This Week: CJC bolsters cybersecurity capabilities; Finos FDC3; JP Morgan; and more

CJC partners with SEP2 to deploy Google Chronicle Security Operations Suite 

Market data managed services company Crown Jewels Consultants (CJC) has deployed the Google Chronicle Security Operations Suite following a partnership with cybersecurity company SEP2.

According to Google, the Chronicle Security Operations suite ingests a user’s data into a private container at a petabyte scale. The data is aggregated, normalized and linked with out-of-the-box detections and threat intelligence. That data is then exposed via case management, sub-second search, collaboration, and contextual mapping. Rapid response times occur via automated playbooks, incident management, and closed-loop feedback.

To optimize the platform’s deployment, CJC has partnered with SEP2 on Google’s introduction. The project aims to improve threat response times and decrease the company’s incident resolution times. Chronicle will also provide better metrics and increase automation in CJC’s security processes. CJC will use SEP2.security, SEP2’s MDR solution. SEP2.security combines Chronicle’s SIEM and SOAR components with SEP2’s 24/7 Wingman support service. 

Steve Moreton, global head of product management at CJC, tells WatersTechnology that Gina Wee, the vendor’s chief information officer, and Peter Price, its global head of internal services and cloud operations, wanted to bring in an expert cybersecurity company to ensure that the AI-powered Chronicle was properly set up.

“We already have high security, but this takes it to the next level,” Moreton says, adding that CJC has “very high” ISO 27001 standards, which sets out a framework of policies and procedures that organizations can follow to establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve their information security management operations.

“When we win business, the security element is a really big part of the onboarding—we have to show we wear our security on our sleeve. So it’s important to tell people about the advancements we’re making and the things we have at the security level.”

To hear Steve Moreton talk about virtual reality, click here.

Finos advances FDC3 certification program

The Fintech Open Source Foundation (Finos) announced the general availability of the FDC3 2.0 Conformance Program and the new class of FDC3-compatible desktop agents, bringing the total to nine software products across FDC3 1.2 and 2.0. (To read our coverage of the certification program’s origins, click here.)

The FDC3 1.2 Conformance Program was originally announced together with the first FDC3 1.2 certified desktop agents Interop.io (formerly Finsemble and Glue42) and Finos’ own open-source FDC3 Sail in December 2022. With this latest announcement, Finos revealed three further FDC3 1.2 certified desktop agents, Connectifi and OpenFin, as well as the first FDC3 2.0-compatible certifications for Interop.io.

The full list of adopters and FDC3 Certified Desktop Agents can be found here .

Finos also launched the Zenith Special Interest Group (Sig) this week to explore and adopt emerging technologies in the financial services industry. 

The Zenith Sig will allow the broader financial services industry to use open source to identify and evaluate emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the industry. Activities will include sharing best practices, use cases, and insights through webinars, podcasts, and articles.  

It will be co-chaired by Peter Smulovics, executive director at Morgan Stanley; Keith O’Donnell, director at Feynic Technology; and Patrick Downing, vice president of identity and access management at Morgan Stanley. 

JP Morgan provides access to sustainable investment data solutions

JP Morgan Securities Services has launched a solution to provide institutional investors access to normalized sustainable investment data via partnerships with data providers including Bloomberg, Equileap, FactSet, ISS ESG, MSCI, RepRisk, Revelio Labs, S&P Global, and Sustainalytics.

The data will be available via Fusion, JP Morgan’s cloud-native data platform that provides data management, analytics, and reporting for institutional investors. Fusion provides investors access to normalized data across its data partners, and tools to manage, screen, and create customized metrics.

Fusion helps investors perform analysis, scoring, stock selection, compliance monitoring, and reporting. 

FIA Tech raises $25.4 million for Trade Data Network

FIA Tech has raised an additional $25.4 million in a funding round led by six existing shareholders—Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo—and BNP Paribas. This round brings its total funding to almost $70 million.  

The latest funding round will be used to further the development of the Trade Data Network (TDN), an initiative to provide a shared ledger of trading information. The TDN addresses the fragmentation and lack of transparency in exchange-traded derivatives post-trade processing. 

FIA Tech expects the rollout of the TDN to help reduce clearing delays for brokers and overall costs. The initiative currently includes 16 banks/brokers and 40 investment managers, and hedge funds with over $37 trillion in combined assets under management. 

The TDN will initially focus on allocations processing and trade confirmations, with trade lifecycle transparency across the multiple brokers and the clearinghouse on each trade. 

JPX connects ETF RFQ platform with NRI’s OMS

Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), an exchange owned by the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), now provides a direct connection between its ETF request-for-quote service Conneqtor, and Nomura Research Institute’s (NRI’s) order and execution management system, SmartBridge Advance (SBA). 

Through this new connection, order data entered into SBA by traders at asset management firms, and others, will be directly allocated to Conneqtor, allowing traders to execute trades with market-makers on the platform.  

This will help traders reduce ETF trading costs and time required to trade. TSE launched Conneqtor in February 2021 to improve liquidity in the ETF market. 

R3 unveils next-gen Corda

Enterprise distributed ledger technology (DLT) and services firm R3 has launched the next generation of its flagship Corda platform. The updated version allows financial market infrastructure providers and central banks to have interoperability within applications and across other open enterprise DLT networks.  

R3 also partnered with Adhara, a liquidity management software provider, to launch a Hyperledger Foundation Lab—Harmonia—to accelerate the development of interoperability protocols for regulated financial institutions. 

Harmonia will address the constraints and requirements of regulated financial networks in achieving atomic settlement across blockchain networks. 

The updated version of Corda is available as public beta.