Volante Releases SWIFT Message Validation Service on AWS Cloud

Volante Technologies has introduced financial message validation on the cloud. It is available as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on the AWS Marketplace as a microservice to users looking to test their SWIFT Standards Release (SR) 2019 messages ahead of go-live on November 17, 2019. The validation service provides APIs for validating messages ready for applications to use. The service not only identifies valid/invalid messages, but also returns a list of errors encountered. This helps reduce the frequency and severity of formatting errors, and minimises the risk of rejected messages. The cost of the service is based on hourly use.

Broadridge Moves Asset Servicing Solution into AWS Cloud

Broadridge Financial Solutions has made its global asset servicing solution available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. A global Tier 1 investment bank is in live operation with the solution and another is onboarding. The company’s end-to-end solution is designed to address industry, business and operational challenges in global asset servicing by streamlining corporate actions, dividend and coupon processing across multiple asset classes, business lines and regions. Operating the solution on AWS can add increased operational agility, improved and faster client onboarding, quicker deployments, and enhanced security, scale, and resilience.

Axioma Enhances Canada Equity Risk Model

Axioma, a provider of enterprise risk management, portfolio management and regulatory reporting solutions, has added a new Canada equity risk model (AXCA4) to its next-generation Equity Factor Risk Model suite. The release builds on existing risk models, offering enhanced country-specific content to meet the risk-management needs of investors. The estimation universe for the Canada model contains over 440 stocks and ETFs, with coverage history from 1995. The enhanced data includes deep daily history and, for the first time, macro factors for residual gold and oil sensitivity.

EDI Adds Costs Basis Solution

Exchange Data International (EDI), a provider of corporate actions, pricing and reference data, has introduced Worldwide Equity Cost Basis, a service that enables users to track both a security’s cost basis, its evolution and its descendant’s cost basis and evolution up to the current date. The service is part of the company’s expansion into value added services.

Bloomberg Acquires RegTek.Solutions

Bloomberg has acquired RegTek.Solutions, a specialist in global regulatory reporting software solutions. The firm, which provides modular software solutions built around actionable regulatory intelligence, will be integrated with Bloomberg’s Regulatory Reporting Hub (RHUB), as well as Bloomberg’s enterprise data management and trading systems. The acquisition will combine Bloomberg’s data enrichment and reporting capabilities with RegTek.Solutions’ quality and control tools across a broad range of global reporting jurisdictions. Clients will have access to a fully electronic reporting workflow including transaction reporting eligibility, data validation, enrichment and reconciliation. Further news to follow.

SmartStream RDU Readies Services for Brexit

The SmartStream Reference Data Utility (RDU) has implemented changes to its MiFID II Reference Data Service and Systematic Internaliser (SI) Registry to accommodate Brexit. For the MiFID II service, SmartStream RDU will make both ESMA and FCA data available, either as an integrated delivery or separately. It will also support ESMA and FCA pre- and post-trade reporting through its cloud-based REST API service. The SI registry has been proactively enhanced to indicate whether an individual SI status is relevant to ESMA reporting, FCA reporting or both.

Axioma Adds Upgraded UK Equity Risk Model

Axioma has added a new UK equity risk model (AXUK4) to its next-generation Equity Factor Risk Model suite. The release builds on existing risk models, offering enhanced country-specific content to meet the risk-management needs of investors. AXUK4 delivers risk insights on over 6,000 UK Kingdom-listed securities, including REITs and ETFs. The updated model incorporates deep daily history, with coverage starting in 1997 to enable portfolio construction and back testing, transparent attribution, and hedging.

EDI Releases Point in Time Security Reference Feed

Exchange Data International (EDI), a provider of global security corporate actions, pricing and reference data services, has released a security reference file feed called PIT (Point In Time). The feed allows clients to track, at a listing level, changes to securities coding and other key security reference data points at any point in time. The point in time’s start and end dates use public domain effective date from the event that triggered the change. This means historical reference data returned by query will represent the actual values that markets would have recorded on the specified search date.

Moody’s Acquires Climate Data Specialist

Moody’s Corporation has acquired a majority stake in Berkeley, CA-based Four Twenty Seven, a provider of provider of data, intelligence, and analysis related to physical climate risks, as part of its wider strategy to develop transparent and consistent standards for evaluating ESG risk. The new acquisition will operate under its existing brand as an affiliate of Moody’s Investors Service. The deal follows Moody’s recent acquisition of Vigeo Eiris, a provider of ESG research, data, and assessments.

Moody’s Acquires RiskFirst

Moody’s Corporation has acquired RiskFirst, a provider of risk analytic solutions for the assetmanagement and pension fund communities. The acquisition positions Moody’s Analytics to extend its range of risk solutions to the institutional buy-side.

RiskFirst’s PFaroe platform provides a risk solution for US and UK defined benefit pension markets, covering over 3,000 plans and more than $1.4 trillion in assets. RiskFirst also offers solutions for the institutional investment market, including endowments, foundations and asset managers.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. RiskFirst generated £16.5 million of revenue in 2018.