Imandra Launces AI-Powered FIX Wizard

Imandra, the automated reasoning technology company, has launched FIX Wizard, an AI assistant for uts FIX Connectivity suite aimed at banks and trading entities. Based on Imandra’s neuro-symbolic architecture, FIX Wizard automates the analysis of financial protocols and APIs, to streamline client onboarding in capital markets. The new tool integrates statistical AI with Imandra’s proprietary automated reasoning, offering a Generative AI assistant that ensures compliance with regulatory demands through verifiable audit trails.

The FIX Wizard uses Imandra’s “digital twin” of a FIX gateway, creating a full logical model of the API to provide comprehensive diagnostics and recommendations across various trading systems. It is designed to address the intricacies of FIX specifications, helping to decode and troubleshoot client data, manage engagement rules, and conduct conformance testing efficiently.

Appital Launches ‘Trending Equities’ to Enhance Liquidity Sourcing for Asset Managers

Appital, the price discovery and liquidity sourcing technology vendor, has introduced a new feature within its Appital Insights platform aimed at revolutionising liquidity sourcing in the asset management sector. ‘Appital Trending Equities’ enables deal originators on the buyside to proactively create and expose potential liquidity opportunities in relevant equities before officially launching a deal. This facilitates a more strategic approach to bookbuilding by allowing trading desks and portfolio managers to generate market orders in anticipation of future deals.

Asset managers on the Appital platform are already actively using the new feature, which has so far enabled opportunistic portfolio management teams to discover around 50 trading indications, collectively representing over $1 billion in potential liquidity.

Athena Integrates BTON Financial’s AI Trader Co-Pilot

Athena, part of United Fintech, and BTON Financial have announced a strategic integration, incorporating BTON’s AI-powered Trader Co-Pilot into Athena’s Order Management System/Portfolio Management System (OMS/PMS). The integration aims to transform trading decision-making across various financial sectors, including institutional asset managers, hedge funds, banks, and family offices. The development facilitates a more streamlined and efficient process, allowing traders to set order parameters and utilise advanced algorithms with a single click.

The collaboration between Athena and BTON Financial is designed to offer a seamless, scalable solution that leverages artificial intelligence and data-driven trading tools to optimise trading strategies without the need for extensive setup or training.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Adopts DTCC’s ITP Services to Support U.S. T+1 Settlement Transition

DTCC has announced that Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management is utilising its Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) services to enhance trade processing efficiency ahead of the U.S. financial market’s transition to a T+1 settlement cycle on May 28, 2024. The suite includes DTCC’s CTM for central matching, M2i workflow, TradeSuite ID, ALERT, and Settlement Instruction Manager, aiming to fully automate post-trade processes and achieve same-day affirmation (SDA) for APAC region cross-border transactions.

By automating allocation, confirmation, and affirmation, CTM’s M2i workflow and associated services facilitate direct, automated trade affirmations and instruction deliveries for settlement via the U.S. depository, significantly streamlining the management and finality of trade lifecycles. This strategic implementation by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management is designed to enhance transaction efficiency and support the broader industry goals of reduced settlement times.

McKay Brothers International Launches Ultra-Low Latency Bandwidth Service Between London and Stockholm

McKay Brothers International (MBI), the low-latency networking specialist, has unveiled a new bandwidth service providing the lowest latency connection between London’s LD4 data centre and Stockholm’s Stack STO01 data centre. The hybrid wireless-fibre route claims to achieve data transmission speeds that are hundreds of microseconds quicker than existing services, enhancing connectivity for major trading platforms like Cboe Europe in London and Nasdaq-OMX in Stockholm.

MBI, known for its extensive European ultra-low latency wireless network, connects key financial centres across the continent, including Frankfurt, Bergamo, and Madrid, and offers specialised market data services from exchanges such as Eurex and CME. This strategic expansion aims to support high-frequency trading firms, banks, and hedge funds with faster and more reliable data exchange capabilities.

Adaptive Financial Consulting Partners with KCx to Launch New Event-Driven Trading System

Adaptive Financial Consulting (Adaptive) has entered into a strategic partnership with Kepler Cheuvreux’s execution division, KCx, to develop an advanced event-driven trading system utilising Adaptive’s Hydra technology and Aeron, its cloud-native messaging infrastructure for capital markets. The new system aims to enhance KCx’s equities execution platform by integrating a sequencer-based architecture that improves algorithmic trading and simplifies client interactions through a unified interface.

