ETF Global uncovers critical data on the $2 trillion + in US listed Exchange-Traded-Fund assets, considered by many to be the investment vehicle of the future. ETFs offer access to markets that were previously hard to enter efficiently, so research and investment communities have substantial interest in exploring this new investment channel.

“We are pleased to announce the addition of ETF Global to our data offering” said Jonathan Bloch, CEO at Exchange Data International “with the best-in-class data, information and insights from ETFG we will be further empowering Advisors, Portfolio Managers and Analysts worldwide. ETF Global is an excellent resource for this exciting new investment sector”.

Chris Romano, Director of Research at ETF Global commented “ETF Global is excited to expand its reach in providing the most comprehensive and dynamic ETF data offering available and to partner with a well-respected organization such as Exchange Data International”. 

Quick stats:

ETF Profile Data

• Expenses, Tracking Index, Assets Under Management, Trading, and Bid-Ask Spread
• Industry specific insights into lead market makers and service providers
• Classification details on Market Exposures, Geographic Exposures, Industry Exposure

Daily Fund Flows Data

• Daily Net Fund Flows that is driven by the ETF creation and redemption process
• Reflects the actual capital being added to or withdrawn from the ETF 

ETFG Proprietary Analysis

• 22 Factor Scores gauging momentum, sentiment, valuation, and macro views on sectors and countries
• Qualitative measures include liquidity, diversification and issuing firm

ETF Risk Models

• Model volatility, deviation, country, structure, liquidity and efficiency

BT today announced that it is linking up the world’s five main foreign exchange (FX) locations to help boost the competitiveness of its global financial industry customers.  The company is now offering BT Radianz FX express, dedicated high-speed links between financial hubs in the UK, US, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong involved in almost 77 per cent of the world’s FX trading*.

The new Radianz FX express service offers low-latency and cost-effective, fully managed connectivity that will give traders faster access to market data across the five locations, while making it easier for them to execute trades. In an industry where delays of milliseconds can cost millions of pounds, dollars or yen, this can make significant differences to a firm’s efficiency, profit and growth.

Radianz FX express links directly into the five key third-party global datacentres in the FX trading world.  These datacentres have been selected by BT because they host the IT infrastructure of significant clusters of the FX trading community in each of the locations.

Hubertus von Roenne, vice president, global industry practices, BT, said: “Foreign exchange is the largest asset class by value traded globally. An average of US $5.1 trillion is traded on FX markets every day*.  We’ve created managed BT Radianz FX express routes to boost the competitiveness of our financial services customers.  With dedicated links within and between the world’s five biggest FX trading locations, BT can help FX firms lower costs while creating opportunities for international growth.”

Radianz FX express is the latest addition to the BT Radianz portfolio of services. This is designed and built specifically for the high-speed, high-performance delivery of market data and trading applications.

The portfolio includes the BT Radianz Cloud — the world’s largest secure networked financial community — that offers its members access to thousands of applications and services from more than 400 providers critical to the everyday running of the global financial sector. The Radianz Cloud allows fast, secure, reliable access to foreign exchange applications and services around the world including more than 40 FX trading venues. These venues allow financial services institutions to trade 99 per cent of currency pairs, for example USD/EUR (US dollars to euros), or GBP/JPY (pound sterling to yen).  Furthermore, BT offers managed hosting in more than 20 data centres globally via its BT Radianz Hostingcapabilities.

The investment is part of BT’s ‘Cloud of Clouds’ portfolio strategy aimed at helping large organisations connect easily and securely to the applications and data they need, regardless of where they are hosted.

Buyer-side Pentagon Consulting, provider of advisory and delivery services to the investment management community, has appointed Clare Vincent-Silk as Head of Advisory. The appointment follows the recent appointment of Jonathan Clark as CEO, further bolstering Pentagon’s senior team.

Clare brings over 30 years’ experience in the financial sector, most recently as Managing Director of Investit. She has extensive expertise in a number of areas including target operating model design for new dealing platforms, system selections across different business areas, MiFID impact assessments and managing complex change programmes.

“This is an exciting time to be working within the investment management industry, where operational change and business transformation are key for success. I am very pleased to join Pentagon, which has a very strong reputation for effective, pragmatic delivery,” said Vincent-Silk.

