UK and US Agree Collaboration on Testing and Mitigating Risks of AI Models

The UK and US have signed a landmark artificial intelligence (AI) agreement to collaborate on testing and mitigating the risks of AI models. The deal is the first global bilateral agreement on AI safety, bringing together the UK and US governments to share technical knowledge, information and talent on AI safety. The deal was signed by UK Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan and US Commerce Secretary Fina Raimondo.

Under the deal, the UK’s new AI Safety Institute and the subsequent US organisation, which is yet to begin work, will exchange research expertise with the aim of mitigating the risks of AI, including how to independently evaluate private AI models from organisations such as OpenAI. The partnership is modelled on the security collaboration between GCHQ and the National Security Agency.

Clearwater Analytics to Acquire Risk and Performance Analytics Solutions from Wilshire

Clearwater Analytics, a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) based investment management, accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, has entered a definitive agreement to acquire risk and performance analytics solutions from Wilshire Advisors, a financial services firm. Clearwater will acquire Wilshire AxiomSM, Wilshire AtlasSM, Wilshire Abacus and Wilshire iQComposite, which cover fixed income analytics, equity analytics and performance measurement, accounting, and GIPS compliance support analytics. These solutions will be merger with Clearwater’s risk and performance analytics platform.

The partnership will be co-branded as Clearwater Wilshire Analytics and will allow both companies to provide enhanced analytical capabilities for investment managers and institutional asset owners. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024.

Microsoft Selects Solidatus as a Partner in Renewed Data Governance Platform

Microsoft has named Solidatus as its preferred data lineage integration partner as part of renewed data governance in Microsoft Purview. The new software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform provides intuitive business-friendly interaction, seamless integration across data sources, AI-driven efficiency, and actionable insights, empowering users to enhance data governance processes.

Microsoft will extend the value of Microsoft Purview for customers through pre-built integrations with a select group of technologies. Solidatus, a provider of data lineage, is one of these and will provide Microsoft Purview customers with best-in-class data lineage and its capabilities in fine grain lineage, visualisation and version control, strengthening data governance efforts and fostering more resilient businesses.

“Purview customers will gain a unified and actionable view of their governance workflows, empowering them to tackle their most pressing data challenges,” says Philip Dutton, CEO at Solidatus.

Informatica Takes Intelligent Data Management Cloud to Saudi Arabia

Informatica, a vendor of enterprise cloud data management, has set up its AI-powered Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) in Saudi Arabia, claiming a first in the kingdom. The provision includes establishing a point of delivery in Riyadh that supports local, scalable, cloud-first data management services. Informatica launched its first regional point of delivery in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2023.

The investment underpins Informatica’s commitment to further the Saudi government’s Vision 2030, which includes digitally empowering all sectors of the economy. Jitesh Ghai, chief product officer at Informatica, comments: “Saudi Arabia is making headway on its journey to become a technology hub for the Middle East and is creating a solid cloud foundation to realise its Vision 2030 ambitions. By having a significant cloud, data, and AI presence in the kingdom, we will be providing organisations with an in-country AI-powered data infrastructure to run their cloud-based technology solutions.”

Confluence Adds MSCI ESG Research Data into Style Analytics

Confluence Technologies, a solutions provider to the investment management industry, has integrated MSCI ESG Research data into its factor investing analytics solution, Style Analytics. The data will help asset managers and fund selectors by offering in-depth analysis, comparison, and enhancement of portfolios.

Damian Handzy, managing director, analytics, at Confluence, comments: “Style Analytics’ integration of MSCI’s ESG data marks a significant step to help our clients make informed investment decisions and achieve sustainable growth.”

The integration supports drill-down capabilities, fund-of-funds capabilities for United Nations SDGs and analytics, as well as factor analysis using an intuitive user interface. Users can gain actionable data, identify optimal investment opportunities and monitor performance over time.

GLEIF Names Certizen Technology as China’s Second LEI Validation Agent

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has named Certizen Technology, a Hong Kong-based provider of digital identity and digital certificate solutions, as the latest organisation approved as a Validation Agent in the Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) System.

With the support of GLEIF and the People’s Bank of China, Certizen will use the LEI to enrich its product and service offerings across multiple market sectors to further advance ‘opening up’ and strengthen support for free trade and cross-border business interactions. This includes using the data elements of the LEI in conjunction with digital certificates to integrate and associate an organisation’s data with the identity of individuals acting on its behalf. This will contribute to increased market transparency, facilitate trusted cross-border trade, and support global regulatory alignment.

