BGC Group to Launch FMX Futures Exchange for U.S. Interest Rate Futures

BGC Group, Inc, in collaboration with ten leading global investment banks and market-making firms, has announced the launch of the FMX Futures Exchange (FMX) for U.S. interest rate futures. The new exchange will go live on Monday, 23 September 2024, at 9:00 p.m. ET, initially offering Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) futures, with plans to introduce U.S. Treasury futures in early 2025.

FMX aims to deliver capital savings to its clients through its clearing partnership with LCH Limited, a major clearer of interest rate swaps. LCH will facilitate cross-margining for eligible U.S. interest rate futures using $225 billion in collateral held by its members. FMX is a subsidiary of FMX Holdings LLC, whose equity owners include prominent financial institutions such as Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan. The company also operates in the U.S. Treasuries and foreign exchange markets.

Broadridge Expands Distributed Ledger Repo Platform with Tier-1 Canadian Bank Implementation

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. has announced that a Tier-1 Canadian bank has implemented its Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform to manage High-Quality Liquid Asset (HQLA) treasury securities. This marks a significant milestone as the bank becomes the first to adopt this use case on Broadridge’s DLR platform, highlighting the potential of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in revolutionising financial operations.

This implementation aims to not only simplify the bank’s workflow and generate cost savings but also lay the foundation for further DLT use cases that can drive greater efficiencies and innovation in the financial sector, according to the company.

As more firms embrace digital transformation strategies, Broadridge continues to deploy DLT to drive operational efficiencies and cost savings. The DLR platform is expanding globally across buy-side and sell-side firms, generating a network effect that supports diverse transaction types.

BlueFlame AI Applies GenAI to Alternative Markets Data Processes

BlueFlame AI said it has made the process of mining and analysing data from documents easier for private and other alternative market participants with the creation of its Nexus product.

The offering, backed by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), enables clients to pull critical data from unstructured sources such as management and board decks, presentations, contracts, reports and other documents, the London-based company said.

“In today’s data-driven investment landscape, the ability to quickly extract valuable insights from vast amounts of unstructured information is crucial,” BlueFlame AI chief executive Raj Bakhru said.

Novatus Secures $40 Million Growth Funding from Silversmith Capital Partners

Novatus Global, a leader in regulatory technology for financial institutions, has raised $40 million from Boston based growth equity firm Silversmith Capital Partners. This funding marks a significant step for Novatus, enabling the company to expand globally and enhance its technology amid an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. 

Founded in 2019 by experienced industry professionals, Novatus has quickly built a strong reputation among top banks, asset managers, and financial institutions. Over the past year, the company has seen its revenue more than triple, reflecting the growing demand for its compliance solutions. The investment from Silversmith will help Novatus enhance its flagship platform, En:ACT, a cloud-native SaaS solution that simplifies complex transaction reporting requirements across various global jurisdictions. 

Andrew Hedley, Co-Founder and Partner of Novatus, emphasized the alignment between the two companies. “Silversmith shares our vision of creating products that make our clients’ operations safer and more efficient,” he said. “This investment will allow us to deepen our commitment to innovation while accelerating our international expansion, particularly in North America.” 

Co-Founder and Partner Mathew Ranson highlighted the company’s unique approach to transaction reporting, drawing on the founders deep operational knowledge of the transaction reporting space and its challenges. “We built Novatus with a focus on automation and technology, moving away from human-driven processes. Silversmith recognized the potential of our En:ACT platform, which leverages AI and machine learning to address regulatory challenges with fresh thinking.” 

Silversmith’s Principal, Ned Kingsley, echoed this sentiment, expressing confidence in Novatus’ future. “We look for founders who solve real-world problems, and Andrew and Matt have done exactly that. We’re excited to support their continued growth,” Kingsley noted. 

Alan Robertson, Partner at Maven Capital Partners, which had previously invested in Novatus, praised the company’s progress. “Since our initial investment, client adoption of En:ACT has driven a 13-fold increase in annual recurring revenues. We remain committed to supporting Novatus in scaling globally and enhancing its market-leading platform,” Robertson stated. 

This new partnership will also see Silversmith’s Todd MacLean and Ned Kingsley joining the Novatus board, further reinforcing the strategic alignment between the two firms.  

By combining deep industry knowledge with AI-powered technology, Novatus is well positioned to help its clients navigate an evolving global landscape with greater confidence and agility. 

Wise Platform Joins AbbeyCross to Enhance Global FX Payment Connectivity

AbbeyCross, the FX payment connectivity provider, has announced the addition of Wise Platform as its newest payment partner. Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure, enables banks, financial institutions, and enterprises worldwide to facilitate fast, secure, and cost-effective international payments. By leveraging Wise’s infrastructure, which connects directly to five payment systems and collaborates with over 90 banking partners across 160+ countries, AbbeyCross users will benefit from faster and transparent FX payment rates, including emerging market rates, and an improved settlement experience.

