FlexFinance FRC

Gresham Computing plc, a leading provider of transaction control solutions to international financial institutions and corporates, today announced that its flagship software Clareti Transaction Control (CTC) has won the FTF News Technology Innovation Award for Best Reconciliation Solution. This is the second consecutive year CTC has won the award.

FTF and FTF News established the awards to celebrate and recognise the professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, industry bodies and regulators that have made significant strides and noteworthy achievements in operational excellence.

Qualified industry participants comprising customers, peers and industry professionals selected this year’s winners and put forward suggestions for nominees via online processes. When asked to vote participants were asked to consider the flexibility, completeness, ease-of-use and innovative features of a solution for automating and managing reconciliation and exceptions management processes.

“We are thrilled to win this prestigious technology innovation award for the second year in a row” says Chris Errington, CEO, Gresham Computing. “This win evidences CTC’s leading reconciliation position in the post-trade processing market, as voted for by customers, peers and industry professionals. It is testament to the strength and quality of not only CTC but also the people within Gresham who work hard to create, sell and support great product”.

Reval’s version 15.0, released today, is the first iteration of the Reval Cloud Platform, introducing the Treasury and Risk Management (TRM) provider’s strategic shift from product to platform. With its rich functionality, the Reval Cloud Platform is the foundation upon which new packages will be configured to meet the specific needs of various market segments.

“Our focus is on the user experience,” says Reval Chief Technology Officer Philip Pettinato. “We are making it easier than ever before for companies of all sizes and complexities to access and use the industry best practices built into the Reval Cloud Platform. This is important now as companies continue to grow, acquire, and go global.”

New and enhanced capabilities of the Reval Cloud Platform improve user experience, reporting, controls and security for treasury and risk management across corporate treasury operations. In addition, partner integration with Fiserv’s BAWeb extends the value of the Reval Cloud Platform for straight-through electronic bank account management (eBAM).  

New real-time limit controls further support the proactive management of international treasury operations, enabling users to set global limits on various types of risk – investment concentration, credit, trader, issuer, counterparty and more. Multiple limits can be checked on a real-time basis at trade entry while automated alerts notify when threshold or limits are breached. For U.S.-based operations with a financial interest or signature authority over foreign financial accounts exceeding certain thresholds, Reval now adds individual reporting to its compliance capabilities for FBAR reporting. And for treasuries operating in Brazil, specifically, the Reval Cloud Platform now supports the linear interest calculation for BRL fixed rate transactions, adding to Reval’s existing capability for non-linear interest calculation.

Given the ubiquity of the cloud’s anywhere, anytime access, the Reval Cloud Platform provides additional layers of security and service, such as payment authentications, control over passwords, single sign on including Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), and client support services that monitor and validate client IP addresses.

Reval’s partner community integrates Weiland BAweb™ from Fiserv, which standardizes and automates the process of managing multiple bank accounts and signatory data. Straight-through processing allows bank accounts in BAWeb to be automatically created and updated in Reval.

Misys, the leading financial software company, has signed an agreement with Global Market Solutions (GMS) to become a member of the InFusion Partner Programme. GMS provides expertise in implementation and integration projects around financial software for a range of activities, including front to back office analysis, risk management, IT architecture and development.

GMS has a pool of FusionCapital Summit experts located in Europe and is able to provide Front-to-Back Process flow definition for the Treasury and Capital Market products. GMS has extensive capability in delivering business solutions based on FusionCapital Summit and has significant training expertise on FusionCapital Summit software. GMS also provides a complete solution covering all Counterparty Credit Risk project streams which addresses the weaknesses of existing CVA implementations.

Misys Vice President Partners & Ecosystem, Brian Gibson, states: “Global Market Solutions has many years of experience in capital markets and risk management and a very deep knowledge of the Misys portfolio of solutions. We are delighted that Global Market Solutions have joined the Misys InFusion Partner programme as we jointly drive our expanding businesses in France and across Europe.”

Dominique Vignaux, CEO, Global Market Solutions, commented: “We are delighted to be in partnership with Misys. We have many years’ experience of working with their product portfolio, especially with FusionCapital Summit. This agreement will allow us to expand our services and deepen our relationship with that community.”

Misys and GMS have already started joint work on regulatory topics to offer additional solutions in the short term. The partnership is definitively adding value to the Summit Customer community with the coordination and joint efforts from both companies’ resources and expertise.

