Published
- 03:00 am
Torstone Technology, the leading provider of post-trade securities and derivatives processing, today announces plans to expand in Europe with the appointment of Paul Phillips as Head of European Sales, and Paul Mundy as Product Manager, both based at Torstone’s London headquarters.
These senior appointments have been made in response to increased demand among Torstone’s client base who are required to enhance their post-trade processes to meet increasing regulatory requirements in the UK and Europe.
Paul Phillips joins Torstone Technology with over 20 years’ experience in financial services technology, most recently as Head of Strategic Business Development and Key Account Management, EMEA, at Fidelity National Information Services (FIS). Prior to this, Paul held a number of senior roles globally with SmartStream Technologies and DST Systems.
Paul Mundy joins Torstone Technology from Broadridge Financial Solutions, where he was responsible for managed asset servicing solutions. Prior to this, Paul worked at Barclays Investment Bank overseeing asset services operations and technology solutions, and Smartstream Technologies as a senior consultant on corporate actions and reconciliations.
Commenting on the appointments, Brian Collings, CEO, Torstone Technology said: “Expanding our European team is a key part of Torstone’s global strategy. It will enable us to further strengthen our support for UK clients’ post-trade operations, especially as firms prepare for the MiFID II go-live in less than 8 months’ time. We will benefit greatly from Paul Phillips’ extensive market and regulatory knowledge and his business development experience, as well as Paul Mundy’s technical and operational expertise.”
- 09:00 am
Tradeweb Markets, a leading global provider of fixed income, derivatives and ETF marketplaces, announced that BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale are among the latest clients to join Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan in selecting its Approved Publication Arrangement (APA) service.
“We are pleased to see an increasing number of major banks opting to join the Tradeweb APA service. Their commitment provides further assurances that, as part of the largest portion of the off-venue market, their flow business will be aggregated and therefore blended, resulting in a complete view of the reported market activity. We are also working closely with lead Order Management Systems to ensure that the buy-side clients we are engaged with benefit from a seamless and standardized workflow,” said Simon Maisey, MD, global head of business development at Tradeweb.
Eleven leading banks have so far committed to using the Tradeweb APA. The firm launched its APA-early facility in December last year to enable firms to connect and test well ahead of MiFID II implementation. In addition to post-trade reporting solutions, the facility will offer a robust Tradeweb pre-trade transparency service to help market participants determine if they are subject to reporting requirements, as well as meet the pre-trade SI obligation to make quotes public.
“Regulators are providing more clarity around pre-trade reporting obligations, such as ESMA’s recently published RTS regarding the treatment of package orders. We therefore expect that, despite the delay to the SI regime to September 2018, market demand for a holistic reporting solution will continue to accelerate. This is why we remain flexible and continue to update our pre-trade API specification to meet our clients’ changing needs,” Maisey added.
Nick Lovett, Managing Director and Global Markets, Chief Controls Officer at Credit Suisse, said: “Developing an effective and cost-efficient MiFID II implementation plan is a key regulatory priority this year and using this service is one way that we can help meet our reporting requirements under this directive.”
Bradley Bilgore, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, said: “We identified Tradeweb as our strategic partner from the early stages of our search for an efficient and flexible reporting solution. They have created a production-like environment, which is designed to enable comprehensive testing to ensure our compliance with this landmark regulation, while preventing premature information leakage, for our security and for the security of our clients.”
Frédéric Jeanperrin, Head of Market Regulatory Adaptation & Management at Societe Generale, said:“Societe Generale is pleased to join the Tradeweb APA service. Given Tradeweb’s strong track record in delivering comprehensive regulatory compliant solutions, we are confident that their service will be ready well ahead of the MiFID II deadline enabling Societe Generale to meet its reporting requirements on January the 3rd, 2018.”
Tradeweb submitted its application to the FCA to be authorized as an APA as soon as registration opened on 30th January. The firm is also heavily involved with industry discussions and solutions aimed at addressing the ISIN challenge for OTC derivatives, through membership of the DSB Product Committee.
