LIST Upgrades FastTrade Solution to Enhance Access to Cboe Europe’s Equity Trading Mechanisms

LIST, an ION company, has enhanced its FastTrade trading solution to provide access to additional equity trading mechanisms from Cboe Europe. The upgrade allows LIST’s customers to connect to Cboe’s Dark and Periodic Auction Books, which are the largest in their categories, alongside existing access to the Lit Order Books. The enhanced sweep functionality enables customers to engage with multiple Cboe order books through a single order, offering potential advantages in size and price improvements.

Cboe Europe, the leading pan-European stock exchange by market share and value-traded, offers a wide range of trading services, including a retail-focused tariff across its Lit, Dark, and Periodic Auction Books. This tariff allows for free execution of retail orders. Additionally, Cboe plans to introduce a retail liquidity provider solution in early 2025, pending regulatory approval.Alex Dalley, Head of Cboe Netherlands, Cboe Europe, comments: “We are excited that ION’s LIST solution has expanded access to our full range of equity trading execution mechanisms. It will help strengthen Cboe’s presence in the Italian market, particularly among its retail community, and enable LIST’s customers to benefit from better execution outcomes.”

“The enhancement of our trading platform again demonstrates our commitment to innovation,” adds Alvise Insalaco, CEO of LIST. “We are dedicated to delivering cutting-edge solutions that ensure the best execution for client orders across both lit and dark venues.”

T. Rowe Price Goes Live with Propellant Digital’s Transparency Data via FlexTrade’s FlexFI EMS

FlexTrade Systems, the global provider of execution and order management systems, has announced that T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. is now live with Propellant Digital’s fixed-income transparency data offering, integrated through FlexTrade’s FlexFI execution management system. Propellant Digital’s platform delivers real-time insights and analytics on bond market activity, helping financial institutions navigate the electronification of bond trading.

With this integration, T. Rowe Price’s fixed-income trading teams can access comprehensive data, including real-time market activity, historical trade prices, and aggregated trade volumes, all within the FlexFI Order Blotter. This enhanced transparency is poised to benefit from upcoming EU and UK transparency regulations in 2025, enabling traders to streamline workflows, optimise strategies, and make informed decisions directly within their trading platform.

Matt Murphy, Fixed Income Electronic Trading and Market Structure Specialist at T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., comments: “One of the drivers for using FlexTrade’s FlexFI as our fixed-income EMS is ensuring that our bond trading teams can bring in new sources of pre-trade data into the order blotter to provide the aggregated view they need to navigate a constantly changing market landscape. Our deployment of Propellant’s new analytics offering illustrates this, and we look forward to working with them as their offering further evolves.”

Digital Asset Completes Tokenization Initiative for Gilts, Eurobonds, and Gold with Industry Leaders

Digital Asset, the blockchain solutions provider, has successfully completed a collaborative initiative to tokenise gilts, Eurobonds, and gold. This project, conducted in partnership with Euroclear, The World Gold Council, Clifford Chance, and various financial institutions, aimed to demonstrate how blockchain technology can enhance collateral mobility, liquidity, and transactional efficiency.

The pilot, conducted over June and July 2023, involved 27 participants and 14 Canton nodes, completing 500 transactions across 11 distributed applications. The initiative showcased the potential of tokenising real-world assets (RWAs) to facilitate atomic, real-time transactions using previously immobile assets as collateral. With global gold trading averaging $162 billion daily and significant outstanding issuances of Gilts and Eurobonds, the initiative highlights blockchain’s potential to transform asset trading and liquidity management in financial markets.

Olivier Grimonpont, Head of Product Management, Market Liquidity, Euroclear, comments: “We recognise the immense value in industry experimentation to showcase the advantages of DLT for the market. As we strive to deliver even better and faster collateral mobilisation for our clients, digital technologies like DLT will be key enablers for us to achieve this.”

Kelly Mathieson, Chief Business Development Officer at Digital Asset, adds: “Our work with the pilot participants has demonstrated that tokenised assets can be used with immediate effect to meet intraday margin calls outside of normal settlement cycles, processing times, and time zones. It also demonstrated how the ledger can serve as the legal record and has validated the secured party’s control over the digital twin and real-world assets received as margin or collateral in the event of a counterparty default.”

Bridgewise Launches BRIDGET Conversational AI Tool for Investment Insights

Capital markets intelligence and analysis company Bridgewise has unveiled BRIDGET, a Conversational AI investment tool tailored for institutional investors, brokers, and trading platforms. BRIDGET leverages large language models (LLMs) to transform static investment intelligence reports into dynamic, multilingual dialogues, offering regulatory-compliant investment recommendations across more than 25 languages and 15 markets, covering over 50,000 financial instruments globally.

Unlike general AI models, BRIDGET is designed to provide actionable buy/sell advice, specifically addressing gaps in finance-focused expertise and eliminating AI “hallucinations” that lead to inaccurate suggestions. Its specialized Micro Language Model (MLM) ensures precision in investment-related topics. As generative AI is projected to add between $200-$340 billion in value annually to the banking sector, BRIDGET aims to support the financial industry’s demand for innovative, compliant, and client-responsive solutions.

Gaby Diamant, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridgewise, comments: “By integrating advanced AI with regulatory compliance, we are not only enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of investment decisions but also ensuring that these decisions are made within a secure and compliant framework.” He adds: “This tool is a game-changer for financial institutions looking to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving sector, and to empower their analysts and investors to interact with data in a more intuitive and insightful manner, thereby enhancing decision-making processes.”

