Axioma Adds Upgraded UK Equity Risk Model

Axioma has added a new UK equity risk model (AXUK4) to its next-generation Equity Factor Risk Model suite. The release builds on existing risk models, offering enhanced country-specific content to meet the risk-management needs of investors. AXUK4 delivers risk insights on over 6,000 UK Kingdom-listed securities, including REITs and ETFs. The updated model incorporates deep daily history, with coverage starting in 1997 to enable portfolio construction and back testing, transparent attribution, and hedging.

Dubai Banks Launch New KYC Data-Sharing Platform

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Mashreq Bank and fintech firm Norbloc have teamed up to launch the Middle East region’s first blockchain-based KYC data-sharing consortium. The joint venture, expected to go live in Q1 2020, is designed to facilitate faster, more secure onboarding and exchange of supporting documentation via advanced distributed technologies, including blockchain. Companies will be able to digitally create a single KYC record, which will be authenticated with an electronic ID, to simultaneously share data with multiple financial institutions. The platform will be open to all qualified financial institutions and licencing authorities.

Natixis Selects Redland Solutions for Accountability Solution

Natixis Investment Managers UK has chosen Redland’s SM&CR Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. The solution will assist Natixis to comply with all elements of the Accountability Regime, including SM&CR, Management Responsibility Maps, Statements of Responsibility, Fitness & Propriety, Certification, Conduct Attestation and Conduct Rule Breaches. Birmingham, UK-based Redland Solutions was acquired by Ideagen in June 2019.

Swift to Connect KYC Registry with Regional Utilities

Swift, a global provider of secure financial messaging services, is reportedly in talks with regional KYC utilities regarding the potential connection of their solutions with its KYC Registry, an online portal set up in 2014 to manager and share KYC due diligence and information.

Although the registry has until now been used only by financial institutions with correspondent banking services, the firm is planning to open the service up to corporate clients by the end of 2019.

Volkswagen Bank Chooses BearingPoint for Regulatory Reporting

Germany’s Volkswagen Bank has confirmed a switch from an in-house regulatory reporting solution to the standard Abacus360 Banking Regulatory software package from BearingPoint. BearingPoint will provide the software and also take over the tasks and processes of the technical operation, in addition to providing infrastructure and support services within the scope of managed services. Volkswagen will also outsource the supply chain from its own data warehouse to BearingPoint.

ESMA Makes New Bond Liquidity Data Available

From the 1st August the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has made available new data for bonds subject to the pre- and post-trade requirements of MiFID II and MiFIR through its data register.

MiFID II, which came into force in January 2018, introduced pre- and post-trade transparency requirements for equity and non-equity instruments, including for bonds. Post-trade, MiFID II requires real-time publication of the price and quantity of trades in liquid bonds. It is possible to defer the publication of post-trade reports if the instrument does not have a liquid market, or if the transaction size is above large-in-scale thresholds (LIS), or above a size specific to the instrument (SSTI). In order to assist market participants to know whether a bond should be considered as liquid or not, ESMA now publishes these quarterly liquidity assessments for bonds.

For the current period, there are 594 liquid bonds subject to MiFID II transparency requirements.

SmartStream Partners Finanz Informatik Solutions Plus to Meet Client Needs in Germany

SmartStream Technologies has partnered German IT service provider Finanz Informatik Solutions Plus to help German clients with implementation projects and application management of SmartStream’s Corona reconciliation solutions, as well as its next generation Aurora transaction lifecycle management offerings. Under the agreement, Finanz Informatik and SmartStream will help large customers in the region digitalise their back office. The partnership will support reconciliation processes for financial institutions with trade activities, fees and invoice control, and cash and intra-day liquidity management needs in the German market.

ICE Agrees to Acquire Merrill Lynch Option Volatility Estimate Indices

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has agreed to acquire fixed income volatility indices, including the Merrill Lynch Option Volatility Estimate (MOVE) family of indices, from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The MOVE Index is a well-recognised measure of US interest rate volatility and can provide a signal for changing risk sentiment in fixed income markets. ICE will also acquire variations of MOVE that track different option expiries, as well as other indices that measure volatility in the US interest rate swap market. The indices will become part of ICE Data Indices, which leverages ICE Data Services’ pricing, reference data and analytics solutions.

Charles River Expands Collaboration with MarketAxess

Charles River Development, a State Street Company, has expanded its collaboration with MarketAxess, a provider of e-trading for global fixed income. Under the expansion, Charles River clients will be offered access to MarketAxess’s Auto-X trading functionality for investment-grade credit, high-yield, emerging market debt and Eurobonds. This will allow traders and portfolio managers to source liquidity directly from the Charles River OEMS for fixed income securities in more than 25 currencies across Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. It will also support auto-execute orders, deliver trade allocations to dealer counterparties and receive allocation acknowledgements in an STP workflow.

CLS Adds China CITIC Bank International to Settlement Service

CLS, a market infrastructure group delivering settlement, processing and data solutions, has named China CITIC Bank International (CNCBI) as the first Chinese bank to access CLSSettlement as a third-party client. Bai Lijun, executive director, alternate CEO and treasurer, CNCBI, comments: “By becoming a participant in CLSSettlement, CNCBI aims to mitigate settlement risk, reduce operational costs related to FX trading, and create opportunities for business expansion by enabling CNCBI to do more business with a larger number of counterparties.” CLS says expanding third-party participation in CLSSettlement is part of its growth strategy in Asia Pacific.