Colt today announced that Colt PrizmNet financial extranet is enabling connectivity to a cloud-based ecosystem of MiFID II compliant solutions, helping capital markets firms deal with the various aspects of the directive, due to come into force in January 2018. Current partners include TraderServe for algorithm testing, Aquis Exchange for best execution, and TRADEcho for trade reporting.

Colt PrizmNet is a dedicated private network that links the global capital market ecosystem, connecting over 10,000 firms worldwide. The extranet provides a scalable, secure, and reliable platform to rapidly connect and support market participants in areas such as surveillance and data management, helping firms comply with the requirements of the upcoming MiFID II directive.                                                                                                           

“MiFID II will require immense changes to participants’ technology infrastructures and deployment models of services used. Given the vast scope of these changes, there is no ‘all in one’ solution to address the new requirements.  Firms will require best of breed solutions and efficient deployment models to address the different areas of the regulation. With Colt’s financial extranet we aim to bring together an ecosystem of such specialised solutions, giving firms easy access to a wide range of financial content and services. Colt PrizmNet provides an efficient delivery platform for MiFID II compliance solutions,” said Ralph Achkar, Director of Strategic Alliances, Capital Markets at Colt.

Colt PrizmNet connects over 50 exchanges and providers of financial content and services, including:

·         Aquis Exchange 

“Aquis Exchange is the first exchange in Europe to offer a fixed monthly subscription fee for equity traders”, said Sakeena Lalljee, Client Relationship Manager at Aquis Exchange. “Our fully lit order book provides firms with the ideal venue for low cost, low impact and high quality trading in accordance with MiFID II’s enhanced transparency and best execution requirements. We want it to be as easy as possible for firms to make Aquis part of their best execution strategy. Working with a large, established connectivity provider like Colt PrizmNet further simplifies access to Aquis Exchange.”

·         TRADEcho

“The global capital markets ecosystem has its work cut out to get ready for MiFID II compliance. TRADEcho will simplify compliance with MiFID II’s pre- and post-trade transparency obligations with a one-stop shop solution that covers all asset classes. TRADEcho is a multi-asset-class APA solution, saving firms the trouble and expense of working with multiple APAs, while the scale of the solution provides increased anonymity for post-trade reporting.” said Daniel Shepherd, Head of Sales at TRADEcho.

·         TraderServe/ SQS

“Preparing for MiFID II compliance places complex demands on capital markets participants” said Eddie Thorn, Sales Manager at SQS. “AlgoGuard helps by simplifying non-live algo testing and certification, and enabling firms to make sure they’re compliant well ahead of the deadline. Colt PrizmNet makes it even simpler, by providing firms with direct access to AlgoGuard, avoiding time-consuming, expensive infrastructure builds.”

In centralising securities’ transactions at its operations’ hub in Switzerland, BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg sought a robust and efficient platform to enhance the overall management of its securities’ operation. The bank selected OLYMPIC Banking System to complete this task. By following the example of several other BNP Paribas Wealth Management banks which operate OLYMPIC Banking System, BGL is capitalising on the standardisation of the IT systems across the group and the excellent knowledge the bank’s teams have of the product.

ERI is an international company specialising in the design, development, distribution and support of the integrated, real-time banking and wealth management software package: OLYMPIC Banking System®. Operating in many of the major financial centres, ERI is present in Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, London, Luxembourg, Singapore and Paris. ERI is focused on providing comprehensive, quality software with effective system implementation assistance and efficient on-going maintenance and support for clients worldwide. More than 300 banks and financial institutions across over 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Asia have already chosen the OLYMPIC Banking System®. 

• 02.09.2016 -- 11:30 am

 AxiomSL CEO Alex Tsigutkin will present ‘Staying ahead of the regulatory curve: Focusing on firms’ sustainability and profitability with all of the IT transformation and regulatory compliance controls in place’ at this year’s Sibos conference in Geneva.

In keeping with this year’s Sibos theme, ‘Transforming the Landscape’, Alex will discuss the challenges financial firms face in doing “more with less”, coping with regulatory compliance environment and the resulting impact on data integration and governance.

He will speak about how financial firms’ infrastructure is being stretched by the need to simultaneously meet demanding external reporting regimes while responding to critical internal transformation.

“Today, multiple stakeholders including regulators are not only asking for granular and accurate reporting, but are requiring financial firms to demonstrate full data and process lineage across enterprise core financial and risk management functions. Further, they want it more often, and they want top management at firms to attest the accuracy of those reports.

