TradingTech Insight Brief
R3 Expands Blockchain Software Engineering Team
R3, provider of Corda blockchain software and a player in capital markets, plans to double the size of its London Wall hub to accommodate its growing engineering team. The extra space will also support a hiring plan to increase the company’s global headcount from 215 to nearly 300 by the end of the year. Of this, over half of the new hires will be in the London office, with more than 40 new recruits being made in the capital. The firm’s roster of new hires will consist largely of software engineers.
NIBC Bank Migrates to Torstone Post-trade Platform
Netherlands-based NIBC Bank has completed migration to Torstone Technology’s Inferno post-trade processing platform. Inferno was selected to replace NIBC’s legacy systems as the bank rationalises its operations to drive efficiencies across the wider business. Consolidating processes on Torstone’s SaaS platform will also enable NIBC to benefit from Torstone’s service model, resulting in reduced total cost of ownership. The implementation project began in January 2019, with the bank’s equities and fixed income processes migrating to Torstone’s platform in six months.
SIX Releases Marijuana Related Data Service
SIX has introduced a service covering over 30,000 securities connected with Marijuana Related Businesses (MRBs). The service reflects the changing legal landscape around marijuana. In the US, marijuana has been legalised in some states, but is criminal at federal level. As a result, in some states MRBs can raise money via capital markets, enabling investors to access MRB linked securities. Some countries in Europe consider investing in MRBs as money laundering. MRB Securities service, built on the same model as the SIX Sanctioned Securities Monitoring Service, identifies and lists securities that are directly or indirectly issued by listed MRB entities.
ISDA Selects Bloomberg for Fallback Adjustments
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has selected Bloomberg Index Services to calculate and publish adjustments related to fallbacks that ISDA intends to implement for certain interest rate benchmarks in its 2006 ISDA Definitions. The adjustments reflect the fact that interbank offered rates (IBORs) are available in multiple tenors, while risk-free rates (RFRs) identified as fallbacks are overnight rates. The IBORs also incorporate a bank credit risk premium, while RFRs do not. The adjustments will be published after methodologies based on industry consultation are finalised. ISDA expects the fallbacks to take effect in early 2020.
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.
FIX Trading Community expands into Post-Trade Processing
Trading industry standards body FIX Trading Community has announced the launch of a newset of message types to further support periodic future payment management in the post-tradespace. The introduction of a new set of FIX standard messages will allow firms to send and receive details relating to expected periodic payments, a process which is done prior to any physical cash movement or remittance instructions.
FlexTrade Certifies with IHS Markit thinkFolio
FlexTrade, a global provider of cross-asset execution and order management systems, has extended the integration of FlexTRADER, its broker-neutral execution management system, with IHS Markit’s cross-asset investment management platform, thinkFolio. The combination of execution and order management system space expertise will provide improved global cross-asset trading capabilities across the trading lifecycle. “A certified interface between thinkFolio and FlexTRADER creates the best of both worlds for us at Barings, by giving us the ability to trade in a seamless manner,” said Louisa Paul, Head of Equity Dealing at Baring Asset Management.
BGC Partners Launches New Electronic Trading Platform
BGC Partners has launched Fenics Global Options (Fenics GO) a new electronic trading and market data generation platform involving the arrangement and execution of exchange listed futures and options. Fenics GO, in collaboration with liquidity providers Optiver, IMC and Maven Securities, provides Eurex listed Euro Stoxx 50 Index Options and related Delta 1 strategies allowing global traders to access liquidity electronically and anonymously, whilst being integrated into the Eurex workflow to enable efficient front to back processing of cleared trades.
Infini Capital Management Selects TORA OEMS for Multi-Asset Pairs Trading
Hong Kong-based multi-strategy hedge fund Infini Capital Management has selected TORA for its pairs trading solution. The firm chose the TORA cloud-based order and execution management system (OEMS) on the basis of its configurable functionality and on-the-ground support for fund trading activities. The functionality of TORA’s multi-asset, multi-region and broker-neutral pairs application was another deciding factor. The pairs trading application provides a high degree of control over execution via a series of parameters such as slicing and concurrency. There is also full support for bulk uploads and capacity to trade thousands of pairs concurrently.
TradingScreen Certifies Integration with IHS Markit thinkFolio
TradingScreen, provider of an all-asset class order and execution management system (OEMS), has announced a certified integration with IHS Markit’s investment management platform thinkFolio. The integration ensures that mutual clients benefit from a standardised and certified interface between the two platforms, which will provide scalability and reduce costs. The certification offers thinkFolio clients access to TradingScreen’s software-as-a-service EMS functionality. IHS Markit says the partnership is part of its strategy to extend thinkFolio and deliver a scalable, comprehensive and flexible investment management platform for its clients.