Tradeweb Markets, a leading global provider of fixed income, derivatives and ETF marketplaces, announced a 371% year-over-year increase in U.S. institutional cash credit volume to more than $11.8 billion in November, following record trading in each of the last two months.

All Tradeweb Markets credit platforms accounted for 2.8% of overall U.S. corporate bond volume and 12% of trades executed in November, according to TRACE data. Tradeweb has also grown block trading of investment grade credit (>$5 million) to represent 23% of U.S. institutional investment grade volume on the platform.

Tradeweb has expanded its credit offering to include a broader set of pre-trade data and tools to identify liquidity, the most diverse range of trading protocols, and industry leading post-trade processing and spotting. And as a result of this growth, Tradeweb now ranks as the second largest electronic cash credit trading platform in the U.S. according to Greenwich Associates’ 2016 North American Fixed Income Study.

“We’re helping clients leverage relationships better through meaningful advances in technology, enhancing trade workflows with greater efficiency, and we’re making a major impact on liquidity and operational risk reduction,” said Billy Hult, President of Tradeweb Markets. “Tradeweb is a compelling electronic alternative that makes it faster and easier to find the other side of your trade for both odd-lot trades and larger orders.”

Including credit default swaps (CDS), overall U.S. credit volume grew 124% to more than $79 billion, and international credit volumes rose by 52% to more than $63 billion.

Tradeweb also plans to launch advanced all-to-all trading functionality for U.S. corporate bonds in the first half of 2017. The additional execution protocol will increase traders’ flexibility in how they can source liquidity from both buy- and sell-side participants on Tradeweb.

“The growth across our platform demonstrates that the industry benefits from multiple ways to access credit liquidity, and the addition of all-to-all trading will provide a comprehensive set of trading protocols to the cash corporate marketplace.” Said Lee Olesky, Tradeweb Markets CEO. “Growing our credit business is a key priority for Tradeweb, and we are best positioned to continue driving the broader electronification of corporate bond trading as the largest fixed income specialist in scope and scale of our markets and client base.”
 
Tradeweb continues to build the most complete global credit marketplace, with expanding offerings in Europe, the U.S. and emerging markets. More than 500 buy-side institutions leverage Tradeweb to trade corporate bonds and credit derivatives, streamlining their operational workflow and improving their execution quality with better pre-trade discovery and efficient protocols. 

PPRO Group, the cross-border e-payment specialist, today announces the appointment of John Fernandez, Senior Legal Counsel as Chairman of the Electronic Money Association (EMA). This appointment gives PPRO Group a prestigious position within the industry representative body, comprised of over fifty participants including the likes of PayPal, Skrill, Worldpay and Google Payments.

The EMA is Europe’s premier trade body representing Fintech companies, e-money institutions and other innovative payment service providers. The EMA represents the views and interests of its members in dialogue with government, public bodies and customer organisations.

In his role as Chairman, John Fernandez will support the EMA in coordinating its efforts with industry to ensure its collective interests are represented regarding the introduction of new payments related laws and regulations within the EU. John also acts as an independent contact point should members wish to raise any specific matters with the EMA.

John Fernandez says: “I am honored to have been nominated and appointed as Chairman of the EMA on behalf of PPRO Group. PPRO has been a longstanding member of the EMA and this nomination reflects the continued growth and success of PPRO Group and the value the industry places on our participation.”

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:SSNC), a global provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, today announced Daman Investments PSC, one of the leading UAE-based regional investment companies, has chosen Advent Portfolio Exchange® (APX) to enhance its asset management technology capabilities.

The APX platform offers a robust set of portfolio management, fund accounting, and performance analytics tools. APX stood out from the competition due to its simplicity and modular features, as well as SS&C's global experience and strong local presence. Another factor was the extensive global Instrument coverage available in APX, as well as locally popular instruments and Sharia investments coupled with multilingual reporting with Arabic language support.

"Daman's client-centric approach over the years has allowed us to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns and APX will help us further strengthen our investment management & client-reporting capabilities," said Farid Samji, Head of Asset Management at Daman Investments. "SS&C's APX provided us with a compelling solution, which was not only compliant with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) but also had a robust implementation track record and support in the region."

