FIs Spending $1.4m on ESG Analytics, Disclosure

A new study that puts a dollar cost to climate-related performance reporting has found that the cost of gathering, analysing and reporting data by financial institutes is $1.37 million annually, while corporate issuers spend US$533,000 a year on disclosures. The report by The SustainAbility Institute by ERM for Ceres and Persefoni, also found that firms said benefits of disclosure and assessment included improved achievement of sustainability goals, better access to data that can help enhance corporate strategy and, in some cases, lower cost of capital.

Encompass Forms Transformation Team to Help Banks Drive KYC Automation Initiatives

Encompass, a provider of a Know Your Customer (KYC) automation platform, has set up a transformation team charged with ensuring banks reap the benefits of automation initiatives. The team will help companies define what success means and facilitate organisational alignment required to achieve KYC transformation.
Encompass transformation directors include former Barclays senior executive Howard Wimpory, who joined Encompass in London in 2021; Jo Scanlon, who supports customers in APAC; and Darren Marion, also part of the team in Sydney, Australia. Nicola Pickering, vice president, customer success and delivery at Encompass, comments: “It is great to hear from customers how valuable our team’s direction and thought leadership is in navigating KYC transformational change.”

Bloomberg Releases Price Transparency Data Solution for SEC Rule 2a-5

Bloomberg has released a price transparency data solution aimed at helping clients tackle the regulatory challenges presented by SEC Rule 2a-5’s requirements for readily available market quotations. The solution is powered by BVAL, Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service, and is
available to BVAL customers ahead of the compliance data of 8 September, 2022 for new SEC rule, which is part of a broader regulatory trend around pricing transparency and valuation oversight.

“Given the need to understand in detail what is behind a price, clients approached us seeking a solution to navigate compliance with Rule 2a-5,” says Brad Foster, global head of enterprise data content at Bloomberg. “BVAL’s price transparency data fields and our detailed rules engines enabled us to design a data solution to help compliance and legal teams adapt to the rule’s requirements for readily available market quotations.”

Iress Helps Kepler Cheuvreux Optimise Trading Outcomes

Financial technology provider Iress has helped its client Kepler Cheuvreux to improve trading outcomes in its first full year or use. Iress is now Kepler Cheuvreux’s unique market data provider for all front-office applications, delivering the high-performance API data feeds that power the Kepler Cheuvreux ecosystem.

Kepler Chevreux’s recent review of Iress’ performance highlighted a number of improvements to trading and business outcomes, including improving the firm’s hit rate for smart order routers to 97-99% on most UK-based venues, and delivering additional insights that help Kepler evaluate and predict market movements.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange Collaborates with big xyt to Launch New Equity Market Data Analytics Platform

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the largest stock exchange in Africa, has deployed a new information service, JSE Trade Explorer, in collaboration with data and analytics solutions vendor big xyt. Using peer group rankings, the service will enable firms that trade on JSE to explore their market share, examine how they interact with the order book, and view their trading performance.

The offering will be delivered directly to trading participants of the exchange’s cash equity and ETF markets under a white labelling arrangement. As the tools are fully hosted and web-based, the new service is accessible without the need for IT integration or support by end users.

TNS Goes Live with Managed Level 1 Access in Bergamo IT3 Data Centre

Transaction Network Services (TNS), the infrastructure, connectivity, market data and analytic services provider, has leveraged its Layer 1 switching solution to deliver ultra-low latency mutualised market access and network connectivity to the Aruba Global Data Centre IT3 in Bergamo, Italy, in readiness for Euronext’s planned go-live in June.

The company has announced that operations now live in IT3, and that it has seamlessly moved trading operations from Basildon to Bergamo for both existing and new customers, who can now directly access the Euronext exchange matching engine.

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.

Bloomberg Releases New Common Data Format for LEIs

Bloomberg has released the common data format 3.1 (CDF 3.1) for Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs). The latest CDF published by the Global LEI Foundation includes six entity category data fields that depict the type of legal entity, such as investment fund or government entity, as well as residential government entities, types of fund relationships and corporate events like name or address changes.

These inclusions are designed to increases transparency of legal entity types, relationships and events, enabling firms to better understand their exposure to different types of legal entities, ensure they are meeting KYC requirements, and have access to meta data for onboarding clients. Steve Meizanis, global head of symbology and LEI services at Bloomberg, says: “The additional data being collected around mutual funds, government entities and corporate events allows the LEI to meet the evolving entity identification needs of the industry.”

Refinitiv Makes Quant Data Available on Snowflake Data Cloud

Refinitiv, an LSEG business, has made its quantitative data available on Snowflake’s financial services data cloud, allowing asset managers and hedge funds to access the data alongside existing vendor and proprietary data on the Snowflake data cloud. The Refinitiv data includes a repository of 60-plus financial data sets, quantitative alpha models and other third-party and alternative data sets.

Austin Burkett, head of quantitative analytics and content at Refinitiv, comments: “Our clients require solutions that help speed and simplify the data intake and concordance process. Our quantitative analytics service is a trusted and longstanding offering in the market, and its delivery through Snowflake magnifies its value to our mutual clients.”