This Week: Afme on T+1, Anna/Isin, McKay Brothers/Quincy Data and more

Afme announces establishment of T+1 industry taskforce

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme) will set up a new industry taskforce to discuss whether Europe should follow the US in shortening settlement cycles to one day.

In a press release, the group said it was issuing a call for interest in participation from industry associations representing stakeholders who will be impacted by a shortening of the securities settlement cycle in Europe.

The task force will assess two key questions—firstly, whether Europe should move to a shorter settlement cycle, based on a cost–benefit analysis, and secondly, if so, how and when the potential move should happen. In its statement, Afme recognized that further consideration will be required to identify the changes needed to the current post-trade operating environment to facilitate T+1.

Revised Isin standard goes live

An update to the ISO standard governing the International Securities Identification Number (Isin) has been completed, according to the registration authority tasked with coordinating the assignment of the identifiers to securities.

The Isin acts like a barcode for securities. Every day, national numbering agencies send new Isins, representing securities issued in their domains, to the Association of National Numbering Agencies’ (Anna’s) data hub. That information is then enriched and distributed to subscribers, such as financial firms and data vendors.

The updated standard involved a wider dataset, expanding the 43 data fields associated with the Isin to 49. NNAs must also now report Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) to Anna’s data hub, as well as two codes also administered by Anna, the Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI) and the Financial Instrument Short Name (Fisn).

To read more about the Isin review, click here.

McKay Brothers and Quincy Data expand to Toronto

McKay Brothers has opened a private bandwidth service connecting the futures markets at CME with the cash equity markets of TMX in Toronto in less than 4.3 milliseconds one way. McKay’s sibling company, Quincy Data, offers select CME data at TMX. The Quincy Extreme Data (QED) service distributes equity indexes, energy and metals futures.

McKay’s transpacific network went live last year, connecting the CME with trading hubs in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Read more about the proliferating shortwave links promising to intensify the latency game here.

Colt expands partnership with Equinix in three regions

Network provider and market data carrier Colt Technology Services has announced new connectivity in three countries, expanding its collaboration with datacenter provider Equinix. Businesses in Spain, Italy, and Sweden can use Colt’s infrastructure connected with Equinix Fabric.

The Colt On Demand network connects with Equinix Fabric across Europe and Asia, giving access to Equinix International Business Exchange datacenters and Equinix Digital Services.

This expansion is the latest step in an ongoing effort to open routes and connect new markets. Last year, the company opened ultra-low latency routes between the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX); Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and HKEX; HKEX and SGX; and ASX and CME. It also added connectivity in South Korea and Taiwan. Read more here.

Trading Technologies partners with Bantix Technologies to provide QuikStrike options service through TT platform

Options analysis software provider QuikStrike will be available on the platform of trading software provider Trading Technologies International (TT) as a result of a partnership with options software development company Bantix Technologies.

Brokers who use TT trading will have access to listed derivatives and a raft of new capabilities including options pricing, historical volatility tools, and risk analysis.

Sesamm raises €35 million to grow ESG and sentiment analysis business

Natural language processing company Sesamm has closed a second series B funding round of €35 million ($37 million). In a press release, the company said the funds would help it to expand in the US and Asia, hire new talent, and develop technology to generate ESG and sentiment analytics.

The round was co-led by venture capital firm Elaia and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas. Other participating companies include asset manager Unigestion, Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI’s) venture capital entity Elevator Ventures, AFG Partners, CEGEE Capital, and historical backers, including Carlyle Group and New Alpha Asset Management, which participated in the previous series B round. This latest round brings the total funding raised by Sesamm to over $50 million.

SIX and FundGuard partner on investment accounting

Financial data provider SIX has partnered with investment accounting platform FundGuard to deliver pricing, market and reference data to asset managers and owners.

SIX’s end-of-day market prices, core security master data, and corporate actions notifications will be integrated with FundGuard’s Ibor, Abor, and Nav Contingency solutions. Other ESG, fund compliance, and regulatory-driven datasets from SIX will also be available through the investment accounting platform.

Cboe Digital becomes ambassador for industry standards body Dmist

Cboe Digital has joined the Derivatives Market Institute for Standards (Dmist) as an ambassador. The crypto exchange will send representatives to working groups for developing and vetting proposed industry standards. Dmist is an industry-governed standards body that aims to improve the efficiency and resilience of the clearing ecosystem.

Liontrust live on Calastone’s automated fund share class conversions solution

Fund manager Liontrust has selected network provider Calastone to convert fund share classes on its platform, simplifying the movement between fund share classes. Using Calastone’s Share Class Conversions tool, Liontrust can automate conversion requests from any business partner or investor connected to Calastone’s global funds network.