- 05:00 am
Recently, Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay, the world’s top payment solution providers have unveiled a standardized quick response code (QR) for payments in Thailand. This step enables the country’s transition to a cashless society that is aligned with the Bank of Thailand’s cashless agenda driven by innovation.
In order to pay, holders of MasterCard, Visa, or UnionPay can use a mobile application with a standardized QR code to scan merchant presented QR-code. This solution works on both smartphones and feature phones. Now, citizens of Thailand can enjoy more alternatives to pay electronically, without sacrificing security and convenience.
In addition, the standards are intended to be globally and with the right mobile application consumers will be able to use the same standard QR code to make payments everywhere the standards have been adopted.
Mr. Donald Ong, Country Manager, Thailand and Myanmar, Mastercard commented: “The launch of the Standardized QR Code signals exciting times for Thailand as consumers move quickly to adopt new payments technology. Our own research, for example, shows that 50% of young consumers across South East Asia would use the QR code straightaway, and we believe this reflects the demand in Thailand. This demand will grow further as the technology is rolled out at small shops across the country, and includes bill payments and cash on delivery as well. Developed in line with global standards, this QR code solution means Mastercard users have even more peace of mind, as well as extra convenience when paying for goods and services. This is yet another strong offering as Mastercard supports Thailand’s evolution towards a cashless society.”
- 07:00 am
Ancala Partners LLP (‘Ancala’), the independent mid-market infrastructure investment manager, and The Peel Group, one of the UK’s leading private real estate investment and infrastructure companies, today announced a joint venture to establish an independent multi-utility operator to be named Leep Utilities (‘Leep’).
Ancala has acquired a 50% share in part of Peel’s existing utilities business, which owns and operates a range of private and regulated ‘last mile’ electricity, water and district heating utility assets. The new entity will provide a platform offering a complete utilities solution to new residential and commercial developments.
Peel’s current multi-utility platform has over 2,000 connections to homes and businesses, including MediaCityUK, intu Trafford Centre, Liverpool Waters and Liverpool International Business Park. The business is licensed by Ofgem and Ofwat to own and operate electricity and water networks within the group’s portfolio. Leep Utilities will build on these foundations by continuing to provide and expand its offering to Peel developments, whilst bringing much-needed competition in the market for utility connections to new UK commercial and domestic schemes.
Spence Clunie, Managing Partner, Ancala Partners LLP, commented:
“Peel has a high quality utilities team in place that has been backed by The Peel Group, one of the foremost real estate enterprises in the U.K. This team will be augmented by the deep utilities and investment experience that exists in Ancala. This is another example of how we proactively source platforms that add value for our investors.”
Steven Underwood, Chief Executive, The Peel Group, said:
“We are delighted to have reached agreement with Ancala Partners on the creation of Leep Utilities. The launch of this exciting new venture is directly aligned with our strategy of securing high-quality partners to invest alongside Peel for long-term growth and to enhance the prospects for our key infrastructure and real estate investments.”
David Glover, Operations Director, The Peel Group, and Chairman of Peel Utilities, added:
“Our utilities team have worked incredibly hard to establish a strong position in the marketplace. This partnership with Ancala now offers exciting opportunities for the future which will build on our achievements to date.”
- 04:00 am
iMarket Communications, a premier telecommunications provider specializing in trader voice and data solutions for the financial, banking and energy industries, and GreenKey Technologies, creator of an artificial intelligence (AI) and voice-driven collaboration tool for financial market participants, today announced an interconnection partnership.
Dennis Costello, President of iMarket Communications, said: "iMarket is dedicated to bringing our customers leading-edge voice and data communications connectivity options that will integrate with service platforms available to them today and in the future. Trading firms are faced with financial realities and with technological opportunities such as GreenKey, and we are able to provide our customers with the ability to trade no matter where they currently are on the technology curve.”
