IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, today announced a new service that administers FIX connectivity for asset managers.  The new offering enhances the managed service version of thinkFolio, the order management (OMS) and portfolio modeling (PMS) solution from IHS Markit.    

By managing FIX connectivity on customers’ behalf, IHS Markit helps firms reduce cost and the technical complexity of self-administering a FIX network.  Together, thinkFolio and the FIX network service give asset managers a comprehensive, hosted OMS and trading connectivity solution. The FIX connectivity service incorporates the NYFIX solution from Itiviti which connects over 1,500 trading partners via a global, low-latency network.

“We are combining the robust NYFIX trading hub with our technology expertise to offer a fully managed service that facilitates direct, reliable communication between our buy-side customers and their brokers,” said Spiros Giannaros, global head of thinkFolio and EDM at IHS Markit. “Working with Itiviti and other premium partners is part of how we are enhancing our thinkFolio managed service offering and responding to growing buy-side demand for comprehensive, cloud-based investment management platforms.”

“We are very pleased to have been selected as a strategic partner by IHS Markit,” said Philippe Carré, Global Partnership Director at Itiviti.  “The new service will enable IHS Markit clients to leverage the powerful benefits offered by NYFIX, the industry standard network in terms of size and reliability. Expanding our long-standing collaboration with IHS Markit is an example of our commitment to providing leading technology and services to clients.”

thinkFolio is a multi-asset class investment management platform which mitigates risk, increases operational efficiency and supports decision-making by investment managers. It is deployed as a managed service, supporting firms that want to reduce costs, maximize flexibility and achieve a quick time to market. 

Itiviti provides nearly 2,000 financial institutions with a suite of innovative, multi-asset order routing, connectivity and trading solutions, including NYFIX, one of the industry’s largest FIX-based trading communities. Itiviti merged with ULLINK in March 2018, creating a full-service technology and infrastructure provider. 

encompass corporation (“encompass”), a fast-growing global provider of intelligently automated Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, is pleased to announce that it has been selected by APPx Group Holdings, Inc. (“APPx”) (CSE:APPX), a Canada-based Fintech incubator and leader in diversified Blockchain 2.0 development, to support and enhance its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) processes in line with regulatory requirements.

The APPx founding and executive team has extensive experience of working in regulated sectors and understood the need to confront regulatory compliance head-on while building the company, given the risks in the Fintech space.

APPx has a network of partners and clients whose customers need to be onboarded in line with current AML/CTF regulations. encompass automates this process, reducing friction to ensure a good customer experience and faster onboarding times.

Jay Ruckenstein, President & Co-Founder at APPx, said: “We have worked closely with Canadian regulators since founding the company and are keen to take a leading role in defining AML best practice for the Fintech sector. By raising standards across the board, the whole industry benefits from a good reputation, which encourages adoption and integration within the mainstream financial system. The encompass team has been amazing. They understood what we were trying to achieve when others didn’t.”

Ed Lloyd, Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing, at encompass corporation, said: “APPx is a visionary in the Fintech space and we are delighted to support their goal of developing AML/CTF standards and processes that address the significant financial crime risks facing this sector, while also ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction.”

Cavendish Corporate Finance (‘Cavendish’), the specialist sell-side M&A firm, has advised Rapidata Services, one of the UK’s leading payment platform providers, on its sale to Access Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of software to mid-market businesses. 

The sale represents Cavendish’s second payments transaction in the last three months, highlighting its expertise within the payments sector and its ability to complete high-profile technology deals.

Rapidata Services (‘Rapidata’) was founded in 1997 and supports a range of organisations to quickly and easily collect Direct Debit payments and maximise their regular income. With over 20 years of experience in the payments sector, Rapidata executes bespoke technology, helping it to become the leading Direct Debit specialist in the UK and position itself as a market leader in the Not-For-Profit sector.

Rapidata processes in excess of 13m direct debits per year with a consolidated value in excess of £180m. The business has developed a reputation for delivering market leading payment processing solutions that enable their 600 customers, which include more than 10% of the Top 500 UK Charities, to reduce the administration, cut down on costs, and limit time associated with processing payments.

The deal will allow Access Group to infiltrate the payments sector, and integrate payments processing capabilities for its existing Not-For-Profit customers by building on Rapidata’s prior sector expertise and networks. To accelerate growth, Access Group plans to extend the capability to other sectors including Education and Health & Social Care, where there is a great desire for these facilities.

Cavendish, which advised Rapidata Services on its sale to Access Group, has an extensive track record in TMT and Financial Services. Recent notable deals include the majority share sale of the leading MENA-based payments platform TPAY to Helios Investment Partners, the sale of the leading online payroll software firm Star Computer Ltd to Iris Software, and the sale of the leading foreign exchange platform World First to FTV Capital.

