AI is Reshaping the Build-Vs-Buy Tech and Data Question for Asset Managers
The traditional data technology build-vs-buy decision facing asset managers has been blurred by artificial intelligence. Not only has the technology made the “build” option faster to achieve and more affordable, it has also reframed the notion of where exactly the building happens. At the same time, the risks associated with AI’s inclusion in the equation...
AI May Well Be a Big Accelerator, But Let’s Not Forget the Destination
By Chris Livesey, Chief Executive of AutoRek Everyone’s racing to add AI to everything, but are we clear on the finishing line? Across the financial services software landscape, vendors and end-user customers are chasing a new goal: how fast they can AI-ify or agentify everything that moves to claim unique differentiation and plant a flag for their brand as a...
Industry Backs FCA AIFM Reform but Warns of Uneven Costs.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently proposed the biggest overhaul of the UK alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) regime since 2013. The projected benefits will depend on whether greater proportionality can reduce compliance overhead without shifting costs to smaller managers. The proposals in CP 26/28 replace the current distinction between full-scope and sub-threshold AIFMs with...
UBS AML Enforcement Exposes Underlying Data Weaknesses
A coordinated US enforcement action against UBS Financial Services has exposed how incomplete data feeds, faulty system configuration and weak customer-risk controls can undermine an automated anti-money laundering (AML) programme. FINRA found that UBS failed to monitor adequately more than 60,000 foreign-currency wires worth over $10 billion between January 2019 and June 2023. The deficiencies...
Facteus Expands Data Coverage with a Focus on Signal Continuity
As alternative data becomes more deeply embedded in investment research and quantitative models, the quality of a dataset is increasingly about more than its size. Coverage and granularity remain important, but so too does the ability to maintain a consistent, representative signal as underlying data sources and panels evolve. That challenge is central to the...
Multiplying the Value of Unstructured Data
Financial institutions have spent years expanding the range of data available to investment, trading and risk teams. Increasingly, however, the challenge is not obtaining more data but making sense of what they already have. Unstructured data is estimated to account for 80-90% of the information generated withinfinancial institutions, encompassing everything from regulatory filings and earnings-call...
AI Expands Buy-Side Compliance Remit as Resources Remain Flat
Four in five respondents to a survey of US investment advisers use artificial intelligence, but many have yet to put testing, validation and third-party oversight behind that adoption. Around 60% of chief compliance officers also hold another executive role, so the added AI duties sit alongside their existing responsibilities. Amended Regulation S-P also requires advisers...
Ripple Investments in ZILO and Licuido Expand Transfer Agency, Tokenisation Capabilities
With a focus on providing additional services in the capital markets, payments and liquidity infrastructure provider Ripple has made strategic investments into two companies: ZILO, which provides transfer agency asset technology, and Licuido, a tokenisation platform. Both investments – which collectively bring regulated transfer agency, issuance, and collateral mobility to Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) –...
Institutions Eye Stablecoins for Payments and Wall Street 2.0; But Understanding and Planning is Key to Success
It was just a dozen years ago that the first stablecoins emerged. The first entrants were BitUSD, a crypto-backed coin, and Realcoin, which was fiat backed. While BitUSD lasted just a few years, Realcoin – which quickly rebranded to Tether – became the undisputed leader in a space now valued at more than $300 billion....
Ten European Banks Kickstart RL1 DLT; Look to Establish Common Infrastructure for Tokenisation Use Cases
Ten European financial institutions are establishing the RL1 Cooperative to create a neutral, member-owned, pan-European DLT utility for tokenised assets, digital money and next-generation financial markets applications. Created as a European Cooperative Society (SCE) based in Luxembourg, the founding members of RL1 – for Regulated Layer One – comprise ABN Amro, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit...