BearingPoint Reports Record Revenues for 2018

Technology consultancy and RegTech solutions provider BearingPoint has announced record revenues of €789 million for 2018, despite numerous investments throughout the year and the transition in September of Kiumars Hamidian to Managing Partner. Europe provided strong growth above market average, particularly in France, Benelux, Africa, the UK and Ireland, while the firm also opened a new office in Luxembourg and acquired Inpuls, a data specialist in Belgium. It also made its first strategic acquisition in Asia, investing in Insignary, a specialist in binary-level open source software, and made over 1,100 new hires throughout 2018.

Theta Lake Partners with Zoom to Offer New AI Compliance Capabilities

California-based Theta Lake, a provider of cloud-based compliance AI for voice, video and chat communication, has announced a new partnership with Zoom Video Communications to launch Theta Lake for Zoom on the Zoom App Marketplace. The product integration enables regulated organizations to archive Zoom video, chat, and audio to comply with long-term regulatory retention requirements as well as leverage purpose-built AI and ML to automatically detect compliance risks and speed up workflow for shown, shared, spoken or written content in Zoom.

Ascent RegTech Joins Wells Fargo Start-up Accelerator

Compliance automation platform Ascent RegTech has been selected to join the Wells Fargo Start-up Accelerator Programme. The accelerator began in 2014 and currently has 23 companies in its portfolio. Start-ups are eligible to receive up to $1 million in funding, along with guidance from Wells Fargo business and technology leaders to help refine the launch of their ideas. The virtual, six-month, non-exclusive program has received nearly 2,500 applications from innovative companies in 91 countries since inception.

SEB Selects DTCC Global Trade Repository for SFTR reporting

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) has selected DTCC’s Global Trade Repository (GTR) service to meet its obligations under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), which is expected to apply from April 2020. To streamline client adoption of the service, DTCC recently added data transformation services to its SFTR offering, providing a one-stop shop for clients’ reporting needs.

Jonathan Kellner Named CEO of MEMX

Jonathan Kellner has joined Members Exchange (MEMX), a recently established member-owned equities exchange. Founding members include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, E*Trade, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley, TD Ameritrade, UBS, and Virtu Financial. Before signing on to MEMX, Kellner led Instinet through the acquisition of BlockCross ATS from State Street, and the transition through regulatory change, including Dodd-Frank and MiFID II.

Tradeweb Filing for IPO

Bond and derivative platform Tradeweb Markets, which is co-owned by Refinitiv, is filing for a US initial public offering (IPO) at $100 million. J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the IPO. Although Tradeweb is going public, Refinitiv will continue to hold a dominant interest in Tradeweb after the IPO.

Pico Extends Data Centre Presence in APAC

Pico, an infrastructure, connectivity, data and cloud technology provider, is continuing its global expansion into the world’s major financial markets with additional personnel and offices, and increased data centre presence in Asia Pacific. Founded in 2009, Pico opened its Singapore and Tokyo offices after signing its first top tier Asian bank client in mid-2018. Next, Pico went live at TY3 in Tokyo to support the FX community, complementing existing LD4 and NY4 offerings. The APAC expansion enables Pico to onboard and support a growing number of clients that want to include Asian markets in their global trading strategies.

SIX Digital Exchange Provides Digital Asset Trading

SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) has opted for R3’s blockchain platform, Corda Enterprise, to provide digital asset listing and fully integrated end-to-end trading. Corda is designed to meet the standards of regulated environments. Many of R3’s members and investors, including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, RBC, and UBS, are also SIX stock exchange trading members, and will have prior knowledge of Corda when SDX services become available. David Rutter, CEO and founder of R3, says that representing assets as tokens on a blockchain platform is an impactful application of the technology and a key focus for R3.

QuantHouse Offers Access to Real Estate Pricing Feeds

Market data services provider QuantHouse is working with the International Property Securities Exchange (IPSX) to distribute IPSX pricing feeds through a single API to QuantHouse’s global community of hedge funds, asset managers and banks that require pricing feeds to trade real estate. The real estate pricing feeds enable firms to build internal pricing and algo trading models, allowing quant traders to incorporate IPSX real estate execution into trading strategies. Stephane Leroy, business co-founder and chief revenue officer at QuantHouse, says that IPSX will also benefit from new investors within QuantHouse’s community.

Connamara Systems Rebuilds Exchange Platform

Connamara Systems has rebuilt its exchange matching engine to deliver Exchange Platform 3 (EP3), which can be deployed in a private, public or hybrid cloud environment. EP3 supports small-to-midsize exchanges running a variety of asset classes under different regulatory regimes.

The company has developed the platform over 11 years, working with exchanges and market participants to create a flexible tool. Jim Downs, CEO of Connamara Systems, says the company’s mission is to make sure technology is not a barrier to entry for any company looking to disrupt and innovate markets.