Nader Shwayhat, Chief Executive Officer of GreenKey, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with well-established firms such as iMarket that share a reputation for service excellence. They enhance GreenKey’s ability to deliver our unique voice interface, speech recognition tools and unified collaboration offerings to the broadest possible base of global financial customers. We are particularly excited that this partnership also allows mutual customers to access our new GreenKey Scribe offering by directly translating any voice quote or order captured over an iMarket line into a MiFID II compliant electronic record without any re-keying.”
Colin Domoney
Consultant Solution Architect at Veracode
One in five large businesses have fallen victim to cyber attacks in the past year, according to the see more
- 01:00 am
Fidor, the innovative provider of digital banking and fintech solutions, further strengthens its leadership team by announcing today the appointment of Brad Whittfield as Global Chief Financial Officer. This is a newly created role within the Fidor Group and will be based in the Dubai, UAE - Fidor Solutions’ central hub for its global expansion.
Whittfield is a Chartered Accountant and qualified lawyer who brings 15 years of international finance experience to the Fidor Group. He has held senior positions within KPMG and PwC and has operated across Asia-pacific, Europe and, most recently, the Middle East and Africa.
Whittfield has extensive experience in the financial services sector having advised many of the leading global financial institutions and private equity firms. He has also played a key role in advising on a number of high profile fintech acquisitions including businesses operating in digital banking, mobile wallets and digital payments. Most recently, Whittfieldwas Chief Financial Officer of a recently launched fintech business operating in the digital payments space in the Middle East.
His focus at Fidor will be to oversee the current global financial operations of the Group which includes Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East, as well as help execute the Group’s ambitious global expansion plans.
Matthias Kröner, CEO and Founder, Fidor Bank and Fidor Solutions comments, “The appointment of Brad demonstrates the investment of the Fidor Group to further strengthen its executive team in supporting its global expansion strategy. The role of CFO is a key role to any fintech as it focuses on ensuring both growth and sustainability.”
Brad Whittfield newly appointed Global CFO, Fidor added, “Fidor is globally recognised as a leader in the fintech and digital banking space. The Group has experienced some phenomenal growth during the last 12 to 24 months and I am very pleased to be joining this dynamic team as the Group looks to continue its global expansion strategy.”
- 01:00 am
Misys has stepped up to the artificial intelligence (AI) plate, today unveiling Misys FusionCapital Detect. The component helps financial institutions spot booking errors, anomalies and unusual activity, accelerating trade validations and reducing exceptions with machine learning.
FusionCapital Detect behaves as a smart personal assistant for validation teams, red flagging probable mistakes that are otherwise time consuming to identify. Users can catch errors that existing tools on the market let through, reducing operational risk and preventing manual mistakes that lead to decisions being made on the wrong profit and loss information and incorrect end-of-day reports.
“This is an exciting first step into the AI world for us,” said Nadeem Syed, CEO at Misys. “We’ve been able to harness these capabilities to build a system which delivers more insight and control in a fast-paced trading environment and we have already seen positive results with an early adopter global bank. This advanced technology boosts efficiency, saving costs, and can also be applied with longer term revenue growth in mind.”
Being able to validate transactions at T+0 has become crucial in today’s pressurised regulatory environment, including under:
• The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR): which makes it necessary to identify errors as soon as possible in order to confirm trades within 24 to 48 hours.
• The Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB): which requires daily risk reports – unidentified trade errors will invalidate these reports, breaching compliance.
Joséphine de Chazournes, Senior Analyst at Celent said, “Manual intervention and pre-coded controls have gone some way to helping reduce errors in the trade processing sphere but neither do enough to reduce the burden, especially as regulatory demands continue to add pressure in capital markets. AI stands to be a strong catalyst in transforming the landscape and Misys is making a smart move with FusionCapital Detect.”