“The driver for launching AxiomSL 25 years ago was to empower financial firms to stay ahead of the regulatory compliance curve. Perhaps the biggest change since then is that so much of what we do now goes beyond straightforward regulatory reporting.”

“Today, we are delighted to be a strategic partner with leading firms around the world in delivering a change management platform that integrates internal and external changes into an enterprise risk management and regulatory compliance structure,” Alex said.

“We welcome new and old friends to meet with us at Sibos - an event I look forward to every year. Geneva is by way of its history the perfect place to exchange ideas and information about the challenges and opportunities facing the financial industry both now and in the future.”

Mortech^®, a Zillow Group business providing mortgage technology solutions for mortgage bankers and secondary market teams, announced a new integration between Mortech’s product and pricing engine (PPE) and Daric, an online based mortgage application tool, to help streamline the loan origination process. The new integration provides mortgage lenders with a suite of web, mobile, and tablet-friendly tools to automate borrower verification, mortgage rate pricing, loan decisioning and servicing.

The partnership streamlines the mortgage process by allowing borrowers to complete their loan application via Daric’s online mortgage origination solution. Mortech’s Marksman^® ensures customers receive accurate mortgage rate quotes and allows lenders automatic best execution from their portfolio of investor pricing. Mortech also provides the ability to route all borrower leads from consumer direct marketing websites such as Zillow, Bankrate, LendingTree, and QuinStreet, directly into the integrated application.

“As more borrowers increasingly begin their mortgage shopping process online, we continue to strive to offer fintech solutions to meet these changing consumer demands,” said Doug Foral, general manager at Mortech. “Through Mortech’s extensive mortgage pricing, investor data and application program interfaces (APIs), we’re able to create integrated custom solutions with leading mortgage technology partners like Daric, enabling lenders to close more loans in a fast and cost effective manner.”

“Consumers are used to having everything they need at their fingertips, and providing an online service to initiate the mortgage borrowing process is essential for  mortgage lenders to stay competitive,” said Vasant Ramachandran, chief technology officer at Daric, Inc. “Having accurate pricing built into the application builds borrower trust and streamlines the lender origination process. By partnering with Mortech, we can provide a better online mortgage experience for both borrowers and lenders alike.”

Logility Inc., a leading provider of collaborative supply chain optimization and advanced retail planning solutions, announced it has acquired privately-held AdapChain, a US-based developer of advanced integration solutions.

AdapChain’s award-winning technology speeds and simplifies the complex integration of supply chain with enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions through a proven template-based approach. AdapChain’s AdapLink ( Logility Voyager AdapLink™) enables companies to enhance their supply chain capabilities by quickly integrating the rich transaction and master data from their enterprise systems with Logility Voyager Solutions™. Announcement builds on years of collaboration between AdapChain and Logility to develop an industry-leading application with proven ERP templates that redefine and simplify supply chain integrations for companies around the world.

As today’s fast-paced business environment grows increasingly more complex, companies find their ERP and related enterprise business solutions do not offer the rich breadth and depth of capability provided by Logility’s advanced planning and optimization solutions. The continued adoption of more mature business processes such as Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP), and the ability to leverage the Internet-of-Things (IoT) further drives the need to connect multiple enterprise systems across the organization. Voyager AdapLink simplifies the process of connecting these systems, including those from Infor, JDA, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, with Logility’s advanced, best-of-breed supply chain and retail optimization solutions to drive additional insight and visibility. By simplifying the integration and upgrade process, companies are able to realize lower total cost of ownership and increase the rate of system adoption within the organization.

“For more than 18 years, we have helped develop an innovative solution that turns the complexity of enterprise-wide application integration into a quick, simple and repeatable process,” said Svenne Juul, president, AdapChain. “I am excited to join the Logility team as we work together to accelerate the deployment of our solutions and develop new capabilities that will further help companies reduce the time and cost of enterprise-wide integrations.”

“Acquiring AdapChain extends Logility’s ability to deploy innovative supply chain and retail optimization solutions more quickly and at a lower total cost of ownership than our industry peers,” said Allan Dow, president, Logility. “Many Logility customers around the world have already realized significant benefits through the use of Voyager AdapLink. And, we have identified additional investment areas to deliver new efficiencies and harness the exponential growth of data that will drive tomorrow’s hyper-responsive supply chains.”

