Clearstream and LCH SA Expand Settlement Services for Italian Government Debt

Clearstream and LCH SA have extended their existing partnership to include settlement services for Italian government debt. This development allows LCH SA clearing members to settle all Italian sovereign debt instruments, including cash and repo transactions, through Clearstream’s international and domestic central securities depositories (CSD). The service is scheduled to go live during 2026.

By adding Italy to a framework that already covers French, Belgian, German, Austrian, and Spanish securities, the collaboration aims to reduce market fragmentation. Clearing members can now consolidate their settlement activity within Clearstream’s Trade Flow Hub, which connects major trading venues and central counterparties. This unified gateway is designed to improve liquidity management and operational efficiency for participants across the European sovereign debt market.

The initiative supports the broader goal of integrating European capital market infrastructure through open access. By providing an additional settlement venue, the two organisations intend to streamline post-trade processes and enhance access to one of Europe’s largest sovereign debt markets. This expansion reinforces the commitment of both Clearstream and LCH SA to fostering a more connected and efficient financial ecosystem for their global clients.

Avelacom Expands Low-Latency Connectivity to Argentine Capital Markets

Avelacom, the global provider of low-latency network solutions, has expanded into Argentina to provide financial institutions with direct access to the country’s equities and derivatives markets. The company is launching a new Point of Presence (PoP) at the Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA) data centre in Buenos Aires.

The expansion includes new low-latency routes across the east and west coasts of Latin America via Brazil and Chile. These routes are designed to provide resilient connectivity between Argentina, the US, and other global markets. This move follows Avelacom’s entry into the region in 2021 and responds to increased trading activity on the BYMA exchange, which saw a 45% year-on-year increase in trades and a 58% rise in orders during 2025.

By establishing this presence, Avelacom aims to support arbitrage and market-making strategies across Argentina, Brazil, and the US. The company plans to further interconnect markets in Chile, Colombia, and Peru over the coming year. This development addresses a growing demand for sophisticated trading infrastructure in Argentina, where the market remains underpenetrated compared to the broader Latin American average.

Rimes Adds Analytics, Order Book Functionality with Partnerships

Rimes has forged partnerships with PANTA, BMLL and Ortec Finance, integrating specialised analytics and historical order book data into the enterprise data management provider’s platform.

The collaboration aims to provide clients with index blending capabilities, market-microstructure analysis and performance attribution.

Vijay Mayadas said the company is providing deeper analytics and interoperable data to help clients understand drivers of risk and return.

The partnerships establish two-way data connectivity and access to tick-level datasets to support consolidated portfolio views. Enterprise data management solutions are used by institutional investors to process information and support investment decisions.

Symphony Accelerates AI Integration and Announces Leadership Changes

Symphony is advancing its secure AI and workflow capabilities following a year of significant growth. The company, serving over 1,400 clients, has introduced the AI Agent Studio, a framework designed to let institutions create and deploy AI agents for internal and external workflows. This new tool leverages Symphony’s verified directory and compliance infrastructure, allowing firms to automate complex tasks while maintaining strict data control.

Alongside these product developments, Symphony announced a leadership transition. Ben Chrnelich, formerly co-CEO, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and President. Brad Levy will move to an external advisory role for the board. The company also highlighted the integration of its AI studio with the Confidential Cloud platform, launched in 2025, which offers cloud scalability with on-premise security levels. Additionally, Symphony is launching WhatsApp Voice with secure recording and archiving, enhancing Microsoft Teams connectivity, and expanding its trader voice analytics to extract insights from high-quality call data.

Synechron Launches Agentic AI Portfolio for Regulated Financial Sectors

Synechron has launched Synechron Agentic, a portfolio of production-ready AI agents tailored for complex and regulated workflows. The initiative aims to help enterprises accelerate their operations while mitigating risk, ensuring that automated processes deliver accurate and consistent results with complete transparency.

The initial release focuses specifically on banking, financial services, wealth management, payments, and insurance. Designed for immediate deployment within real business processes, the agents are fully governed to meet industry standards. They also integrate with established enterprise platforms, including ServiceNow, Salesforce, Appian, and Datadog, enabling organisations to incorporate AI into current systems without operational disruption.

Capital.com Selects Duco to Automate Client and Payment Reconciliations

Capital.com, the global fintech group and online trading platform, has selected Duco to transform its critical client and payment reconciliation processes. By deploying Duco’s AI-powered operational data automation platform, Capital.com intends to manage the increasing volume and complexity of its data inputs more effectively. This strategic move is designed to provide a flexible and modern infrastructure capable of handling the demands of a growing financial institution.

The implementation of Duco’s technology aims to provide a scalable, future-proof solution that strengthens the company’s control environment. Key objectives include increasing operational efficiency and significantly reducing operational risk. Furthermore, this robust foundation is expected to support Capital.com’s sustainable expansion into new markets across multiple jurisdictions, ensuring the firm is well-equipped to handle complex data requirements inherent in global trading.