"The team went through an extensive evaluation process before selecting SS&C and we are honored to work with Daman Investments and support their investment efforts in the region," said Mats Berggren, Vice President EMEA, SS&C Advent. "APX will dramatically help Daman Investments enhance its client focus and reporting capabilities in an increasingly competitive marketplace."

SS&C has been operating in the Middle East through its SS&C Advent business unit since 2006 and has more than 30 clients based in the region. The key to their success has been strong local presence and a deep understanding of regional investment management practices, combined with world-class technology within our integrated middle and front office solutions. 

Tieto has signed an agreement with Marginalen Bank to provide PCI DSS certified end-to-end card services. The card solution will be provided as a service using cloud-enabled technology and also include Business Process Outsourcing. The agreement is valid for five years and will provide the bank with a scalable and cost-efficient solution, compliant with the regulatory requirements of the financial industry.

New research from Celent – sponsored by Colt - has found that the appetite for cloud-based services in capital markets has reached a critical point and that cloud is set to become the main delivery model for certain key functions in the near future. The research, entitled ‘The cloud comes of age in the capital markets’ shows that attitudes towards cloud have softened in the last 12-18 months, with participants showing more acceptance of the security, stability and reliability of cloud-based deployments.

The research paper shows that cloud adoption is being driven by four key factors: increase in regulation (e.g. MiFID II, Dodd-Frank), cost pressures, macroeconomic uncertainty (e.g. Brexit, China’s economy), and the rise of fintech.  The cloud has emerged to solve these challenges, offering firms a more agile infrastructure that enables them to address ever-evolving regulatory requirements and the proliferation of trading applications as well as the need to rapidly connect to multiple liquidity sources. Moreover, the cloud is a key driver for fintech innovation as it facilitates the implementation of new ideas and reduces the cost of failure.

These drivers, however, have varied manifestations across the capital markets ecosystem: 

-       The buy side, in particular smaller firms, is more open to service-based models and has used hosted solutions for most systems, including trade management. Hedge funds are keen to develop insights quickly, making a cloud model more appealing.

-       The sell side tends to be more focused on maintaining control of their systems. However, they are eager to explore solutions that build better distribution models and to a lower, variable cost model. Many firms have already created private clouds for key resources while moving less sensitive applications to the public cloud. 
 

The adoption of cloud based deployments also varies across business functions. Whereas there has been a wider acceptance for moving non-core and non-proprietary data to a cloud environment, the move of front office functions and proprietary or client information has lagged behind. However, this attitude is shifting as firms become more comfortable with the performance and security of the cloud. Innovative TradingTech, RegTech, and market data services are also expected to move to the cloud. 

Moreover, the research found that there are still barriers to be overcome before widespread adoption of the cloud, namely data storage locations, risk liability and organisational inertia. 

According to Brad Bailey, Research Director at Celent: “The barriers to cloud adoption are no longer based on a mistrust of the technology, but rather how to successfully deploy a solution that complies with regulations, and these concerns are common to all technology solutions, cloud-based or not. In many cases the public cloud is now more secure than on premise systems and we are seeing institutions alter their attitude from ‘never’ to ‘how to’ embrace the cloud.”

The capital market space is also seeing a parallel emergence of the need for better connectivity to support secure cloud deployments. Security and performance concerns limit the usability of the public internet as a connectivity option for capital market participants. Private, dedicated cloud access is better suited for capital market requirements, offering better speed and latency as well as superior performance and security.

As participants use more hybrid cloud models and multiple cloud providers, there will be an increased need for managed cloud connectivity models, enabling firms to leverage the cloud.   Such managed connectivity solutions, like the Colt PrizmNet financial extranet, make it easier to access value added cloud based services like market data, regulatory solutions and analytics, hence enhancing the user experience.

“Market pressures are forcing firms to focus on their core strengths and shift technology functions to specialists. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the cloud is coming of age in the capital markets, helping firms to address regulatory and cost pressures whilst focusing on the core business. Capital markets firms starting out on this journey need highly secure, on-demand network services that are designed to meet the stringent requirements and speed of the financial markets,” said John Loveland, VP of Capital Markets at Colt.

