ITG colaborates with Commcise for MiFID II research

  • Payments
  • 31.03.2017 08:00 am

Today Commcise, the eminent provider of integrated commission management solutions for investment management firms, and ITG, a major independent broker and financial technology provider, reported that their research payment and management technology solutions have been integrated to provide a seamless end-to-end MiFID II research solution. 

The solution allows asset managers to administer the complete research management process from trade unbundling, reconciliation, budgeting, vendor due diligence and invoice management, research consumption tracking, research evaluation (aka broker vote), research accounting by desk/strategy, RPA custodial aggregation and reporting, all with a single front-to-back audit trail and integrated workflow. 

Under MiFID II, due to come into effect on 3 January 2018, asset managers will be required to be more rigorous in managing their research spend and have robust processes in place to evidence this. Commcise and ITG can help asset managers with every aspect of these regulatory requirements, including ensuring all trading activity is unbundled from research fees and evidencing a fair-allocation of research charges to fund level.

Using transactions to pay for research, whilst additionally managing budgets at a desk/strategy/fund level, introduces new complexities for asset managers. Given the short timeline to comply, most firms are considering a process to address these new complexities. The Commcise/ITG solution looks to address this difficult challenge more holistically. Commcise tracks and manages budgets at a desk/strategy or fund level. Where research is managed at a desk level, Commcise automatically pro-rates all research funding and research consumption down to fund-level using daily accounting data to manage more granular fund-level research charges that have been communicated to clients. Commcise calculates fund-level rebates in real time and delivers these instructions to ITG for repayment back to a given client.

Amrish Ganatra, MD at Commcise said “We are very pleased to announce our latest integration with ITG, a market leader in the provision of investment solutions and RPA custodial aggregation services. This is further evidence of the open nature of our platform.” He added, “Commcise are focused on delivering the most regulatory compliant solutions to our clients and this integration with ITG allows firms to manage the end-to-end process in a simple way. Through our combined technology offering, industry expertise and global network, we help asset managers evidence compliance with the MIFID II regulations today”.

Jack Pollina, MD at ITG, commented “This integration with Commcise enhances the value of our comprehensive research payment account solution. With MiFID II fast approaching, investment firms need to rethink their research spend processes and ensure what they have in place is compliant with the new regulations. By collaborating with key partners like Commcise, we can help clients have the best end-to-end solution, meeting their investment research needs as well as their regulatory obligations.” 

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