SIX Releases Gender Equality Index

SIX has released SPI Gender Equality Index, an index measuring the number of women in top management at Swiss companies. The index is part of the company’s recently introduced ESG Indices family and uses components from the largest 100 companies of the Swiss Performance Index (SPI). To be included in the index, companies must have between 20% and 80% women on the board of directors, and between 15% and 85% on the management board. Marion Leslie, head of financial information at SIX, says: “This index offers a transparent benchmark to measure gender diversity on Swiss companies’ boards and management committees.”

Etrading Named Registration Authority for Digital Token Identifiers

Etrading Software has been named as the exclusive registration authority for the ISOs standard for digital token identifiers (DTIs). With thousands of crypto-assets in the market, there has so far been no standard way to identify one digital token from another. Identifiers conforming to the new standard, ISO 24165 DTI, will be vendor neutral, open, freely available, and global. The first DTIs registered through Etrading are expected to be available by the second half of 2021. The aim is to give buyers, sellers and regulators confidence they are talking about the same digital token.

SIX Invests in Orenda to Offer Real-time, High-frequency ESG Scores

SIX is taking a majority stake in Orenda Software Solutions, a Canadian AI platform specialising in ESG and alternative data sets, and providing real-time, high-frequency ESG scores and insights into a company’s reputation to measure the sustainability and societal impact of an investment. Marion Leslie, head of financial information at SIX, says: “With Orenda we have found the right partner with unique expertise in alternative data sets, data science and ESG. As we bring our capabilities and the expertise of our teams together, we see a lot of opportunities to build new propositions supporting the growth of impact investing.”

Moody’s Acquisition of Cortera will Expand Orbis Database

Moody’s has made a definitive agreement to acquire Cortera, a provider of North American credit data and workflow solutions. Cortera maintains a comprehensive database of credit information, featuring data and analytics on over 36 million companies. The company gathers data from thousands of sources, enhances the data using AI, and provides analytics, reports and monitoring services to help businesses make informed decisions about their counterparties. The acquisition will augment Moody’s Orbis database – acquired with Bureau van Djik – of private company information and enhance its KYC, commercial lending, and supply chain solutions. 

Research Reveals Increased Use of Blockchain in Asset Management

Research by Global Palladium Fund reveals that 90% of professional investors believe that over the next five years asset managers will come under growing pressure from clients to use blockchain technology to provide greater security and transparency. Asked why blockchain will become increasingly important for asset managers, 51% of professional investors interviewed for the research said it provides more transparency around investments, 35% said it gives investors more information on investment vehicles, 12% said it would meet growing regulatory demands, and 2% said it could reduce costs.

MCA Finance Selects NeoXam to Support Growth

MCA Finance has selected NeoXam’s NxTracker3 technology to manage its front and middle office activities. The software covers all financial assets, but will be used at MCA Finance to manage specific products developed by the company, specifically structured products and OTC securities, in a customised way. NxTracker3’s native interconnectivity offers simplified exchanges with MCA Finance’s counterparts. It also meets the company’s operational and regulatory requirements, and will support growth of the business.

Natwest Markets Taps ipushpull for PPQ Price Negotiation Tool

Natwest Markets has implemented ipullpull’s PPQ (Pushpull Quotes) for price negotiation of non-standard and complex trades. PPQ is a pre-trade workflow tool that automates the negotiation process between the buy and sell side. It uses messaging networks like Symphony and standardised syntax within private bilateral chats to allow trading and sales to communicate detailed pricing and quote information. Chatbots can interpret key data within those messages, display them within a custom application and allow the user to drive the workflow from a single screen. Data mapping transforms incoming and outgoing data into the required format, creating an extensible solution to interoperate between new and existing standards. The inclusion of structured data objects within messages, containing instrument definitions, event descriptions and a wealth of other metadata, can further aid automation of pre-trade workflow.

ION Continues Acquisition Spree with Purchase of Dash Financial

ION Investment Group – owner of such esteemed trading technology brands as Fidessa, Dealogic, Caplin, FfastFill, Iris Financial, OpenLink, FSS and others – has added another property to its portfolio, in the form of New York-based options trading tech specialist Dash Financial Technologies. ION has agreed to acquire Dash from private equity firm Flexpoint Ford. Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor to DASH and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Flexpoint Ford and Dash.

Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank Chooses Fenergo for CLM Solution

The world’s first digital trade finance bank, Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank (AGTB), based in the UAE, has chosen Fenergo to deploy its CLM platform.

Fenergo will enable AGTB to meet its strategic objective to disrupt the trade finance market with a cloud-based, digital-first and client-centric model leveraging emerging technologies such as data analytics and API connectivity.

AGTB aims to address the gap in the trade finance market by becoming the first digital bank servicing the sector. Fenergo’s API-first CLM solutions will provide AGTB with a single client view across all departments, jurisdictions and products, while expediating Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) processes and time to revenue. 

InvestCloud Recapitalisation Creates Global SaaS Wealth Solutions Platform

InvestCloud has completed a recapitalisation that values the business at $1 billion. New financial investors are led by Motive Partners with Clearlake Capital Group and include InvestCloud client shareholders. Under the terms of the agreement, Motive will contribute two portfolio businesses, Finantix and Tegra118, to InvestCloud, creating a global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) wealth solutions platform. The combined company will offer a wealth advisor platform, private banking platform, financial supermarket, and custom financial platform. InvestCloud CEO John Wise says the recapitalisation will help meet InvestCloud’s ultimate objective of building the world’s largest financial supermarket.