Cosegic Acquires FINTRAIL

Cosegic has acquired FINTRAIL, a specialist financial crime consultancy, adding depth to its financial crime and regulatory risk capabilities.

FINTRAIL advises firms on financial crime risk management, regulatory compliance, and controls design across banking, payments, fintech, and digital assets. Its entire team will join Cosegic, expanding the scale of specialist expertise available to clients across multiple jurisdictions.

Ben Cook, Group CEO of Cosegic, said the acquisition strengthens an already established financial crime capability and reflects continued investment in specialist expertise as regulatory expectations increase. “FINTRAIL has an exceptional specialist team and bringing them into Cosegic strengthens an already strong financial crime capability. This move makes sense for our clients, gives us an additional edge, and reinforces our commitment to investing in specialist expertise as regulatory expectations continue to rise. This acquisition of FINTRAIL is an exciting step for Cosegic.”

Robert Evans, CEO and co-founder of FINTRAIL, said joining Cosegic allows the firm to extend its original mission at greater scale. “We are joining Cosegic at an exciting time for both businesses. FINTRAIL was founded to provide practical, high-quality financial crime support to firms facing real regulatory challenges, and becoming part of Cosegic allows us to build on that mission at a greater scale. We are delighted to join an established compliance company that shares our focus on integrity and delivering outcomes that matter to clients.”

Nancy King, Senior Managing Director and Head of Corporate Development at Cosegic, said the acquisition aligns with the group’s focus on building targeted specialist capability in areas of growing regulatory scrutiny. “This acquisition aligns closely with our strategy of building targeted, specialist capability in areas of increasing regulatory focus.”

Henry Alty, Investment Director at MML Capital Partners, noted that the transaction marks Cosegic’s second acquisition in two months, as part of a broader buy-and-build strategy focused on specialist compliance capabilities across key international markets.

FCA Extends UK Equity Consolidated Tape Consultation

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has extended the deadline for its consultation on the proposed framework for the UK Equity Consolidated Tape. The consultation period for CP25/31 will now close on 13 February 2026, providing market participants with additional time to respond.

CP25/31 sets out the regulatory architecture for a UK equity consolidated tape, including data-contribution obligations for trading venues and Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs), alongside the governance, operational and commercial expectations for a future Consolidated Tape Provider (CTP).

At the heart of the FCA’s plan is a centralised, standardised view of UK equity market activity. The tape would aggregate post-trade data and selected pre-trade information – most notably an attributed best bid and offer – across lit venues and OTC trading. The objective is to address long-standing fragmentation in UK equity data, where firms currently rely on multiple proprietary feeds with inconsistent formats, latency profiles and licensing terms.

The consultation extension is also notable for what it signals about the next phase of the project. Potential CTP candidates may use the additional time to refine expressions of interest, stress-test technical architectures and clarify commercial models. Market participants, meanwhile, are being asked to provide concrete evidence on implementation costs, governance safeguards and how the tape could be consumed operationally rather than remaining a purely analytical tool.

While the FCA has indicated that a policy statement will follow once responses are assessed, the timetable points toward a target go-live in 2027. That places the UK on a trajectory that broadly parallels, but does not replicate, the EU’s own consolidated tape ambitions.

For now, the extended deadline creates a wider window for engagement. Whether the consolidated tape ultimately delivers simpler access and lower costs will hinge less on the concept itself and more on the details now being debated: data scope, pricing discipline and the operational realities of integrating a single market view into day-to-day trading and compliance workflows.

AQX Technologies Launches SWIFT Connector for Post-Trade Automation

AQX Technologies has announced the launch of its new SWIFT Connector, designed to streamline post-trade messaging for buy-side and sell-side firms. This addition to the AQX platform provides native support for SWIFT messaging, enabling clients to send and receive trade confirmations and data securely. The integration facilitates straight-through processing (STP) from trade capture to settlement, replacing legacy manual workflows such as emails and CSV-based processes.

By orchestrating confirmations, status updates, and exceptions within a single system, the connector helps firms reduce operational risk and improve confirmation times. It also strengthens audit trails to meet evolving regulatory requirements. This release builds on AQX’s recent growth and supports the wider industry trend of modernising middle- and back-office operations for greater speed and accuracy.

TNS Expands APAC Footprint with Connectivity to Japan Alternative Market

Transaction Network Services (TNS) has expanded its infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by establishing connectivity to the Japan Alternative Market (JAX). This integration provides customers with direct, managed access to market data feeds from JAX, which began operations in December 2024 as a new trading venue for Japanese equities. Global firms can now incorporate this data into their trading and analytics workflows through TNS’s extensive global network.

This new connection addresses the complexity of accessing Asian exchanges, which often require bespoke broker arrangements. TNS simplifies this by enabling clients to view JAX market data alongside other major exchanges via a low-latency managed network and an extranet of over 5,000 endpoints. The addition of JAX reinforces TNS’s presence in the region, joining an existing Japanese exchange portfolio that includes Japannext, the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX), and the Japan Exchange Group (JPX).