This Week: Microsoft/CaixaBank, Bloomberg, Cboe/Morningstar & More

Microsoft and CaixaBank launch AI Innovation Laboratory for new solutions

Microsoft and Spanish bank, CaixaBank, have partnered to launch an AI Innovation Laboratory.

Through the AI Innovation Lab, the two companies intend to create solutions based on applications of AI. This will include the development of hybrid work environments in the metaverse, and other virtual environments that could enable interaction between CaixaBank employees and customers.

The new laboratory will allow AI specialists at CaixaBank and developers, data scientists, and machine learning professionals at Microsoft’s AI Research and Development hub in Barcelona to collaborate on projects.

Bloomberg launches new climate indices

Bloomberg has launched new indices within the Bloomberg Climate Index Family, expanding the firm’s fixed-income and equity index offerings.

Newly-launched indices in the family include those labeled as EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks, which are designed to help investors align their strategy with the Paris Climate Agreement’s decarbonization targets.

The Climate Family also includes indices providing exposure to broad equity, as well as corporate and sovereign fixed-income universes, that incorporate climate and low-carbon themes, including a new Government Climate Risk score developed by Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Solutions.

Cboe becomes Morningstar’s preferred index distributor

Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), a provider of market infrastructure and tradable products, has formed an agreement with Morningstar Indexes to begin publishing real-time, intraday values for Morningstar-branded indices on its Cboe Global Indices Feed.

With this agreement, Cboe will become the preferred third-party distributor of Morningstar’s full range of branded indices.

Cboe Global Indices Feed will provide market participants with access to all Morningstar indices through a network, delivered both on-premise and through Cboe Global Cloud, a real-time cloud-based data streaming service.

Cboe completes acquisition of Neo

Cboe has completed its acquisition of Neo, a group of financial technology companies that provide capital markets infrastructure. Neo is comprised of a fully registered Canadian securities exchange, called Neo Exchange.

With ownership of NEO, Cboe intends to provide an enhanced Canadian equities offering. 

Cboe funded the transaction with existing credit facilities and cash on hand. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company noted that the purchase price is not material from a financial perspective and expects it to be nominally accretive in the next 12 months.

Euronext CSD and JP Morgan collaborate for Danish markets

Euronext’s central securities depository network connecting European economics to the capital markets, Euronext Securities, has collaborated with JP Morgan to allow investors access to the Danish capital markets.

Euronext Securities Copenhagen has announced that JP Morgan has signed an agreement to become a direct participant in the Danish market.

For JP Morgan, direct interface to the Danish market through local CSD connectivity could help drive its asset servicing presence in the Danish and Nordic markets.

Six partners with carbon emissions data provider to bring analytics to clients

Swiss-based Financial data provider SIX has partnered with Urgentem, an independent provider of carbon emissions data and climate risk analytics, to support clients in meeting climate related requirements such as the regulatory reporting of emissions data.

As of now, Six offers Urgentem’s emissions data set, which provides granular level carbon emissions data of the largest 5,000-plus companies with modelled data available for 30,000-plus securities.

All datasets are available to Six clients via Secure File Transfer Protocol. This partnership builds on the Six suite of environmental, social, and governence data offerings, broadening its coverage of specialized ESG data sets.

RBC partners with analytics platform provider for data management

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has announced a data access agreement with Envestnet, a data aggregation and analytics platform, to allow RBC clients to better manage their financial data.

The partnership also intends to allow RBC clients to connect to and share their RBC financial information with more than 1,500 third-party applications powered by Envestnet’s platform.

The implementation of this agreement could provide RBC clients with the option to share their financial data with Envestnet through a direct application programming interface connection. This eliminates the need for them to share their RBC credentials.

Temenos launches a NAV oversight and contingency solution

Software provider for the financial services industry, Temenos, has announced the launch of Multifonds Navigator, a net asset value (NAV) oversight and contingency solution available to asset managers who outsource their fund accounting operations to third-party administrators.

The new solution is powered by an exception-driven engine that drills down into fund structures. Multifonds Navigator provides an estimated NAV and investment book of records valuation that is calculated across asset classes and multiple jurisdictions automatically.

This allows asset managers to independently verify their fund administrator’s NAV calculation and provides a contingency solution in the event of an unplanned outage.

Quodd launches Universe+ Platform

Market data, exchange pricing, and reference data provider Quodd has announced the launch of a new platform called Universe+. Universe+ is an application programming interface-based cloud platform that has been designed to deliver security pricing, reference data, and analytics across all asset classes, integrating mutual fund, equities, and fixed income pricing data.

The Quodd Universe+ platform was created from feedback by Quodd customers that cut across the bank trust, broker-dealer, insurance, and retirement segments via workshops conducted recently.

The resulting solution has been created to enable on-demand market data solutions that cut across all business lines, functional areas, and operational workflows for a fit-for-purpose mid to back-office tool.