TradingTech Insight Brief
Virtu Financial and MarketAxess Partner to Offer ETF and Fixed Income Products
Virtu Financial and MarketAxess have partnered to provide access to global exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and fixed income securities. The partnership will provide disclosed and anonymous ETF trading via a request-for-quote (RFQ) protocol. Doug Cifu, Virtu F CEO says clients of MarketAxess will have access to Virtu’s leading RFQ hub and will benefit from the seamless integration of RFQ hub’s ETF trading analytics services. In addition, RFQ hub will have access to the MarketAxess fixed income platform.
KRM22 Deploys Irisium Market Surveillance App on OpenFin OS
KRM22 has deployed its market surveillance desktop application Irisium on the OpenFin OS, making it the first compliance vendor to run on the operating system, which supports application interoperability. Irisium provides analytics tools to help financial services firms identify and manage potential risks including market abuse, fraud and operational issues. Using the app in the OpenFin environment will give clients access to an integrated desktop, enhanced user experience, and improved workflows to meet their market surveillance obligations.
Saxo Bank and Brown Advisory Cooperate to Offer Ethical Stocks to SaxoSelect Clients
Saxo Bank, a fintech focused on multi-asset trading and investment, and Brown Advisory, a global investment manager with a history in sustainable investing, have cooperated to add a digital investment portfolio, Ethical Selection, to the SaxoSelect universe. The portfolio offers a cost-effective way to invest in a sustainable, all-cap, 30-40 stock portfolio comprising US listed companies. Brown Advisory’s research goes beyond negative screening and evaluates every company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) attributes to maintain a focus on companies that use sustainability drivers to add value to shareholders.
Simudyne Raises $6 Million to Develop Simulation Technology for Financial Services Firms
Simudyne, a simulation technology company, has closed $6 million Series A fundraising led by Barclays and including Graphene Ventures, an early investor in Snap and Lyft, and Gauss Ventures, an early investor in Revolut and Tandem, bringing total capital raised since Simudyne was formed to $10 million. The new funds will help Simudyne continue to invest in talent and accelerate its engagement with the financial services sector. It will also expand the application of its enterprise-ready software beyond bank stress testing, financial risk and contagion management, to applications including market execution and anti-money laundering.
Archax Opts for ClearBank’s Banking-as-a-Service
Archax, a forthcoming institutional digital securities exchange based in London, has selected ClearBank’s banking-as-a-service solution to access a range of API-based services including real-time payments services across BACS and CHAPS and 24x7x365 Faster Payments. As a security measure for Archax clients, ClearBank will ensure the protection of funds, holding them at the Bank of England.
Ensemble Capital Absolute Return AI Fund Goes Live with Numerix Oneview
Ensemble Capital, an absolute return global fund, has gone live with Numerix’s Oneview asset management solution for real-time risk and portfolio management. The hedge fund uses machine learning and deep learning AI algorithms to analyse market data, forecast moves, and trade currency and currency options to generate uncorrelated returns to traditional asset classes. The fund will use Oneview as a managed service in the Amazon Web Services cloud, with Numerix providing third-party connectivity to its execution platforms and prime broker/fund admins. Portfolio accounting and cash management are supported, as well as API integration to market data providers and trading venues.
OpenGamma Raises $10 million in Growth Funding
OpenGamma, a derivatives analytics provider, has raised $10 million in funding led by early-stage fintech and B2B software venture capital firm Dawn. The funding round included participation from existing investors CME Ventures and ex-SunGard CEO and fintech angel investor, Cristóbal Conde. OpenGamma’s analytics solutions are designed to help global banks, hedge funds and asset managers reduce the cost of trading derivatives.
Redline Expands Support for Canadian Equities
Redline Trading Solutions, a provider of order execution systems, is upgrading and building on its support for Canadian equities. Upgrade features include low-latency feed handlers for the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), Canadian Securities Exchange, Omega Nasdaq CXC, Nasdaq CX2, and Aequitas. John Hanna, global head of sales and field engineering at Redline, says the company is eyeing APAC to potentially expand its offerings further. The company is also working to release a composite Mexican order book.
Vela Provides Colo Services for JPX Markets
Vela, a provider of market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading, has made its Direct Market Access (DMA) platform available at the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) site in Tokyo. By colocating in cabinets with premier access to JPX markets, Vela can offer ultra-low latency order routing and market data to Osaka Exchange (OSE). A Tier 1 investment bank is among one of Vela’s first clients in this colocation space. With ASX already live on the platform, JPX is the next step in Vela’s global expansion with further points of presence planned in key APAC markets including SGX and HKEX.
Willis Towers Watson Selects SimCorp Dimension
Global advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson has chosen SimCorp Dimension to provide a front-to-back system for its global delegated investments business. Serving a global institutional investment community, Willis Towers Watson’s investments business will use a spectrum of SimCorp Dimension elements from Asset Manager in the front office to trade lifecycle management, investment accounting and SimCorp Coric client reporting. SimCorp’s integrated Investment Book of Record (IBOR) will support timely, accurate and centralised data.