Securities firms are foreseeing cybersecurity risks as one of their top concerns for next year as cybers-attacks remain one of their top five risks as revealed in an annual Systemic Risk Barometer Survey done by DTCC officials. Cybersecurity concerns constitute one of the top five risks identified in every survey since 2013 when the DTCC… Read More >>
FinTech Brief: BMLL Expands Data Coverage in Canada
BMLL, an independent provider of Level 3 data and analytics, is expanding its data coverage to include more Canadian exchanges, which will operators to better analyze venue performance and liquidity dynamics against local and global peers, officials say. The expansion means that Level 3 data is now available from all major Canadian trading venues and… Read More >>
T+1 Testing: Concerns Emerge Amid Progress
In the sprint toward the T+1 transition to shorter settlement in May 2024, the official line from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) is that testing is proceeding smoothly. Behind the scenes, there are concerns regarding end-to-end testing, buy-side participation, and a dearth of operational testing. Val Wotton, managing director and general manager of… Read More >>
CFTC, IOSCO & Nasdaq Push Voluntary Carbon Trading Advances
The voluntary carbon credit (VCC) trading markets are still in their early days and face many operational challenges such as a reliance on too many manual steps, data collection difficulties, a high rate of bilateral transactions, and disparate technology choices when it comes to the trading and settlement of VCCs. However, over the past week,… Read More >>
FinTech Brief: CAIS Expands Collaboration with Pershing
CAIS, an alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, has expanded its relationship with the Pershing clearing, custody, and wealth management services division of BNY Mellon. The expansion was announced late last month “after the launch of CAIS Solutions, a new SaaS [Software as a Service] platform,” which applies CAIS technology to centralize and streamline… Read More >>
A Climate Data Platform Prototype Debuts at COP28
Inadvertently, I have stumbled upon another climate-related bit of news. This time it’s about the Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), described as “a unified, global, open climate data repository” whose information can be used by many sectors including financial services. A variety of securities firms would welcome free, reliable data about the climate change efforts… Read More >>
Regulators & Policies Decide ESG Plans for Pension Funds
Regulators and policymakers will have greater impacts on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies of pension plans than the pushback against ESG investments, according to two recent reports. The findings about regulators and policymakers are based on the Amundi/CREATE-Research annual global survey of pension investors and their investing concerns. For the… Read More >>
FinTech Brief: DTCC’s AIP Services Gains Funds & Clients
DTCC officials have announced a milestone for its Alternative Investment Product Services (AIP), which has had a 20 percent increase in the number of funds to 10,000-plus unique funds. In addition, the number of AIP clients has risen to more than 2,200, an increase of 28 percent. These increases occurred over the past year. The… Read More >>
FinTech Brief: IPC Taps Smartoptics for NY Metro Clients
IPC Systems, a provider of communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for securities trading, has selected Smartoptics, a provider of optical networking solutions, in order to meet the demand of New York metropolitan area clients engaged in high-performance algorithmic trading, officials say. The Smartoptics solutions provide low latency connectivity for electronic trading overseen by algorithms. “In… Read More >>
Buy Side Faces Big Risks via T+1 for FX
The push for shorter settlement cycles — trading day plus one, or T+1 — could pose major settlement and operational risks for buy-side participants in foreign exchange (FX) markets, according to guidance from the Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA), based in Washington, D.C. “The introduction of T+1 is not intended to increase FX settlement risk…. Read More >>
