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.

BGC Group and Leading Banks Launch FMX Futures Exchange, Offering SOFR Futures Trading

BGC Group, Inc. has launched the FMX Futures Exchange in collaboration with ten leading investment banks and market-making firms. The new exchange, which is now live, offers trading of SOFR futures, the largest notional futures contract globally. Plans are in place to introduce U.S. treasury futures by Q1 2025.

The FMX Futures Exchange aims to deliver significant capital savings to its clients through its clearing partnership with LCH Limited, enabling cross-margining of eligible U.S. interest rate futures. LCH is one of the largest clearers of interest rate swaps (IRS) in the world with $225 billion secured in IRS collateral.

The FMX Futures Exchange is part of FMX Holdings, LLC, which also operates a fast-growing U.S. treasuries marketplace and a spot Foreign Exchange platform. Leading financial institutions, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan, are equity partners in FMX Holdings.

Digital Asset and DTCC Successfully Complete UST Collateral Network Pilot, Demonstrating DLT-Driven Efficiency

Digital Asset, in collaboration with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), has successfully completed the U.S. Treasury (UST) Collateral Network Pilot, a blockchain-based initiative aimed at enhancing market connectivity and liquidity using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The pilot involved a consortium of major financial institutions, including investors, banks, custodians, and central counterparties, operating on fourteen Canton nodes across ten distributed applications. Participants executed 100 transactions, showcasing the potential of tokenized collateral assets in real-world scenarios.

The pilot tested complex financial processes, such as the creation of digital twins for USTs, real-time margin call settlements, asset recalls, and secured party control during default events. The results demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of DLT in improving transactional efficiency, liquidity, and legal certainty. This initiative builds on the success of the Canton Network Pilot from December 2023, further advancing blockchain applications in global financial markets.

Euronext Acquires Substantive Research to Expand Investor Services Offerings

Euronext has acquired 100% of Substantive Research, a London-based firm specialising in pricing and product comparison for investment research and market data. Founded in 2015, Substantive Research serves over 100 clients globally, offering benchmarking services for asset managers, hedge funds, and other financial institutions.

The acquisition strengthens Euronext’s investor services through its subsidiary Commcise, which provides commission management and research valuation solutions. Integrating Substantive Research will allow Commcise clients access to unique market benchmarks, helping them navigate regulatory requirements with a unified platform. Substantive Research will benefit from Euronext’s scale, enabling it to expand its benchmarking capabilities and vendor offerings.

This move aligns with Euronext’s capital allocation strategy and reinforces its focus on delivering high-quality, recurring revenues while deepening its connection with the buy-side community.

Nasdaq and BYMA Expand Partnership to Overhaul Argentina’s Post-Trade Ecosystem

Nasdaq and BYMA, Argentina’s leading stock exchange group, have expanded their technology partnership to overhaul BYMA’s entire post-trade ecosystem using Nasdaq technology. As part of the agreement, BYMA will implement Nasdaq’s real-time clearing platform at its central counterparty clearinghouse (CCP), enhancing the speed, capacity, and risk management of its post-trade operations. This new platform complements BYMA’s existing collaboration with Nasdaq’s technology at its central securities depository, Caja de Valores.

The enhanced system will improve operational resiliency, streamline reconciliation, and provide advanced risk analytics, while its modular design allows for the rapid introduction of new products and services. The upgrade supports BYMA’s transition to a model where settlement and clearing are aligned with international standards, optimizing liquidity and collateral management. BYMA’s decision reflects its commitment to robust and scalable market infrastructure amid its ongoing growth, with Nasdaq’s technology offering future-proof capabilities for a complex global marketplace.

EZOPS Acquisition Boosts NeoXam’s Data Management Capabilities

NeoXam has acquired EZOPS, a company that offers clients artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled data control, workflow automation, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting services.

Paris-based financial software specialist NeoXam said the purchase would enable it to expand its presence in US, Ireland and India, where EZOPS has its offices. The move comes as NeoXam seeks to bolster its AI capabilities to enhance its software.

With 150 staff, the EZOPS acquisition will increase NeoXam’s headcount to 800 globally. NeoXam said the New York-based firm brings data management, regulatory reporting, reconciliation and automation expertise.

“These capabilities are expected to complement NeoXam’s existing offerings, allowing the combined entity to deliver more powerful and comprehensive solutions to clients across the financial industry,” NeoXam said.

The company has had a busy 2024 including a recent agreement to handle the entire reporting process for Ecofi, Groupe Credit Cooperatif’s asset manager, and the integration of data, indices and other services linked to ETFs and other passive funds via SIX’s ULTUMUS feed to its DataHub.

Canoe Provides Data Services to Alt Funds Processing Firm Fundcraft

Fund-of-fund management clients of Fundcraft now have access to Canoe Intelligence’s data management capabilities, enabling them to streamline their data and document processes.

The deal will see the alternative investments operations services provider utilise New York-based Canoe’s artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced technology to collect, clean, validate, order and distribute their data.

Luxembourg-headquartered Fundcraft said also that the deal will help fund managers better integrate their data sets, enhance documents management and increase operational efficiency.

This announcement comes after Canoe raised $36 million in a Series C funding round from backers that included Goldman Sachs’ alternatives venture investor.

“By combining Canoe’s expertise in automating document and data management with Fundcraft’s comprehensive platform, we’re making it easier for fund administrators to work smarter and focus on what matters most—driving value for their clients,” said Canoe vice president of sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region Toby Bailey.

ISS ESG Adds Biodiversity Data to Fund Rating and Screening Tools

ISS ESG has incorporated nature-focussed data into its ESG funds assessment tool.

Investors can use the ISS ESG Biodiversity Fund Screening dataset to establish the risks from nature and water loss faced by equity and bond funds. It expands the sustainable investing arm of ISS STOXX’s Fund Rating and Fund Screening tools, which offer clients a broad spectrum of ESG assessments of their holdings.

“ISS ESG has applied its extensive ESG research and data management expertise to enhance its ESG Fund Rating thematic coverage, developing a broad and deep dataset to help support a wide range of investor use cases,” said Till Jung, head of ESG business at ISS STOXX.

SG Fund Rating can be accessed via its DataDesk and through data feeds, APIs and the cloud. It is built on 2,600 ESG data factors.

Informatica to Manage Data, Governance for Lenders Mortgage Insurer Helia

Helia, an Australian lenders mortgage insurer, has selected Informatica to improve data management and governance around its claims processing capabilities as the home loans sector sees a surge in digitalisation.

Sydney-headquartered Helia said the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data services company would help it accelerate claims and streamline its data pipeline. It hopes that the using Informatica’s Intelligent Data management Cloud will also enable the company to enhance its customer engagement using chatbots and automated decision making.

“By taking control of our data and implementing AI-powered data governance, we’re building a foundation to surpass our customers’ expectations and maximise value from AI,” said Michelle Soakell-Ho, data governance leader at Helia.