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.

SteelEye Integrates Trade Surveillance with AI-Powered Compliance CoPilot

Integrated surveillance provider, SteelEye has expanded Compliance CoPilot by integrating its trade surveillance capabilities. Leveraging advanced large language models (LLMs), the enhanced tool provides automation, intelligent analysis and actionable insights, enabling compliance practitioners to prioritize high-risk alerts and streamline their review workflow. 

By intelligently scoring and prioritizing alerts, the Compliance CoPilot allows analysts to focus on the most critical risks, significantly reducing manual review time by up to 90%. Compliance CoPilot has been in production for communications surveillance since November 2023, the AI-powered integration with trade surveillance now offers comprehensive alert explanations and provides recommendations for categorizing and resolving alerts, complete with rationales. 

The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of financial markets have empowered wrongdoers to adopt more sophisticated market manipulation tactics, such as cross-product manipulation—a form of abuse where trades in one product are used to manipulate the price of another. See the recent RegTech Insight story on SteelEye’s Cross-product manipulation detection capability.  

Surveillance teams face the dual challenge of detecting these advanced abuses while managing a surge in alert volumes amid tightening budget constraints. “Compliance staff are under immense strain, overwhelmed by volumes of suspicious trading alerts each day,” said Matt Storey, Chief Product Officer at SteelEye. “The ability to prioritize the most important alerts is essential for bolstering firms’ risk management practices. The Compliance CoPilot empowers teams to operate more effectively and proactively, becoming the go-to sidekick for surveillance officers.” 

According to SteelEye’s 2024 Annual Compliance Health Check Report, spending on compliance has decreased significantly compared to 2023, even as market abuses like cross-product manipulation become more prevalent. With a 30% increase in reported market abuse cases this year, firms are under more pressure than ever to improve their surveillance capabilities. By allowing firms to intelligently manage their workload and focus on the most urgent alerts, the AI-enabled assistant enhances the efficiency and accuracy of surveillance functions. It also affords firms more time to assess and strengthen their market surveillance capabilities on a broader scale. 

Built with compliance-specific AI, the Compliance CoPilot provides transparent explanations and rationales for its recommendations, ensuring trust in its operations. The tool integrates seamlessly into existing workflows for SteelEye users, offering an immediate boost to their surveillance operations without disrupting established processes. 

In an era of escalating market complexities and tighter budgets, SteelEye’s enhanced Compliance CoPilot offers a comprehensive tool for firms aiming to stay ahead of sophisticated market manipulation tactics. For more insights from the 2024 Compliance Health Check Report, visit the SteelEye website. 

S&P Global Market Intelligence Launches GenAI-Enabled Solutions to Enhance Research and Analysis

S&P Global Market Intelligence has introduced a suite of generative AI (GenAI)-enabled solutions to support client research and analysis. These innovations are available via the new Labs section of the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform, which showcases both developed and early-stage technologies from S&P Global and Kensho. Key offerings include Transcripts Trending Topics, which helps users identify trends in earnings call transcripts, and News Sentiment, which provides quantitative insights based on sentiment analysis. Another tool, Transcripts Key Phrases, highlights significant topics from earnings calls to assist users in understanding key company themes.

Additional GenAI enhancements include IQ Market Summaries, offering timely updates on U.S., European, and Asian markets, as well as Transcript Summarization, which generates earnings call summaries. The S&P Global Marketplace GenAI Search simplifies the querying process, helping users quickly find relevant data across S&P Global’s datasets. These tools aim to streamline workflows and boost analytical efficiency.

SC Ventures Leads Strategic Investment in One Trading to Launch First Crypto Perpetual Futures in EU

SC Ventures, the innovation and fintech investment arm of Standard Chartered, has made a strategic investment in One Trading, the European crypto-asset exchange. The investment round also saw participation from existing investor MiddleGame Ventures, alongside Valar and SpeedInvest. Although the financial details were not disclosed, the funds will support One Trading’s launch of the first crypto perpetual futures in the European Union (EU) as a MiFID II-compliant trading venue.

In July 2024, One Trading secured an Organised Trading Facility (OTF) license from the Dutch financial market regulator, making it the first regulated crypto perpetual futures exchange in the EU. This approval enables the exchange to offer crypto derivatives, accessible to both retail and institutional clients, marking a significant milestone in One Trading’s efforts to bring onshore crypto futures trading within the EU regulatory framework.