trading experience and to enhance transparency and trust levels across the FX market by enabling clients to review their trading markouts, impacts, and spreads directly with liquidity providers, using a common platform and shared data sets. Tradefeedr’s data analytics solution will be available as an add-on to new and existing customers using the MarketFactory service.

Deutsche Boerse Partners with Digital Asset for New Digital Post-trade Platform

Digital Asset and Deutsche Boerse have announced a long-term strategic partnership, to build the exchange’s new fully digital post-trade platform, D7. The new cloud-backed and DLT-ready platform will be designed to cover the entire value chain of issuance, custody, settlement, and asset servicing for digital securities. In the first phase of the project roll-out, Deutsche Boerse is working with Digital Asset to build a central registry system. In subsequent rollouts, D7 will also support same-day-issuance and paperless, automated straight-through processing for certificates and warrants.

New Meritsoft Report Highlights True Costs of Post-Trade Processing

Banks across Europe and North America are spending large sums in post-trade expense fees as a result of inefficient legacy systems, lack of automation, and the inability to persist data through the workflow, new research claims. According to a report on brokerage, clearing, custody and exchange costs from Meritsoft, a subsidiary of Cognizant that specialises in post-trade process automation, trade expenses can reach up to $750 million for the majority of banks surveyed, and have reduced profits by up to 20%. Managing trade expense has now become a priority for nine in ten firms, according to the report, which outlines solutions on how the problems can be addressed.

Turquoise Plato Connects to OpenFin to Improve Buy-Side Workflow

Turquoise Plato, the London Stock Exchange’s non-displayed order book, has connected to OpenFin, the operating system for enterprise productivity, to deliver application interoperability and a more unified desktop experience for buy-side trading desks. With this collaboration, Turquoise on OpenFin will leverage OpenFin’s open architecture to deliver data directly into trader workflows to support liquidity discovery and decision-making processes. FlexTrade Systems will be the first platform to deliver the Turquoise data feed into their EMS via the OpenFin message bus, providing traders with the ability to act on that data, automate processes and take advantage of emerging liquidity opportunities.

Indosuez Wealth Management Chooses ICE for Pre-Trade Analytics and Data

Indosuez Wealth Management, the global wealth management brand of Crédit Agricole group, has chosen pre-trade analytics and data from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to enhance its portfolio and margin optimization. ICE’s derivatives valuation and analytics services, which include access to pricing and analytics solutions for structured products and OTC positions, will give Indosuez’s capital markets sales team the ability to more concisely measure risk for their customers. Indosuez will also have access to ICE’s derivatives portfolio analytics application, which analyses holdings at both a single security and portfolio level, with data and analytics covering multiple asset classes.

FactSet Teams Up with Macrobond to Offer Insight into Global Equity Markets

Macrobond, a provider of global economic, aggregate financial and sector data for finance professionals, has teamed up with FactSet to provide top-down researchers with insight into the dynamics of global equity markets.

The company has worked with FactSet to build an aggregate version of the latter’s Quant Factor Library, a point-in-time database of factor insights and consolidated data, including alternative data, from more than 70,000 securities across 127 countries and more than 200 exchanges. The library helps users detect investment themes across global equity markets, incorporate ideas into portfolio construction processes and transform raw data into actionable intelligence.

The new dataset, which combines FactSet’s deep insights into individual stocks with Macrobond’s platform for top-down analysis, allows users to efficiently form an aggregate view of the market by index, sector, country and other categories. As well as standard metrics such as earnings yields and EPS estimates, it includes a broad range of data such as ownership and corporate governance – including the number of women on boards, executive remuneration and stock buybacks – enabling researchers to explore pertinent themes.