Coinform to Investigate Ripple’s AML Compliance

US regtech start-up Coinfirm has signed an agreement with San Francisco-based Ripple, the company behind cryptocurrency XRP, to investigate the crypto’s compliance with AML regulations. The move comes in advance of a planned crackdown by US authorities on cryptocurrency exchanges, following an announcement by the Financial Action Task Force report in June of tighter regulation to restrict the role of digital currencies in global money laundering. The new measures will require that crypto assets exchanges comply with AML provisions in the same way as traditional financial institutions.

Datactics Secures £1.2m Seed Funding

Belfast software solutions provider Datactics has raised £1.2m from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) in its second round of funding, completing a package commenced in 2018.

“Seldom does a day go by where the possibilities of machine learning aren’t being discussed, and everything we are hearing from industry agrees that any successful use of this technology will rely on fast access to perfected data,” said CEO Stuart Harvey. “This has been our sweet spot since we were founded, and in which we’ve been investing continuously throughout the six years I have been involved at Datactics.”

Comyno and REGIS-TR Join Forces

German tech consultancy Comyno has partnered with Luxembourg trade repository REGIS-TR to provide an integrated SFTR solution with straight-through processing for mutual clients. The alliance will connect Comyno’s C-ONE SFTR solution to REGIS-TR’s test environment, offering clients early validation and testing in advance of implementation.

Calypso Teams Up With IHS Markit on SFTR

San Francisco-based software application provider Calypso Technology has partnered with IHS Markit to offer seamless connectivity for SFTR reporting, from the booking of the trade through to the trade repository, providing a comprehensive end-to-end view of the reporting. Common clients will benefit from a single interface to the trade repositories of their choice, with data validation, enrichment and pre-reconciliation to ISO 20022 format performed en-route.

IHS Markit Partners With Cappitech

IHS Markit has partnered with regulatory reporting and intelligence solutions provider Cappitech to deliver its SFTR solution via Cappitech’s reporting platform Capptivate. The alliance aims to automate and streamline transaction reporting to trade repositories for all securities finance instruments. It will also support out-of-the-box MiFID II reporting for additional instruments that will be in scope when SFTR goes live.

ESMA to Hold Hearing on SFTR Reporting

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will hold an open hearing on its consultation paper published on May 27, 2019 on draft Guidelines for the reporting under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). The hearing will take place on July 15, 2019 at the ESMA headquarters in Paris.

Finastra Partners Xceptor to Automate Reconciliation

Finastra has partnered Xceptor, an intelligent automation software company, to offer new reconciliation functionality to its securities market customers. Xceptor’s out-of-the-box third-party reconciliation functionality allows Finastra’s Fusion Markets customers to automatically reconcile and validate transactions and positions data, including harder-to-handle formats, in a single solution resulting in reduced manual workloads, exceptions and breaks, and improved accuracy and speed. Xceptor extracts and transforms any type of data from any source.

SIX FinTech Ventures Takes Stake in PXL Vision

SIX FinTech Ventures has acquired a stake in PXL Vision, a Zurich-based start-up offering solutions for online user verification. The company’s Daego solution supports the automatic creation and administration of secure digital identities. It is designed to help companies avoid physical verification processes when onboarding customers, reduce costs and provide a positive experience. The company has established itself in the Swiss market and is focusing on going global.

DTCC Sets SFTR Testing Date

DTCC is scheduled to launch its first phase of SFTR testing for third-party partners in August, ahead of the regulation’s go-live date of April 2020.

Fiserv Automates Horizon Investments’ Portfolio Management

Fiserv, a provider of financial services technology solutions, is supporting Horizon Investments, a provider of goals-based investment management, with its Unified Wealth Platform in order to automate portfolio management, trade and rebalance processes. The platform will allow Horizon to access tools for active portfolio management across multiple managed account programmes and security types, including stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and options. The use of Fiserv technology will aid Horizon Investments by providing automation and the ability to scale as the business grows.