This Week: Bloomberg, MSCI, Liquidnet & more

Bloomberg and Elwood Technologies team up on institutional crypto trading

Bloomberg and Elwood Technologies have announced an integration to enable investments from clients using Elwood’s cryptocurrency trading platform to flow directly into Bloomberg AIM, a buy-side order management system.

The integration aims to combine Elwood’s institutional cryptocurrency trading capabilities with Bloomberg’s data, analytics, and workflow tools. It strives to enable financial institutions and investment managers on the AIM platform to capture and manage their crypto investments alongside the rest of their portfolio for a unified investment process.

Elwood will adopt Bloomberg’s Financial Instrument Global Identifier (Figi) for crypto assets as the common identifier for the integration. The integration is expected to be completed and available for mutual clients of Elwood and Bloomberg AIM in Q2 2022.

Richelieu Gestion adopts Bloomberg equity indices

Bloomberg has announced that Richelieu Gestion, a Paris-based asset manager and one of the subsidiaries of Compagnie Financière Richelieu, has adopted Bloomberg’s index solutions across its entire fund range.

By adopting Bloomberg’s Equity index capabilities, Richelieu Gestion hopes to offer consistency and transparency for investors. 

Quodd announces data partnership with HWA International

Quodd Financial Information Services has announced a data partnership with HWA International, a provider of trust accounting software to the buy side.

This partnership intends to provide HWA’s clients with Quodd’s Universal Data solution, an end-of-day market data service which aims to fuel global pricing, dividends, corporate actions, and reference data on comprehensive asset classes. Complementing this service consists of a cloud-based platform called Universe+, which is utilized to support research, daily price exception, and data validation reporting.

Liquidnet enhances trading in the South African bond market

Liquidnet has announced an initiative to bring the largest South African institutions onto its electronic bond trading platform, in partnership with TP ICAP South Africa. The partnership intends to bring new liquidity and coverage into the country. Asset class coverage includes all South African government-issued bonds, sovereign-owned entities such as Eskom, Transnet and agencies including DEVSA and INDVSA.

Today, over 70% of Liquidnet’s member community is active in trading emerging markets. Through this partnership, they now have access to new liquidity in the South African bond market.

Exactpro Systems secures Board of Investment status in Sri Lanka

Exactpro has announced that it has obtained the Board of Investment (BOI) status in Sri Lanka, having signed an agreement marking Exactpro’s commitment to long-term investing in the country. This announcement follows the news of Exactpro’s expansion to Sri Lanka in July 2021 through the launch of a delivery center in Colombo and the appointment of Jagath De Silva as Exactpro Systems Sri Lanka CEO in October 2021.

The BOI status in the region enables Exactpro to continue strengthening support for global clients, including major exchanges and firms in the UK and US. The company hopes that the expansion will enable them to tap into Sri Lanka’s rich talent pool, in order to scale its support for existing and new global projects.

Derivatives Service Bureau announces Isin consultation timeline

The Derivatives Service Bureau—founded by the Association of National Numbering Agencies to facilitate the allocation and maintenance of International Securities Identification Numbers (Isins), Classification of Financial Instrument codes, and Financial Instrument Short Names for OTC derivatives—has announced the timeline for the 2022 industry consultation related to the 2023 OTC Isin and CFI service provision.

The annual industry consultation is critical in shaping the DSB’s operating model. In providing advance notice of the consultation, the DSB seeks to provide market participants with sufficient time to aid planning and resource alignment where necessary. The DSB encourages all market participants that utilize or report OTC Isins, who will need to incorporate any service changes into their workflows, to review and respond to the consultation so that a broad spectrum of views can be reflected in the service that is introduced in 2023.

The OTC ISIN consultation paper will be published on April 29, 2022, and the industry will be able to respond until 5 p.m. UTC on May 30. The final results of the consultation will be published on June 30, 2022.

The Association of National Numbering Agencies announces new timeline

The Association of National Numbering Agencies (Anna) has announced the timeline for National Numbering Agencies’ (NNAs) implementation of the revised ISO 6166 International Securities Identification Number (Isin) standard, bringing further clarity and transparency in the identification and reporting of trades using international standards.

