Bank of America Merrill Lynch is tops in Europe. The firm captures first place in Institutional Investor's 2016 All-Europe Research Team, All-Europe Sales Team and roster of Europe's Top Corporate Access Providers.

Complete results of all three surveys can be found at www.institutionalinvestor.com.

Last year the firm ranked No. 4, No. 2 and No. 2, respectively, in these annual rankings.

On the research roster, Deutsche Bank claims second place while J.P. Morgan Cazenove takes third. Last year's winner, UBS, falls to No. 4. The All-Europe Research Team reflects the opinions of 2,139 money managers at 784 institutions overseeing an estimated $6 trillion in European equities.

In sales, Morgan Stanley captures second place while last year's winner, Deutsche Bank, tumbles to third. These results are based on the views of 1,560 financial professionals at 692 buy-side firms that collectively manage $5.4 trillion in European equity assets.

UBS and J.P. Morgan Cazenove are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on the latest iteration of Europe's Top Corporate Access Providers. Deutsche Bank, No. 1 last year, drops to fourth place on a ranking that reflects the opinions of 969 investors at nearly 500 institutions that collectively manage an estimated $4.5 trillion in European equities.

Voting in Institutional Investor's newest survey, the All-America Trading Team, is under way. Click here to participate:http://research.institutionalinvestor.com/s3/AATT-New

For more information, contact Esther Weisz at eweisz@iiresearchgroup.com or (212) 224-3307.

 INDATA, a leading industry provider of software, technology and services for buy-side firms delivered via its iPM Epic platform, today announced that it has launched a Compliance-as-a-Service offering which includes a global shareholder disclosure service leveraging legal content from aosphere LLP, an affiliate of leading international legal practice, Allen & Overy LLP.

“Having a significant number of domestic and international clients managing global investment strategies in just about every market, managing shareholder disclosure is an extremely challenging activity,” commented David J. Csiki, President of INDATA. “Complex international regulations and rules can be issued or changed with little notice and require compliance adherence. By leveraging the best-in-class legal information provided by aosphere and offering this as part of a fully integrated service, our clients are afforded significant advantages over in-house managed or other vendor provided solutions,” he added.

“We’re pleased to complement INDATA’s compliance offering with our world-class Rulefinder service which provides a detailed analysis of global reporting obligations,” said Marc-Henri Chamay, Chief Executive, aosphere. 

Under this relationship, aosphere will provide INDATA and iPM Epic clients with detailed legal information and also monitors and issues alerts on changes to global shareholder disclosure legislation.  INDATA’s Compliance-as-a-Service team creates, adapts and tests the rules within the subscriber’s iPM Compliance software solution utilized by iPM Epic clients.

The service will also provide iPM Epic clients with the ability to leverage highly experienced INDATA staff for compliance rule writing, set up and testing utilizing INDATA’s iPM Compliance software, available via iPM Cloud or in-house. Now with aosphere’s legal information, INDATA clients have access to a single, comprehensive solution that offers best-in-class software, technology, services and data.

For more information on INDATA and its iPM Epic system, go to

http://www.indataweb.com/solutions/

Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA) today announced that RHB Investment Bank (RHB), a premier Malaysian bank, has implemented Fidessa as its strategic trading platform across Asia.

The platform, managed by Fidessa throughout the region, provides advanced capabilities including algorithmic trading across all member markets, intelligent IOIs and a centralised order management system with integrated middle-office supporting RHB's growing regional business.

"As an increasing number of global brokers scale back in the region and Asian banks grow in importance, the foundation of their systems needs a re-think", commented Phillip Jeffrey, Head of Sales for Fidessa in Asia. "This is where the power and scale of Fidessa's infrastructure, combined with its broad range of features, position it as a natural partner to deliver the required reach and reliability".

A key driver for RHB in selecting Fidessa's technology was the ability to on-board a multitude of FIX clients with speed and agility, whilst at the same time offering them the choice to execute manually, directly, or through algorithmic models tailored to different countries. International clients are also becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to post-trade confirmations, and Fidessa's ability to offer a normalised and consistent solution for this across the region fulfils this requirement.

Lena Yong, Head of Institutional Broking for RHB, added: "We are very enthusiastic about the value this new platform will bring to our clients, as well as the opportunity for us to enhance our internal operations. RHB clients will see a substantial improvement in our services, whether they want to trade across Asia or internationally. Implementing this solution was an integral part of our strategy to consolidate our systems and continue to be a 'premier league' investment bank".

Fidessa's global network connects 4,800 buy-sides with 730 brokers across more than 200 markets around the globe. Its trading platform collected a number of awards in 2015, being named Trading Platform of the Year at The Asian Banker Financial Markets Awards, Best Sell-side Front Office Execution Platform at Waters' Sell-side Technology Awards, and voted by market participants the Best Sell-Side OMS Provider in the annual Waters Rankings.

Compass Plus, an international provider of retail banking and electronic payments software to processors and financial institutions, has announced that its processing centre has been recognised as fully compliant with PCI DSS version 3.1.

The certification means that all services offered by Compass Plus Processing Centre are compliant with the latest version of the industry security standards originally founded by the major international payment networks. The audit procedure for PCI DSS compliance, developed by the Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), was performed by Trustwave Ltd, an  industry leader in security services and a qualified security assessor.

Achieving certification in PCI DSS v3.1 demonstrates Compass Plus’ commitment to providing secure processing services for its customers, protecting their cardholder data and minimising risk.

“Compass Plus has always taken security very seriously, as one of the first companies to achieve PA DSS across our product suite back in 2009. At the beginning of 2016, we are proud to announce the certification of our processing centre with the latest industry standards, once again staying ahead of the majority in terms of security compliance to ensure our customers have the best possible protection available in the payments space,” said Maria Nottingham, Executive Vice President at Compass Plus.

Surecomp, the leading global provider of trade finance solutions for banks and corporations, announced today that Isbank AG, the European arm of Turkey’s leading bank Türkiye Is Bankasi A.S., has commenced production with DOKA 5, Surecomp’s configurable back-office solution for documentary trade finance.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Isbank leads its parent company’s international expansion plans, and promotes close commercial ties between Turkey and Western Europe. Recognizing that trade finance is vital to building strong international operations; Isbank was interested in improving upon its manually operated trade finance services. It also required a trade finance system that could interface with its Avaloq Core Banking System.

After licensing DOKA 5 in Q2/2015, Isbank rapidly went live with the advanced trade finance system.

“We recognize the value for our corporate customers of operating a state-of-the-art trade finance solution," said Uzay Ersin, Corporate Operations Manager at Isbank. "The DOKA 5 system meets our specific need for a comprehensive bank back-office trade finance solution that simplifies the administrative workload, optimizes processes, and saves time and money for both Isbank and our corporate clients. In today’s financial environment, the importance of real-time control and monitoring is paramount, and DOKA 5 helps us achieve these goals as well.”

“DOKA 5 provides a market-ready operational environment that enables banks to better manage their trade finance portfolios, achieve greater workflow control, and gain improved visibility into cash flows, risk exposure and asset management," said Eyal Hareuveny, Surecomp President. "Built on a flexible and scalable platform, DOKA 5 also delivers on-demand reporting across multiple entities and business units, giving Isbank greater insight into their trade finance activities.”