Highlights of Voyager AdapLink:

Application-based integration delivers a comprehensive framework for continued innovation while providing advanced capabilities for error checking, data validation and transformations. Voyager AdapLink provides a quick, simple and repeatable process for supply chain to enterprise system integration.

Pre-built integration templates support a wide range of supply chain and ERP configurations. Separating the integration component from the underlying ERP and SCM technologies eliminates the need to specify, develop, test, and debug new components. This approach reduces risk, increases integration quality and shortens the payback period during the initial implementation and future for upgrades.

Data from multiple enterprise systems and beyond the four walls including IoT and social signals can be tightly integrated to support the needs of advanced planning processes including S&OP and long-range IBP.

Net change management and distributed processing synchronizes extremely high SKU volumes in less time by only exchanging data that has changed since the last update. This ensures scalability and speed. By reducing the load and return time, more time is available for high-value scenario analysis and business optimization of the supply chain.

Established business rules proactively identify incorrect or incompatible data, populate these data elements and direct action thru a corrective workflow. This process streamlines rollout and significantly reduces the need for costly manual intervention.

The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Gresham, the leading software and services company that specialises in providing real-time transaction control and enterprise data integrity software is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months to 30 June 2016.

Highlights include:

·         Total revenues up 10% to £7.8m

·         Clareti revenues up 46%

·         Total recurring revenues up 16% to £4.3m of which Clareti is up 47%

·         Investment in sales & marketing up 45%

·         Six new customers signed in H1, including three in the US

·         Market-leading innovation labs established in Bristol, UK

Adoption of Gresham’s flagship Clareti Enterprise Data Integrity platform (Clareti) continues to grow strongly, as increased risk and regulatory pressure keep the spotlight firmly on the importance of data integrity and control for financial services firms.

Three new customer wins in the US reflect the strategic importance of this market for Gresham.  Clareti deals have been signed with a third party fund administrator and a US asset manager, which selected CTC in the cloud, leveraging Gresham’s Clareti-as-a-Service platform.  In addition, three UK buy-side firms have replaced their legacy and user developed matching and reconciliation applications for Gresham’s enterprise data integrity platform.

Gresham now has over 30 direct Clareti customers using the software live in their business on a daily basis up from 20 customers a year ago, and the number of indirectly contracted customers using Clareti software via white-labelled services also continues to grow with the support of our bank partners.

Further go-lives are planned for H2 including a North American Tier 1 bank that has signed since 1 July 2016. Additionally, Gresham has secured a licence upgrade from an existing global investment bank customer enabling it to extend the use of the technology into new areas, including the replacement of legacy incumbent solutions.

Ian Manocha, CEO Gresham said: “The investments the Group has made in sales and marketing, and in our Clareti-as-a-Service cloud offering are flowing through into our pipeline, and we enter the second half with strong momentum. The importance of data integrity is indisputable in the financial services sector, and is now starting to take on real significance across other industries. Smart, high-integrity information is vital for data driven decision making and will continue to grow in importance in line with fast-moving, high volume data and transaction flows.”

ING Wholesale Banking has announced the launch of ‘Virtual Cash Management‘ (VCM), a comprehensive digital cash management solution for corporates. VCM is designed to help treasury functions reach a next level of optimisation by facilitating centralised cash management with high cash visibility, access and control.

Virtual Cash Management enables treasurers to significantly rationalise and simplify account structures and to set-up or enhance in-house bank structures with advanced capabilities including invoice matching, optimised reconciliation, internal transfers, and an Intercompany Loan Administration. Virtual Cash Management not only facilitates paying on-behalf-of subsidiaries (POBO), it also introduces true collecting on-behalf-of subsidiaries (COBO).

By replacing current accounts with virtual IBAN bank accounts, linked to one master account, (crossborder) transactions and multi-entity cash will be concentrated in one place. To manage centralised cash on the master account, VBAs are supplemented by an advanced multi-bank dashboard with Virtual Ledger Accounts. VLAs are administrative sub-accounts that enable the treasury function to allocate cash without segregating it physically.

ING’s VCM solution allows full cash concentration and -visibility to be realised across the group, no matter how the treasury function is organised or how sophisticated and harmonised its technology infrastructure is. The solution will support both large and mid-corporate clients in taking their next step towards centralisation, and will allow these clients’ treasury function to focus on its value-added tasks.

