This Week: IHS Markit, Vela, Euronext, ASX, Essentia & More

IHS Markit Integrates Platforms for Fixed Income

IHS Markit has integrated its thinkFolio and Investor Access platforms to create a complete portfolio and order management platform, providing seamless fixed income primary market workflow for buy-side firms. 

thinkFolio is its multi-asset class investment management platform, while Investor Access connects investors and banks on an independent electronic platform for new issuance in capital markets. The integration allows thinkFolio’s front-office users to monitor new issues via the Investor Access Deal Monitor platform, subscribe to those assets, and trigger new security information to thinkFolio and client downstream applications. 

The workflow and toolkit use the Investor Access Deal Services API and FIX messaging. This provides users with the ability to orchestrate allocations at point-of-order creation and to initiate all the required compliance checks before placement. 

Vela Deploys Normalized Market Data Feed in AWS

Vela has deployed SuperFeed within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud environment. The deployment allows clients to access SuperFeed directly from their own AWS deployments without needing additional physical infrastructure or cross connects.

Vela’s SuperFeed is a fully-managed, low-latency market data feed that delivers normalized real-time data via a single source. It is designed to simplify and speed up clients’ access to data to power their front-office trading applications. The feed provides coverage to over 150 markets and data sources, including all major North American and European exchanges and a growing number of Asia-Pacific venues. 

Using AWS PrivateLink, clients can access Vela’s market data feed through flexible logical connections. AWS PrivateLink allows customer networks, via private IP addressing, to securely access the AWS-deployed SuperFeed market data, while ensuring network traffic remains private, within AWS and not over the internet.

Essentia Analytics Delivers Behavioral Analytics to Investment Teams

Essentia Analytics has launched Insight Enterprise, an enterprise data and behavioral analytics solution meant for teams of active equity portfolio managers to help evaluate performance and increase alpha generation in their portfolio. 

Essentia’s flagship product Insight, which was launched in 2013, combines data analytics and specialist behavioral consulting. It enables clients to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their investment processes by providing them with individualized ‘nudges’ to improve their decision-making process. 

Insight Enterprise now delivers these analytics and services to investment managers’ teams, with additional features and a price structure that reduces the per-portfolio cost. It is designed to serve teams of five or more equity strategies. It combines access to Essentia’s full suite of behavioral analytics with an a-la-carte pricing model for the consulting and nudging services. Using this, individual managers can select the tools they want to incorporate into their investment process without paying for services they don’t use. 

ASX Reviews CHESS Replacement Consultation Feedback

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has released initial feedback it received through the consultation of its CHESS replacement project, which concluded on July 28, 2020. 

As of August 4, the exchange said 91% of CHESS users who made submissions can meet the revised go-live date for the CHESS replacement date of April 2022. The few exceptions cannot confirm readiness yet and have asked for more information on particular issues, which ASX said it will assist with. 

ASX said no final decision had been made on the revised schedule. The revised plan will be subject to a detailed review of all submissions and other considerations before being finalized by ASX. 

Asset Control and Finmechanics Partner for FRTB

Data management software provider Asset Control and Finmechanics have launched a solution to help firms accelerate the implementation of the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) and to enhance operational efficiency. 

The joint solution covers both the standardized approach (SA) and the internal model approach (IMA), as well as other regulatory imperatives. Non-modellable risk factors and profit and loss discrepancies can also be identified and addressed. 

The solution leverages Finmechanics’ FM Converge, a microservice-oriented treasury and risk platform, and Asset Control’s enterprise data platform. In addition to FRTB solutions, Asset Control and Finmechanics also provide solutions for enterprise projects, such as transition to new interest rate benchmarks, counterparty credit risk, and end-to-end digitization of banks’ services. 

Volante Technologies Receives $35 Million in Funding

Volante Technologies has received $35 million in growth funding led by Wavecrest Growth Partners with strategic participation from BNY Mellon, Citi Ventures, PostePay, and Visa Inc.

The funding round is the company’s first external capital raise. Volante will use the money to accelerate its cloud expansion globally and reach into new geographies, market segments, and industry verticals.

Wavecrest’s co-founder and managing partner, Vaibhav Nalwaya, will join Volante’s board of directors. BNY Mellon and Volante have been collaborating since 2017 on creating and deploying real-time payment capabilities. Volante currently serves as the translation layer across Citi’s core payments infrastructure. PostePay, a leading Italian Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and part of the Poste Italiane Group, is partnering with Volante to facilitate instant payments and provide a new transactional gateway to traditional interbank networks their open banking platform.  

Euronext Finalizes VP Securities Acquisition

Euronext has completed the acquisition of the Danish Central Securities Depository (CSD) VP Securities. It will now fully consolidate VP Securities’ accounts in its financial statements. 

The acquisition will position Euronext as a leading CSD operator in Europe, as it also has Euronext VPS in Norway and Interbolsa in Portugal, representing €2.2 trillion ($2.6 trillion) in assets under custody, 31 million settlement instructions per year, and 4.5 million accounts. The post-trade business is a major contributor to Euronext’s revenues, representing 23% of 2019 pro-forma revenue. 

Euronext has also appointed Maria Hjorth, the current deputy CEO, as the new CEO of VP Securities, subject to regulatory approval. Hjorth will replace Niels Olsen, who has resigned to pursue personal projects, after leading VP Securities for the past seven years. Hjorth will report to Anthony Attia, Euronext’s global head of listing and post-trade.