PROFILE Software, an award-winning financial solutions provider announced today that FMS.next goes live at the local branch of an international bank headquartered in the UK. The bank selected the technologically advanced FMS.next Banking platform to manage their data warehouse requirements and achieve regulatory compliance, reporting customer activity to state authorities.

Leveraging its international recognition, PROFILE’s FMS.next was selected to replace the Core Banking system that served as an archiving system, due to its flexibility, user-friendliness, seamless integration to the Bank’s environment and the evident value for money provided. Alongside acting as the archiving system, serving enquiries to the users, FMS.next integrated with the Bank’s productive systems to handle real time enquiries by the state authorities on customer activity, effectively combining information from different environments.

The robust architecture of FMS.next provided a smooth integration to the Bank’s environment, while its modular and technologically upgraded platform ensured a cost-effective implementation in terms of hardware and software requirements. The bank’s users experience a modern and friendly web-based interface, in addition to increasing their productivity through instant access to information, straightforward navigation and streamlining of their processes. The powerful report generator of FMS.next ensures that any new reporting requirement is handled with ease at any time.

PROFILE continuously invests in the development and improvement of its FMS.next Universal Banking platform to accommodate the demanding requirements of the financial services environment helping organizations to deliver exceptional client service and achieve operational efficiency. Apart from traditional banking operations FMS.next competitively covers the requirements for Islamic Banking, Financing & Leasing as well as Peer-to-Peer Lending (online marketplace).

 Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data centre company, today officially opened its sixth London data centre, LD6, in Slough.

With $79M of capital expenditure invested, the LD6 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) facility will provide new paths in and out of Europe’s largest financial centre and new collaboration, innovation and business acceleration opportunities for companies establishing or expanding their technology footprint in London.

Strengthened by recent data centre openings in New York, Melbourne, Singapore, Toronto, and now LD6 in London, Equinix is fuelling a new wave of growth potential for enterprises worldwide. Leveraging Equinix’s portfolio of cloud and network service providers, which includesMicrosoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, customers can deploy data networks and services rapidly, and at scale, on a secure and flexible basis. By harnessing these opportunities, Equinix is playing a major role in advancing the digital economy's interconnected era and businesses are benefitting from the global potential to develop new products, services and revenue streams.

Setting new standards in security and efficiency, LD6 is the UK’s only purpose built Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold-accredited energy efficient data centre. Built from scratch, LD6 has been tailored to provide an ultra-energy-efficient base on which customers can accelerate their business.

Energy efficiency has been achieved at the site with the aid of an innovative air system, which utilises mass air cooling technology with indirect heat exchange and 100 percent natural ventilation. This will contribute to LD6 having lower energy consumption and a smaller carbon footprint than other facilities of its kind.

Highlights / Key Facts

·         London holds a significant place in driving the digital economy with the fifth largest GDP by metropolitan area in the world. Equinix’s London Slough data centre campus has been established as one of the premiere connectivity points for businesses to interconnect and transact with one another in a secure colocation environment. The opening of LD6 in London is driven by steady demand for services at one of the UK’s fastest-growing data centre campuses – the Equinix London Slough campus. The facility has broad appeal because it houses LINX, one of the world’s largest Internet Exchanges and serves as a virtual financial centre housing over 170 financial services companies, with a quarter of European equities trades originating here.

·         The opening of LD6 continues the steady expansion of Equinix’s leading global interconnection platform – Platform Equinix™. Equinix has invested more than $7.5 billion over the last 16 years and LD6 represents a critical access point for European businesses into Equinix’s global footprint of more than 100 data centres across 33 markets.

·         The initial phase of LD6 is 236,000 square feet (8,000 square meters) and adds capacity for 1,385 cabinets with the ability to add another 1,385 cabinets in phase two. Once phase two is complete, the Equinix London Slough campus will provide more than 388,000 square feet (36,000 square meters) of net premium colocation space interconnected by more than 1,000 diverse dark fiber links – increasing scale and resilience. This campus environment allows for quick access to other ecosystem participants across facilities. Additionally, with six data centre sites strategically located throughout central London, Equinix provides businesses increased options forbusiness continuity and disaster recovery.

·         With over 90 network service providers and access to a range of transatlantic cables, the London Slough campus is one of the busiest network nodes in the UK, and offers latency in the region of 30 milliseconds to New York and 4 milliseconds to Frankfurt, making it an ideal high-performance hub for cloud and content service provision.