The Cavendish team was led by Jon Edirmanasinghe, Partner at Cavendish Corporate Finance, who also led on the TPAY transaction.

Jon Edirmanasinghe, Partner at Cavendish, commented: “We are thrilled to have advised on the sale of Rapidata to Access Group. It was a pleasure working with Rapidata and its new-found potential within Access Group should be amazing for the business. We ran a text-book sale process, yielding significant competitive tension and ultimately an excellent result for all those involved.

The deal highlights Cavendish’s expertise within the payments sector and wider technology landscape, as well as our ability to identify non-traditional strategic partners for a business and complete transactions with them.”

Chris Bayne, CEO Access Group, commented: “This is another exciting step forward for Access as we continue to broaden our suite of solutions through acquisition and internal research & development.  The capability to process payments has been a growing request from our customers in the Not-For-Profit sector, as well as other of our key verticals including Education and Health & Social Care. Rapidata stood out as a leading UK based payments provider and we are pleased that Cavendish assisted in developing a relationship between the two businesses through to the successful closure of the deal.   We will work with the Rapidata team to continue to provide excellent service to existing users while integrating the payments capabilities into our wider product portfolio."

Charles Blackbourn, Rapidata shareholders, said: "On behalf of all the shareholders of Rapidata I would like to thank Jon, Nathan and the Cavendish team for their advice, guidance and unwavering determination throughout the sale process. We are all delighted with the outcome and are very pleased that we put our trust in Cavendish. You have exceeded our expectations on all fronts having not only achieved a successful outcome for all shareholders but a great home for the business moving forward.

It is rare these days to offer unconditional praise and absolute endorsement but, in this case, it is truly justified.  We would all wholeheartedly recommend Cavendish to other business owners looking to achieve an exit. Well done and thanks again."

National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, and ARQA Technologies have successfully completed the process of integration of NSD’s centralized system for record keeping of mutual fund units (Mutual Fund Distribution Platform) with QUIK software (electronic trading system), allowing investors to conduct transactions with mutual fund units on the primary market. Currently, 20 market participants are connected to the Mutual Fund Distribution Platform.

The integration solution provides clients of brokers (nominee holders) with an access to collective investment market. The solution’s open architecture provides for carrying out transactions and unifying interactions between brokers, asset management companies, and specialized depositories/registrars.

The Mutual Fund Distribution Platform provides higher reliability of transactions by reducing operational risks for all parties; it contributes to the decrease of the workload on brokerage companies’ back offices through expedited processing of instructions.   

Moreover, brokerage companies may use the service of centralized record keeping of mutual fund units and get an access to the full information of instruction statuses.

Investors now may use QUIK software for generating and submitting orders to make transaction with mutual fund units, conducting a pre-trade monitoring of backing the bids for purchase/sale/exchange of mutual fund units, receiving information on balances, open positions, and monetary revaluation of the securities portfolio, and monitoring related orders’ statuses.

“NSD’s goal is to create universal conditions and infrastructure of remote sales. This requires the unification of formats and standards of data exchange, and the better transparency with regard to information disclosure.”Our joint solution will let all the participants to conduct operations actively, and the collective investment market will find an additional instrument for investments,” said Denis Buryakov, Managing Director for Depository Operations, NSD, commenting on the product launch.

“Integration implemented within the framework of the joint project allows professional participants to provide their clients with an access to a new class of instruments based on the standard servicing technologies. In particular, there is an option to buy mutual fund units via a unified broker account,” stated Vladimir Kurlyandchik, Director for Development, ARQA Technologies.  

“We see the great interest of our clients in investing in mutual funds, so of course we expect that the joint project of NSD and ARQA will be successful, as it will facilitate the process of delivering a product from an asset management company to the end client. The new service provided via QUIK, the electronic trading system known to many investors, reduces the number of mandatory bilateral procedures for interacting with asset management companies and automatically performs all functions related to securities settlements,” added Alexander Lesnov, Director for Development, KIT-Finance.

“One of key advantages of this service is that it is an additional channel for remote sales of mutual fund units.       Our clients with brokerage accounts now may use this unique and high quality service when purchasing mutual fund units directly via the QUIK trading terminal,” pointed out Sevinch Ipatova, Deputy General Director for Operations, TRANSFINGROUP Asset Management Company.

Singapore-based cross-border payments company TranSwap has launched its proprietary platform to help SMEs streamline their payment processes and seamlessly make FX payments at the most competitive rates. 

Delta Capita, the international business & technology consulting and managed services firm, has announced its acquisition of Pall Mall Risk Reduction a London-based consultancy specialising in non-financial and conduct risk management for Banks and Investment firms.

Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the region, today announced that its debit and credit card customers can now pay via Google Pay.