GLEIF Initiates Use of Verifiable LEI with Signing of 2021 Annual Report

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has achieved a milestone in the realisation of a global ecosystem for digital business identity with the first use of a verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) to sign its 2021 annual report. The vLEI, a digitally trusted version of the LEI, has the potential to meet the need for automated digital verification of the legal identities of businesses.

GLEIF’s annual report illustrates that vLEIs can be used to sign specific sections, or even facts, within a report or data set, as well as reports in their entirety. Financial statements have been signed, using individual vLEIs, by GLEIF’s chief financial officer and GLEIF’s auditors. The entire report has been signed by the foundation’s CEO and board chair.

GLEIF is now working to finalise a qualification programme to enable vLEI issuers to become operational later in the year. For the purpose of the proof-of-concept annual report demonstration, GLEIF granted Ubisecure temporary vLEI Issuer status, which enabled Ubisecure to issue GLEIF with vLEIs.

Deepki Acquires Property Sustainability Assessor Fabriq

Real estate ESG data provider Deepki has bought its UK-based competitor Fabriq weeks after revealing to ESG Insight that it wanted to use a €150 million cash injection to expand its global reach. London- and Paris-based Deepki didn’t disclose the value of the latest deal. Fabriq’s software helps real estate owners reduce their carbon footprints by gathering and analysing energy efficiency data.

Horizon Enhances Trading Platform to Support Actively Managed Certificates

Trading technology vendor Horizon Software has announced that its trading platform now supports AMCs (Actively Managed Certificates), providing clients with the ability to manage the whole AMC trading lifecycle, including product definition, pricing, quoting, hedging and rebalancing, and business logic customisation.

Clients can also leverage Horizon’s Algo Framework to further extend AMC capabilities, whether this is to customize the AMC pricing logic, fine-tune the automated execution engine or implement Straight Through Processing rules to streamline the execution process.

Northern Trust Forms New Digital Assets and Financial Markets Group

Northern Trust has announced the formation of its Digital Assets and Financial Markets Group, combining the teams responsible for supporting the fast-growing digital asset markets and those dedicated to providing market access and insights across the traditional securities services markets.

The new group, formed in response to the growth of digital markets alongside the continued evolution of the traditional securities services marketplace, will be headed by Justin Chapman, who currently is global head of Market Advocacy Innovation and Research.

Singletrack Secures Investment from Accel-KKR to Accelerate Global Expansion

Following its recently announced partnership with Glue42, Singletrack, the capital markets client engagement and analytics company, has announced a ‘significant’ capital growth investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused private equity firm.

Founded in 2009, Singletrack’s engagement, research management and analytics platform for capital markets is designed to help clients on both the sell and buy sides maximise revenue, efficiency and profitability. The new investment will enable the company to accelerate expansion plans into global markets and execute on strategic M&A.

Nasdaq and Climate Impact X Partner to Power New Global Carbon Exchange

Nasdaq and Climate Impact X (CIX), a global marketplace and exchange for quality carbon credits, have entered into a strategic technology partnership that aims to help unlock price transparency and liquidity in the voluntary carbon market. The agreement will see CIX leverage Nasdaq’s matching technology to power its spot trading platform, which will launch in early 2023 for financial institutions and institutional investors worldwide.

Through Nasdaq’s Marketplace Services Platform, CIX will enable trading in a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment. CIX’s spot exchange will bring exchange-grade trading functionalities to the voluntary carbon market, matching buyers and sellers.

Linedata Releases Next Generation Portfolio Management Solution

Linedata has introduced its next generation portfolio management solution, Linedata Accumen, a suite of web-based features powered by the company’s asset management platform, and built to work alongside the company’s Longview trade order management system to help asset managers serve clients quickly and continuously. The solution includes interactive dashboards and summaries enabling investment teams to continuously monitor portfolios with a holistic view across entire books of business and investment activity, while receiving automatic notifications when action is needed.

“Leveraging personalisation and automation is the next generation of portfolio management that saves both time and effort for investment teams,” says Timothée Raymond, global head of innovation and technology at Linedata. “We know asset managers are under constant pressure to meet sales objectives, which is why we developed Accumen to provide then with a bird’s-eye view of every portfolio to pinpoint where attention is necessary, and deliver real-time alerts with meaningful insights into both overall and individual accounts.”

SEB Acquires Stake in Swedish Property Data Firm Metry

SEB Greentech Venture Capital has bought a stake in Swedish sustainability data firm Metry to capitalise on rising demand from banks for ESG-related performance indicators on real estate. Metry gathers data from the built environment to help owners and investors make property more efficient and to help them report on their assets’ green credentials.

Survey Finds Three-Quarters of Leaders Lack Confidence in Data

Almost three-quarters of senior decision makers have no confidence in data being reported to stakeholders, according to a global survey of executives by Workiva. The study also found that organisations are dividing their sustainability budgets 43 per cent to environment, 29 per cent to social and 28 per cent to governance.

Northern Trust Enhances Investment Analysis Module to Support Complex Investments

Northern Trust has enhanced the Investment Analysis module of its Front Office Solutions platform to optimise decision-making for institutional investors who manage sophisticated portfolios, including alternative investments. The Investment Analysis tool allows allocators to conduct data analysis across current, prospective and historical investments, giving them the ability to monitor and assess complex investments through interactive charts and templates. Key features include the ability to conduct correlation analyses with interactive heat-maps and run returns analyses with drawdown charts.