GRI Revises Universal Standards and Restructures Governance

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has revised its universal standards to help subscribers better report on their ESG impacts. The revisions, the “most significant” update since 2016, incorporate human rights disclosures and have been carried out to enable firms to better respond to new regulations, particularly SFDR. The Netherlands-based sustainability standards setting organisation has also reshaped its governance structure, creating a two-tired setup comprising a Supervisory Board of directors and a Management Board, consisting of the CEO and Chief Financial Officer. Current CEO Eric Hespenheide will step down in January.

SmartStream Partners with Acadia to Automate Collateral Interest Payments

Financial transaction solutions vendor SmartStream has partnered with risk management services provider Acadia to automate the processing and calculation of interest statements for SmartStream’s customers and their counterparties. Acadia’s Margin Manager platform will work alongside SmartStream’s TLM Collateral Management solution, to dispatch interest statements, reconcile, and resolve issues with counterparties in a standardised messaging format, removing the reliance on email exchanges and the uploading of statement data to resolve disputes. Acadia’s matching engine will pair statements, highlight discrepancies, and produce final interest statements for clients and their relevant counterparties.

KeyBank Goes Live with SmartStream’s Cloud Collateral Management Solution

US-based KeyBank has deployed transaction management solutions vendor SmartStream Technologies’ TLM Collateral Management OnDemand solution to handle margining for its cleared and non-cleared OTC derivatives, repos and securities lending business.

The cloud-based solution is now live and is helping to streamline efficiencies within KeyBank’s collateral management operations, handling data capture, validation, calculation and processing. The use of APIs links the application to other reporting solutions and downstream systems, and a management dashboard provides trend analysis and decision-making capabilities, enabling the bank to further improve and automate operational and credit risk strategies, and reduce internal infrastructure and support costs.

Investment Association Calls on G7 Summit to Escalate Commitment to Climate Change

The Investment Association (IA) is calling on this year’s G7 Summit to do more to tackle climate change by committing to improve companies’ reporting on climate-related risks. It proposes actions including support for the IFRS Sustainability Standards Board to develop sustainability reporting standards and increased cooperation between national regulators to implement the standards. The IA states: “Investment managers have a vital role to play in the shift to a more sustainable global economy. Ensuring high-quality and comparable data on the risks that companies face from climate change is key to achieving this and meeting net zero targets.”

Refinitiv Highlights 2021 ESG Trends

Refinitiv has released its 2021 ESG Playbook: Stability and sustainability in the investment community. The annual publication explores ESG trends for the year based on conversations with 24 industry leaders. Topics featured include the development trajectory for the ESG investing industry and sustainable finance as a whole, regulatory changes, transparency in ESG reporting, quality of data, and emerging technologies.

Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank Chooses Fenergo for CLM Solution

The world’s first digital trade finance bank, Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank (AGTB), based in the UAE, has chosen Fenergo to deploy its CLM platform.

Fenergo will enable AGTB to meet its strategic objective to disrupt the trade finance market with a cloud-based, digital-first and client-centric model leveraging emerging technologies such as data analytics and API connectivity.

AGTB aims to address the gap in the trade finance market by becoming the first digital bank servicing the sector. Fenergo’s API-first CLM solutions will provide AGTB with a single client view across all departments, jurisdictions and products, while expediating Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) processes and time to revenue. 

FCA & FRC Remind Firms Of Extended Financial Information Timelines

The FCA and FRC have issued a statement reminding companies of the measures issued in 2020 that provide more time for the work necessary to ensure that published financial information continues to be of the quality that preparers and users of financial information expect. These include allowing listed companies an additional two months to publish their audited annual financial reports.

“This is because we recognise that we are now in the busiest period of the year for preparing, auditing and publishing financial information. This has coincided with further restrictions imposed through the recent national lockdowns in the UK,” says the statement. “The FCA and FRC would like to encourage all stakeholders including in particular boards of listed companies to (1) re-familiarise themselves with the measures and (2) use them in light of any resourcing constraints in finance and/or audit teams to ensure the quality of reporting is not compromised during this period.”

EBA Announces Timing for 2021 EU-wide Stress Test Exercise

The European Banking Authority (EBA) will launch its 2021 EU-wide stress test exercise with the publication of the macroeconomic scenarios on 29 January at 18:00 CET. The EBA expects to publish the results of the exercise by July  31, 2021.

KBC Bank chooses Finastra for LIBOR transition

KBC Bank, a Belgium-based bank with operations across Europe, US and Asia Pacific, has chosen Finastra to help manage its transition through the upcoming interbank references rates changes. It has selected Fusion Loan IQ Alternate Reference Rates (ARR) module to manage new rates and to expand its lending business. The bank has also opted for the Fusion LIBOR Transition Calculator to help calculate rates ahead of the transition period.

DTCC Releases White Paper on Managing Post-Covid Risk

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a provider of market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, has released a white paper identifying key priorities where financial market infrastructures (FMIs) should focus in the coming years to proactively and effectively manage risk in a post-pandemic environment. FMIs around the globe performed remarkably well amid unprecedented market volatility and record trade volumes in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. However, the pandemic’s impact will likely cause structural changes to the financial services industry, as well as the regulatory landscape and legislative agendas.