The revised ISO 6166 standard was published in February 2021 following the systematic review by the International Organization for Standardization. Highlights of the Isin revision included an increased dataset with the formal inclusion of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), Classification of Financial Instruments (CFI) and Financial Instrument Short Name (FISN) as part of the minimum data record, explicit language to confirm the standard covers both financial and referential instruments, and assignment rules for OTC derivatives as already implemented by the Derivatives Service Bureau.

Fair Place Finance selects Broadridge’s blockchain-based SRD II disclosure solution

Fair Place Finance, a digital wealth management platform, announced it will utilize a blockchain-based disclosure solution offered by Broadridge Financial Solutions. WealthSeed will use Broadridge’s new Shareholder Disclosure Hub, a digital solution that uses the latest API- and blockchain-based technologies, to address SRD II’s new shareholder disclosure requirements and provide data security for WealthSeed’s business in Poland and other European markets over time. Broadridge’s Shareholder Disclosure Hub aims to democratize investing and helping companies better connect with investors and improve corporate governance.

Athora Holding selects Clearwater to drive growth and streamline operations

Athora Holding has selected Clearwater to support its growth strategy, streamline the operating model, and provide a consolidated view of accounting, regulatory, and operational reporting across all entities. Founded in 2014, Athora has grown through acquisitions and portfolio transfers, with subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, and Bermuda. Athora chose Clearwater to enable one consolidated view across all asset classes, currencies, and accounting bases.

MSCI launches Developer Community and Data Explorer

MSCI has announced the launch of Developer Community and Data Explorer, two new Investment Solutions-as-a-Service (ISaaS) applications that respectively enable the discovery, use, and integration of MSCI’s APIs and MSCI’s content.

Following MSCI’s introduction of ISaaS in collaboration with Microsoft, the launches of Developer Community and Data Explorer reflect increasing investor demand for technologies that scale big data, feature advanced analytics, and facilitate customized experiences for clients to accelerate their own innovation efforts. Built on Microsoft Azure, MSCI Developer Community and Data Explorer intend to deliver and distribute MSCI content, insights, and data at scale by leveraging key capabilities such as data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics from Azure services such as Azure Synapse.

In response to demand for greater data transparency and a seamless user experience, Data Explorer strives to enable quant analysts, investment managers and chief data officers to discover, understand, and access thousands of data points across hundreds of MSCI datasets that cover indices, ESG and climate, analytics, and real estate in a quick and efficient manner.

CI Global Asset Management releases two ETFs

CI Global Asset Management has released two thematic ETFs, which track Solactive’s innovation indices, expanding its engagement with the German index provider. The ETFs, which are linked to the Solactive Global Genomics Immunology and Medical Revolution CAD Hedged Index NTR and the Solactive Digital Security CAD Hedged Index NTR, aim to allow investors to have access to high-demand industries especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They have been designed for investors who hope to gain exposure to the biomedical industry. CI Bio-Revolution ETF (CDNA) seeks to track the performance of the Solactive Global Genomics Immunology and Medical Revolution CAD Hedged Index NTR, which serves as a representation of companies that have business operations in the global biotechnology and genomics industry.

The pandemic has led most organizations to accelerate their adoption of digitalization as workplaces shifted to remote or hybrid models. Aiming to capture the value of the growth of the digital security industry, CI Digital Security ETF (CBUG) seeks to replicate the Solactive Digital Security CAD Hedged Index NTR by providing targeted exposure to companies that have business operations in the global digital security industry, such as digital security technologies, digital security management, digital security software and digital security platforms.

IPC partners with Drebbel to boost presence in European markets

IPC has announced its decision to onboard Drebbel s.r.o. as the sales channel for IPC’s Connexus suite of products in several continental European markets. Drebbel, which has presences in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Brussels, is an end-to-end fintech sales company that aims to provide clients with prospection, sales, and long-term account management.

IPC has identified a window of opportunity to expand its presence in Europe with products that address the evolving financial marketplace, such as digital asset exchanges, surveillance platforms, and more, while continuing to support established participants in the trading community.