ACA Expands Cross-Asset Transaction Cost Analysis with FXT Acquisition

ACA Group has acquired foreign exchange analytics specialist FX Transparency (FXT), extending its capabilities in transaction cost analysis (TCA) and best-execution monitoring within the FX market.

The move follows ACA’s 2025 acquisition of Global Trading Analytics (GTA), which marked the firm’s initial expansion into TCA across equities, fixed income, derivatives and foreign exchange. With the addition of FXT, ACA deepens its coverage in FX — one of the largest and most liquid global markets, but also one where execution quality can be difficult for institutional investors to assess.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, FXTT has developed a reputation for independent, data-driven analysis of FX execution. Its analytics draw on a substantial repository of institutional trading data to help asset managers, pension funds, endowments, mutual funds, insurance companies and corporations evaluate trading performance and demonstrate fiduciary oversight.

The acquisition strengthens ACA’s broader push to combine governance, risk and compliance (GRC) expertise with trading analytics. As regulatory expectations around best execution continue to tighten across multiple jurisdictions, firms are under increasing pressure to demonstrate how they source liquidity, evaluate counterparties and measure execution quality across asset classes.

In foreign exchange markets, those demands can be particularly complex. Fragmented liquidity, varied execution methodologies and the decentralized market structure mean institutional investors increasingly rely on specialised analytics to evaluate trading outcomes and benchmark counterparty performance.

“The acquisition of FX Transparency represents a deliberate next step in building a best-in-class, cross-asset TCA platform,” said Patrick Olson, CEO of ACA Group. “Following our successful acquisition of GTA, we identified FXT as a complementary platform that brings recognized FX expertise, a strong institutional client base, and differentiated analytics that enhance our ability to support clients’ transaction cost analysis and best execution needs.”

FX Transparency’s leadership sees the deal as a way to extend its analytics capabilities within a broader governance and compliance framework.

“Joining ACA enables us to continue delivering the high-quality foreign exchange analytics our clients expect, now supported by ACA’s global operating resources and broad GRC expertise. Together, we can provide a comprehensive TCA solution that addresses the evolving needs of global institutional investors,” said John Galanek, Co-Founder and CEO of FX Transparency.

As institutional investors face growing scrutiny around trading transparency and fiduciary accountability, cross-asset analytics platforms that combine market data, execution analysis and compliance oversight are becoming core components in the GRC toolkit.

Teciem Welcomes Didier Bouillard as Chairman of Board of Directors

Teciem has appointed Didier Bouillard as independent chairman of its board, adding a senior capital-markets technology executive whose career spans some of the industry’s most significant trading, risk and regulatory infrastructure platforms. The move signals the firm’s focus on strengthening governance as it continues to scale its treasury and capital-markets software platform under private-equity ownership.

Bouillard brings more than three decades of experience building and leading enterprise financial-technology businesses. Based in London, he will work with Teciem’s board, management team and shareholder representatives to support strategic direction and governance oversight as the company pursues its next phase of growth.

His career includes senior roles at Ubitrade and SunGard, where he helped develop and expand trading, risk and post-trade platforms used widely across the industry. He later served as chief executive of Ullink, leading the firm’s global expansion before becoming CEO of Calypso Technology in 2018. In 2021 he took on leadership of Adenza following the merger of Calypso Technology and AxiomSL, overseeing the integration of trading, treasury, risk and regulatory-compliance capabilities before the company was acquired by Nasdaq.

Throughout these roles, Bouillard has worked at the intersection of market infrastructure, enterprise software and private-equity ownership models—experience that Teciem’s leadership believes will be relevant as the firm continues to expand its front-to-back treasury and capital-markets offering.

Commenting on the appointment, Wissam Khoury, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director at Teciem, said: “Welcoming an independent chairman of Didier’s caliber and experience to our Board of Directors marks an important milestone in Teciem’s evolution as a standalone, private-equity backed provider of treasury and capital markets technology. The appointment reflects our commitment to balanced oversight and governance standards consistent with leading institutional fintech platforms. Didier’s expertise in scaling fintech businesses in partnership with private equity, combined with his independent perspective, will be instrumental as we grow the business and execute our strategic roadmap.”

ClearToken and Canton Network Partner to Launch Regulated Settlement Infrastructure

ClearToken, the FCA-authorised financial market infrastructure (FMI) provider, has partnered with Canton Network to deploy three Daml-based digital asset platforms: CT Register, CT Pay, and CT Settle. This collaboration integrates ClearToken’s regulatory status with Canton’s blockchain architecture to provide settlement for stablecoin FX and tokenised cash flows. The suite enables the tokenisation of fiat and securities, single-sided and Payment versus Payment (PvP) settlement to eliminate currency risk, and Delivery versus Payment (DvP) net settlement across cryptoassets and stablecoins.

