Accenture Invests in Data and Performance Start-up pulsESG

ESG data and performance management company pulsESG has received an undisclosed investment from professional services giant Accenture, which plans to offer the Silicon Valley-based start-up’s services to its own clients. The software-as-a-service platform helps organisations integrate their internal data and investor-facing systems to help track and improve their sustainability credentials.

Data Management Tools Are Priority Investment Among Financial Services Firms

Investing in technology to optimise data and modernise data management are top priorities for financial services firms. Research by Broadridge Financial Solutions among 200 financial services professions at SIFMA Operations Conference in May 2022 shows towards 98% of respondents’ companies investing front-to-back-office workflow management, with 27% of respondents citing data management tools as their firm’s priority investment. Some 23% of firms are investing in AI and automation, 13% in human capital, 10% in cloud-native capabilities, and 8% in blockchain technologies.

On the downside, the research found 94% of firms continuing to face challenges around effective data use. Some 27%  of respondents said legacy or outdated technology are the biggest hurdle, and 23% poor data quality. challenges around effective data use. Some 27% said legacy or outdated technology stands out as their biggest , with 23% noting poor data quality. Nearly 19% said they are unable to quickly test, onboard, validate or maintain datasets.

Stacking up the stats, the research shows 57% of respondents confirming that their firms still have progress to make before they reach the advanced stages of their innovation and technology plans.

UK Governments Releases AI Rulebook

The UK government has released an AI rulebook with a view to protecting data and promoting responsible use of the technology. Proposals in the rulebook look to future regulation of AI and take a less centralised approach than the EU. AI is defined as ‘machines which learn from data how to perform tasks normally performed by humans. For example, AI helps identify patterns in financial transactions that could indicate fraud.’

The proposals are part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill that has been introduced to Parliament. Instead of giving responsibility for AI governance to a central regulatory body – as the EU is doing through its AI Act – the proposals allow different  regulators to take an approach suited to their industry, the aim being to create proportionate and adaptable regulation that allows AI to be rapidly adopted to boost productivity and growth.

Whatever the application, however, regulators must make sure developers and users follow six core principles: ensure AI is used safely; ensure AI is technically secure and functions as designed; make sure AI is appropriately transparent and explainable; consider fairness; identify a legal person to be responsible for AI; and clarify routes to redress or contestability.

Horizon Partners with Paris-Saclay University to Fund Financial Research

Horizon Software, the market making, agency trading and algo trading technology provider, funding a research project in partnership with the university of Paris-Saclay-Ecole Doctorale de Mathématiques Hadamard.

The study will focus on optimal execution, measurement, and control of liquidity risk, aiming to find a way to beat algo execution benchmarks. The three-year research project will be led by Yadh Hafsi and supervised by Horizon’s CTO, Olivier Masdebrieu, and two professors from Paris-Saclay, Vathana Ly Vath and Etienne Chevalier.

GLEIF Opens vLEI Issuer Qualification Programme

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has underpinned the verifiable LEI (vLEI) with an issuer qualification programme that once completed with allow businesses to obtain vLEI digital identify credentials from the issuer for use in digital organisational identity.

The GLEIF expects the vLEI issuer qualification process to take about 90 days. A qualified vLEI issuer will act as the primary interface for legal entities seeking vLEI credentials. Once obtained, the vLEI can be used as a basis to issue additional credentials to persons holding official roles within an organisation.

Buy-Side Firms Cast Wide Net to Capture Required ESG Data

Buy-side firms across the UK, US and Asia are casting a wide net to get the ESG data they need including external ratings, expert opinions and sentiment data to supplement corporate disclosures. According to research commissioned by Alveo, buy-side firms are using between six and 10 ESG data sources, with corporate disclosures being the least common data source cited.

In terms of ESG data set types, organisations across all three regions are using multiple types, but mostly ESG ratings provided by third parties. Sentiment data is more widely used in the US that the UK and Asia.

Northern Trust Launches Enhanced Liquidity Management Data Tool

Northern Trust has launched an enhanced liquidity management data tool in its Front Office Solutions platform as part of its initiative to deliver customisable solutions to Asset Owners. The web-based tool aims to give asset owners better control over their liquidity through unified and customised reporting.

The new web-based Liquidity Management module offers users a comprehensive view of their portfolio’s liquidity based on several factors, including private equity real-time data and expected cash flows as well as complex hedge fund contractual terms and conditions.

ING Spins Out Pyctor Digital Assets Post-Trade Technology to GMEX Group

European banking group ING has spun out Pyctor, its institutional-grade custody solution for the digital asset ecosystem, to GMEX Group (‘GMEX’), the digital business and technology solutions provider for exchanges and post-trade market infrastructure. The Pyctor solution, incubated in ING Neo’s Amsterdam innovation lab, provides secure digital custody and transactional network services for a range of digital assets, as well as delivering interoperability between permissioned and public blockchains.

GMEX CEO Hirander Misra has been appointed Chairman of Pyctor, which is offered as a service within GMEX. ING will continue its relationship with Pyctor and collaborate through ING’s digital assets team.

TNS Launches Low-Latency Trading Services in JSE Colocation Facility

Transaction Network Services (TNS) has announced that it is now directly connected to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from within the JSE colocation facility, providing managed hosting services, Layer 1 order routing and market data connectivity. The company will serve as a vendor of record for South Africa’s principal stock exchange, offering JSE market data and order entry access to key equities and derivatives markets in Europe and the US.

JSE operates the main equities and derivatives markets in South Africa and is the listing exchange for a range of multinational companies. In addition to the equities market, JSE operates a derivatives exchange offering equity index futures, currency futures, interest rate futures and commodity derivatives.

BT Radianz Cloud & Kaiko Partner for Crypto Market Data and Analytics

Kaiko, the cryptocurrency market data vendor, has partnered with BT Radianz to redistribute Kaiko’s digital assets market data and analytics via BT Radianz Cloud. Kaiko generates cryptocurrency market data from hundreds of sources globally, producing a market data feed that can be used by participants across the full cryptocurrency cycle. Radianz solutions provide cryptocurrency market participants an institutional-grade platform that can consolidate a customer’s external market connectivity onto a single connection.

Using resilient and highly secure Radianz connectivity, Kaiko will connect to BT Radianz in Singapore and Frankfurt, and will provide additional options for Kaiko clients based in Asia-Pacific, Europe, or the Americas.