·         Enterprises will have access to major cloud providers including Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform located in the London Campus via Equinix Cloud Exchange™. Available to customers in the London metro area, Cloud Exchange provides enterprises with secure, direct, flexible connections to a wide range of cloud service providers in 20 markets worldwide.

·         Utilising colocation alongside Equinix’s unmatched portfolio of cloud and network service providers, customers can rapidly deploy IT infrastructure with global scale, and on a secure and flexible basis. Businesses are benefitting from the global potential to develop new applications, products and services with increased time to market with Platform Equinix.

·         LD6 is one of the few Equinix data centres to be built from scratch. This freedom in design and development has enabled Equinix to optimise efficiency from both an environmental and an operational perspective. LD6 has been tailored to provide an ultra-energy-efficient base on which customers can build advanced and flexible cloud services.

Quotes

·         Matt Stagg, senior manager, Network Strategy, EE:

“In 2017, 4G will be predominately a video distribution network – globally, a billion gigabytes will go across mobile networks each month. Strategically, we need to have a data centre provider, to connect to the top video providers, that understands this growth, and has a roadmap to support it – Equinix meets this need. The launch of LD6 as part of the Equinix London Slough Campus brings this roadmap into reality.” 

·         Julian David, CEO techUK

“The addition of LD6 to the Equinix London Campus is another sign of the growth and opportunity presented by the UK technology sector. The decision by Equinix, and many other global companies, to invest in the UK is further evidence of the crucial role of this country as a hub for technology innovation, services and talent.”

·         Russell Poole, managing director, Equinix UK:

“LD6 is one of the most technically advanced data centres in the UK. It has been designed to ensure that we can continue to provide state-of-the-art colocation for our current and future customers. This latest addition to our thriving London campus sets new standards in efficiency and sustainability.”

Broadridge today announced a new trade expense managed service offering for capital markets firms looking to streamline and automate their trade expense management process. For broker-dealers, management of trade-related fees is the third largest operating cost after technology and people, and Broadridge’s trade expense managed service offering will help firms address key pain points in managing trade expenses, including revenue leakage, over-billing and other costly errors. For reference, the full press release follows below.

Additionally, Terence Faherty, Head of Product Strategy, Broadridge Revenue & Expense Management, will present a case study at the SIFMA Ops Conference in San Diego on Tuesday.

The presentation, titled “An Operating Model to Reduce Cost Per Trade,” will address best practices for firms to reduce operational costs. If you’d like more information about the trade expense managed service or would like data or takeaways from the presentation, please let me know.

 Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today opened a state-of-the-art data center in Toronto, Ontario. Known as TR2, the new data center will serve companies doing business in Canada's largest financial, networking and cloud computing market. Toronto is home to a rich financial services ecosystem already present in Equinix with customers including Chi-X, and Liquidnet. Equinix recently added leading foreign exchange broker Oanda in TR2, as well as network service providers Rogers, Telus, Cogeco, Allstream, Cogent, Beanfield and CFN Networks. TR2 has direct access to TorIX, the Toronto Internet Exchange, which is the largest Internet Exchange Point in Canada with over 180 members.

.@Equinix Expands in Toronto to Serve Growing Demand for Interconnection #datacenter #cloud
The opening of TR2 is part of a larger global expansion for Equinix. In March, the company announced that it is opening five new International Business ExchangeTM  (IBX®) data centers on four continents to create more capacity for global companies to connect to their partners, customers and employees. In addition to TR2, Equinix has extended its global footprint with the opening of new IBX data centers in London, New York, Singapore and Melbourne and expanded its IBX in Rio de Janeiro. By providing this increased capacity, Equinix expands its role in advancing the digital economy's interconnected era, in which businesses are demanding increasing levels of interconnection to accelerate business performance.

