AIA Group Adopts Investment Tech from BlackRock and BNY

AIA Group has incorporated BlackRock’s investment platform Aladdin with BNY’s data management services to administer the Asia-focused life insurer’s investment programme.

The move represents a transformation of the insurer’s end-to-end investment processes, echoing a broader trend towards the outsourcing of data management services by asset managers and owners.

The company said the collaboration with Aladdin and BNY “will provide AIA with an end-to-end solution, empowering the group’s investment professionals with enhanced data and analytics capability, and more robust risk management tools”.

Asset managers are increasingly seeking third-party expertise as the complexity of their data management requirements have intensified, according to recent surveys. This has been driven by the adoption of multi-asset investment strategies to navigate growing market volatility and to comply with emerging regulations.

AIA Group chief investment officer Mark Konyn said that the insurer “will gain a single, consistent, and timely view across all asset classes allowing us to make even more informed investments across complex market environments”.

Bridgewise Brings AI-Powered Analytics to ETFs, Fund Space

AI-powered investment analysis platform Bridgewise has launched a research platform it says will close the gap in exchange-traded fund (ETF) and mutual fund analyses.

The service will offer financial clients deep intel into ETF and fund performance, including that of their underlying assets, the company said. Bridgewise has deployed machine learning and micro-language models (MLMs) to enable detailed analysis of all aspects of the funds industry.

The company, which provides analyses to more than 50 financial institutions globally, said the new service has been developed amid growing demand for information on the ETF sector. Researcher ETFGI said inflows into ETFs climbed almost 11% in the past year to almost US$13 trillion.

The product launch coincided with the appointment of ETFGI founder and managing partner Deborah Fuhr to the Bridgewise advisory board.

Bridgewise co-founder and chief executive Gaby Diamant said the huge demand for insights into ETFs and mutual funds would be beyond the capabilities of traditional research processes.

“Until now, fund analysts have faced a daunting challenge – there is no way for a human to provide a detailed fundamental analysis on each and every asset in popular funds, especially when some funds are composed of thousands of individual stocks,” Diamant said “The time it would take to complete such an analysis would quickly stretch to a full year or more. Our AI technologies not only allow for a previously unobtainable level of depth of fund analysis, but also nearly universal coverage of funds.

”Within the platform, clients will be able to access holdings analysis, intel on alternatives such as private equity, buy-sell recommendations, category indicators and asset discovery features.

Alternatives Data Service Firm Canoe Raises $36m in New Funding

Canoe Intelligence has raised US$36 million in a Series C round to help the alternatives market technology company build out its artificial intelligence-supported fund master database services.

The fundraising was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads, which contributed to a previous cash injection last year, also joined the latest round.

Canoe Intelligence was launched in 2018 with the claim that it would be the first technology company in the world to transform unstructured data from alternative investment documents into standardised information that investors could integrate easily into their systems.

The New York-based company uses machine learning and other AI technology to scan publications and documents for use by its 325 clients, which comprise institutional investors, capital allocators, wealth managers, family offices and asset servicing firms. Alternatives, including private equity and credit markets, account for $22 trillion of assets worldwide, about 15% of all assets globally, and roughly a third of all institutional holdings.

“With the additional capital, we will continue to advance the alts industry by building innovative AI and machine learning technology, delivering comprehensive back-to-front office solutions, maintaining our commitment to data integrity and, most importantly, creating value for our clients,” said chief executive Jason Eiswerth.

Canoe Intelligence says that since its Series B funding round in February 2023 it has doubled growth in both the number of clients and revenue. It oversees the alternative data management needs of more than 1,000 limited partners across 650,000-plus commitments and subscriptions to in excess of 42,000 funds.

Iress and Dow Jones Enhance Real-Time Market News Integration

Iress has extended its partnership with Dow Jones Newswires, enabling Iress news subscribers to access real-time market news across all asset classes and geographies. This service will be seamlessly integrated into customer workflows through Iress’s market data and trading software.

The partnership ensures that Iress’s global market data and trading customers can access premium content from Dow Jones Newswires, including selected articles from The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, and Investor’s Business Daily.

