ICE Bonds and MarketAxess to Connect Liquidity Networks for Enhanced Fixed Income Trading

ICE Bonds, a division of Intercontinental Exchange, and fixed-income electronic trading platform operator MarketAxess Holdings Inc., are collaborating to integrate their liquidity networks. The partnership aims to boost efficiency and access to deeper liquidity in the fixed income markets, for the benefit of both the institutional and wealth management sectors.

The integration, establishing connectivity between ICE Bonds’ automated trading system, ICE TMC, and MarketAxess’ Open Trading network, is designed to expand the reach and depth of liquidity pools for each company’s global user bases, promoting enhanced price transparency and best execution. By combining ICE Bonds’ strength in retail brokerage and wealth management with MarketAxess’ dominance in institutional trading, the collaboration seeks to improve overall market liquidity and trading outcomes for all participants.

Taleo to Use CrateDB Data and Tech for Financial Clients

CrateDB’s database services will be used by Luxembourg-headquartered consultancy firm Taleo to help its financial clients with their data management and analytics processes.

Taleo will harness California-based CrateDB’s data to surface real-time insights in the banking, insurance and data management sectors. It will also aid clients in enhancing risk management and compliance capabilities, improve customer experience and loyalty, streamline underwriting processes and optimise portfolio performance, CrateDB said.

Adesso Unveils Compl.AI to Address DORA Contractual Provisions

Global IT services provider, Adesso, has unveiled Compl.AI, a generative AI (GenAI) tool to verify that third-party contracts for critical services are in alignment with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).  

The third-party risk management provisions of DORA require the rigorous oversight of third-party ICT providers, including cloud services providers, to ensure that they don’t become a source of vulnerability. These provisions are crucial for ensuring that financial entities remain compliant with DORA and can effectively manage ICT risks associated with third-party services. 

Compl.AI is delivered ‘as a service’ (SaaS) and leverages GenAI technology and Adesso’s DORA expertise to deliver an automated verification of third-party contracts, at scale, to swiftly identify compliance confidence levels and identify cases that require remediation.   

Libero Raspa, director at Adesso UK, emphasized the challenges financial firms face under DORA and highlighted Compl.AI’s ability to save time, reduce costs, and streamline compliance processes, positioning firms ahead of the January 2025 deadline. 

Adesso, supports over 80 banks in Germany with tailored services that merge technology, expertise, and customer-centric methodologies. Their focus on digital transformation, AI-driven automation, and customer experience aims to enhance competitiveness in the evolving financial landscape.

Writer Builds New LLM for Financial Sector

A new specialised large language model (LLM) has been created by American technology firm Writer for financial services firms based on its Palmyra products.

The Palmyra-Fin-70b model enables firms’ generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) platforms to assist in financial forecasting, investment analysis, risk evaluation, fraud detection, and asset allocation strategies, the company said.

The new LLM is available through NVIDIA, Baseten, Hugging Face and Writer’s own platform. The Palmyra suite of LLMs is already being used by firms including Vanguard, Franklin Templeton and Intuit, San Francisco-based Writer said.

Charities Fund Manager CCLA Deploys Finbourne’s EDM+

Investment data management solutions provider Finbourne Technology will take on a range of data management capabilities for the UK’s largest asset manager for charities, CCLA.

The British technology company, whose clients oversee more than US$4 trillion of assets, will provide CCLA with services via its EDM+ platform, which it says will help the client manage every asset class and access data sets from multiple providers. The service will also help CCLA enhance its reporting and investment performance evaluation workflows.

Taskize Launches Mailbox Analyser to Track and Quantify Email Impact in Post-Trade Operations

Taskize has introduced Mailbox Analyser, a new tool designed to track and quantify the impact of email communication in post-trade operations. Given the substantial volume of emails handled by custodian banks—often exceeding a million annually—the new tool addresses the challenges posed by high email traffic, such as errors and auditing difficulties.

Mailbox Analyser helps firms understand their email usage by identifying the types of client enquiries and clients that generate the most emails, and by offering insights into resolution times and efficiency. Integrated with the Taskize platform, it monitors email traffic and automatically generates detailed analytics on activity levels, resolution times, staff performance, and query trends. This data can help banks to allocate resources more effectively, improve client satisfaction, and enhance the efficiency and compliance of their communication processes.

Latest Stage of UK SDR Comes into Force

The next stage of the UK’s sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) came into effect today, enabling companies to use the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) new labelling regime for investment products.

The four labels are designed to more accurately reflect the level of sustainability of each product. They have been designed, along with anti-greenwashing rules and guidance introduced in May, to strengthen the country’s sustainability markets.

Arcesium Opens Office in Lisbon

Data management provider Arcesium has opened an office in Lisbon, Portugal, its first in continental Europe.

The New York-headquartered company whose data and investment lifecycle services are used by financial institutions that have a combined US$4.3 trillion under management, said the move was part of its global expansion. It has also offices in the US, UK and India.

ISS STOXX Offers Banks, Insurers New ESG Compliance Data Tool

ISS ESG, the sustainability arm of ISS STOXX, has unveiled its Industry Average Emissions Intensity dataset for use by banks and insurance companies.
The latest addition to the Switzerland-headquartered data and technology provider’s Climate Solutions suite of tools is designed to help companies comply with regulations including the European Banking Authority (EBA) Pillar 3 ESG Disclosures. The tool gives clients the data needed to estimate the emissions of smaller companies and other investments on which sustainability data is scarce.

SymphonyAI Extends Financial Crime Data Solution

Artificial intelligence-powered software-as-a-service provide SymphonyAI has expanded its financial services offerings with a product to help organisations overcome entity data shortcomings that could enable financial crime.

The Palo Alto, California-based company said its Entity Resolution service enables clients to solve issues such as records duplication, poor data quality and data fragmentation. The company, which focuses its financial services business on fraud prevention, said the service would also aid in identifying concealed relationships, all of which could be used by criminal networks.