Highlights / Key Facts

Toronto is Canada's finance and business capital, generating $286B annually and representing approximately 20 percent of Canada's GDP1. Rated as one of the top 10 global cities with economic clout2, and one of the top three cities in the Americas for economic potential and infrastructure3, Toronto provides an ideal business environment for companies looking for a competitive edge. Furthermore, Toronto's financial services sector is the largest in Canada and the fastest growing in North America.
Centrally located at the corner of Front Street and Parliament Street in Toronto, TR2 offers interconnections among global enterprises, cloud and network service providers and financial services companies, to name a few. Today TR2 provides connections to 60+ network service providers and the ability to interconnect directly to more than 155 companies that have colocated with Equinix in Toronto via TR1, Equinix's original Toronto data center.
The TR2 IBX data center has approximately 34,000 square feet (3,158 square meters) of colocation space in its initial phase with 675 cabinets available to customers. Equinix has invested $42M in the site to date and estimates that it will invest over $100M to fully build out the facility in five phases in the coming years. At full build the IBX will have approximately 106,000 square feet (9,847 square meters) of colocation space and 2,500 cabinets.
Both TR1 and TR2 are on multiple fiber routes with diverse routes in and out of Toronto, enabling highly reliable, high-performance connectivity for mission critical applications. Additionally, the proximity of the Equinix Toronto data centers to the United States offers enterprises a strategic location for business continuity and disaster recovery operations.
Equinix is home to one of the most robust electronic trading ecosystems in Canada and the two Equinix data centers in Toronto include more than 30 financial firms including five of the top eight Canadian electronic trading platforms. This ecosystem includes alternative trading systems, market data feeds, risk management service providers, algorithmic trading engines and banks.
With more than 147,000 interconnections already established among its customers, Equinix is the world's leading global interconnection platform. Today, companies leverage a platform of more than 100 data centers on five continents, their choice of more than 1,000 network and cloud service providers and access to mature ecosystems to accelerate their business.
Quotes

Bill Sandiford, executive director, Toronto Internet Exchange:
"Equinix has played a critical role in driving the growth of TorIX and the ability to seamlessly interconnect with financial services companies, clouds and global networks has been an essential part of that expansion. Our company looks forward to tapping new business opportunities as we expand our presence into the Equinix TR2 facility."

Drew Izzo, chief marketing officer, OANDA:
"For us it's about providing infrastructure to develop more innovative technologies for OANDA. Providing a greatly enhanced disaster recovery site is essential, in the event that our main datacenter has a catastrophic issue. We count on Equinix to ensure that our clients get more from trading with OANDA."

Karl Strohmeyer, president, Equinix Americas:
"Our new state-of-the-art data center, TR2, combines superior network density, best-in-class design and direct access to diverse routes in and out of the metro for mission critical applications. Leading companies are accelerating their business across Platform Equinix and TR2 extends this opportunity in a top international market."

Global advisory, fund administration and fiduciary services firm Maitland has acquired 100% of Phoenix Fund Services, a UK based company offering bespoke outsourced fund administration services to investment managers in the UK and offshore.

The deal boosts Maitland’s assets under administration by £6.2 billion (USD $9.3 billion) to over £140 billion (USD $210 billion) and heralds its entry into the fund administration sector in the UK where it has an established private client and corporate services business.

Phoenix Fund Services provides fund set-up, fiduciary oversight and fund administration services to traditional fund managers in its capacity as an Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) and fund administrator. It also acts as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) and fund administrator to Investment Trusts, NURS and alternative fund structures. Maitland, which has existing AIFM capabilities in Luxembourg, will leverage Phoenix Fund Services’ UK presence to grow its share of the traditional long-only and alternative fund administration outsource market in the UK and Europe.

Maitland CEO Steve Georgala says: “Acting as a UK ACD, AIFM and fund administrator will be core to Maitland’s offering through this exciting acquisition. Maitland brings its industrial-strength systems to the deal as an integrator of best-of-breed technology. Phoenix brings its highly skilled administration professionals in a market where talent and knowledge are major differentiators.”

“In an increasingly complex and regulated industry, fund managers are seeking to outsource the entire administration value chain in order to concentrate on their core business. The era of the one-dimensional fund administrator is over. The leaders will be those who can partner with clients in an advisory capacity as well as provide the right, world-class platform and guidance for product construction and innovation,” says Mr Georgala.

Patric Foley-Brickley, MD of Phoenix Fund Services, says: “This deal is extremely positive for our clients and our staff. The ability to leverage Maitland’s balance sheet and institutional processes and systems (including InvestOne, Advent Geneva and Investran) will enable us to offer our high quality fund administration services to a wider variety of clients and fund structures.

“The acquisition will give us a strong foundation to continue building our business based on our solid reputation for first class administration and customer service,” says Mr Foley-Brickley.

The acquisition, which is subject to approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, takes effect from the date of receipt of such approval. Phoenix Fund Services will retain its offices and staff. The existing Phoenix Fund Services senior management team will remain as directors and will continue to fulfil key management roles within the combined organisation which will adopt the Maitland brand name.

The combined entity will offer fund oversight and administration to investment trusts, UCITS, NURS, QIS, Hedge, Private Equity, Real Estate and VCT structures across Europe.