A-Team Insight Brief
Amundi Intermédiation Selects FlexTRADER EMS for Cross-Asset Trading Consolidation
Amundi Intermédiation, the execution business subsidiary of Amundi Asset Management, has selected FlexTrade Systems’ FlexTRADER EMS as its global, centralized EMS platform to deliver cross-asset trading capabilities to over 60 dealers across its investment hubs with trading desks in Paris, Dublin, Singapore and Tokyo.
FlexTRADER’s advanced automation tools will aim to streamline Amundi Intermédiation’s order and workflow management across all asset classes. The platform’s fixed-income capabilities will also help automate and electronify Amundi’s bond execution operations. While equities and derivatives are currently live, fixed income deployment is scheduled for the end of 2023.
McKay Brothers Launches Ultra-Low Latency Cboe UK Equities Data Service at London Stock Exchange
McKay Brothers International SA (MBI) has launched its latest low latency market data service, now offering Cboe UK cash equities raw data at the London Stock Exchange through its wireless QRD service at what the company claims is the lowest known latency. The service brings together data from Cboe UK’s CXE and BXE feeds in their native exchange format.
MBI specialises in ultra-low latency market data distribution and low latency wireless bandwidth between global financial markets. This new service enhances its existing offer, which already includes raw and standardised market data distribution to the main exchange-trading European centres from major financial exchanges.
RocketFin Joins OpenFin’s Ecosystem to Enhance Risk Management Solutions
Risk management technology services provider RocketFin has become a certified development partner of OpenFin, adding to OpenFin’s growing ecosystem of partners. This makes RocketFin the only firm with certification in both OpenFin and Beacon’s ecosystems. The partnership will allow RocketFin to provide its customers with a unique integrated solution that combines risk management expertise with OpenFin’s advanced operating system technology.
With this move, RocketFin can now offer its latest risk management solution on the OpenFin operating system, with the aim of giving customers access to a range of tools to help them manage risk more effectively.
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.