KX Releases KDB.AI Server for Enterprise Scale Generative AI

KX, a provider of vector and time-series data management, has announced general availability of KDB.AI Server, a highly-performant, scalable, vector database for time-orientated generative AI and contextual search. Deployable in a single container via Docker, KDB.AI Server offers a smooth setup for various environments, including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid systems, allowing businesses to quickly adopt and use its AI capabilities without complex setup processes.

Built to handle high-speed, time-oriented data and multi-modal data processing, KDB.AI Server handles both structured and unstructured enterprise data and enables developers to bring temporal and semantic context and relevancy to AI-powered applications. The server is also optimised for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns, which ensures that, rather than continuously training or fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLM), developers can bring data relevancy to their prompts delivering better accuracy, lower cost, and less need for GPUs.

Immuta Integrates Data Security Platform with Amazon S3 Access Grants

Data security specialist Immuta has made a native integration between its Data Security Platform and the object storage service Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). The integration provides customers with streamlined data access control and security across storage and compute platforms using Amazon S3 Access Grants, a new Amazon S3 access control feature that enables customers to manage data permissions at scale for user identities managed by corporate directories.

With the Immuta platform and Amazon S3’s Access Grants, users can centralise access control management and use attribute-based access controls to grant permissions for objects in Amazon S3 storage. Immuta builds on Amazon S3 controls, increasing efficiencies with fewer policies and lower manual effort, reducing operational costs and opening new revenue streams.

“Amazon S3 access control is paramount due to the sheer amount of data that moves through the service,” says Steve Touw, Immuta chief technology officer. “Immuta helps simplify data access and security for data stored in Amazon S3 so users can more safely leverage that data for analytics and AI initiatives. This, paired with Immuta’s ‘write once, apply everywhere’ policy approach, helps customers democratise and increase data usage while still adhering to global regulations.”

Europe’s Insurance and Pensions Firms Back EU Ratings Regulation

European plans to regulate ESG ratings providers has won backing from the region’s pension and insurance industries.

PensionsEurope and Insurance Europe, which represent companies across the bloc, said the European Commission’s (EC) proposed Rating Regulation would “lead to a significant enhancement in the transparency of ESG ratings”.

The EC wants to bring ratings providers under the wings of its regulator to help prevent greenwashing and to ensure greater visibility in the calculations that go into each provider’s rating. Critics describe the firms’ methodologies as “black boxes” for the lack of transparency into how they are determined.

“There is an urgent need for the availability and transparency of ESG data to be improved, not only to fulfil regulatory requirements but, more importantly, to reallocate capital to sustainable assets,” the two organisations wrote in a joint statement.

TNS Acquires West Highland Support Services

Transaction Network Services (TNS) has acquired Danbury, CT-based market data solutions provider West Highland Support Services for an undisclosed sum. The combination of TNS and West Highland services into a single trading infrastructure stack and an integrated offering, will offer connectivity, monitoring and consulting to professional traders, institutions and financial services vendors worldwide.

The acquisition aims to reduce cost and complexity for TNS clients across every element of their market data estate, including hosting, connectivity, middleware distribution, data usage and incident management. All West Highland employees, products and services will integrate into TNS.

IPC Enhances Trading Network with Connectivity to Europe’s Leading Derivatives Exchange

Trading solutions and infrastructure provider IPC has expanded its network by integrating a leading European derivatives exchange into its Connexus Extranet platform, enabling customers to access a wide range of market data across multiple asset classes. Firms requiring ultra-low latency data delivery and distribution can also also co-locate within IPC’s Equinix FR2 data centre facilities.

The expanded connectivity comes in. the wake of IPC’s recently announced partnership with Celoxica to deliver an FPGA-powered low latency normalised multi-venue and multi-asset market data service through a single API, in fully hosted collocated or customer-specified data centre locations.

Amberdata Integrates with Google Cloud’s Analytics Hub for Digital Asset Data Access

Amberdata, the digital asset data and analytics provider, has partnered with Google Cloud, to offer its crypto market, blockchain, and DeFi datasets via Google Cloud’s Analytics Hub. The integration aims to enable institutional customers to manage data more easily, and gain actionable insights for applications in research, trading, and compliance, leveraging their preferred visualization tools.

Google Cloud’s Analytics Hub will host Amberdata’s datasets, enhancing data exchange capabilities and ensuring security. This move allows users to merge Amberdata’s digital asset data with Google Cloud’s AI, ML, and analytics tools. The platform offers sample data from Amberdata at no cost, with full historical datasets also available.

XFA Partners with Genesis Global to Automate FLEX Options Quoting

Execution broker X-Change Financial Access (XFA) and Genesis Global, the low-code application development platform vendor, have partnered to introduce FLEX-FA, a new solution designed to automate the quoting process for flexible exchange options (FLEX options). This new platform significantly improves the speed and efficiency of quoting by standardising and automating request-for-quote (RFQ) processes, aiming to enhance liquidity and provide better price execution for end users.

Developed in just two months, FLEX-FA is powered by a Genesis-built FIX message hub and RFQ workflow manager, allowing XFA to electronically send RFQs to multiple market makers and aggregate their responses.

Stratos Group Launches Multi-Asset Trading Platform Tradu

Stratos Group International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferies Financial Group, has launched Tradu, a multi-asset trading platform aimed at retail traders and investors. The new platform offers trading in listed equities, cryptocurrency markets and CFD trading, with the ability to apply leverage on stocks, indices, commodities, forex and cryptocurrencies. In addition to multi-asset trading, Tradu’s eWallet provides clients with a virtual and physical debit card as well as seamless transfers between trading and eWallet accounts.

Stratos also operates FXCM, an FX and CFD platform founded in 2001.  Stratos will continue to offer FXCM services alongside the new Tradu multi-asset platform.

Novata Expands, Streamlines SFDR Reporting Platform

Novata, an ESG data provider to private markets and investors, has enriched and simplified its Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) compliance tools.

The New York-based company said it has made it easier for clients to integrate their SFDR-aligned data with its platform and has created in-platform tools for reporting on the regulation’s Principle Adverse Indicator tests. The service also offers expert guidance and educational resources to clients.

Novata, which was formed in April 2022, said it now has more than 5,300 clients using its data and reporting platform.

ISS ESG to Provide Sustainability Data to Southern German State

ISS ESG will provide sustainability data that will help drive investment decision making by Germany’s Baden-Wurttemberg state government.

The sustainability arm of ISS STOXX said the contract will see the financial research and technology company support the state’s mandate to invest its public funds in sustainable assets. That will include supplying data and metrics on carbon and climate, energy and resources, EU Taxonomy alignment and other investment themes.

The southern state of Baden-Württemberg, which is centred on Stuttgart, has a total of around €17 billion of assets. Its parliament passed a law earlier this year that added sustainability to a list of asset characteristics that must shape its investment decisions, alongside profitability, liquidity and security.