The partnership addresses a significant gap in the $315 billion stablecoin market, which currently lacks the robust post-trade infrastructure found in traditional FX markets. By deploying on the Canton Network – an ecosystem including major institutions such as Goldman Sachs and the LSEG – ClearToken positions its services at the intersection of regulated finance and institutional blockchain. All platforms will be operated by entities within the ClearToken group that are either authorised by the FCA or supervised by the Bank of England.

Launched in December 2025, these services form a modular post-trade stack. While CT Pay and CT Settle are currently active, future expansions will include a central counterparty (CCP) clearing service, CT Clear, pending further regulatory authorisation. This integrated approach allows institutional participants to adopt specific modules independently or utilise the full end-to-end platform for programmable, auditable settlement workflows.

FIS Acquires Droit: Computational Law Moves Into the Core of Capital Markets Infrastructure

Financial technology provider Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) has acquired RegTech firm Droit, a specialist in computational law and automated regulatory decisioning used across global capital markets.

The deal brings Droit’s rule-based compliance platform into the FIS capital-markets technology stack, positioning the combined offering to deliver embedded regulatory controls across trading, post-trade processing and reporting workflows.

Andres Choussy, President & COO, FIS said  “Our clients spend enormous time and money managing regulatory complexity and most of that work is still manual.  This is a challenge we’ve aimed to address for a significant time, and with our recent acquisition of Droit, we are now positioned to achieve it.”

Droit is known for its Adept platform, which encodes regulatory obligations as machine-executable logic that can determine whether a trade, product or activity complies with jurisdiction-specific market rules in real time. The technology is used by banks, trading venues and market infrastructure providers to automate complex regulatory determinations across regimes such as derivatives reporting, product eligibility and cross-border market access.

For Droit, the combination represents an opportunity to scale its regulatory decisioning technology within a larger financial-technology platform serving thousands of financial institutions worldwide. FIS provides banking, payments and capital-markets technology to more than 20,000 clients globally.

Brock Arnason, Chief Executive Officer of Droit, said the integration with FIS would extend the reach of Droit’s approach to computational regulation.

“Our mission has always been to translate complex regulation into precise, executable logic,” Arnason said. “Joining FIS allows us to bring that capability to a broader set of market participants and embed regulatory intelligence directly within core financial workflows.”

Retail Flow Becomes Integral to Institutional Execution Strategies, says Horizon Report

New research from Horizon Trading Solutions reveals that retail trading has moved from the periphery to the core of financial markets, significantly altering institutional execution. A survey of traders at tier 2 and 3 banks and institutional brokers found that nearly two-thirds now attribute at least 40% of their total trading activity to retail flow. This suggests that the influence of individual investors is far more deeply integrated into professional market structures than the standard US headline figures of 20% to 35% would indicate.

The surge in retail participation across equities, options, and micro derivatives is forcing a shift in professional conduct. Close to 75% of respondents have adjusted their execution strategies to account for these flows, with nearly a third reporting fundamental changes to their trading methods. Despite previous volatility linked to “meme stock” events, the majority of institutional participants now view the presence of retail flow as a positive market development.

Looking forward, institutional traders expect retail-driven initiatives to continue reshaping market infrastructure. Extended trading hours were identified by 25% of respondents as the development likely to have the greatest impact on their operations, followed by global retail expansion and the growth of fractional trading. While prediction markets remain a minor factor due to regulatory constraints outside the US, the overall trend points toward a market structure increasingly defined by retail demand.

ASX and LSEG Partner to Modernise ASX 24 Trading Platform

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has reached an agreement with LSEG Markets Technology to upgrade the ASX 24 trading platform. This partnership aims to bolster the growth and resilience of the venue, which serves as a primary hub for Australian and New Zealand interest rate, equity, and commodity derivatives. By leveraging LSEG’s global experience with Tier-1 markets, the exchange seeks to maintain its standing as a stable, highly liquid environment for a diverse trading community.

Under the terms of the deal, LSEG will implement a high-performance, low-latency system designed to enhance speed and capacity. The primary focus of the upgrade is to reduce operational risk while providing the agility required to expand product sets and meet the demands of sophisticated derivatives trading. This technical foundation is expected to support long-term improvements in market transparency and liquidity.