The cloud comes of age in the capital markets report is available for download here.

Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of industry-leading cross border payments innovator, Saxo Payments, has been appointed to the Emerging Payments Association (EPA) Advisory Board for 2017.

Advisory Board members are nominated and elected to the board each year from the existing sponsors based upon their ability to lead and influence the payments industry.  Having been named Emerging Payments Entrepreneur of the Year in October, Anders la Cour was considered a strong candidate to bring a new perspective to the EPA Advisory Board.

“It is tremendously exciting to become part of the Emerging Payments Association advisory board” said Anders la Cour.  “I hope to bring a unique combination of commercial acumen, M&A experience and an entrepreneurial mind-set which will complement the expertise and experience of the other members.  And I look forward to getting involved in the debates and discussions that will encourage business and industry to engage with the emerging technologies coming to market.”

Following its launch mid-2015, the Saxo Payments Banking Circle has challenged the status quo in the global payments industry, enabling members to make and receive cross border transfers in seconds, rather than days, without the need to establish multiple banking relationships.   A steady stream of new members have signed up to reap the benefits of the web-based payment solution.

The first meeting of the Advisory Board takes place on 11th January 2017.

Earthport (AIM: EPO.L), the leading payment network for cross-border payments, is pleased to announce an expanded service with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (“BofAML”), a leading provider of global transaction services.  This service will add numerous new countries and currencies to the bank’s online and file based banking portal, CashPro®, further expanding the bank’s international ACH payment capabilities. BofAML clients can now access cross currency payments in more than 60 countries and nearly 25 currencies. This expanded access represents a significant development of the strategic relationship between Earthport and BofAML that was first announced in 2013.

Hank Uberoi, CEO of Earthport, commented: “BofAML is one of the world’s largest payments and cash management bank and we are delighted to be extending our services to them, bringing real efficiency and transparency to cross-border payments for their clients. The innovation that BofAML is bringing to payments is exciting and we are thrilled to be playing a part in it.”

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit and leading African financial institution Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) have launched new money transfer routes to West and Central Africa.

With the WorldRemit app or website, people can now send secure overseas money transfers to any bank account in Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal or Togo. Funds will be deposited as CFA Francs.

Commenting on the launch, Dan Shuaib,  the Managing Director, of Guaranty Trust Bank CI, said: ‘’This service removes the barriers that limit customers’ access to remittances and provides them with a quick and convenient way to receive money from any part of the world. Our partnership with WorldRemit to create this service is a testament to the bank’s commitment to building strategic partnerships that birth innovative solutions and provide customers with a superior banking experience. It will also ensure that Africans abroad have a reliable way to send money to bank accounts across West and Central Africa.”

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit, comments: “We’re delighted to be partnering with one of Africa’s foremost banks to give our customers greater choice and convenience when sending money home. With the WorldRemit app, West and Central Africans living abroad can send money home to their friends and relatives with just a few taps. We make sending money as easy as sending an instant message.”

WorldRemit is one of the fastest-growing money transfer services in the world, with customers now sending more than 500,000 transfers every month.

“At U.S. Bank, we invest our time, resources and passion to build and support vibrant communities that allow every person to work toward their possible,” said Reba Dominski, senior vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at U.S. Bank. “This Season of Giving campaign is a wonderful way to offer digital banking users the opportunity to be part of giving back to the community, while taking care of their daily financial tasks.”

“Serving our members and enhancing and improving our community are integral to our mission,” said John Lund, president and CEO, America First Credit Union. “The Season of Giving fits with our philosophy of serving the community. And it gives our members another compelling reason to use digital banking and payment services to stay on top of their finances during the busy holiday season.”

Fiserv online and mobile bill pay solutions are easy to use and enable customers and members to pay any bill quickly and easily—how and when they want—with same-day and next-day payment options available. With Popmoney, consumers can send money to and receive money from friends, family and others they know or owe using their existing bank account. To learn more about online or mobile bill payment options, visit www.fiserv.com. For more information about person-to-person payments, or to sign up, visit www.Popmoney.com.

In a world that is moving faster than ever before, Fiserv helps clients deliver solutions that are in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life. Learn more at TheSpeedofLife.com.