RETN and IPC Systems Launch High-Capacity 10G Connectivity Between Frankfurt and Hong Kong

RETN, the independent global network services provider, has partnered with IPC Systems to introduce a new 10G connectivity link between Frankfurt and Hong Kong, enhancing network diversity and performance for the financial markets. Implemented within a two-week period, the low-latency terrestrial route utilises RETN’s TRANSKZ super-highway, providing a robust and diverse connection between Europe and Asia.

The strategic link is designed to support high-frequency trading and time-sensitive financial operations by improving access to liquidity venues and reducing latency. This ensures that financial market participants, particularly those based in the key financial hubs of Hong Kong and Frankfurt, can trade more efficiently, reliably, and quickly. The new link offers a strong SLA and protection to support critical business applications in the competitive global financial landscape.

“IPC Systems has an overarching requirement for – and commitment – to building, maintaining and continuously enhancing the resilient, redundant, high performance industry networks that underpin and safeguard our customers’ business-critical applications and trading activities,” comments Paul Zatek, Head of Global Channel Sales of IPC Systems. “Our collaboration with RETN on this new Frankfurt-Hong Kong link reinforces this commitment, and gives our extensive global financial markets community another valuable route between key markets with the reliability and latency performance they expect from IPC’s service delivery and customer experience,” continued Zatek.

“In today’s tumultuous environment, with frequent disruptions such as sub-sea cable cuts and other network challenges, the importance of network diversity and availability of the service cannot be overstated,” adds Tony O’Sullivan, CEO of RETN. “IPC Systems exemplifies forward-thinking innovation by prioritising network diversity and redundancy. Ensuring multiple, diverse routes is critical to maintaining uninterrupted connectivity and operational integrity.”

Meritsoft Launches New Asset Servicing Claims Management Solution to Transform Operations

Meritsoft, a Cognizant company, has launched a new asset servicing claims management solution, aiming to modernise the handling of coupon and dividend claims operations. Built on the company’s next-generation post-trade automation platform, the solution automates claims issuance, matching, and payment processes, reducing aged debtors and risk-weighted assets. The platform addresses the operational challenges faced by asset servicing teams, particularly during post-dividend seasons when backlogs are common.

The API-first tool integrates seamlessly into existing workflows and includes real-time dashboards for managing claims by attributes like entity, market, and age. It also features an inter-company matching tool to optimise costs from internal trading claims. By automating the processing of claims received via PDF or CSV attachments and integrating with tools like Taskize, Meritsoft’s solution enhances efficiency and enables faster, auditable resolution of complex queries. It offers on-premises or cloud deployment for scalability.

“Claims management, often overlooked in the industry’s priority list, stands to benefit immensely from more automation and emerging technologies,’ comments Daniel Carpenter, CEO of Meritsoft. “Our solution empowers asset servicing teams globally to move away from the manually intensive processes involved with claims matching and reconciliation and focus instead on the more complex and value-add tasks. For the broader firm, this will equate to lower costs, healthier margins, and an enhanced client reputation.”

UK Accelerated Settlement Task Force Releases Draft Recommendations for Transition to T+1 Settlement

The T+1 Technical Group (TGT) of the UK Accelerated Settlement Task Force (AST) has published its proposed recommendations for the UK’s transition from a T+2 to a T+1 securities settlement cycle. The draft recommendations, focusing on enhancing efficiency and reducing risk in equity market settlements, are open for consultation until 31 October 2024.

The global shift toward a T+1 settlement cycle aims to bring quicker and more efficient settlements through enhanced automation, expected to become standard practice within five years. Following the UK government’s commitment to move to T+1 by 31 December 2027, this interim report outlines key recommendations for market participants and invites feedback. The final report, expected in December, will incorporate stakeholder feedback and outline detailed timelines and guidance for the transition.

“This interim report is a key milestone in the UK’s journey to T+1 settlement and I’d like to extend my gratitude to all those involved in crafting this report and providing the depth of industry expertise needed to shape these draft recommendations,” says Andrew Douglas, Chair of the T+1 Technical Group. “As an independent, inclusive working group, supported by the public authorities, I’m calling on all market participants to engage in this consultation so that together we can ensure the final recommendations for implementation reflect the full spectrum of industry needs.”

AI Added to SmartStream’s Air Data Management Platform

SmartStream has added artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to the latest version of its Air data management platform.

The Dubai-based maker of transaction technology for financial institutions has incorporated the technology into the ninth version of its SaaS-based product with the creation of two modules, Air Data and Air Cash.

Air Data is an automation module that streamlines tasks including cross-checking between different systems, pre-settlement error detection and trade record comparisons. Air Cash handles cash reconciliation.

CommCentral Unveiled by Broadridge to Monitor, Utilise Communications Data

Broadridge Financial Solutions has rolled out CommCentral, a cloud-based application that enables bank and broker-dealer clients to query and surface insights from investor communications.

Users of CommCentral can also create customised alerts and communications monitors to unearth cues and prompts that can generate and streamline workflows.

CommCentral “offers firms immediate access to essential communications data through intuitive dashboards, helping streamline tasks and facilitating informed decisions”, said Swatika Rajaram, head of US proxy and post sale at Broadridge. “Firms will achieve enhanced efficiency and insights into investor communications and ongoing trends leveraging our expertise and transformative technology.”

ESG Software Firm Datamaran Doubles Funding in $33m Financing Round

ESG software maker Datamaran has received a US$33 million financial injection via a Series C funding round. The facility will help accelerate the London-based company’s expansion in the US and build out generative artificial intelligence capabilities.

The latest funding round was led by Morgan Stanley Expansion capital and doubles Datamaran’s total external financial commitments.

Datamaran has almost 200 clients, including JPMorgan, for whom it monitors more than 400 external ESG risk factors.