This Week: Goldman Sachs/DTCC; LSEG/Tradefeedr; Genesis; TT/Ateo; CJC & more

Goldman Sachs slashes settlement fails with DTCC’s M2i tool

Goldman Sachs has reduced the amount of failed US trade settlements by 64% and reduced same-day affirmation exceptions by 38% as a result of using the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s CTM (Central Trade Matching) Match to Instruct (M2i) workflow.

The figures were achieved during the fourth quarter of last year for trades affirmed and matched with counterparties also using CTM M2i and also included achieving a same-day affirmation rate of more than 99%, which the bank describes as “a key objective” in its preparations for T+1 settlement, which will take place in May this year.

The bank implemented M2i as part of a broader strategy to improve settlement efficiency and “create a streamlined post-trade experience for clients,” according to DTCC.

“We were pleased to validate through our analysis that our settlement efficiency strategy, supported by CTM’s M2i workflow, has resulted in a significant reduction in settlement fails for our clients,” says Risa Lederhandler, global head of equities and securities services operations at Goldman Sachs. “In addition, the M2i platform’s enhanced SSI [standard settlement instructions] enrichment capabilities resulted in more settlements occurring without additional input from our operations teams.”

DTCC officials say central matching and auto-affirmation using CTM M2i between investment managers and executing brokers are “typically” more efficient than local matching and affirmation performed by custodians, and that most investment managers that use M2i achieve close to 100% affirmation rate by 9 pm ET on the date of a trade.

The CTM M2i workflow is “a critical enabler of T+1 that helps to significantly reduce trade fails and facilitates straight-through processing,” says Val Wotton, managing director and general manager of DTCC Institutional Trade Processing. “Clients utilizing M2i benefit from a significant increase in SDA rates for DTC-eligible trades, ultimately reducing costs related to trade fails, exception resolution costs, and operational friction.”

To use the M2i workflow, clients must be subscribers to DTCC’s CTM, TradeSuite ID and SSI enrichment via DTCC’s Alert services.

LSEG, Tradefeedr prep FX data integration deal

The London Stock Exchange Group’s FX trading arm is to integrate data APIs from FX trading analytics provider Tradefeedr into its FX trading ecosystem, including its FXall trading platform and Workspace terminal, under a partnership with the London-based vendor.

The partnership will initially support pre-trade decision support for LSEG’s buy-side and corporate FX clients, liquidity optimization and reporting for banks and brokers. It will deliver Tradefeedr analytics integrated within Workspace.

Officials say the agreement will create “a new standard for automated FX trading by seamlessly linking decision-making and execution workflows and facilitating a data-driven dialogue” between sell-side liquidity providers, buy-side firms, and corporate clients that use LSEG to trade FX.

TT enters clearing business with Ateo acquisition

Chicago-based trading software vendor Trading Technologies has agreed to buy Ateo SAS, a Paris-based provider of post-trade solutions for listed derivatives for an undisclosed sum. The move expands TT’s offering into clearing and middle-office services.

The companies initially partnered in 2022 to deliver a post-trade allocation service for banks, brokers, and futures commission merchants. As a result of that partnership, Ateo’s post-trade allocation engine is already integrated into TT’s OMS.

Keith Todd, CEO of TT, says that following that working relationship, the vendor concluded that bringing Ateo and its software modules into TT’s offerings would create “an even stronger value proposition and end-to-end offering.”

The company estimates that its total addressable market for middle-office clearing solutions is more than $100 million, with room to grow its market share. Following the acquisition, Ateo and its platforms—the Teo Derivatives OMS, the Lisa Clearing Engine, and the Ugo suite of gateways and clearing APIs—will operate as a managed service hosted in TT’s data centers. The deal is expected to close on Feb. 29.

CJC enlists Sherpa to scale Bloomberg entitlements expertise

London-based market data consultancy and managed service provider CJC has partnered with Sherpa, another London-based data consultancy specializing in optimizing and managing Bloomberg solutions, to augment CJC’s current data expertise with in-depth insights into clients’ data usage and spending to support cost-saving efficiencies.

Officials say the partnership will offer clients better access to market data expertise, especially regarding Bloomberg’s Entitlements Management and Reporting System (EMRS) and market data audits and reviews.

OptionMetrics taps AI to speed up dividend forecasting 

Pricing and analytics provider OptionMetrics has integrated ChatGPT-4 AI into the Woodseer Dividend Forecast Data product it acquired last year. The move aims to shorten the time required to process dividend information. Portfolio managers, equity researchers, analysts, and traders use Woodseer to assess ex-dividend dates, back-test strategies, and anticipate portfolio income. Integrating generative AI allows the platform to collect, read, interpret, and summarize company notices about dividends on equities, ADRs, and ETFs in the US and Canada more accurately and efficiently than before, significantly reducing research time by replacing manual tracking and parsing announcements about dividend payments.

Genesis unveils web-based middle-office platform

Low-code application developer Genesis Global has rolled out a web-based version of its Trade Allocation Manager, a multi-asset, middle-office solution that supports operational efficiency and regulatory compliance by automating trade matching, allocation, confirmation, and other middle-office processes for equities and fixed income. The TAM web version is a cloud-native solution that integrates seamlessly with other web services, lowers deployment costs, and improves update and maintenance cycles.

Gleif approves second Indian LEI validation agent

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (Gleif) has approved New Delhi, India-based MNS Credit Management Group, a debt management and business information provider, as a validation agent in the global LEI system, working as a validation agent for Legal Entity Identifier India, an LEI issuer and subsidiary of the Clearing Corporation of India.

MNS is the second accredited validation agent in the region, which officials say will bolster support for LEI issuance amid increasing demand for the standard identifier, following the decisions by various Indian government bodies and regulators to mandate and recommend using LEIs to support financial applications including OTC derivatives, credit borrowing, large value payments, insurance, cross-border transactions and some income tax regulation.