ESMA Recognises ICE’s Data Indices Unit as Benchmark Administrator

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has granted recognition to Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) Ice Data Indices as a third-country benchmark administrator.

This recognition allows one hundred climate transition and Paris-aligned benchmarks offered by the administrator to remain available for use by supervised entities in the European Union. The fixed income benchmarks incorporate ESG screening criteria alongside a carbon reduction methodology.

Preston Peacock, head of Ice Data Indices, said that receiving this recognition expands the organisation’s reach and supports efforts to help investors make decisions to achieve emission reduction goals.

The administrator also manages other benchmarks that are not subject to the European Union benchmarks regulation. Ice Data Indices previously secured recognition as a third-country benchmark administrator from the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

EXL Integrates NVIDIA Foundation Model to Expand Proprietary Data Use

EXL has integrated the Build Your Own Transaction Foundation Model developer example from NVIDIA into its artificial intelligence and analytics offerings, enabling financial institutions to build and deploy transaction intelligence applications using their own data.

The application uses a foundation model designed to analyse billions of transaction events, such as payments, transfers and behaviour signals. Foundation models provide a unified intelligence layer across transaction activity rather than relying on separate systems for individual tasks.

“Every financial institution is sitting on decades of transaction data that holds the answer to their biggest challenges – fraud, risk, underwriting, customer experience,” said Kevin Levitt, senior director of global business development for the financial services industry at NVIDIA. “By integrating the Build Your Own Transaction Foundation Model developer example with EXL’s deep financial services expertise, financial institutions create a shared intelligence fabric that drives smarter decisions and better customer outcomes.”

The technology helps institutions transition from rules-based systems to automated transaction monitoring by embedding the tool into the EXLerate.ai platform.

The development expands a collaboration between the two companies to help enterprises deploy industry-specific AI solutions.

Diginex Adds Supply Chain Risk Tech to Platform

ESG, sustainability and compliance specialist Diginex has integrated Risk-to-Remedy as an end-to-end supply chain due diligence solution.

The framework combines worker-level evidence, prioritised remediation and regulator-ready reporting to verify company declarations. It builds on the technologies of Lumen for risk assessment and Apprise for worker engagement, alongside the acquired expertise of The Remedy Project in grievance mechanisms.

Future features will enable clients to manage assessments, collect evidence, monitor non-compliance and maintain records.

Marathon Asset Management Hosts Investment Tech on SimCorp One

Marathon Asset Management, an equity manager based in London, consolidated its investment infrastructure on SimCorp One to retire legacy systems and establish a single data layer across the firm.
The move extends a partnership that began in 2010, which replaces multiple vendor platforms with an integrated platform to automate processes across the investment lifecycle.
The consolidation aims to reduce data reconciliation time, decrease technology management costs, and lower operational risk.

GoldenSource Appoints Ex-SimCorp Leader to New CCO Role

GoldenSource has appointed Jesper Cordes to the newly created chief customer officer role, in which he will lead global account management and customer success functions for the financial data management platform provider.
Cordes previously worked at Enfusion as managing director of client services and spent 25 years at SimCorp, where he created and led the data company’s North American customer organisation.
The position involves helping clients realise value from the platform as financial institutions manage data across investment operations, trading, risk, regulatory reporting, post-trade and AI-readiness.
James Corrigan, chief executive at GoldenSource, said: “Both buy-and sell-side firms are under pressure to modernise the data foundations behind critical decisions, workflows and outcomes. Jesper understands the complexity our clients face, and the level of partnership required to help them succeed. His experience building executive-level client relationships across financial technology makes him the right leader for this next phase of our growth.”

Duco’s Post-Trade Agents Seen Substantially Reducing Reconciliation Times

Duco has launched an agentic operations platform for post-trade workflows.
The platform relies on an engine that processes 20 billion transactions monthly for more than 200 clients, the financial services data automation provider said.

Ten firms are using the autonomous agents in production, benefiting from a decrease in the time required to build a new reconciliation process from two days to four hours.

Chief executive officer and co-founder Christian Nentwich said clients are reporting that agents will run a meaningful share of post-trade operations within three years.

Data Governance Underpinnings of AI Still Lacking Says EDM Association

The EDM Association’s 2026 Global Data Management Benchmark Report states that organizations including financial institutions are increasing investment in artificial intelligence while failing to build the necessary data and governance foundations.

The findings are based on a survey of more than 435 organizations across more than 50 countries. President of the EDM Association John Bottega said AI is becoming a stress test for enterprise data.The study

indicates that 31 per cent of surveyed organizations report advanced data strategy capabilities and 19 per cent demonstrate mature adoption of analytics. The organisation also launched a benchmark repository and dashboard, following previous benchmark studies aligned to its data management capability assessment model framework.

Financial Institutions Among Targets for Motif’s AI-led Wealth Data Platform

Artificial intelligence wealth advisory company Motif has launched an artificial intelligence financial intelligence system called Clarity, which tracks links between markets, assets and financial relationships alongside how and why they alter over time.

Financial institutions can combine the platform into products to allow customers to make investment decisions, whilst analysts and product teams can use it to track market changes.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Mario Leoni said AI products in financial services retrieve information rather than understand it. Multiple financial institutions signed contracts before the launch, representing more than 1.5 million users.

Arcesium Adds AI-led Arcesium Intelligence to Platform

Arcesium has embedded Arcesium Intelligence, an artificial intelligence platform for institutional investment, into its data management and operations platforms to enable firms to deploy automated workflows.

Users can access a library of more than 100 pre-configured agents or build custom applications using a self-service development platform.

The platform gives firms the control, context and flexibility to make AI a core part of how they operate across the investment lifecycle, Arcesium chief executive Gaurav Suri said.

The software automates processes such as net asset value reviews, portfolio monitoring and data quality monitoring within firm-defined governance parameters.

The launch follows the release of AI features in December, which included unstructured data processing capabilities and a model context protocol server.

FactSet Integrates Private Markets Valuation Workflow with Valutico

FactSet has created an integrated valuation workflow for private capital markets in collaboration with valuation technology provider Valutico.

The tie-up connects portfolio data, valuation modelling and reporting into a single system to replace manual spreadsheet tasks.

Financial data from Cobalt, FactSet’s monitoring tool, flows into the Valutico platform where analysts can apply income, market and asset-based methodologies.

Finalised enterprise and equity values return to the Cobalt system to be tracked alongside performance metrics. Analysts can access FactSet market data and transaction multiples within the workflow, which expands on the company’s existing portfolio monitoring and investor reporting tools.

“The methodology, breadth, auditability and consistency required across a growing portfolio of companies demands a purpose-built platform,” said Emily Monaghan, Factset senior vice president and senior director of private capital. “Valutico brings that, and with FactSet’s market data – public company financials, estimates, comps, and transaction multiples – natively integrated into the workflow, our clients get a complete solution that is unique in the market.”