The Misys component thrives on vast quantities of structured data where consistent patterns of trading behaviour can be deduced and then monitored. Machine learning, based on a mix of open source algorithms and proprietary developments, ensures continuous evolution of the tool to follow moving trading patterns.
FusionCapital Detect is available now. It is built on Misys FusionFabric technology and integrates with all core trade capture and validations systems.
- 08:00 am
DekaBank now uses the iQbonds standard software from the IT developer icubic AG for swap trading. The securities trading bank of the German savings banks (Sparkassen) has thereby expanded their implementation of icubic solutions. This decision was based on their positive experience with the IT service provider’s applications in the past as well as pending regulatory requirements. The software implementation was fully completed in only about two weeks. With the implementation of iQbonds, DekaBank already fulfils upcoming regulatory requirements and benefits from significant advantages in electronic trading:
- MiFID II readiness
- Partial replacement of the existing trade order management solution
- No costs for mandatory updates
As per the 2014/65/EU guidelines concerning markets for financial instruments (MiFID II), swap trading – trading of financial derivatives which target an exchange of future cash flows – will be subject to new regulations as of 2018. However, this was not the only reason for the switch to iQbonds for swap trading explains Jens Lippoldt, Head of Sales and Business Development at icubic AG. “With this iQbonds expansion, the bank can now process swap trades on various markets almost completely electronically. This means that future MIFID II requirements are already fulfilled and the process optimisations will add value for both the bank and its clients.”
The mentioned process improvements also resulted from high performance interfaces from icubic that were implemented for swap trading after partially replacing an existing trade order management solution. Dietmar Jakal, C hairman of the Board at the IT service provider icubic, also provides a positive summary: “We were able to implement our application at DekaBank in only two weeks, thereby adhering to a challenging timetable without a problem. During installation and sometimes also for support, we utilised our particularly efficient remote access. The fact that DekaBank, one of the leading companies in the financial sector, is using iQbonds, emphasises the quality of our application.” The Chairman of the Board also stressed that DekaBank need not budget for any cost-intensive mandatory updates.
The iQbonds software is based on icubic’s standard solutions for efficient electronic trading. The application not only supports trading on classic bond markets, but can also be used with the required components and licenses as a powerful application for trading numerous other financial instruments – such as futures, ETFs, promissory notes, convertibles, repos or swaps. This offers users many advantages because the program combines different aspects – market-making, pricing and the connections to diverse information platforms, exchanges and other markets – into a complete solution. This results in a simplification of procedures, significant speed advantages as well as a lower error rate. The software also includes many useful features including auto hedging, multi-level pricing and comprehensive security mechanisms.
- 08:00 am
Bittium exhibits its secure and strong Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone and related products and solutions for authorities at the Critical Communications World exhibition in Hong Kong, May 16 - 18, 2017.
Bittium will take part in a panel discussion “Indrustry roasting – meeting user expectations (focus on broadband)”, where the panelists will discuss how to best fulfill authorities’ end user needs. The panel discussion will be held on Thursday, May 18, in the Critical Communications Live Theatre stream. Bittium’s panelist is Mr. Michael Long, Sales Director.
Bittium’s products and solutions:
- Bittium Tough Mobile™ is a secure and durable Android-based LTE smartphone combining the latest information security and commercial device technologies. Bittium Tough Mobile incorporates a hardware-based security platform, which enables strong device security as well as deep integration of both customers' own and third party software security solutions. This dedicated hardware is essential for building layered device and software security solutions. In addition, Bittium Tough Mobile’s features include for example a programmable Push-to-Talk button (PTT), glove-usable 5” full HD display, IP67 level water and dust protection, and MIL-STD-810G level shock resistance.
- Bittium Secure Suite™ is a device management and encryption software product that complements the Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone with a scalable set of new software services for remote management, remote attestation and securing the network connections of the device. Bittium Tough Mobile smartphone and Bittium Secure Suite form a unique, complete, reliable system for processing and transferring sensitive and classified material and securing critical communication.