Implementation will begin immediately, with both organisations collaborating throughout 2026 on platform design, rigorous testing, and participant migration. This phased approach is intended to ensure a seamless transition for the market ecosystem. Once complete, the new infrastructure will underpin one of the world’s most active interest-rate derivatives markets, ensuring it remains competitive in a global landscape.

3DX and BridgePort Partner to Enhance Institutional Crypto Trading Infrastructure

3DX, the MiCAR-regulated crypto-asset trading platform powered by 360T, has partnered with BridgePort to integrate its off-exchange settlement (OES) middleware. This collaboration is designed to improve capital efficiency and reduce settlement risk for institutional clients. By incorporating this infrastructure, 3DX enables firms to streamline post-trade operations while maintaining their existing relationships with chosen custodians.

The integration allows for seamless credit reallocation and coordinated settlement messaging between trading firms and custody providers. BridgePort’s middleware acts as a secure coordination layer, facilitating pre-order credit allocation and post-trade settlement without requiring 3DX to move beyond its core exchange functions.

As a regulated entity, 3DX remains focused exclusively on operating its trading platform. It does not engage in custody, leverage, or credit intermediation. This partnership reinforces the platform’s commitment to providing robust, institutional-grade infrastructure for the European and global crypto markets by connecting market participants through secure, efficient technical architecture.

FMIs Propose Framework for Digital Asset Securities Interoperability

Clearstream, DTCC, and Euroclear, in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, have released a joint white paper titled ‘Building the Path Towards Digital Asset Securities Interoperability’. The report identifies significant fragmentation across emerging Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) networks as a primary obstacle to the growth of the decentralised finance ecosystem. To address this, the authors propose a structured path forward focused on data standardisation, process harmonisation, and consistent industry roles.

The paper outlines five essential foundations required to achieve interoperability at scale: assets and liabilities, ownership recognition, asset lifecycle and movement protocols, ledgers, and legal compliance. By establishing these pillars, the industry aims to preserve the mobility, liquidity, and fungibility of digital assets. This framework builds upon the 2024 Digital Asset Securities Control Principles, which set baseline standards for security, resilience, and customer asset safeguarding.

Ultimately, the white paper serves as a call for collective action across the financial sector. The authors encourage industry participants to integrate these interoperability standards into their strategic roadmaps to simplify digital use cases and unlock new market models. By fostering a unified approach, the FMIs seek to ensure that the transition to digital asset securities maintains the same level of trust and regulatory oversight found in traditional global financial services.

AiMi Launches AI-Driven Incident Management Solution for Capital Markets

AiMi, the fintech specialising in agentic AI for trading operations, has introduced a new Incident Management solution to help capital markets firms manage trading venue and vendor-related outages. The platform uses autonomous AI agents to ingest and structure fragmented service alerts, maintenance updates, and degradation notices from exchanges and service providers in real time. By transforming unstructured data into actionable intelligence, the tool aims to reduce the manual effort typically required to triage operational disruptions.

The solution is designed to assist firms in meeting strict regulatory requirements, such as DORA, SEC Regulation SCI, and ESMA RTS 7, which mandate the rapid detection and reporting of ICT incidents. AiMi’s agents map incoming alerts against a firm’s specific infrastructure and business logic to determine the precise operational impact. This ensures that technical teams can distinguish between background noise and critical failures that require immediate escalation.

Every incident is tracked through an automated, auditable lifecycle, with data displayed on severity dashboards and integrated into internal platforms like Jira and Slack. This launch expands AiMi’s existing suite of market data tools, providing an end-to-end platform for managing both scheduled exchange-driven changes and unforeseen live incidents. The system maintains human-in-the-loop oversight to ensure accuracy while accelerating response times across the trading environment.

DTCC to Launch Next-Generation Equities Data Portals Powered by Snowflake

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced the upcoming launch of new equities data portals designed to streamline access to clearing, settlement, and post-trade processing information. Built on Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud platform, these portals will provide a unified interface for data from the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC), and DTCC’s Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) suite.

The new infrastructure offers advanced analytics, interactive dashboards, and customisable visualisations to help firms monitor operational efficiency and industry benchmarks. Key features include the ability to drill down from high-level metrics into specific trade-level details, consolidated historical data across services, and flexible tools for bespoke queries. These enhancements aim to provide greater transparency into settlement rates and outstanding exceptions.

Currently undergoing beta testing with early-adopter firms, the Securities Data Experiences portal is scheduled for release in Q1 2026. This will be followed by the rollout of the redesigned ITP Analytics portal in Q2 2026. The initiative reflects DTCC’s strategy to modernise market infrastructure by delivering more intuitive, data-driven insights to its global client base.