Decision Makers Turn to Cloud-Based Data Management

Some 59% of senior managers and directors in financial services are using cloud-based data for portfolio management. Additional use cases include risk management, collateral management and internal data marketplaces, according to research commissioned by Alveo and conducted in April among investment managers, asset owners, banks and insurance companies across the UK, US and Asia-Pacific.

With growth in cloud commitment continuing, the research noted that many firms are adopting a range of cloud-based data practices, with 56% carrying out new internal application development using cloud native components and architecture, and 34% rearchitecting existing internal applications.

Adaptive Expands its Managed Service Offering to 24/7 Operations

Adaptive Financial Consulting has expanded its Managed Service and Support product, ‘Operate’, to provide a 24/7 managed service to run the company’s cloud-native trading platforms Operate includes cloud infrastructure management, application upkeep, technical support, monitoring and reporting.

The expansion of Operate is aided by the opening of Adaptive’s Manila office, its first in Asia, complementing the firm’s existing presence in Europe and North America. Adaptive has recently experienced a period of fast growth, seeing an increase in overall staff numbers of 19% in the past year. The company has also appointed a number of new senior staff in sales and marketing roles.

Quantexa Invests Additional £125 Million in AI

Quantexa, a provider of decision intelligence solutions, plans to invest an additional £125 million in AI over the next three years to help clients advance the use of AI to protect, optimise, and grow their organisations. In line with the investment, the company has previewed its generative AI technology, Q Assist, and says it will further develop its AI stack to offer industry-specific use cases for sectors including financial services.

QuantCube Data Integrated in MSCI’s New Economic Regime Allocator Index

Alternative data firm QuantCube Technology’s real-time macro-economic data will be used in the newly launched MSCI Economic Regime Allocator Index by MSCI Inc. The index moves assets into different categories based on the current economic regime, using a pre-defined set of rules. The goal is to enhance investment performance by rotating and reallocating assets as the economy transitions from one phase to another.

The index identifies four different economic situations based on the rate of change of GDP and CPI indicators and whether these are rising or falling. A sectoral approach is used to optimise performance by adjusting equity holdings according to the current economic regime.

Crux Expands Data Partnership with Databricks

Crux, a data integration, transformation, and observability solution, has expanded its partnership with Databricks by adding pre-integration services to its existing Partner Connect integration. The company has worked with its data provider network to make a total of 75 data sources available for consumption in the Databricks Marketplace. With this expansion, a large number of paid financial datasets on Databricks Marketplace are powered by Crux.

Canoe Adds Apliqo Performance Management and Business Planning to Partner Programme

Canoe Intelligence, a provider of alternative investment processes for institutional investors and wealth managers, has added Apliqo, a software provider of advanced performance management and business planning to its partner programme. Based in Zurich, Apliqo offers LP Portfolio Management, an intuitive and dynamic analytics platform for private market investors. Using Canoe’s open APIs, Apliqo pulls documents and data collected, categorised, extracted, and validated by Canoe into its system for aggregation, analysis, and reporting.

ISS ESG to Update Cyber Risk Score Model

ISS ESG is to tweak the model behind its recently launched Cyber Risk Score to make it easier to identify “good” and “bad” scores.

“The ability for this model to differentiate ‘goods’ from ‘bads’ by discerning forward-looking risk, is a key differentiator in the market,” the company said. The new version, 5.0, also updates its Incident Type Likelihood ranking of potential cyber breaches.

Many companies are including cybersecurity within their ESG processes because they recognise that protection of personal and corporate data falls within the social and governance pillars.

The sustainable investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services, which launched the service earlier this year, said the enhancements would be rolled out by the end of July.

Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 Makes Progress with Royal Ascent

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 has received royal ascent on route to delivering the UK Government’s vision of growing the economy and creating an open, sustainable, and technologically advanced financial services sector. Post-Brexit, the act tailors financial services regulation to fit UK markets and is expected to increase UK competitiveness as a global financial centre and deliver better outcomes for consumers and businesses.

New powers include reforms to Solvency II, which are calculated to unlock around £100 billion for investment, and secondary objectives for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to facilitate the growth and international competitiveness of the UK economy. This will be backed up by changes to enhance the scrutiny and accountability of the regulators, including ensuring regular reporting and a greater focus on cost-benefit analyses.

Confluence Sets Out on AI Journey with Reconciliation Solution

Confluence Technologies, a technology solutions provider to the investment management industry, has announced the first development from its innovation lab that leverages AI technology to solve complex industry problems. Confluence Unity Rex applies large language models (LLMs) to solve reconciliation challenges from the SEC’s Tailored Shareholder Reports (TSR). It mines and pinpoints discrepancies in language and numeric information between financial reports and the TSR, delivering efficiency and cost savings in the reconciliation process.

S&P Global Market Intelligence Adds Loan Pricing and Analytics to Capital IQ Pro

S&P Global Market Intelligence, a provider of information services and solutions to global markets, has added loan pricing, analytics and liquidity measures to its S&P Capital IQ Pro platform. This is the latest enhancement resulting from S&P Global’s merger with IHS Markit in 2022.