“Following the recent addition of Jonathan Clark, Clare joins the Pentagon management team at the perfect time, bringing together a wealth of experience from leading investment management consultancies,” said Matthew Peacock, Chairman. ”We see her appointment as being an essential element of our continued growth trajectory.”  

Jonathan Clark, CEO, commented: “We are thrilled to have Clare join the firm. She brings a unique combination of practical consultative experience, thought leadership across the investment management industry and a successful track record of delivery. Clare’s exceptional skills will be key in helping firms respond to increased market complexity, regulatory change and the need for operational efficiency.”

Bigbank AS, one of Estonia’s largest banks, has selected Accuity to streamline its account and payments screening processes and help better identify financial crime risk, highlight potential sanctions breaches and flag potentially high-risk customers and politically exposed people (PEP).

Against the backdrop of increased payment security requirements, such as closer monitoring and compliance with constantly changing sanctions and embargo lists, banks are now faced with new challenges. Businesses need to include additional security measures in their workflows in order to avoid making illegal transactions which could lead to frozen payments, large fines and reputational damage.

By implementing industry leading financial crime compliance data and technology from Accuity, Bigbank AS is able to provide significantly more robust customer screening, strengthening the existing know your customer measures that are in place across the business. Bigbank AS will be using an Accuity financial crime screening solution, Firco Compliance Link, that provides intelligent automated account and transaction screening with consolidated reviews and a full audit trail. Bigbank AS are now regulator ready and can provide high-level transparency and analytical insights, whilst at the same time reducing manual processes and improving their customers’ experience.

Tom Golding, Accuity EVP, Risk and Compliance, Product and Strategy, commented: “International regulations continue to focus on combatting financial crime and preventing the funding of terrorism through increased compliance requirements that banks now have to adhere to. At the same time, customers are demanding faster payments, meaning banks now have a real need for speed. It’s great to see Bigbank improving its customers’ experience, whilst at the same time, protecting the bank from facilitating financial crime.”

Alar Kondratjev, Bigbank AS Head of Operations Security and Control Unit, commented: “Our customers remain central to everything we do. It is important that we are constantly improving our processes to enhance our customers’ experience. Firco Compliance Link helps to further support the digitalisation and automation of our bank processes.”

KEOLABS just received the EMVCo PCD Level 1 Qualification letter for its contactless terminal test tool, which completes its existing set of qualifications allowing KEOLABS to have a full offer for all players in the secure transactions industry.

Payment terminal vendors are now able to get their developments EMVCo-qualified with KEOLABS’ test tools as the company has just obtained the EMVCo Qualification for its PCD (Proximity Coupling Device) test tool. EMVCo Qualification for PCD Level 1 Protocol Digital Test covers all the digital aspects of the EMVCo standards such as the exchange protocol. 

With the increasing variety in payment instruments form factors, multiple types of payment terminals including classical POS terminals, mPOS, vending machines, embedded readers and more globally any device that interacts with an EMV payment card or a payment application is concerned by the PCD  qualification. 

“Now, with the EMVCo PCD Level 1 Qualification, we are able to provide our test tools to the whole payment ecosystem from card developers to terminal vendors,” said Stéphane Jobard, KEOLABS’ Director of Validation Solutions.

KEOLABS tool for PCD contactless Level 1 digital validation includes a combination of hardware and software that makes testing contactless payment terminals easy and efficient. KEOLABS tool includes:

• A set of EMVCo antennas, including an EMVCo reference PCD and an EMVCo reference PICC (Proximity Integrated Circuit Card),
• ProxiLAB emulator, in charge of smart card emulation, 
• SCRIPTISTM test environment, 
• And the EMVCo PCD Level 1 Digital test suite. 

SCRIPTISTM test environment ensures the whole test scenario is run smoothly and efficiently. SCRIPTISTM executes the test suite, analyzes results and generates reports. SCRIPTISTM has been developed as an open tool allowing users to write and modify test scripts. Thanks to their modular architecture, KEOLABS test tools can be used by terminal developers for characterization and by test laboratories for certification. 

In related news, KEOLABS will be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona from February 27 to March 2, 2017. Do come and visit us in Hall 5 Booth 5B61. 

• 20.02.2017 -- 07:26 am

Financial IT speaks to Alex Kwiatkowski, Senior Strategist of Misys at Finovate Europe 2017

• 20.02.2017 -- 07:20 am

Financial IT speaks to Yosi Dahan, CEO of Configo at Finovate Europe 2017