BNY Mellon and ING Join CLSNet to Enhance FX Market Efficiency and Risk Reduction

BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank, and ING, the largest Dutch bank, have joined CLS’s CLSNet service, whose user base now includes eight of the top 10 global banks. The service aims to reduce settlement risk and improve operational efficiency, particularly in the FX market where risk mitigation is increasingly critical, especially in emerging market currencies and other expanding market segments.

CLSNet has seen significant growth this year, indicating strong industry support for the service. It has consistently recorded high average daily notional values of net calculations, surpassing USD 115 billion over the past 12 months, reaching a record daily notional value of USD 445 billion netted on 20 December 2023.

UK ESG Ratings Code of Conduct to be Explained in London

LSEG, the owner of the London Stock Exchange, will host an event to discuss how the UK’s code of conduct covering ESG ratings and data companies will work in practice.

Companies are being invited to sign up to the code of conduct after it was launched in December following its proposal in the summer. The January 31 event in London is aimed at explaining to signatories and other stakeholders how they will be affected by the measure.

The code envisages a six-principles approach to bringing order to ESG ratings whose providers face criticism over inconsistencies in their scores and conflicts of interest.

It was commissioned by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which created the ESG Data and Ratings Code of Conduct Working Group (DRWG) to draw up the proposals. The working group was supported by the International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG) and the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).

Danske Bank Selects Broadridge’s Tbricks for Enhanced Multi-Asset Trading and Market Making

Danske Bank has adopted Broadridge Financial Solutions’ Tbricks multi-asset trading and market making platform, to upgrade its trading, pricing, and position management capabilities across its various locations. The integration with Tbricks aims to streamline Danske Bank’s operations, enhance strategic focus, and ensure long-term cost efficiency.

According to the company, the decision reflects a broader trend in the capital markets sector, where firms increasingly seek adaptable, modular solutions that blend speed and accuracy with the necessary agility to navigate the dynamic financial market landscape.

Cboe Digital Launches Margined Bitcoin and Ether Futures

Cboe Digital has launched margined futures for Bitcoin and Ether, becoming the first U.S. regulated crypto native exchange and clearinghouse to offer both spot and leveraged derivatives trading on a single platform. This development, supported by Blockfills, DV Trading LLC, Jump Trading Group, Marex, Toa Capital Partners and Wedbush, is seen as a major step towards unifying the crypto spot and futures market.

Following the launch Cboe Digital now plans to expand its product suite to include physically delivered products, pending regulatory approval.

Quantexa Partners Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative

Quantexa, a provider of decision intelligence solutions, has announced corporate sponsorship and advisory council membership of the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (ATII). The ATII is a US-based non-profit organisation with a mission to fight human trafficking and child exploitation by providing data to advance the prevention, detection, investigation, and reporting mechanisms required to identify potential traffickers and criminal organisations.

Quantexa will provide decision intelligence technology and AI-driven financial crime prevention and detection through training and joint industry engagement, making global human trafficking risk data available to more organisations. Quantexa’s decision intelligence platform enables organisations to automate data ingestion and matching at scale and apply graph analytics to visually identify often hard-to-detect activity related to financial crime. Providing access to a wider set of data points specific to human trafficking will enable investigators to take a more robust approach to anti-human trafficking measures.

Broadridge and Boring Money Collaborate on Consumer Duty Solution for Asset Managers

Boring Money, a financial data and insights business, and Broadridge Financial Solutions have collaborated to help asset managers address the requirements of the UK’s Consumer Duty regulation. The duty applies to all new financial services products, and to all products and services currently available to retail customers. Among others, consumer duty affects regulated firms, and policy makers and regulatory bodies, adding to the burden of firms proposing and selling financial products, and to the information they need to gather, manage and make demonstrable to ensure compliance.

The collaboration brings together Broadridge’s value reporting, fee and performance data, and consulting services with Boring Money’s end investor demographic and perception data, which enables asset managers to better understand and service the retail investors that purchase their funds through intermediaries. The resulting solution gives asset managers and fund boards a holistic view that correlates quantitative and qualitative information regarding fund distribution and regulatory compliance in the UK.

Refinitiv Releases Sub-Saharan Africa Financial Crime Report

Refinitiv, a London Stock Exchange Group business, has released the results of its second financial crime report for Sub-Saharan Africa. This year, the survey highlights trends including low awareness of third-party exposure, high demand for advanced compliance technology, emerging supply chain risks, and lack of digital identity solutions in Know Your Customer protocols.

According to the report, only 28% of respondents have an ultimate beneficial ownership programme, more than 39% lack anti-bribery and corruption controls, and 55% of respondents do not have a cybercrime programme. The report also noted that only 3% of respondents view Environmental, Social, and Governance as a significant theme despite growing regulatory focus on the topic.

Nadim Najjar, managing director, data and analytics, Middle East and Africa, LSEG, comments: “Organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa still lack sound compliance programmes, although the report highlights a strong desire for compliance technology that offers improved data management and analytical capabilities.” The report surveyed risk and compliance professionals and business leaders across 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

S&P DJI Launches Impact-Focused SDG-Alignment Benchmarks

Two new sustainability indices have been launched by S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) enabling investors to benchmark against companies aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The S&P 500 SDG Index and the S&P Global LargeMidCap SDG Index are built on data that reflect the constituent companies’ impact on the environment and society. They don’t take into account the financial materiality of ESG factors.

“With this approach, S&P DJI is offering broad-based sustainability performance measurement tools, one that is based on the S&P 500, which is the best single gauge of large-cap US equities, and the other based on the S&P Global Large MidCap Index, which represents the top 85% market capitalisation of each developed and emerging country,” said Jas Duhra, Global Head of Sustainability Indices at S&P DJI.

The indices’ data is sourced from London-based impact data provider Impact Cubed.

Zayo Group Expands Near-Net Fibre Connectivity Across Europe, Targeting Key Cities in 2024

Zayo Group, the global provider of fibre network infrastructure, has announced a significant expansion of its near-net connectivity across Europe, aiming to enhance its high-speed low-latency network solutions across UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, and France, enabling up to 100G connectivity for clients in close proximity to Zayo’s fibre infrastructure.

The initiative aims to help clients more easily adopt cloud systems and innovative technologies major cities such as London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dublin, and several French markets throughout 2024.

LoopFX Collaborates with FactSet to Integrate Its FX Trading Technology into Portware System

LoopFX, the FX trading venue for large spot trades, has announced a strategic partnership with FactSet to integrate LoopFX’s unique ‘Peer-To-Bank’ matching engine technology into Portware, FactSet’s FX execution management system (EMS). Set to commence in early 2024, the integration is designed to streamline FX trading for FactSet’s clients, enabling them to access LoopFX’s services directly through their existing Portware trading interface.

LoopFX’s technology is designed to facilitate large FX trades, typically over $10 million, by offering a dark pool for large block liquidity. This approach aims to minimise information leakage, reduce trading costs and enhance execution efficiency for both buy-side and sell-side clients.