Eva Chan, CEO of Certizen Technology, comments: “Obtaining Validation Agent status is a step forward in our vision to become a leader in corporate identity management. We are committed to using the capabilities of the LEI to enable secure and trustworthy digital interactions across borders, helping realise the full potential of efforts to support opening up and promote increased international recognition of local enterprises.”

Telefónica Goes Live with Alveo Prime Market Data Solution

Telefónica, a global telecommunications company, has gone live on Alveo’s Prime market data solution for its corporate treasury and financial division data management. The company’s sophisticated corporate treasury function, financial transactions and processes require accurate and timely market data for a wide range of purposes including hedge accounting, funding needs, financial reporting, validation and valuation of financial instruments.

Manuel Carreras Ferrer, transformation and change management manager at Telefónica, says: “We needed a new financial data repository for the firm. We use commercial data providers and different complex spreadsheets and needed to streamline the supply of market data into different business applications. Alveo’s market data solution helped us with a centralised data repository for all treasury-required FX and interest rate data, improved our operational efficiency and lowered our total cost of ownership.”

Canoe Intelligence Solution Offers Access to Asset-Level Data of Alternative Investments

Canoe Intelligence, a technology provider to the alternatives industry, has announced the commercial launch of Canoe Asset Data, a solution to the challenges of accessing and using complete, timely, and accurate asset-level data. The offering delves deep into the underlying holdings of alternative investments, leveraging the document collection, tracking, extraction, and organisation technology developed by the company, and is designed to solve investment use cases such as exposure analysis, portfolio analysis, and due diligence, while alleviating the operational challenges of accessing this granular data.

Canoe Asset Data is the inaugural product release from the Canoe Data Innovation Hub, an initiative dedicated to driving innovation, transformation, and transparency in the alternative investment markets, and was developed in collaboration with 13 clients. Aman Soni, vice president of data strategy at Canoe, comments: “Before its commercial launch, Canoe Asset Data saw strong adoption from its design partners, which speaks volumes about the end product.”

Bloomberg ESG Data Supports Hong Kong Greenhouse Gas Emissions Elimination Tool

Bloomberg ESG data is supporting development of the recently released greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimation tool of Hong Kong’s Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group (Steering Group) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The tool is part of key initiatives to facilitate sustainability reporting by corporates and financial institutions in Hong Kong led by the Steering Group, which is co-chaired by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The tool deploys a regression model using data from listed companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises to represent corporate energy consumption and associated Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and enables financial institutions to estimate the GHG emissions of their investees or borrowers in their portfolios, which is important where data from underlying companies is limited. The energy consumption data and GHG emissions data of Hong Kong listed companies used for the model is procured from Bloomberg.

SEC Approves Watered-Down Climate Reporting Rules

American listed companies will not have to report on their Scope 3 emissions in rules that will, however, require them for the first time to disclose other climate data.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday approved measures that would bind corporates into presenting data on the climate risks they face, their plans to mitigate them and, for some, their own greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the rules is to present investors with consistent and comparable data on which to make portfolio and risk management decisions, the SEC said.

“Our federal securities laws lay out a basic bargain. Investors get to decide which risks they want to take so long as companies raising money from the public make what President Franklin Roosevelt called ‘complete and truthful disclosure’,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said. “These final rules build on past requirements by mandating material climate risk disclosures by public companies and in public offerings.”

The Federal rules are the first of their kind in the US but fall well short of requirements under the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). While they have been long in the making, SEC commissioners eventually presented a far more diluted set of measures than had been initially proposed in March 2022, including the declaration of emissions from supply and distribution chains.

Divided Reception

The SEC also watered down reporting requirements on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, those caused directly by companies’ own operations and energy usage. Firms will only be expected to make such disclosures if they are not already obliged to do so in other jurisdictions.

The announcement received a divided reception. Sustainable markets campaigner Ceres said the rules “represent a major victory for transparency in capital markets” but said it “will continue to advocate for voluntary and mandatory disclosures of a company’s full scope of emissions”.

The watering down of the initial proposals comes amid a growing anti-ESG movement in US. Since Gensler first proposed a climate reporting bill, opponents have rallied to demonise the ESG project. Banks and institutions have also lobbied against tough measures.

Many US state leaders have instigated bans on public funds being invested in sustainable markets and conservative movements have put pressure on institutions to row back on their ESG strategies.

Despite the SEC’s lowering of disclosure obligations, a coalition of states has already said it will oppose the measures. The SEC has said in response it will “vigorously defend the disclosures” in court.