Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group Form Strategic Partnership to Bridge Digital and Traditional Markets

Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group have announced a strategic partnership designed to create unified access across traditional financial markets and the digital asset economy. Effective immediately, the collaboration will span trading, custody, settlement, and collateral management to serve institutional clients. In the first phase, Kraken will integrate with 360T, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, to access bank-grade foreign exchange liquidity. This integration aims to improve the efficiency of fiat on- and off-ramps while ensuring institutional-grade execution.

The partnership also intends to utilise Kraken Embed to develop white-label solutions, allowing financial institutions in Europe and the US to offer secure crypto trading and custody. Subject to regulatory approval, the firms plan to make Eurex-listed derivatives available on Kraken and enable Deutsche Börse clients to trade cryptocurrencies via Crypto Finance. Additionally, the companies will collaborate on tokenised assets by integrating xStocks within the 360X ecosystem and distributing tokenised securities held at Clearstream to Kraken’s clients, effectively leveraging Deutsche Börse’s European infrastructure and Kraken’s US capabilities.

Chartis Ranks Kyckr a Category Leader for 2025, Highlighting Strength in Corporate Structure and UBO Data

Kyckr has again been recognised by Chartis as one of the leading providers of Know Your Customer (KYC) data, reinforcing the company’s role in a market increasingly shaped by real-time, authoritative entity information. The latest Chartis RiskTech Quadrant for KYC Data and Solutions places Kyckr in the Category Leader tier for the second year running, reflecting growing industry demand for accurate company-registry intelligence as Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) obligations expand.

Chartis’ analysis examines 12 providers that supply KYC data to financial services firms, with evaluation criteria centred on data coverage, structure and delivery. Kyckr received top scores for “corporate structure” and “entity relationships” – areas that highlight the strength of its core proposition: live registry data aggregated from more than 300 official sources worldwide. Access to verified corporate data at this level of depth and jurisdictional breadth increasingly underpins due-diligence workflows, where firms are seeking to reduce manual effort and improve confidence in Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) verification.

Providing additional context on the ranking, Phil Mackenzie, Senior Research Principal at Chartis, noted: “Kyckr continues to demonstrate strength in an increasingly data-driven compliance ecosystem. Strong domain expertise and integration capabilities, as well as a focus on delivering real-time entity data at scale, all contributed to its category leader placement in the KYC Data RiskTech Quadrant.”

The recognition follows a year of expansion for Kyckr, including the onboarding of 28 new obliged entities, enhancements to data sourcing across key regions, and deeper integrations with RegTech platforms including Strise and Spektr.

Reflecting on the challenges firms face, CEO Steve Lamb said: “Companies needing to carry out customer due diligence are faced with tightening regulations and a fast-shifting registry landscape. This presents significant challenges in accessing reliable, authoritative data. Being named a category leader by Chartis Research is significant validation of Kyckr’s solution and reflects our continued investment in data quality, jurisdiction expansion and advanced entity-resolution technologies to support clients’ rapidly evolving compliance needs.”

SmartStream Introduces AI-Driven Smart Agents for Investigations to Automate Financial Reconciliations

SmartStream has announced the preview of Smart Agents for Investigations, a solution designed to bring augmented and autonomous capabilities to financial reconciliations and back-office operations. Integrating with SmartStream’s current platforms, these agents utilise domain-trained AI to triage, investigate, and resolve exceptions. The system understands the context of breaks, adheres to customer playbooks, and autonomously sources missing information. Crucially, it documents every action for audit and compliance purposes, shifting the user experience from manual investigation to a streamlined review and approval process.

This development addresses the heavy operational burden of manual exception handling, which currently accounts for up to 70% of effort in financial institutions. Complex, time-sensitive exceptions often lead to high costs, SLA breaches, and settlement risks. By automating these processes, Smart Agents aim to reduce reliance on manual intervention, eliminate knowledge silos, and improve scalability during volume spikes. This ensures greater operational resilience and allows analysts to focus on risk management rather than administrative tasks.

LSEG Integrates MCP Connector for ChatGPT users and OpenAI Enterprise Customers

LSEG is collaborating with OpenAI to integrate its financial data and news into ChatGPT via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector. As part of the ‘LSEG Everywhere’ strategy, this integration allows users with LSEG licensed credentials to access and analyse market data directly within the ChatGPT interface. The rollout will commence with LSEG Financial Analytics, enabling faster insights and deeper market analysis, with the connector expected to be live from the week of 8 December 2025.

Additionally, LSEG is deploying ChatGPT Enterprise to an initial 4,000 employees to streamline internal tasks and enhance productivity within a secure environment. LSEG will work alongside OpenAI’s technical success teams to ensure the effective adoption of these AI models. This partnership builds upon LSEG’s recent collaborations with other enterprise-grade platforms, including Microsoft and Databricks, to deliver trusted licensed data for AI applications in the financial services sector.

