This week: Genesis, SmartStream, MarketAxess, Allianz GI, and more

Genesis raises $45 million Series B

Low-code application platform provider Genesis has raised a $45 million Series B round led by Accel. GV, and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors Citi, Illuminate Financial, and Tribeca Early Stage Partners also participated in the funding round.

Genesis will use the investment to grow the sales, marketing, and engineering teams. It will also help the firm expand into international markets like Asia-Pacific and further build its platform’s low-code/no-code tooling and functionality.

The Genesis platform enables users to build new applications while improving or isolating the functionality of existing legacy systems.

SmartStream expands innovation lab

SmartStream Technologies has expanded its Innovation Lab with a new workspace in Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna, Austria. The move doubles its footprint and supports SmartStream’s growth in client innovations.

Its innovation lab comprises skilled mathematicians, applied data scientists, and IT specialists. The team has partnered with a number of tier-1 banking customers to assess using AI, machine learning, and blockchain in traditional processes.

SmartStream added to its global headcount by 8% last year, and is recruiting for a further 100 positions this year.

MarketAxess announces results of the ‘Trading for Trees’ program

MarketAxess has released the Trading for Tress incentive program results, following a record year of green bond trading volumes on its platform.

The program, which was launched in 2020 with One Tree Planted, recorded over 134,000 trees planted. The incentive will continue into 2021, with five trees planted for every $1 million of green bond trading volume executed.

MarketAxess will also launch a series of events to bring together firms most active in green bond trading on the platform.

SunTec co-locates its Xelerate platform on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE

SunTec, a relationship-based pricing and billing company, has co-located its Xelerate platform on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE. This will allow large banks that host their applications and operational data on IBM Z to expedite their digital transformation initiatives.

Using SunTec’s Xelerate, banks can adopt relationship-based pricing and banking models. The co-location on IBM Z running Linux can benefit banks through infrastructure synergies, ease of integration, superior security levels, and reduction in total cost of ownership.
 
Allianz Global Investors builds out client advisory unit in Asia

Allianz Global Investors has added six specialists based in Asia, including Hong Kong, to its ‘risklab’ client advisory unit. These six people will provide investment advisory and risk management services to clients in Asia.

AllianzGI’s risklab has more than 60 dedicated professionals globally and has been adding resources in Asia since 2020. Through risklab, AllianzGI can support Asia-Pacific institutional investors in strategic asset allocation, modeling, and portfolio optimization.

DTCC outlines plan to harmonize derivatives reporting

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced a three-prong plan to harmonize derivatives trade reporting requirements.

The plan includes eliminating cross-jurisdictional differences; finishing the ISO 20022 critical data elements (CDE) message scheme for OTC derivatives; and furnishing the Legal Entity Identifier Regulatory Oversight Committee with resources to adequately serve as the central governance body for CDE.

Nasdaq to power PureStream’s alternative trading system

PureStream Trading Technologies has chosen Nasdaq to power its new PureStream alternative trading system via the Nasdaq Execution Platform.

Nasdaq will fully host the PureStream ATS on its execution platform, including managing system operations, portions of risk controls, venue surveillance, trade reporting, and clearing facilitation.

PureStream, which targets brokers and institutional clients, is on track to launch in Q2 2021, subject to US regulatory approvals.

Nordea selects AxiomSL for risk and regulatory reporting support

Nordea Bank has selected AxiomSL to support its risk and regulatory requirements in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Nordea will implement AxiomSL’s RegCloud, a cloud-based risk and regulatory reporting platform used by financial institutions to source, enrich, calculate, and reconcile large volumes of data to comply with regulatory requirements.

Nordea will be able to map their data once and comply with Finrep, Corep, AnaCredit, and Securities Holdings Statistics Group reporting requirements by using the platform’s data-dictionary and end-to-end automated processes.