Encompass Expands into North America

Encompass, a provider of automated KYC solutions, has expanded into North America with office headquarters in New York and the intention to better serve the needs of existing global clients with a presence in North America, as well as secure new clients and partnerships in the region. Alex Ford has been appointed president, North America. She joined Encompass in 2012 and has held executive responsibility for several business units of the company. She will be joined initially by six senior staff members before an increase to more than 10 by the end of 2021, and double the number in 2022.

FSB and IMF Report on G20 Data Gaps Initiative

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have published their Sixth Progress Report – Countdown to December 2021 on the implementation of the Second Phase of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2). The report highlights significant progress in closing identified policy relevant data gaps during phases 1 and 2 of the Data Gaps Initiative, and the value of the initiative through the Covid pandemic in helping policymakers access key information to assess developments and risks in financial and non-financial sectors.

While some DGI-2 recommendations will not be completed by the end of 2021 and firms will continue to implement them, four data priorities that are likely to be covered by a new DGI are: climate change; household distributional information; fintech and financial inclusion data; and access to private sources of data and administrative data, and data sharing. A detailed workplan for the new initiative will be developed.

Milestone Group Offers Fair Value Control Solution

Milestone Group, an investment technology specialist recently acquired by BNY, has released a Fair Value Control solution for teams responsible for the administration and compliance of the fair value process, and ensuring funds’ securities are correctly valued in accordance with policy set by governing parties. The solution uses the pControl funds platform and includes workflows providing automation, transparency, and control of the end-to-end fair value determination process. It also unifies stakeholders involved in the process by providing a centralised solution for monitoring, decision-making, and implementation of fair value prices.

FactSet Teams Up with Macrobond to Offer Insight into Global Equity Markets

Macrobond, a provider of global economic, aggregate financial and sector data for finance professionals, has teamed up with FactSet to provide top-down researchers with insight into the dynamics of global equity markets.

The company has worked with FactSet to build an aggregate version of the latter’s Quant Factor Library, a point-in-time database of factor insights and consolidated data, including alternative data, from more than 70,000 securities across 127 countries and more than 200 exchanges. The library helps users detect investment themes across global equity markets, incorporate ideas into portfolio construction processes and transform raw data into actionable intelligence.

The new dataset, which combines FactSet’s deep insights into individual stocks with Macrobond’s platform for top-down analysis, allows users to efficiently form an aggregate view of the market by index, sector, country and other categories. As well as standard metrics such as earnings yields and EPS estimates, it includes a broad range of data such as ownership and corporate governance – including the number of women on boards, executive remuneration and stock buybacks – enabling researchers to explore pertinent themes.

Moody’s Acquires Climate and Natural Disaster Risk Modelling Specialist RMS

Moody’s Corporation has completed the acquisition of RMS, a global provider of climate and natural disaster risk modeling and analytics. The acquisition expands Moody’s insurance data and analytics business, and accelerates the development of the company’s global integrated risk capabilities to address the next generation of risk assessment.

Tikehau Capital Selects NeoXam DataHub for Transformation Programme

NeoXam’s DataHub platform has been selected by global alternative asset management group Tikehau Capital to support an IT and operational transformation programme across its global multi-fund business. The NeoXam solution will act as a central repository for Tikehau Capital, creating a single point of truth for securities, business entities, indices and benchmarks, and portfolios. NeoXam DataHub allows Tikehau Capital to consolidate a number of in-house developed data management systems into one ‘best of breed’ solution that will be used across its different investment hubs.

ICE Adds Weather Forecast Data to Connect Platform

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has extended provision of ESG data with the release of weather forecast data on its ICE Connect platform. ICE Connect users can connect streaming weather data to streaming tick information, making it easier to see how changing weather forecasts influence live market prices. All weather forecasts are archived and weather observations extend back 40 years for all forecast variables across locations. The factors include temperature, precipitation, visibility, wind and solar radiation, all of which have potential to influence the price of energy, agriculture and other weather-sensitive instruments.

SimCorp Adds Qontigo Portfolio Optimisation to Open Platform

SimCorp has partnered Qontigo, a provider of analytics and indices and part of the Deutsche Börse Group, to offer its clients a fully managed portfolio optimisation, risk management and modelling service within SimCorp Dimension. The partnership is one of many SimCorp is making to complement its own front office suite with a choice of tools for alpha generation and decision making. It is also part of SimCorp’s Open Platform that hosts numerous solutions and offers managed integration and connectivity services.

Etrading and ITSA Create Task Force to Discuss Digital Token Identifier Issuance Process

Etrading Software, acting as exclusive registration authority for ISO standard 24165 digital token identifiers (DTIs), and the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA), a non-profit organisation aiming at setting market standards for the global token economy, have created a joint task force to identify synergies in the issuance processes of both the DTI and the International Token Identification Number (ITIN), the technical identifier issued by ITSA for both fungible and non-fungible DLT-based cryptographic tokens. The task force was established in May and is due to run for the next six to twelve months.

A key deliverable of the task force will be to produce a set of recommendations for collaboration to the Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTIF) and ITSA boards, including an outline implementation plan. These might include aligning DTIs and ITINs, automatic notifications between issuing authorities or white-label access and/or a federated model. In order to facilitate transparency, the task force charter, meeting agenda and minutes will be available to the public on the DTIF website.

SmartSearch Adds Documentation Verification Solution for AML and KYC

SmartSearch, provider of a digital verification solution for anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, has added SmartDoc, a complementary document verification system that combines facial recognition technology and expert analysis at a level similar to that of border security officials. The solution supports fraud prevention and regulatory compliance in capital markets, and also offers firms document verification as part of customer due diligence.