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.

Yotascale Brings Yota AI Assist Cloud Cost Management Solution to Market

Palo Alto, California based Yotascale, a specialist in cloud cost management in digital organisations, has brought Yota AI Assist to market with the claim that it is the first FinOps copilot powered by Generative AI. Yota AI Assist continuously analyses AWS, Azure, GCP, Snowflake, Datadog, Databricks and other infrastructure costs providing insights and optimisation recommendations for each manager based on their objectives and role, keeping it high level if you are the CFO and making it detailed if you are an engineer.

The solution is based on Yotascale’s extensive industry domain knowledge in cloud cost management and total platform engineering cost management. Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, says: “Our goal was to supercharge FinOps and platform engineering teams with cloud spend intelligence, so they never again experience the anxiety of feeling like costs are out of control, with no path to bring them down.” Or as one user put it: “This is really good because you don’t need to click click click, just ask a question.”

Informatica Extends Access to Intelligent Data Management Platform in Canada

Informatica, an enterprise cloud data management provider, has established a Microsoft Azure pod in Canada for its Canadian customers. For Informatica customers that use the Azure ecosystem – particularly those in highly-regulated sectors such as financial services – the pod provides access to the company’s Intelligent Data Management Platform (IDMC) to manage complex and fragmented data estates, better comply with strict data residency requirements and support complex cloud modernisation projects.

It also gives Canadian Azure customers access to the latest Informatica-Microsoft integrations, including IDMC as an Azure Native Service and its integration with Microsoft Fabric.

With the availability of the Azure pod, Canadian customers can purchase IDMC as an Azure SaaS solution through the Azure Marketplace.

Singapore Launches Platform to Host Reported ESG Data

Financial institutions in Singapore will soon have access to AI-powered digital tools that will help them “collect, access and act upon” ESG data.

Grnprnt, which is pronounced Greenprint, has been created by the city’s Monetary Authority (MAS) to help corporates automate the reporting of sustainability data that financial companies can then incorporate into their own workflows.

The platform, part of MAS’ Project Greenprint to foster sustainable markets in the Southeast Asian city, will be open to companies large and small and eventually encompass overseas businesses. MAS said grnprnt will also be constructed so that it can be integrated with institution’s data platforms.

“Gprnt provides a key data bridge that can generate the trusted and high quality ESG data needed by the financial sector to more efficiently allocate capital towards green and transition initiatives,” said MAS managing director Ravi Menon. “By harnessing generative AI and data APIs at scale, Gprnt will greatly simplify sustainability reporting for SMEs, and in doing so unlock the data needed by the public and private sectors to support SMEs’ sustainability journeys.”

The platform will be operational in the first quarter of 2024.

Sustainability Reporting Rises Among Russell 1000, S&P 500 Companies

A survey has found a surge in sustainability reporting by large-cap S&P 500 firms and mid-cap Russell 1000 companies.

The survey carried out for corporate sustainability researcher Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A) found that 98 per cent of firms on the S&P 500 – which represent the largest companies on the Russell 1000 – published a sustainability report in 2022 from 96 per cent the year before.

The 2023 Sustainability Reporting in Focus research also found that 90 per cent of mid-caps, which occupy the lower-half of the Russell 1000, had issued such reports, compared with 81 per cent the year before.

Among other findings, alignment with the reporting recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) climbed to half of all companies on the Russell 1000 and SASB remained the most-widely used sustainability standard among Russell 1000 companies.