This Week: Broadridge/TSE, BlackRock, Tradeweb, Finos, and more

Tokyo Stock Exchange CONNEQTOR adds direct connection with Broadridge’s Xilix EMS

Tokyo Stock Exchange and Broadridge Financial Solutions have  announced the launch of a direct connection between CONNEQTOR, TSE’s platform for trading exchange-traded funds, and Xilix, Broadridge’s execution management system (EMS). The connection will allow asset management companies to use CONNEQTOR directly from Xilix.

Raymond Tierney, president of Broadridge trading and connectivity solutions, tells WatersTechnology that since the announcement of the CONNEQTOR partnership, the firm has seen “a significant uptick” in new contacts and requests for product demos.

“Looking ahead, we have exciting plans for Xilix. We are closer than ever to completing our integration with Broadridge’s Investment Management Solutions, and integrating pre-trade and in-trade analytics with the support of a third party provider. We’re also looking at new options for Broadridge’s Smart Broker Allocation / Algo (SBA), our fully integrated and customizable broker wheel,” he says.

CONNEQTOR, launched in February 2021, is a RFQ platform that aims to make ETFs faster and better-priced in Japan.

The deal came about after a large client of Broadridge’s expressed interest in TSE’s CONNEQTOR platform. Broadridge got in touch with TSE to see if they could strike a deal. “We already had an excellent relationship with Tokyo Stock Exchange. They have always been helpful and they were happy to hear from us and move forward with setting up a direct connection to Broadridge’s Xilix Execution Management System.”

Tradeweb and FTSE Russell partner on benchmarking

Tradeweb Markets, an electronic marketplaces operator for rates, credit, equities and money markets, will enter a strategic partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group’s FTSE Russell to develop the fixed-income index pricing and index trading products.

The firms aim to expand benchmark pricing by providing pricing across a broader range of fixed-income securities, to be administered by FTSE Russell as benchmarks. This will expand on their existing collaboration on benchmark pricing for UK gilt and European government bonds.

The closing prices amalgamate trading activity from Tradeweb’s electronic platform to improve alignment with actual trading levels and intraday pricing. The prices are administered in step with the EU and UK Benchmark Regulation and the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks and can be used as reference rates for trade-at-close transactions and derivatives contracts.

Adepa taps BlackRock’s eFront for European funds

Adepa, a Luxembourg-based alternative investment fund manager and fund administrator, has selected BlackRock’s eFront, a technology solution for private markets, to improve its offerings to clients across private equity, private debt, infrastructure, and real estate. The platform is now available to all funds served by Adepa in Luxembourg, Spain, Chile, and Italy.

Adepa chose the eFront platform for its alternative investment and data analytics capabilities. eFront solutions are available across Adepa’s AIFM services, fund administration, and transfer agency businesses.

Esteban Nogueyra, head of fund administration at Adepa, says, “by integrating eFront in our technology platform, we will provide a one-stop-shop combining the advantages of our back-office capabilities and leading alternative fund services expertise in Europe and Latin America, supporting our international expansion, and allowing our clients to focus on their core business.”

R3’s Corda powers first digital bond issuance on Euroclear’s digital financial market infrastructure

The first live issuance of a digital bond with Euroclear’s International Central Securities Depository was underpinned by R3’s enterprise distributed ledger technology platform, Corda.

The transaction is a part of Euroclear’s ongoing Distributed Financial Market Infrastructure initiative, which used R3’s Corda platform to improve the transparency, speed and resilience of the bond issuance process.

The SSA (supranational, sovereign and agency) bond was issued by the World Bank, with Citi, an investor in R3, acting as issuer agent and Toronto Dominion Securities acting as dealer.

Finos open sources Common Cloud Controls for mitigating cloud risks

The Fintech Open Source Foundation (Finos), a part of The Linux Foundation, announced that Finos Common Cloud Controls (FINOS CCC)—a set of open standards for compliant cloud deployments in the financial services—is now open sourced through Finos and available on GitHub.

Finos CCC creates a standard set of cybersecurity, resiliency, and compliance controls for common services across the major cloud service providers. By developing a unified taxonomy of common services and associated threats, the project aims to reduce the systemic risk of cloud concentration within the financial services industry.

The project is the result of a three-month formation phase, in which Finos members, including about 100 participants from financial institutions, cloud service providers, technology vendors, industry associations, and regulatory bodies met to discuss the open standard’s roadmap. Finos CCC was built on the approach developed by Citi.

Hidden Road releases Route28 synthetic prime brokerage offering

Hidden Road, a credit network for institutions, announced the launch of Route28, a synthetic prime brokerage offering. It covers over-the-counter swaps across major asset classes, including FX, equities, commodities, digital assets, energy and rates.

Crossover Markets is powering Route28’s front-end and matching engine, using its CROSSx technology. With the rollout of Route28, Hidden Road will offer cross-margining and margin financing across cash/spot, cleared derivatives, and OTC swaps products in all major asset classes.

The product was built in collaboration with hedge funds, brokers and principal market making firms, with the launch anchored by Capital.com, FXCM, Pepperstone, oneZero, Gold-i, PrimeXM and Argamon Markets.

Jupiter Asset Management signs deal with Room Zero

Jupiter Asset Management has signed a five-year deal with Room Zero, a specialist software provider for the asset management industry, to consolidate assets under management and flow information into one dataset.

Assets under management and flow data are often managed separately by multiple teams in an AM firm. Room Zero’s cloud-based software allows multiple departments in a firm to work on and process common information. Room Zero has consolidated 30 databases into one on behalf of Jupiter.

“Technology is a crucial and differentiating factor in an asset manager’s ability to deliver a seamless and high-quality experience for clients. This is particularly important as the needs of wholesale and institutional clients converge. As we continue to develop our business to better serve our clients’ evolving needs, we welcome Room Zero as a partner,” said Maximilian Guenzl, co-head of the client group at Jupiter Asset Management.

Liquidnet launches pre-trade analytics for listed derivatives

Liquidnet, a technology-driven agency execution specialist, has launched a pre-trade analytics offering for listed derivatives.

The solution is available in Europe and the US and provides actionable intelligence, including volume, liquidity, activity, and projected volume to help inform decision-making prior to execution. Liquidnet is looking for fill a hole in the availability of pre-trade data for listed derivatives.

ACA Group releases solutions for compliance with SEC’s private fund adviser rules

ACA Group, a governance, risk, and compliance advisor for financial services, has released two new solutions to help private fund managers comply with the new US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Private Fund Adviser Rules.

The first offering is a rules readiness assessment for private fund advisers, which evaluates a firm’s existing framework against the new rules to identify gaps and areas requiring attention. The second offering is a quarterly statements solution, which allows for technology-enabled report preparation, calculation and presentation frameworks, ranging from an in-depth review and analysis to an outsourced solution for reporting and calculation.

The offerings are compatible with ACA Signature, an advisory solution that can use the technology within ACA’s ComplianceAlpha and managed services.

Canoe Intelligence releases Canoe Tax

Canoe Intelligence, a financial technology company specializing in the alternatives industry, has introduced Canoe Tax, which builds on its previous work in the alternative investment data space.

Canoe Tax assists with the management of tax documents such as Form 1099, Form 8621, Form ADV, state and federal K-1 and K-3, and others. The solution aims to eliminates manual processes used in collecting, categorizing, and storing these documents. In line with Canoe’s Intelligence platform, Canoe Tax can also extract and deliver the relevant tax data to downstream systems. It is able to normalize around 60 data elements from Federal and State K-1s and deliver them in a standard flat file format.

Canoe Tax is an add-on solution for Canoe clients.