S&P Global Extends ESG Data Offering with Snowflake

A new public and private entity ESG data service is available to clients of S&P Global Market Intelligence on the Snowflake platform, extending a tie-up between the two companies.

Part of S&P Global’s Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Insights Platform, the Global Entity Linking and ESG Data Management Services offering enables clients to clean and map ESG data to traded entities and then subject it to artificial intelligence-led analytics and models on Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud.

The companies said this gives a “unique” view of clients’ entities, hierarchies and linked reference data.

The new tool will “effectively manage the vast volumes associated with sustainability data while offering our clients the flexibility to quickly and seamlessly onboard and integrate new data sources”, said Vikas Sahni, Head of Software for Enterprise Solutions at S&P Global.

The latest innovation from S&P Global and Snowflake is among a number of products and services that vendors are offering as they seek to meet growing demand from financial institutions for private as well as public entity data. Volatility in equity markets and narrowing spreads on once-illiquid fixed-income assets has prompted investors to seek higher returns in alternative assets, such as private equity and credit.

Alternative markets are more opaque than the public markets in which institutions have hitherto largely operated, forcing them to retool their data operations to source intel on companies, funds and lenders. Data on private companies is also often lacking the lineage and metadata to link it to reference and other datasets.

The Global Entity Linking and ESG Data Management Services builds on a collaboration between the two companies forged in 2020 when S&P Global announced that its financial, textual, ESG and alternative data would be made available through Snowflake.

Thai Identity Tech Firm Finema Named Latest Asian Virtual GLEIF Issuer

Finema, a Thailand-based digital identity technology company, has become the first Southeast Asian issuer of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation’s verifiable Legal Entity Identifiers (vLEI).

As a Qualified vLEI Issuer, Finema will be responsible for providing the digital equivalent of GLEIF’s ISO-recognised identity recognition and validation certifier to participating companies in the region.

The vLEI is a virtual identifier that is attached to participating companies and people associated with them, enabling investors and counterpanes to establish a trust-based relationship safe in the knowledge that the organisation is who it claims to be.

Finema is the latest Asian QVI to be announced by GLEIF, following the appointment of China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA) as the first such body in China. GLEIF chief executive Alexandre Kech told Data Management Insight earlier this year that the Basel, Switzerland-based not-for-profit would focus on expanding in Asia as it seeks to bring transparency and trust to often opaque markets.

“Sweeping digitalisation across the global economy provides unprecedented opportunities and incentives to transform the underlying systems organisations use to trust and be trusted,” Kech said after the Finema announcement. “This will free international capital flows and unlock access to the unlimited opportunities of the global market.”

SIX Builds API to Accelerate Database and Security Master Updates

SIX, the data aggregator and operator of financial exchanges in Switzerland and Spain, has launched a new API to accelerate the update of databases and security masters.

The faster data transfer system is designed to enable clients to access and process larger volumes of information, reducing the total cost of data ownership, the Zurich-based organisation said.

The SIX Bulk API is built to ensure market participants have the most up-to-date data to better inform investment, trading, banking, risk management and compliance decision making and reduce processing times from hours to minutes.

Data is delivered through the API in JSON format and can be integrated into multi-threaded Python- or Java-based applications, SIX said in a statement.

“The launch of SIX Bulk API marks a significant milestone in our commitment to innovation and excellence in financial data management,” said SIX Head of Product Development Henk D’Hoore.

“It allows our customer to gain instant access to large data sets and supports super-fast initial load and delta deliveries into their security masters. Financial institutions who wish to move away from traditional file transfer services can now take full control by opting for SIX Bulk API instead.”

GoldenSource Leads Australian Pension Fund’s Digital Transformation

GoldenSource has built an investment data management infrastructure for Australia’s Aware Super, one of the country’s largest superannuation funds, providing the enterprise data management company with a foothold in a country that is forecast to become the world’s second-largest pension market.

Under the first phase of the so-called Project Odin, GoldenSource has deployed its SaaS-based EDM platform as the foundation for a digital transformation of the fund, which oversees the equivalent of US$120 billion in assets.

Operation Odin has also included the integration of the fund’s performance, attribution analytics and reporting tool.

It has been designed to enable the fund to meet an anticipated growth in investment. The Australian pension market was valued at $2.6 trillion in 2024, according to Willis Towers Watson.

“Partnering with GoldenSource has produced the strong foundations of a sophisticated data platform which will not only enable us to stay competitive in a fast-evolving landscape, but maintain our focus on returning the strongest possible risk-adjusted returns for our 1.15 million members,” Michael Clavin, Aware Super Head of Income and Markets and sponsor of Project Odin, said in a statement.