The collaboration aims to deliver enhanced market insights, leveraging Dow Jones’s global coverage and local reporting expertise in key markets such as Australia.

Iress’s CEO, Global Trading and Market Data, Jason Hoang commented: “It’s of critical importance that traders have access to trusted, accurate and timely information. Through this partnership, we believe that our clients can be confident that the information they use through Iress’s software is of the highest calibre and can be relied upon to help make better trading decisions.”

Dow Jones Newswires’ General Manager, Joe Cappitelli, added: “By integrating our real-time market news directly into customer workflows, Iress is creating even more value for their clients, enhancing their user experience and helping them make smarter investment decisions.”

DTCC Launches Public-Facing VaR Calculator for FICC

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has introduced a new public-facing Value at Risk (VaR) calculator, designed to assist market participants in assessing potential margin and Clearing Fund obligations associated with membership in DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) Government Securities Division (GSD).

The launch of the tool is timely, with U.S. Treasury clearing activity through FICC projected to increase by $4 trillion daily following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s expanded clearing mandate set for 2025 and 2026. DTCC’s VaR calculator enables firms to determine VaR and potential margin obligations for simulated portfolios accurately.

The calculator utilises FICC’s VaR methodology to allow users to estimate potential margin requirements based on given positions and market values. The calculator considers factors such as historical data, volatility and confidence levels to estimate VaR, increasing market transparency.

Tim Hulse, Managing Director, Financial Risk & Governance, at DTCC commented: “FICC understands the urgency and importance of evaluating firms’ risk exposure associated with the expansion of U.S. Treasury Clearing. The VaR calculator provides market participants with increased transparency into these obligations.”

This initiative underscores DTCC’s commitment to enhancing tools and access methods in support of the forthcoming expansion in U.S. Treasury clearing activity.

Substantive Research Reveals Increase in Investment Research Spending

Substantive Research, the research and data spend analytics provider, has released findings from its latest survey on investment research pricing, budgeting, and consumption for the first half of 2024. The survey assesses the impact of the FCA’s April 2024 Consultation Paper on “Payment Optionality for Investment Research,” which has sparked debate over whether European asset managers should revert research costs back to end investors after six years of absorbing these expenses due to MiFID II.

Key findings indicate an overall 2.2% increase in research budgets globally, with US budgets rising 15% as a proportion of assets under management (AUM) and European budgets increasing by 4%. Brokers continue to dominate, capturing 85% of the annual spend, albeit with a slight decrease, while spending on analytics and research tooling grows. The top 10 brokers maintain a significant share, slightly rising to 54.9%. This evolving landscape suggests a shift towards greater consumption and varied pricing strategies within the research market, with potential competitive impacts from the FCA’s proposed reforms.

Global InterXchange Launches Groundbreaking Dark Fiber Route Across Hudson River

Global InterXchange, LLC (GIX) has launched the first privately owned, carrier-neutral dark fibre route across the Hudson River in two decades. The new high-speed network connects Digital Realty’s JFK12 data centre at 60 Hudson Street in Manhattan with Equinix’s NY1 at 165 Halsey Street in New Jersey, utilising advanced fibre technologies and equipment that offer lower latency and increased network diversity. The project is a result of a public-private partnership with the Port Authority of NY and NJ.

The GIX dark fibre route features two unique paths into 60 Hudson Street and utilises Prysmian fibre cable with Corning SMF-28 Ultra glass, providing significant network resilience and boosting efficiency for financial, telecom, and colocation facilities. Future plans include expanding into additional tunnels, continuing GIX’s commitment to innovative, high-speed connectivity solutions for various industries, including global carriers, AI companies, and financial institutions.

PATH Project Manager Paul Lombardi commented: “Data has become a critical aspect of business and trade in this age of AI, with growing volumes of data driving the need for seamless transport of that data. This work ensures we can support the modernisation of critical infrastructure to support current and future digital requirements and attract cutting-edge businesses.”