Dick Oskam - Global Head Transaction Services Sales at ING commented: “Our clients tell us that they are very excited about the opportunities that Virtual Cash Management is able to offer them. ING’s vision is that corporates of all sizes should be able to manage group-wide cash and payments in a digital ecosystem through a single, flexible, multi-bank portal that can seamlessly integrate into any treasury department’s existing IT infrastructure. ING partners with treasurers that embrace efficient, cutting-edge solutions to help them navigate an increasing complex industry.”

In times of greater market volatility and a more complex regulatory environment, treasury plays an increasingly strategic role in the organisation. It has become key in mitigating risks and ensuring liquidity and working capital optimisation. The Treasury function is expected to act more as an advisor to the board, helping to provide insight into financial decisions and drive value creation across the business. ING’s newly developed Virtual Cash Management solution aims to meet the treasurer’s need for gaining full control over the company’s cash flows and for timely and informed decision-making. VCM moves all domestic and cross border transactions of the company into one single location. 

HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global IT services company, has been positioned as a “LEADER” in Everest Group PEAK Matrix™ for Global Banking IT Outsourcing Services. As per the report “IT Outsourcing in Global Banking – Service Provider Landscape with PEAK Matrix™ Assessment 2016”, HCL’s strong digital vision and high focus on innovation are some of the strengths cited by its clients.

The report analysed 28 IT service providers for banking applications outsourcing, characterizing leaders as those that have invested aggressively (in house/alliance/acquisition) in next–generation technologies such as mobility, analytics, cloud, automation, and cognitive computing, partnered with niche technology startups through a well–defined FinTech strategy, and expanded their nearshore presence.

According to the report, HCL has demonstrated credible growth by replacing large incumbents in recent deal wins and has been able to successfully position itself as an innovative IT service provider with focus on risk & regulatory compliance, legacy modernizations, and digital. IP–led approach, growing partner ecosystem, success in large scale vendor consolidations deals, and proactive investments in clients through co–innovation labs and PoCs have helped it build strong credential and position itself as a leader in this year’s Banking AO PEAK Matrix.

“Everest Group has recognized HCL as a leader for the second year in a row, testifying HCL’s leadership in the global banking IT and applications outsourcing space. The recognition highlights the maturity of HCL’s banking–specific investments & solutions, co–innovation labs, partner ecosystem and flexible & innovative delivery models. Clients have specifically praised HCL’s strong and clear digital vision through the BEYONDigital business unit and high focus on innovation” said Rahul Singh, President & Global Head – Financial Services, HCL Technologies.

HCL’s financial services practice offers transformational services for the 21st Century Enterprise, based on a value–centric approach, thought leadership, co–innovation focus, and deep micro–vertical domain expertise across retail and corporate banking, diversified financial services and insurance.

 XOR Data Exchange, an Austin-based startup which helps companies leverage data to mitigate fraud and credit risk, has built and deployed a Dark Web and Internet intelligence platform called Lumen. This patent-pending technology, which collects and synthesizes personally identifiable information (PII) from online marketplaces including Dark Web and non-indexed websites, will assist the company and its clients in providing automatic identity theft and fraud protection for consumers.

“The Internet presents an endless marketplace for fraudsters and crooks to sell our stolen, personal information,” commented Mike Cook, founder and CEO of XOR Data Exchange. “Dozens of companies crawl these sites and alert people when their information has been found for sale; but there is often little or no action taken to prevent risk. Lumen was built to find this stolen data, extract it and help prevent its misuse before identity theft and fraud ever occur.”

Lumen does this by analyzing online and Deep Web marketplaces to identify PII and deploying this intel into XOR’sCompromised Identity Exchange. This exchange synthesizes information compromised by data breach incidents along with ongoing fraud analysis and Lumen-discovered data in order to help banks, lenders and other service providers determine which of their applicants and accountholders are at risk of identity theft. This allows for accurate implementation of diligence efforts necessary to ensure transactions are completed by the true account owner.

“Like the Compromised Identity Exchange, XOR’s Lumen was built specifically with consumer protection in mind,” added Vice President of Exchange Services Greg Bonin. “Most companies that scour the Dark Web sell the information they find as an alert service. Lumen was built to fit into XOR’s model, which empowers companies to proactively protect consumers and take the responsibility off of them to monitor their own fraud risk following a corporate data breach.”

The Compromised Identity Exchange, which launched in May, offers comprehensive identity theft and fraud protection for consumers following their involvement in one or more data breaches without requiring affected individuals to opt in or incur costs. Adding Lumen data to this technology adds a more comprehensive view of risks associated with lost or stolen information, even when a data breach has not been discovered or announced.