SIX Adds to ESG Products With SME Assessment Tool

Swiss financial giant SIX has launched a tool that will enable banking clients to make assessments on the sustainability performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises on their loan books.

The service is backed by Greenomy, an ESG assessment and reporting company that the Swiss company acquired late last year. With Greenomy’s software-as-a-service platform, the solution will help banks comply with regulations such as the EU’s new Banking Book Taxonomy Alignment Ratio (EU BTAR).

Further, banking clients will be able to gauge their debtors’ sustainability risk trajectories.

“The importance of gaining a clearer insight into the climate credentials of small and medium-sized enterprises cannot be overstated,” said SIX head of financial information Marion Leslie. “After all, SMEs represent 90 per cent of businesses worldwide, not to mention 99 per cent of the EU’s economy.”

The SME Sustainability Assessment Solution is the latest tool to be released by SIX this year. The Zurich-based operator of the stock exchanges of Switzerland and Spain unveiled a climate-specific data tool last month. That was the first in a programme of product releases that SIX head of ESG product strategy Martina McPherson said would create a one-stop-shop of sustainability data services.

Goldman Sachs Surpasses 99% Same-Day Affirmation Rate with DTCC’s CTM’s M2i Workflow

With T+1 settlement now just three months away, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC has achieved over a 99% same-day affirmation rate and significant improvements in settlement rates for transactions using DTCC’s CTM’s Match to Instruct (M2i) workflow in Q4 2023. This includes a 38% decrease in same-day affirmation exceptions and a 64% reduction in US settlement fails by value among investment manager counterparties.

CTM’s M2i workflow, a central matching service for cross-border and domestic transactions across multiple asset classes, is a key component of DTCC’s Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) suite and facilitates central matching and auto-affirmation for DTC-eligible securities, significantly improving same-day affirmation rates and efficiency in trade processing.

Adaptive Announces Performance Breakthroughs with Aeron Technology on Google Cloud

Adaptive Financial Consulting (Adaptive) has announced significant performance improvements for its Aeron technology, a cloud-native, open-source, low-latency message transport and cluster technology, following extensive testing on Google Cloud infrastructure. The collaboration between Adaptive and Google Cloud showcased Aeron’s ability to deliver microsecond latency and millisecond recovery, enabling low-latency, resilient trading systems without relying on traditional on-premises infrastructure.

Aeron comprises Aeron Transport, which facilitates messaging, and Aeron Cluster, designed for zero downtime, 24/7 trading systems. Aeron Premium adds an extra suite of components that further enhance performance, security, fault tolerance, and recovery. Aeron Premium employs components for kernel bypass, significantly reducing packet processing overhead and thereby enhancing network transport speeds.

Imandra Brings AI-Powered Automated Reasoning and Digital Twin Technology to European Exchange Landscape

Imandra, an innovative AI startup, has made significant gains in the European exchange market with its flagship product, Imandra Markets, which now oversees technology responsible for about 25% of all European equities trading. Imandra Markets offers a comprehensive suite of AI-powered services aimed at enhancing the design, testing, calibration, and auditing of complex financial systems. This enables exchanges and trading venues to significantly improve their business intelligence and system resilience.

Imandra’s digital twins simulate real-world applications in a secure, virtual environment, employing AI-powered logical reasoning to verify system behaviour. This enables users to identify defects and inefficiencies early, before systems process any data or trades. This approach is significantly more efficient and cost-effective for eliminating problems than addressing them in later stages, according to the company.

Mirae Asset Global Investments and Bloomberg Plan Strategic Collaboration

Mirae Asset Global Investments and Bloomberg are planning a global strategic data and technology collaboration to support Mirae Asset, an asset manager headquartered in South Korea and operating in 16 markets, in its global business expansion and digital transformation. Bloomberg will offer solutions tailored to Mirae Asset in support of the asset manager’s mission to provide exceptional investment offerings for global investors. Both parties will also actively explore additional areas for collaboration, particularly in the realms of digital transformation, data solutions and innovation. This is Bloomberg’s first MOU in South Korea.

Napier Extends Availability of Continuum AML Compliance Solution

Napier, a London-based financial crime compliance RegTech, has extended the availability of its Anti Money Laundering (AML) platform, Napier Continuum, through two new service offerings: Napier Continuum Live and Napier Continuum Flow.

Napier Continuum Live is a plug-and-play hosted offering that brings the benefits of the platform’s client screening and transaction monitoring to organisations looking to go live and achieve regulatory compliance as quickly as possible.

Napier Continuum Flow is a headless API service designed for organisations looking to leverage AI-powered financial crime compliance intelligence into their existing infrastructure. Using this solution, organisations can route alerts from Napier’s AI-driven screening and monitoring engines into their existing workflow for case management.

Tokenbridge Introduces New Features to Enhance Tokenised Model Portfolios in Wealth Management

Tokenbridge, the token aggregator and distribution platform, has unveiled a set of new features aimed at revolutionising the wealth and fund management industry through the support of tokenised model portfolios. The new functionalities facilitate seamless integration and automation between tokenised and traditional finance (TradFi) assets, streamlining the construction, distribution, and evaluation of model portfolios.

The new features are designed to reduce the complexity, volume, and cost of managing portfolios, enhancing connectivity between model portfolio providers, distributors, and clients through smart contracts. For investors, the features offer flexibility and personalisation in portfolio management, aligning investment preferences across both tokenised and un-tokenised ecosystems.

S&P Global Introduces AI-Enabled Search on Marketplace Platform

S&P Global has launched a new AI-enabled search feature on its Marketplace platform, designed to transform how users discover the company’s data and solutions offerings across its five divisions and from curated third-party providers.

The Generative AI search, developed in collaboration between S&P’s Market Intelligence and Kensho divisions, offers a more intuitive and efficient search experience by using a large language model to understand natural language queries and recommend relevant data sets and services.

SimCorp Partners with Venn by Two Sigma to Enhance Multi-Asset Portfolio Management

SimCorp, the investment management solutions provider, has announced a strategic partnership with Venn by Two Sigma, aimed at revolutionising the management of multi-asset portfolios. The collaboration integrates SimCorp’s Axioma’s equity factor models with Venn’s advanced factor analytics, addressing the increasing complexity in portfolio management as investors shift from traditional asset allocations to more diverse investments, including private markets.

Through the partnership, Venn’s users will gain access to enhanced equity risk factors from the Axioma US and Worldwide Equity Factor Risk Models, enabling them to achieve deeper insights into risk and expected returns.

Bloomberg Adds to Mobile Apps with Bloomberg Pro for Vision

Bloomberg has released Bloomberg Pro for Vision, an application based on Apple Vision Pro that gives Bloomberg Anywhere subscribers access to functionality including News, Bloomberg Television, Instant Bloomberg, Bloomberg Message, Markets, Worksheets, Securities Data, and Research on the move or in the office.

“This is a new way to help financial professionals take full advantage of Apple Vision Pro and maintain productivity, expand desktop real estate and access private information in the office or on the go, all while reducing monitor footprints,” says Len Welter, head of mobile infrastructure and technology in Bloomberg’s Office of the CTO. “We will continue to invest in our mobile apps like Bloomberg Pro for Vision to deliver the news, data and analytics our clients need, wherever they may be working.

”Bloomberg Pro for Vision is available immediately in the App Store on Apple Vision Pro and is accessible to Bloomberg Terminal customers with a Bloomberg Anywhere subscription.