FactSet Partners Brazilian News and Market Data Vendor Agência Estado

FactSet has struck a strategic partnership with Agência Estado, a real-time news and market data vendor in Brazil. The partnership integrates Agência Estado’s Portuguese-language newswire into FactSet’s workstation to create the Broadcast+ FactSet Workstation, a co-branded solution combining local Brazilian news and content from Agência Estado with FactSet’s data, analytics, and technology services.

FI Feedback Sought in Creation of GFANZ Corporate Climate Data Hub

Financial institutions and auditing companies have been invited to offer their expertise and feedback on the creation of a global corporate climate performance database backed by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The One Planet Data Hub would be handed over to the United Nations once it is complete, and a prototype service is expected to be unveiled next year. Regulators and standards setters are already involved in the project, as are data providers including Moody’s and S&P.

Bloomberg Expands Sustainable Fixed Income Index Offering

Bloomberg has added new sustainable bond indices to its suite of ESG-focused products. The Bloomberg Global Aggregate Green, Social, Sustainability Bond Indices will be built on the financial data giant’s Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, the Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Group’s green, social and sustainability bond indicators, and metrics aligned to the International Capital Market Association Green Bond, Social Bond and Sustainability Bond Principles and Guidelines.

CQG Partners with Lime to Offer Trade Execution on US Equities

Trading technology solutions provider CQG has expanded its partnership with technology-driven broker-dealer Lime Trading Corp. CQG’s front-end trading platforms are now integrated and certified into Lime’s back end for trade execution, giving CQG clients the ability to seamlessly access Lime’s low-latency gateways to US exchanges and dark pool venues for equity trading.

CQG clients also gain access to Lime’s execution services, including its liquidity-seeking algorithm, a smart order router that searches for optimal liquidity in a fragmented marketplace.

Bloomberg Widens Carbon Emissions Scores to 100,000 Companies

Bloomberg has expanded its carbon emissions dataset to 100,000 companies thanks in part to a newly developed in-house estimation model. The new tech has been used to derive carbon scores from companies that haven’t reported their own data. Bloomberg said the latest dataset offers “greater precision in Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions”.

S and G Being Overlooked by Most Reporting Companies: KPMG

Social and governance data is being left out of disclosures by more than half of companies, according to a survey by professional services firm KPMG. In its latest bi-annual Survey of Sustainability Reporting, established in 1993, KPMG also found that 79 per cent of “leading companies” now provide sustainability reports. The report said there remains a “disconnect between the urgency of addressing climate change and social equity”.

Broadway Upgrades Duration Trader to Cater for Increased Bond Volatility

Front office solutions vendor Broadway has introduced major upgrades to its Duration Trader algorithm. During an ongoing period of volatile European interest rates, the upgrades provide clients with an enhanced ability to efficiently unwind risk, eliminate inefficient manual hedging processes and reduce market leakage.

By enabling customers to move to an automated hedging process, Duration Trader empowers them to keep pace with rapid market movements, reduce trading costs and minimize information leakage, according to the company.

Financial Institutions Spend $1,500 to $3,000 to Complete One Client KYC Review

Financial institutions are spending millions of dollars every year inefficiently onboarding and maintaining clients, according to research from Fenergo, a provider of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solutions. A global study of over 1,000 C-level executives across corporate and institutional banks found that, on average, over half are spending between $1,500 and $3,000 to complete just one client KYC review.

The findings also show over half of financial institutions spending between 61 and 150 days on KYC reviews for clients, much of which is spent gathering and inputting data across multiple systems. Overall, more than 80% of respondents have between 1,000 and 2,500 employees working on KYC tasks. Some 90% said labour-intensive KYC impacts their ability to make better risk decisions. However, the data also shows financial institutions now focusing investment on automation with 62% prioritising spend for technology.

ESMA Makes ESG Data and Markets a Priority

Europe’s markets overseer has placed improving the quality and access to ESG data and financial markets among its priorities for the next five years. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said also in its 2023-2028 Strategy report that it was ready to put the European Union’s sustainability regulations in place and act as supervisor of them.

SmartStream Launches AI-enabled Exceptions Management

SmartStream, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management solutions provider, has launched SmartStream Air version 7, which uses cloud-native AI technology to control exceptions management by learning from user behaviours.

The AI populates fields automatically, sets labels, and runs automations based on the processes it has learned. In addition, it aims to improve STP rates by providing suggestions to the user or fully automating the exceptions management process.