This Week: Isda, Citco/Fenergo, Liquidnet & more

Isda rolls out new digital asset definitions

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) has published new standard documentation for the trading of digital asset derivatives. Isda hopes that the set of definitions will reduce credit and market risk for digital asset derivatives by setting clear provisions for the execution and settlement of their trade.

The first definitions cover non-deliverable forwards and options on Bitcoin and Ether. Isda says that the documentation could be expanded in the future to cover other assets including tokenized securities.

Alongside the definitions, Isda also published a whitepaper exploring legal questions raised by the collapse of FTX and other institutions dealing in cryptocurrency, including ownership and intermediation of customer assets. The paper focuses on the importance of close-out netting and collateral arrangements for derivatives referencing digital assets.

Citco taps Fenergo

Fund administrator Citco has struck a deal with fintech company Fenergo to use its client lifecycle management (CLM) platform. In a press release, Fenergo said that its SaaS platform will be integrated across Citco’s fund administration, banking and custody, and corporate solutions businesses.

Citco, which has over $1.8 trillion in assets under administration (AUA), says that the deal will help to streamline its client onboarding, know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) processes, as well as for providing centralized document management. Fenergo’s CLM platform automates customer due diligence and risk profiling. It also helps compliance teams identify politically exposed persons and ultimate beneficial owners.

Liquidnet and BondAuction announce partnership

Liquidnet will team up with primary debt capital markets platform BondAuction to connect auction-style primary debt transactions to order management systems (OMSs). Using Liquidnet’s primary markets solution, institutional investors will be able to place bids directly from their OMS into BondAuction’s platform using and receive allotments back.

Alveo integrates Ice’s ESG company data into its prime data management tool

Data management company Alveo has announced the integration of Intercontinental Exchange’s (Ice) ESG company data and Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) analytics into its data management solution. Clients using Alveo’s Ops360 user interface will have access to data on the different principal adverse indicators of the EU’s SFDR, EU taxonomy data, and information on companies’ ESG profiles.

Sandbar raises $4.8M for transaction monitoring software

Sandbar, a provider of AML, fraud and counter-terrorism risk detection software, has received a $4.8 million seed investment led by Lachy Groom and Abstract Ventures. Forty-five angel investors, including founders and executives from Ramp, Stripe, OpenAI, Plaid, and Square, also contributed to the funding round.

Sandbar says that the funding will be used to further develop the product and expand its sales pipeline. Sandbar’s SaaS product, which launched recently, identifies suspicious financial behavior and automates workflows. It aims to mitigate alert fatigue and reducing engineering expenses through the use of an API.

Architect announces $5 million funding round for digital asset trading infrastructure

Fintech provider Architect has closed a $5 million pre-product financing round to develop infrastructure products which enable institutions to trade across centralized and decentralized digital asset markets. Participants in the funding round include Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SV Angel, Salt Fund, and investors Shari Glazer and Anthony Scaramucci.

Architect’s infrastructure will interface with crypto custodians and self-hosted wallets. The company says that it will use open-source design for the products, and that the core software will feature standardized risk, compliance, market data, and development and visualization tools.