Private Market Data Giant Dun & Bradstreet’s Acquisition Agreed for $7.7bn

Venerable private markets data and analytics giant Dun & Bradstreet has agreed to be acquired in a US$7.7 billion deal that will be partly funded by a debt and equity.

Californian investment private-equity firm Clearlake Capital’s acquisition will take the 184-year old Wall Street company private four years after beginning its second spell as a listed firm.

Dun & Bradstreet is among the largest providers of data and analytics covering private equity and private credit and is also relied upon by investor for its DUNS Number identifiers, paid-for unique identity codes that are used by millions of companies around the world.

The deal comes as the company’s stock languishes 60 per cent below its 2020 listing price, according to Reuters data. Nevertheless, Dun and Bradstreet has found new business as investment in private markets by institutional investors grows. Among its most recent developments, the company has collaborated with LSEG to help the London Stock Exchange operator better compete in the privates data market.

“Dun and Bradstreet has built a trusted, globally recognised brand and has amassed a preeminent set of data and analytics that empower organisations of all sizes,” Clearlake co-founder and managing partner Behdad Eghbali and partner James Pade said in a statement.

“As companies become more data-centric in their decisioning in this fast-paced world, we see vast potential for Dun and Bradstreet to deliver AI-powered solutions to their global client base.”

The deal is “go-shop” arrangement, which permits Dun & Bradstreet to seek better deals from alternative buyers within 30 days of the transaction’s agreement.

According to Bloomberg News, Clearlake sought a $5.75bn bridging loan to fund the acquisition. That’s expected to be converted into longer-term financing via the bonds or leveraged loans markets.

SimCorp Axioma Users Have Access to Yield Book Fixed Income Data

Yield Book’s securitised debt analytics have been incorporated into SimCorp’s Axioma risk management system. The partnership builds on the Danish fixed-income data integration provider’s collaboration with Yield Book’s parent LSEG Analytics.

Users of SaaS-based Axioma will now have access to in-depth risk data, said Allen Zimmerman, Managing Director, Head of Americas at SimCorp.

“This partnership extends the depth of our fixed income capabilities by leveraging Yield Book’s market-renowned prepayment models and analytics directly within our products to support the most sophisticated fixed income and multi-asset managers,” Zimmerman said. “This is another step toward enabling faster and more informed investment decisions.”

Mosaic Smart Data Acquired by AI Insights Specialist Behavox

Mosaic Smart Data, which provides institutional investors with tools to mine insights from their transaction data, has been acquired by artificial intelligence insights company Behavox.

London-based Mosaic’s software, which provides liquidity discovery for over-the-counter markets to clients including JPMorgan and ING, will be deployed to enrich Behavox’s trade surveillance technology, which is undergoing customer testing.

“We are excited to join Behavox at a time when AI adoption in financial markets is accelerating,” said Mosaic chief executive Matthew Hodgson. “Customers increasingly seek AI-driven insights to analyse pre-trade journeys and extract intelligence from communication data to help them make more money.”

Snowflake Provides Access to OpenAi Models in Expanded Microsoft Collaboration

Users of Snowflake’s Cortex AI platform now have access to OpenAI’s models through an expanded partnership with Microsoft, enabling them to create artificial intelligence data agents to streamline workflows.

Described by Snowflake as a “watershed moment”, the new capabilities will be available by the integration of Snowflake Cortex AI with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service in Azure AI Foundry. Snowflake said the new offering will save businesses time and money.

“There’s enormous power in our customers being able to use OpenAI models directly in Snowflake’s secure platform, unlocking multimodal, agentic, and conversational AI use cases that drive high impact,” said Christian Kleinerman, executive vice president of product at Snowflake.

Quantexa Raises Further $175m for AI-led Decision Intelligence Offering

Quantexa has raised a further US$175 million, boosting estimated market valuation for the UK-based decision intelligence solutions provider to $2.6 billion.

The company said the additional money will be used to “progress against its mission to help enterprises and government agencies across multiple markets stay ahead in the race for AI-driven DI”.

The latest series F funding round was led by Teachers Venture Growth, part of the huge Canadian Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

GLEIF Names Chinese Certification Authority as vLEI Issuer

The China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA) has been announced as the first Chinese overseer of virtual identifiers created by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF).

The CFCA has become a Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) in the Global LEI System. VLEIs are used to verify the digital identities of companies and assets in financial transactions.

The CFCA will use vLEIs to help organisations use LEIs in conjunction with Chinese identity tools. It will also investigate other ways that vLEIs can verify identities in other use cases, such as real-time account registration verification, tamper-resistant digital signing, verifiable SME credit records and ESG-based credentialing, the GLEIF said.