The partnership aligns with AbbeyCross’s mission to enhance the FX payments market by offering multi-lateral access to a range of FX providers via a single integration. This approach aims to reduce technical barriers, enhance price transparency, and mitigate compliance risks, streamlining the traditionally fragmented FX payments industry.

Advantage Futures Migrates to ION’s XTP Platform for Enhanced Trade Processing

ION, the trading and risk management solutions vendor, has successfully migrated Advantage Futures, a high-volume futures commission merchant, to its cleared derivatives trade processing platform, XTP. The transition marks a shift for Advantage Futures from its decades-old post-trade technology to a more advanced system, enabling extensive automation across clearing and settlement workflows. The XTP platform will aim to enhance the firm’s operational efficiency and provide clients with real-time visibility of positions, fees, margins, and risk.

Francesco Margini, Chief Product Officer for Cleared Derivatives, ION Markets, commented: “We are very pleased about our partnership with Advantage Futures, one of the industry’s highest volume clearing firms. The transition from their legacy back-office solution to XTP was completed in record time, leveraging ION’s established methodology and tools developed to manage large and complex migration projects. The Advantage-XTP rollout demonstrates ION’s proven track record in bringing new products to the market and the strong discipline required for a timely and successful delivery to customers.”

With over 5.3 billion contracts processed since its inception, Advantage Futures serves a broad client base, including professional traders, institutional clients, and hedge funds.

FESE and Oxera Publish New Analysis on Market Data Fees in EU Equity Trading

The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) has commissioned Oxera to conduct an analysis of market data fees and revenues since the implementation of MiFID II, building on previous studies from 2019 and 2022. This analysis is timely, aligning with the ESMA’s recent consultation on the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on Reasonable Commercial Basis.

The Oxera study reveals that market data revenues from stock exchanges have remained relatively stable, suggesting that overall market data prices have not significantly increased. The findings also indicate a shift from display to non-display data usage, with fees adjusted accordingly to reflect this change and accommodate smaller clients.

FESE urges ESMA to consider these findings in shaping the final RTS to avoid overregulation, which could restrict data access and investment. FESE also recommends a principle-based approach to cost allocation, ensuring fairness across different customer groups.

LTP Partners with Avelacom to Enhance Low Latency Network Services for Crypto Trading

Low latency network solutions provider Avelacom has been chosen by LTP, a prime broker for digital assets in the Asia Pacific region, to deliver advanced network services. The collaboration aims to enhance trading speeds and reliability for LTP’s diverse client base, including hedge funds, high-frequency trading firms, funds of funds, and family offices, across global crypto markets.

The partnership highlights LTP’s commitment to optimising trading infrastructure and supporting increased cross-venue trading volumes. Avelacom, recognised for its pioneering low latency solutions in the crypto industry, will leverage its extensive network coverage and recent expansions in Asia Pacific, including a new presence in Korea and an office in Hong Kong, to provide superior connectivity and performance for LTP’s clients.

Amberdata Achieves SOC 2 Type II Compliance for Enhanced Data Security

Amberdata, the provider of digital asset data and analytics for institutional clients, has achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance in line with the standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) under SSAE 18. This achievement underpins Amberdata’s commitment to providing enterprise-level security for customer data.

The audit was conducted by Prescient Assurance, specialists in security and compliance attestation services for B2B and SaaS companies. SOC 2 compliance assures Amberdata’s clients that their data is managed with the highest standards of security, privacy, and compliance, crucial for service providers handling sensitive customer data in the cloud.

“Our institutional customer base requires us to implement a strong security compliance program, and the transparency provided by a SOC report is essential to grow our business,” commented Shawn Douglass, CEO of Amberdata, “The fact that Amberdata achieved an unqualified opinion on a SOC 2 Type II audit report proves that we have the necessary controls and processes in place for compliance. Having our testing conducted by Prescient Assurance, the leader in security testing and compliance for SaaS companies, will provide additional assurance around our security, availability, and processing integrity to our customers.”

3forge Secures Investment from Morgan Stanley

3forge, a provider of high-performance code solutions for business-critical applications, has announced its first external funding since its founding in 2011, with an investment from Morgan Stanley.

The 3forge platform enables developers to build enterprise applications with a strong emphasis on real-time data integration, virtualisation, processing, and visualisation. Since 2014, its technology has been utilised by Tier-1 global banks, hedge funds, asset managers, exchanges, and sovereign wealth funds to support hundreds of client-driven, mission-critical business use cases.

Robert Cooke, Founder of 3forge, commented: “We are thrilled to close on an investment by Morgan Stanley, a longstanding partner who truly understands the value and performance of 3forge technology. This is an exciting milestone as we continually expand our capabilities to help enhance client workflows and productivity.”

The financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.