New ISO Standard Extends Use of LEI-Based Digital Identity Tools

A recently published ISO standard, ISO 5009, has the potential to extend the utility and value of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) based digital identity tools by facilitating the inclusion of ‘official organisational role’ detail within them in a consistent manner. ISO 5009 paves the way for these tools – such as verifiable LEI (vLEI) credentials and digital certificates with embedded LEIs – to become a universally trusted method of digitally confirming the authenticity of people authorised to act on behalf of an organisation.

Published in February 2022, ISO 5009 permits global uniformity of the listing of official organisational roles by jurisdiction in a structured way. This means that roles of persons acting officially on behalf of an organisation may be specified by a legal entity and incorporated into existing and future digital assets leveraging the LEI.

Stephan Wolf, CEO at GLEIF comments: “In business and regulatory exchanges, it is important to confirm the official roles of people acting on behalf of organisations. In a digital context this can be challenging yet uncompromisingly necessary as we move towards creating and sustaining a digital global economy. For this reason, GLEIF has been committed to the realisation of this ISO standard as it is a significant step forward towards addressing that challenge.”

TNFD Publishes Draft Framework for Risk Management, Disclosure

The first beta version of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) framework for risk management and reporting has been unveiled for consultation. The taskforce, an alliance that counts executives from Bank of America, BlackRock and Néstlé among its members, is dedicated to guiding corporates and financial institutions on making better decisions on activities that have an impact on the natural world. Over the next 18 months stakeholders and market participants will refine and develop the proposed framework.

Sustainalytics Broadens its SFDR PAI Data Provisions to 13,000 Issuers

ESG research, ratings and analysis firm Sustainalytics has updated its data provisions covering key impact assessments necessary for European regulatory compliance. The company’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) Principle Adverse Impact (PAI) tool now cover 13,000 issuers. PAIs are a set of ESG impact tests against which financial institutions will be expected to gauge their investment decisions.

CQG Rolls Out New Cloud-Based Trading and Analytics Platform

Trading technology solutions provider CQG is conducting a phased roll-out of its new cloud-based trading platform, CQG One. The platform is designed for professional traders and institutional investors, and combines design features of the firm’s retail-oriented CQG Desktop platform with market data, charting, visualization and advanced analytics features of CQG Integrated Client, its professional trading platform.

The multi-asset, multi-broker platform will be available through futures commission merchants (FCMs) beginning in April, with new functionality added throughout the year. Institutional clients will be able to utilize a Windows-installed version of CQG One in the future.

Bloomberg Launches All-to-All Bond Trading Service

Bloomberg has launched Bloomberg Bridge, a new global all-to-all service that supports intermediated trading for corporate and emerging market bonds. Users of the service will be able to launch Request for Quote (RFQ) tickets for applicable securities or respond to an RFQ to seamlessly execute a trade, supported by dedicated Goldman Sachs intermediation desks.

The service, which is designed to offer users the ability to source a deep pool of liquidity from Bloomberg’s global network of institutional investors and dealer firms, is scheduled to go live in Europe in Q2 2022, followed by the US and APAC.

BidFX Integrates with Finastra, for Automated Trading Workflow

BidFX, the FX execution management system (EMS) vendor, has integrated its platform with Finastra’s Fusion Confirmation Matching Service (CMS), providing combined front office to back office workflow capabilities for mutual clients, from execution to settlement.

The end-to-end workflow provided by the combined BidFX/CMS solution aims to increase straight-through processing and reduce operational risk for clients.

RiskBusiness Acquires Gold Operational Loss Database

RiskBusiness Services has acquired the Global Operational Loss Database (Gold) from partner UK Finance, the former British Bankers Association (BBA). RiskBusiness, a UK-based provider of SaaS-based compliance solutions, plans to offer the Gold database to allow firms to benchmark and measure their exposures to operational risk.

Mike Finlay, CEO and Chief Product Architect, RiskBusiness, says: “As the regulatory community have recognised that theoretical capital calculation models do not, in of themselves, reduce a firm’s exposure to operational risk, so have firms recognized that there are other uses for external loss data than just for capital modelling purposes. If a firm wishes to manage operational or non-financial risk within its risk appetite, then it needs to be able to benchmark and measure itself against its peers in the industry. Gold by RiskBusiness provides exactly the necessary, high quality, external dataset to facilitate proactive risk management, benchmarking and informed decision making.”

Integral Deploys FX Workflow Technology at Singapore SG1

Integral, technology provider to the buy-side, has announced that the IntegralFX service is now available in Singapore’s SG1 data centre, enabling local clients in Singapore to deploy pricing engines, algos, connectivity and distribution tools, as well as making prices, obtaining liquidity and hosting algorithms in a low latency configuration.

Integral’s platform provides banks, brokers and other market participants with a complete eFX sytem for their internal traders and external customers, and is the first complete cloud-based FX workflow SaaS platform in SG1, according to the company.

Pico Expands RedlineFeed to APAC with the Addition of Two Chinese Exchanges

Following its acquisition of Redline Trading Solutions earlier this year, Pico has expanded RedlineFeed’s global coverage beyond European and US markets into APAC, with the addition of normalised market data for Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE).

The service is available at Pico’s colocation facility at the Hosting Services Data Centre of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), where Pico delivers SSE and SZSE market data over PicoNet, for receipt and consumption across global regions.

Google Cloud to Host Arabesque’s ESG Book

Arabesque has put its free-to-access sustainability scores and database ESG Book into the cloud. The Germany-based data provider and asset manager selected Google Cloud to host the service, which was launched late last year and put together by an alliance of banks and financial institutions. Google Cloud customers will be able to access ESG Book via the host’s Analytics Hub. ESG Book Chief Executive Daniel Klier said putting the service in the cloud would better enable access and “unlock both value and actionable, real-time insights”.