FairXchange Unveils AI-Powered Horizon Sentinel for Enhanced Liquidity Monitoring

FairXchange, the data science firm specialising in FX markets and part of the United Fintech Group, has launched Horizon Sentinel, an AI-driven alerting tool designed to instantly identify commercially relevant changes in a financial institution’s liquidity and counterparty activity. Sentinel aims to significantly reduce the time spent on analysing FX liquidity data, enabling financial institutions to maximise identified opportunities. The tool automatically notifies compliance and management teams of specific changes such as significant transaction cost variations or notable client trading activity shifts.

Available as an optional module within the Horizon data analytics platform, Horizon Sentinel complements FairXchange’s existing analytics by providing rigorous period-to-period comparisons and data-driven insights. The tool has been successfully trialled by several long-standing clients, including Sucden Financial.

Guy Hopkins, Founder and CEO of FairXchange, commented: “During our testing period, Sentinel has had an overwhelmingly positive response, transforming conversations between liquidity consumers and liquidity providers.  In high complexity trading environments, it is becoming progressively harder for people to keep on top of all the recent developments. Sentinel watches your business for you and provides timely, automated notification of important changes as soon as they occur. This improves productivity, substantially reduces opportunity cost and allows clients to focus on what adds the most value both to their own firm and their counterparties”.

Wayne Roworth, Global Head of FX at Sucden Financial, added: “We have been actively using the Sentinel AI tool in Horizon for several months, and it has had a substantial positive impact on our business. Our liquidity providers very much value the fact that we can play an active role in monitoring the flow, highlighting areas of potential concern that we can then work on together.  The dialogue that this data facilitates, and the speed with which we can act upon it, has resulted in numerous improvements to our liquidity that have allowed us to increase our client volumes and associated revenues.”

Delta Capita to Provide CLM to European Unit of Daiwa

Capital markets consulting, managed services and technology firm Delta Capita is to provide its client lifecycle management (CLM) product to investment bank Daiwa Capital Markets Europe.

The investment banking subsidiary of Japanese brokerage Daiwa Securities said Delta’s CLM will help its international clients gain exposure to the Asian nation’s markets at a time of growing demand.

The service offers full management of client onboarding, anti-money laundering, know your customer, risk assessment, screening, ongoing monitoring and periodic review cycles and offboarding.

Capita’s “experience in providing managed services, particularly in CLM, gives us great confidence that we can continue to respond the resurgence of European interest in Japan and continue to support our client base across the region”, said Daiwa Capital Markets Europe chief executive Megan McDonald.

Capita’s CLM was recently complemented with the London-based company’s recent acquisition of LSEG’s CLM technology in May. It works in conjunction with Capita’s Karbon KYC suite of tools.

The LSEG solution is based on Thomson Reuters’ 2013 acquisition of GoldTier Technologies, a provider of client onboarding software. Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk business, of which GoldTier was a part, was later rebranded Refinitiv under the majority ownership of Thomson Reuters and Blackstone, and the whole acquired by LSEG in 2021.

Abaxx Exchange Selects Eventus for Trade Surveillance

Abaxx Exchange, a new marketplace based in Singapore, has chosen Eventus to provide its trade surveillance platform. Abaxx Exchange commenced trading on June 28, 2024, offering global futures on energy, metals, and other energy transition-focused commodities, starting with liquified natural gas (LNG) and carbon, with plans to introduce battery metals soon.

Abaxx Exchange, under the majority ownership of Abaxx Singapore Pte Ltd., is the first new regulated exchange and clearinghouse focused on physical commodities to be built from the ground up in over a decade. The exchange sought a robust, customisable, and scalable market surveillance tool that could be quickly and easily implemented. Eventus’ Validus platform was selected for its flexibility, strong workflow automation, and the support of an experienced and responsive team.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab commented: “We are incredibly honoured that Abaxx has entrusted our team to provide the backbone of its critical trade surveillance function through the Validus platform. The innovative commodity exchange has generated significant interest in the industry. Market integrity is a high priority for the exchange, and Abaxx will benefit from our expertise and high-performance surveillance technology used by marketplaces and leading financial institutions across the globe.”

The deployment of the Validus platform marks a significant step in ensuring that Abaxx Exchange can maintain rigorous surveillance and control over its market activities, providing a secure and efficient trading environment for its participants.