The Russia-Ukraine war has caused rapid sanctions inflation since March in several autonomous sanctions programs, contributing to a sanctions inflation rate of 14.6% year on year, according to London Stock Exchange Group’s Refinitiv Global Sanctions Index (GSI).

Refinitiv’s annual GSI white paper, the second edition of which was released last week, measures and analyses rising hyperinflation of autonomously issued sanctions programmes. The rapid inflation since March marks what Refinitiv describes as a major shift in the volumes of sanctions autonomously issued by national governments or regional bodies. The once-prevalent consensus-based sanctions mechanisms created under the aegis of the UN are an increasingly minor component of the GSI, representing just 2% of overall sanctions.

McObject has released version 8.3 of eXtremeDB, a hybrid in-memory and persistent database management systems (DBMS) that can be used as an embedded database with or without SQL, a client/server database, and a distributed database. New features in eXtremeDB 8.3 include: server-side authentication when using eXtremeDB as a client/server DBMS; addition of authentication to the JDBC driver; C# SQL API for .NET 5 and .NET 6;  and SQL execution engine improvements.

Financial institutions are spending millions of dollars every year inefficiently onboarding and maintaining clients, according to research from Fenergo, a provider of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solutions. A global study of over 1,000 C-level executives across corporate and institutional banks found that, on average, over half are spending between $1,500 and $3,000 to complete just one client KYC review.

The findings also show over half of financial institutions spending between 61 and 150 days on KYC reviews for clients, much of which is spent gathering and inputting data across multiple systems. Overall, more than 80% of respondents have between 1,000 and 2,500 employees working on KYC tasks. Some 90% said labour-intensive KYC impacts their ability to make better risk decisions. However, the data also shows financial institutions now focusing investment on automation with 62% prioritising spend for technology.

Know Your Customer, a provider of modular digital client onboarding solutions, and Hawk AI, a provider of anti-money laundering surveillance technology for financial institutions, payment firms and fintechs, have made a strategic partnership that will build a stronger defence against financial crime.

The partnership combines Know Your Customer’s digital onboarding and business KYC solutions with Hawk AI’s transaction monitoring capabilities, giving clients access to an integrated offering that will help them centralise and harmonise multiple and often complex elements of their AML programmes. As well as a stronger defence against financial crime, the partnership should provide an improved end customer experience, and gains in operational efficiency.

Snowflake has opened operations in Mexico with a view to expanding its local and multinational customer base in the country and across Latin America. Sergio Sanchez Polo, country manager for Mexico and LATAM sales lead, heads up the operation and will be by hiring across Latin America with a focus on sales. Snowflake now has offices and operations in 23 countries.

S&P Global Market Intelligence has made a strategic partnership with Novata, provider of an ESG data platform for private markets. The partnership will provide private market investors with a solution that simplifies the process of collecting both financial and ESG data by making Novata’s platform available for S&P Global Market Intelligence customers to bridge ESG data with financial data to provide a single source of insights.

The integration is expected to help market participants make informed decisions about how ESG drives financial outcomes, and enable transparent communication to investors, auditors, boards and other key stakeholders. The platform is intended to be made available through S&P Global Market Intelligence’s iLEVEL, a portfolio monitoring software solution that enables general partners and limited partners to streamline financial data collection.

Copper.co, a provider of custody, trading and settlement services for digital assets, will deploy Fenergo’s SaaS-based client lifecycle management and anti-money laundering solution to onboard increasingly complex client ownership structures. With an excess of $50 billion in monthly notional flow across its infrastructure, Copper needs to automate its client onboarding process to cater for clients ranging from institutional asset managers to wealth managers, hedge funds, private banks, crypto funds and family offices.

Linedata, a provider of asset management technology, data, and services, is providing buy side asset managers with institutional grade access to crypto and digital asset order execution. This is made possible through a collaboration with Liquid Mercury, a digital asset and cryptocurrency trading technology provider, and its order execution management system.

Encompass, a provider of automated KYC solutions, has become a member of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation’s (GLEIF’s) vendor relationship group. The group was set up to help the GLEIF understand market and product requirements for Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) data. Stephan Wolf, CEO at GLEIF and co-chair of the vendor relationship group, says: “With Encompass, we will have more than 40 organisations in the group, which creates a solid and rich dialogue between GLEIF and major sector solution providers to further promote the LEI worldwide.”

ISPT, one of the largest property fund managers in Australia, has chosen SS&C Sylvan for performance measurement. The solution was selected for its ability to process data automatically, calculate key returns, and provide robust analytical tools. It replaces an internally built performance measurement system.