Sustainable Trading Secures Eleven Additional Member Firms

Sustainable Trading, the non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices in the trading industry, founded by industry veteran Duncan Higgins earlier this year, has announced an additional 11 firms have joined its membership network. This brings the total number of members of 41 financial services organisations.

As well as working with its members to drive positive ESG change in their own businesses, Sustainable Trading will also oversee a benchmarking and transparency framework to enable clear and efficient communication of progress on best practice, facilitating an ethos of continuous ESG improvement.

SmartStream Launches New Eligibility API for Collateral Management Optimisation

Financial transaction management solutions provider SmartStream Technologies has launched a new Eligibility API for Collateral Management Optimisation, which aims to offer a faster and more efficient way to contain eligibility information within collateral agreements, for both pre- and post-trade collateral optimisation.

The Eligibility API will enable SmartStream’s clients to source eligibility information from OTC and repo collateral systems in real-time, and publish eligible collateral for each legal agreement, which can then be consumed by their optimisation engines.

Tradition Adopts Trayport for Refined Oil Trading Operations Globally

Tradition Financial Services, one of the world’s largest interdealer brokers in over-the-counter financial and commodity-related products, has chosen technology from Trayport, the wholesale energy markets platform and network provider, for its refined oil trading operations globally.

Trayport’s technology is already used by Tradition across a number of other markets, and its Joule broker solution, developed to optimise operations for brokers, to augment broker voice operations and to facilitate an electronic hybrid broker model for OTC markets, is now being used across refined oil.

Appital Bookbuilding Platform Adds TS Imagine to Growing List of Integrated EMSs

Appital, the Equity Capital Marketplace, has integrated TS Imagine’s multi-asset EMS to the Appital bookbuilding platform, to provide buyside clients with greater access to liquidity. The announcement follows the recent Appital collaboration with executing brokers Instinet and Bernstein, and EMSs FlexTrade and FactSet Portware, in anticipation of Appital’s launch later this year.

Driven by demand from global asset management firms, the TS Imagine EMS integration aims to give buyside traders the opportunity to discover hard-to-find liquidity and execute large orders with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion. With this integration, the flow originated on the Appital platform can be seamlessly executed through TS Imagine’s EMS.

FTX.COM Selects Eventus for Global Trade Surveillance and Risk Monitoring

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX.COM has contracted with Eventus, provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, to deploy the firm’s Validus platform for trade surveillance and risk monitoring on all FTX markets globally.

The move represents a substantial expansion of the relationship established late last year, when FTX US chose to deploy Validus for trade surveillance and risk monitoring on the FTX US spot market and on FTX US Derivatives, its licensed cryptocurrency futures and options exchange and clearinghouse.

NowCM and Liquidnet Conduct Successful Simulation of New Issue Workflow

The NowCM Group, digital solutions and infrastructure provider for the primary debt markets, together with Liquidnet, the global institutional investment network, has successfully performed its first simulation of a deal origination and order submission, which involved two leading dealer banks, transaction counsel and a leading European frequent issuer, together with Liquidnet.

The simulation delivered real-time production and negotiation of a complete set of transaction documentation in English and German on NowDocs, NowCM’s documentation platform. The key transaction information and new issue data was shared electronically with Liquidnet’s primary market workflow tools, designed to connect institutional investors to actionable electronic data in the syndication process.

SmartTrade Releases LiquidityFX Next-Generation Platform

Four months after its acquisition of TickTrade Systems, electronic trading platform provider smartTrade Technologies is now releasing a combined LiquidityFX next-generation (LFX-NG) platform, which aims to combine the best of both pre-existing solutions. LFX-NG offers a range of modules, from AI-driven analytics to cryptocurrencies trading through customisable workflows for all client segments. The solution covers spot, forward, NDFs, options, cryptocurrencies and payment routing, and can be deployed either as a full stack or as individual modules.

Higo Bank Selects Tora EMS for Equities Trading

Tora, the order and execution management system vendor recently acquired by London Stock Exchange Group, has been selected by Higo Bank to upgrade their electronic equity trading operations. Higo cited Tora’s Japanese GUI, trade management and position monitoring tools, and a compliance engine set up for Japanese market regulations as key selection criteria. Higo was also keen to invest in a hosted environment platform to reduce their initial IT cost overhead, according to the company.

Colt Offers 10 Gbps Connectivity for AWS Clients in APAC

Colt Technology Services has launched its Colt On Demand cloud connectivity to AWS Direct Connect Hosted services, with speeds of up to 10 Gbps, for customers in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Until now, 10 Gbps connectivity was only available on AWS Direct Connect Dedicated services. This enhancement allows customers can now connect directly to AWS Direct Connect Hosted services without having to use cross-connects, reducing cost and increasing speed of delivery. Customers can also make use of different AWS virtual interfaces (private, public, transit).

FactSet’s Portware Becomes Latest EMS to Integrate with Appital’s Bookbuilding Platform

Appital, the equity capital marketplace, has added FactSet’s Portware EMS to its growing list of integrations, following FlexTrade and Instinet. The integration of Appital’s bookbuilding platform in Portware automates what has traditionally been a highly manual process, while at the same time giving buyside traders the ability to place very large orders or participate in unique liquidity opportunities, according to the company.

Appital is now onboarding asset managers onto its platform in preparation for launch later this year, and has established a working group to help mutual clients define how they want to interact with hard-to-find liquidity, and proactively build books of demand.