ION Integrates Tradeweb ETF RFQ Functionality into Fidessa Trading Platform

ION has announced that its Fidessa trading platform now supports Request for Quote (RFQ) functionality for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), featuring an integration with the Tradeweb electronic trading platform. This collaboration allows mutual clients to access Tradeweb’s ETF RFQ workflow directly within their existing Fidessa environment, creating a seamless connection between the two systems for institutional investors.

The integration focuses on enhancing automation and efficiency across the entire trade lifecycle, from execution to settlement. Users can manage ETF RFQs on their Fidessa screens, utilising Tradeweb’s straight-through processing tools to reduce manual intervention and minimise trade errors. In addition to streamlining access to global liquidity, the functionality aims to strengthen compliance and risk management by providing a transparent, auditable trail of quote requests and pricing to ensure best execution obligations are met.

Bright Point International Expands FX and Precious Metals Operations Through Integral Partnership

Bright Point International Financial (BPI), a Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading and Clearing Member, has advanced its partnership with currency technology provider Integral. By implementing Integral’s Price Engine, Distribution, and Liquidity Aggregation products, BPI intends to scale its foreign exchange (FX) and precious metals operations. The new technology provides ultra-low latency access to a wide range of liquidity providers, a capability that is essential for trading non-deliverable forwards and outright forwards – products which are currently seeing increased demand across the Asian market.

The implementation allows BPI to offer features specifically tailored to local requirements, such as the automated conversion of precious metals pricing from troy ounces to grams and kilograms. Furthermore, the system enables the creation of synthetic crossed pairs beyond the US dollar, addressing growing client demand for trades involving Asian currencies like the Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, and Thai baht. This functionality supports BPI’s strategy to diversify its client base and facilitate payment requirements for financial institutions in emerging markets.

TNS Expands APAC Presence with Connectivity to Tokyo Financial Exchange

Transaction Network Services (TNS) has expanded its market data infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region by establishing connectivity to the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX). This integration provides TNS customers with direct access to TFX, delivered seamlessly via the company’s global network backbone. By securing this link, TNS enables both domestic and international firms to utilise a comprehensive, managed access solution for the Japanese market through a single provider.

The addition of TFX marks the completion of TNS’ connectivity across all major Japanese exchanges. This expansion complements the company’s existing portfolio, which includes Japannext and the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), encompassing the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Osaka Exchange, and Tokyo Commodity Exchange. With this connection now in place, TNS delivers a full suite of services in Japan, including hosting, market data, and connectivity.

CJC Launches Market Data Continuity Support Service

Crown Jewels Consultants Ltd (CJC) has introduced Market Data Continuity Support (MDC), a flexible subscription service providing an on-demand safety net for mission-critical market data operations. Designed for financial firms that require operational resilience but do not need a comprehensive managed service, MDC addresses the risks associated with data failures, such as frozen prices and trading stoppages. The service grants clients priority access to CJC’s senior engineers to diagnose and resolve issues either remotely or on-site.

Offered through a fixed monthly subscription, MDC includes 24/7 access to global specialists and a specific allocation of on-site hours. A key feature of the offering is that every support request is treated as a Severity Level 1 incident, ensuring immediate triage and rapid resolution by experts familiar with real-time data environments. This approach allows firms to manage critical infrastructure costs while maintaining access to high-level technical support during operational emergencies.

Marshall Wace Adopts Bloomberg’s MAC3 Risk Model for Systematic Investment Strategies

Bloomberg has announced that Marshall Wace, the global liquid alternatives manager with over $70 billion in assets, has adopted the Bloomberg Multi-Asset Class Fundamental Risk Model (MAC3). The firm will utilise MAC3 to support its quantitative research and systematic investment strategies. Marshall Wace selected the MAC3 suite to gain access to advanced modelling techniques that provide improved specification, accurate risk forecasts, and robust analytics for measuring portfolio risks across multiple asset classes.

Calculated daily across more than 3,000 factors, the MAC3 models are designed to deliver forecast accuracy for varied portfolios and investment styles. They allow users to identify broader market signals and understand risk dynamics under different regimes. Accessible through open-infrastructure APIs, these models also power the risk analytics behind Bloomberg’s PORT Enterprise, a premium service used by more than 800 clients for portfolio risk and return attribution.

Standard Chartered Goes Live on CLSNet as Network Expands in Asia

Standard Chartered has gone live on CLSNet, the automated bilateral payment netting calculation service from financial market infrastructure group CLS covering over 120 currencies. The platform standardises and automates post-trade matching and netting, offering risk mitigation and liquidity optimisation for currency flows outside of CLSSettlement. This functionality is particularly relevant for emerging market currencies and same-day trades.

Adoption of the service continues to rise, with the average daily netted value reaching USD 169 billion in the first half of 2025, an 18% increase year-on-year. The network now includes the top 12 global banks, reflecting a broader industry push to reduce settlement risk and adhere to the best practices outlined in Principle 35 of the FX Global Code.

Alongside Standard Chartered, adoption is increasing among Asian financial institutions targeting settlement risk in regional currencies, specifically USD/CNH. CTBC has recently gone live, while Maybank and Taishin have committed to joining the service.