Substantive Research Uncovers Rapid Increases in Market Data Pricing Amidst Regulatory Scrutiny

The latest analysis of 2023 market data pricing from research discovery and analytics provider Substantive Research, reveals that market data prices are going up faster than ever, identical products and use cases are charged inconsistently, and agreements are persistently unclear.

This comes despite the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ongoing review into market data pricing practices. In August 2023, the FCA indicated that its highly anticipated Wholesale Market Data Study, due for publication in March 2024, will outline several concerns, including restrictive terms around data usage, high barriers to entry, high contract renewal charges, and a lack of meaningful innovation in the market.

Although the FCA has found that some aspects of the market prevent, restrict or distort competition, it has stated it not proposing to make a referral to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, believing it is best positioned to address these issues within the FCA itself.

Substantive Research’s data shows ratings agencies have increased prices by an average 12%, index providers by an average 13%, and some outliers have charged clients up to 600% more. For specific products, some consumers are paying more than 26 times than others for very similar requirements, according to the analysis.

Legal Entity Identifier Endorsed by CPMI for Use in Cross-Border Payments

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has welcomed the endorsement of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) by the Bank for International Settlements Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) ‘Harmonized ISO 20022 data requirements for enhancing cross-border payments’. The CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements establish a consistent minimum set of messaging data for more efficient processing of cross-border payments in support of G20 targets.

The CPMI has recognised the LEI as an equivalent identifier to the Business Identifier Code (BIC) for identifying financial institutions and legal entities within a payment message. Specifically, the data structuring requirements suggest the LEI and/or BIC for identifying all financial institutions involved in a cross-border payment. The LEI and/or BIC may also substitute or complement name and postal address information to aid the identification of all legal entities involved in a cross-border payment in a standardised and structured way.

Tradeweb and FTSE Russell Partner to Develop Next-Gen Fixed Income Index Pricing

Tradeweb Markets, a global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets, and FTSE Russell, an LSEG business, have made a strategic partnership to develop next-generation fixed income index pricing and index trading products. The firms aim to provide next-generation pricing across a broader range of fixed income securities, which will be administered by FTSE Russell as benchmarks and will deliver robust, algorithmic, and reliable pricing. The closing prices amalgamate trading activity from Tradeweb’s electronic platform, enabling closer alignment with actual trading levels and intraday pricing.

In the coming months, the firms will also continue to collaborate on fixed income pricing sets to extend coverage across multiple regions and fixed income asset classes. Over time, FTSE Russell will explore incorporating Tradeweb pricing into FTSE Fixed Income indices, starting with FTSE World Government Bond Index (WGBI), a flagship index comprised of sovereign debt from over 20 countries and denominated in a variety of currencies.

Lisa Schirf, global head of data and analytics at Tradeweb, says: “Tradeweb’s collaboration with FTSE Russell will provide clients with verified benchmarks they can use as reliable closing prices for their end-of-day trading strategies and other purposes. The Tradeweb FTSE closing prices will create a foundation across global fixed income markets for consistent end-of-day and intraday prices.”

Ofi Invest Asset Management Selects Clearwater Solution to Power Investment Accounting

Ofi Invest Asset Management, part of France’s Ofi Invest Group, has chosen Clearwater Analytics SaaS platform to power its investment accounting management, reporting, and services. The asset manager offers its institutional clients the service of managing their investment accounting function across their entire portfolios. In this context, Ofi Invest Asset Management has chosen Clearwater Analytics to automate the aggregation, reconciliation, and validation of the firm’s investment data across all asset classes. The Clearwater platform will also give end users a daily view of portfolio data for accurate investment accounting and regulatory reporting.

Alveo Research Points to Cost and Operational Benefits of Cloud Data Management

In a recent survey commissioned by Alveo, 62% of senior decision-makers believe that transferring market data to the cloud can reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO), with 77% in agreement in Asia-Pacific, compared to 46% in the UK/US. Additionally, the adoption of cloud data management is viewed as a catalyst for changes in operational models. Benefits highlighted include faster, controlled data sharing with third parties (41%), more tailored data acquisition and delivery (38%), and enhanced data governance (28%).

The research, conducted in April 2023, took opinions from directors and managers in investment management, banking, insurance, and asset ownership sectors across the UK, US, and Asia-Pacific.

Bloomberg Adds Intraday BVAL Front Office Pricing Solution for Fixed Income Trading

Bloomberg has released Intraday BVAL (IBVAL) Front Office, a distinct but complementary offering to Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service, BVAL, that uses a machine learning model to handle the intricacies of consuming billions of ticks of market data to produce frequent pricing for real-time trading decisions. The front office product delivers prices as fast as every 15 seconds and can capture a new bond issue moments after the security is available for secondary trading.

Tony McManus, global head of enterprise data at Bloomberg, says: “We launched IBVAL Front Office to provide customers with timely pricing data that easily integrates into their trading and pricing execution workflows, so they can operate faster in increasingly automated fixed income markets.” IBVAL Front Office pricing is available on the Bloomberg Terminal and via Bloomberg’s real-time market data feed, BPIPE.

Schroders Uses Xceptor to Consolidate Applications and Automate Operations

Schroders has selected the Xceptor data automation platform for a range of core business use cases including cash flow data handling and customer onboarding. The investment management firm initially used Xceptor to process incoming transfer agency cashflows into its investment book of record, Blackrock Aladdin. The firm’s expanded use of the platform across operations provides operational resilience and efficiencies through data automation and end-to-end process transformation for business users.

Peter Hilborne, chief operating officer, operations at Schroders, comments: “The initial phases we entrusted to Xceptor comprised critical business functions that the platform handled exceptionally well. By consolidating all other applications into Xceptor, we have radically transformed how we process and automate data.”

Arcesium Offers ESG Book Data Through Aquata Platform

American FinTech provider Arcesium is to offer its financial institution clients sustainability data from ESG Book, the Germany-based vendor and asset manager that is supported by a dozen major banks. Analysis, scores and other metrics on 50,000 companies will be provided by ESG Book through Arcesium’s cloud-based platform called Aquata.

Survey Finds Substantial Surge in Greenwashing

Greenwashing is on the rise within financial institutions, with a quarter of all ESG risk incidents linked to the scourge, up from a fifth last year, according to a new report.

Sustainability science provider RepRisk found 148 cases of greenwashing in compiling its second annual report, which also found that 70 per cent of incidents were attributable to banks and most of those with regard to human rights breaches.

ESG Pillar 3 Disclosure Tool Launched by ISS ESG

ISS ESG’s European bank clients can now take advantage of a tool designed to help them comply with a key sustainability regulation. The company’s ESG Pillar 3 ESG Solution provides templates and disclosure facilities to meet the European Banking Authority’s sustainability reporting standards. Clients can access the service through is own DataDesk as well as an API, cloud and data feeds.