The initiative, marking the first phase of a broader innovation strategy, is designed to boost the firm’s market presence by offering scalable and sophisticated trading solutions across different asset classes. The technology, supporting on-premise and potential future cloud-based operations via AWS, also allows for remote functional testing to meet client performance expectations at launch.

R3 and Quant Selected to Develop Prototype for UK’s Regulated Liability Network

R3 and Quant have been chosen to create the technology prototype for the UK’s Regulated Liability Network (RLN) experimentation phase, an initiative led by UK Finance and supported by EY. This project aims to establish a unified platform facilitating various financial transactions using tokenised and traditional commercial bank deposits. The RLN will serve as a central innovation hub for digital transactions, with confirmed participants including Barclays, HSBC, Citi and Visa, among others. R3 will leverage its Corda platform for shared ledger capabilities, while Quant will enhance money interoperability through its Overledger platform.

The collaboration underscores the strategic aims of R3 and Quant in addressing the complexities of regulated financial environments through advanced ledger and API technologies. The prototype will explore multiple use cases across retail and wholesale payments, including ecommerce and bond issuance, supported by technology partners such as DXC Technology and Coadjute.

T+1 and Voice Analytics to Feature at Symphony Innovate 2024 (NYC)

A-Team Group recently caught up with Ben Chrnelich, President and CFO of Symphony Communications to discuss how their Enterprise Collaboration and Workflow platform is helping firms prepare for T+1 – which goes live on May 28, and the significant uptick in e-comms messaging volume over their Federated Communications offerings. 

Both of these core offerings will be in focus at Symphony Innovate 2024 in NYC on April 18th.   

Bringing Insights to Trader Voice will highlight Cloud9 Transcription and Voice Analytics in Action with representation from Goldman Sachs and Capital One. 

As Chrnelich recalls; “Going into 2024, there were signs that capital flows were opening up. People were looking to invest in areas around RegTech and compliance technology. The seriousness of industry fines related to off-channel communication was definitely being acknowledged and addressed by the industry and regulated participants. We’ve seen the messaging volume on our federated offerings grow by almost 400% since Q1 of 2023.” 

Symphony Communications started in 2014 as an industry-backed consortium, to deliver a messaging platform for data security and compliance, and an open architecture platform to facilitate real-time cross-company and inter-company communication. The founding consortium members included BofA Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Wells Fargo. Today, the company’s solutions support over half a million users, servicing more than 1,000 institutions.

Central Asian Stock Exchange Implements QUIK Software from ARQA Technologies

The Central Asian Stock Exchange (CASE) in collaboration with ARQA Technologies, has successfully implemented QUIK software, significantly upgrading its trading platform in Tajikistan. ARQA Technologies was chosen through a competitive tender to replace the existing platform. The new system now serves as the matching backbone for CASE, handling client instructions, market data distribution, and pre-trade risk management.

The QUIK software, implemented within three months, is also used for primary public debt placements in Tajikistan, with plans to expand into secondary bond markets and other securities sectors in the future.

EDM-as-a-Service Provider Rimes to be Bought by Rothschild Unit

Enterprise data management (EDM) services provider Rimes is to be acquired by the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co.

Rimes investor EQT and its co-shareholders didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal to Five Arrows, but Bloomberg estimated the transaction values the business at between €800 million (US$862m) and €900m.

New York and London-based Rimes was founded in 1996 and its cloud-based EDM-as-a-service technology platform is used by 60 of the world’s 100 largest asset managers, the company said in a statement. Its customers oversee more than $75 trillion.

Rimes has been a long-time supporter of A-Team Group and its representatives have regularly occupied speaker seats at the group’s summits and webinars.

The Five Arrows Long Term Fund (FALT) and Five Arrows Principal Investments (FAPI) make up Five Arrows, which focuses its activities on the B2B data and software sectors.

Rimes chief executive Brad Hunt said the company has grown significantly in the past few years.

“Today, Rimes combines the customer-centric ethos and deep domain expertise that has differentiated us since 1996 with the industry’s most modern technology and an innovative, comprehensive product offering designed to address the investment data challenges of the future,” Hunt said in a statement. “We look forward to joining forces with Five Arrows to build upon our strong momentum going forward.”

Seif Khoufi and Constantin Sabet d’Acre, managing director and director of FALT, said in a joint statement that they believe Rimes is “uniquely positioned to continue to support its customers’ expanding needs”.

The deal is yet to be approved by regulators, but in a statement Rimes said it expected the sale to be passed in the coming months.