This Week: TNS, Cboe, State Street, ICE, and more

TNS extends cloud offering with TNS Cloud – Server Management

Transaction Network Services (TNS), an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider which specializes in market connectivity and data, has introduced TNS Cloud Server Management, an extension of its TNS Cloud platform and co-location hosting services. The extension will deliver trading infrastructure to buy- and sell-side firms and their vendors.

The build-out uses TNS’s metal servers and trading connectivity to offer trading organizations the option to outsource their server infrastructure management, as well as their cloud data center services. According to Jeff Mezger, vice president of product development for TNS’s financial markets business, firms have been under increasing pressure from executives to move to the cloud in a bid to cut costs and capitalize on automation.

But the questions of whether cloud is cheaper in the long term and how best to use it without compromising on latency are still unresolved. “What we’ve learned as we’ve talked to customers is that the two problems people have been trying to solve for—reduce latency and figure out how to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud—are kind of in conflict with each other,” Mezger says.

“When people talk about the cloud, historically, they’re primarily talking about AWS, Google Cloud, public cloud providers,” he says. “Exchange access involves big amounts of data. Cloud wasn’t designed to handle it.”

For Mezger and TNS, it’s about finding a way to bring the cloud technology into the exchange data centers themselves, something some cloud providers have yet to do. AWS and Nasdaq are looking to co-location in moving the exchange’s North American markets to the cloud.

And while it’s fairly cheap for firms to put large amounts of data into the cloud, “it’s real expensive to take out,” he says.

As firms are looking to take advantage of the cloud, especially in cost-conscious ways, all while retaining low-latency advantages, the trend has been towards outsourcing. “When somebody goes shopping for a cloud solution, Amazon’s their first phone call, or Google,” Mezger says. “That’s when they run into these limitations, then their next phone call is us.” 

As companies enter the race to provide cloud infrastructure in data centers and as traders race toward cloud adoption, TNS looks to offer managed cloud services to clients who are after full systems management integration, stability, and security.

“It’s about identifying the benefits people are seeking with the cloud, and coming up with solutions that address those without compromising the performance or the latency,” Mezger says.

ICE increases fixed-income liquidity offering with relaunch of 2015’s RMA

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has relaunched Ice Risk Matching Auction (RMA), an enhanced sweeps protocol for dealer-to-dealer fixed-income trading.

The relaunch will boost access to fixed-income liquidity. Once traders upload their bonds inventory, an ICE algorithm matches buyers and sellers of the same or list of bonds. It then proposes pricing levels for the bonds, which traders can either accept or reject.

ICE RMA was initially launched in 2015. It is a part of ICE Bonds’ trading protocols suite which conducts multiple auctions per week with 50 registered firms and over 400 users.

Numerix expands structured finance and fixed-income offerings with PolyPaths acquisition

Numerix, a capital markets risk management technology provider, has acquired PolyPaths, an analytics and risk management solutions provider which specializes in structured finance and fixed income. 

The acquisition will expand Numerix’s asset class coverage in these areas and its asset liability management (ALM) capability, which extends the company’s reach beyond the trading book to the banking book. 

CROSSx connects to Cboe Digital for crypto clearing

Spot cryptocurrencies trading platform CROSSx will become the first external technology venue to connect to Cboe Digital. The collaboration will allow CROSSx’s institutional and intermediary clients to clear spot cryptocurrency trades through Cboe Digital Exchange’s US-regulated clearinghouse.

In a press release, Crossover Markets, the digital asset trading tech company behind CROSSx, said that the collaboration would promote competition in trade execution, which may help reduce trading fees.

Crossover is also expanding to an additional data center—Equinix’s NY4—to facilitate the collaboration with a US-based clearing broker. 

Clearstream taps Regnology for regulatory reporting

Clearstream plans to migrate its on-premise regulatory reporting solutions to the Rcloud platform provided by Regnology and Google Cloud. The migration is still subject to regulatory approvals, but would make Clearstream one of the first institutions to join Rcloud, which launched in November 2022.

Clearstream, Deutsche Börse Group’s post-trade business and central securities depository, settles more than 250,000 transactions a day.

Rcloud offers infrastructure-as-code services and run and change management automation. Interested parties can read more about regulatory reporting in the cloud here.

State Street announces Australian launch of Fund Connect ETF Portal

State Street Corporation announced the Australian launch of its Fund Connect ETF Portal, an online portal for the creation and redemption of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Fund Connect ETF, which serves as a conduit between authorized participants and global issuers, has been active for 15 years.

According to State Street, ETF assets in Australia have risen from AU$41 billion in 2018 to AU$147 billion, a 29% compound annual growth rate. The Australian launch comes after last year’s launch in Singapore.

Hex Trust receives regulatory go-ahead in France

Hex Trust has received Digital Asset Service Provider registration from French regulators Autorité des Marchés Financiers and Autorité de Controle Prudentiel et de Résolution.

Hex Trust is an institutional digital asset custodian. DASP registration will allow it to engage in digital asset custody, the purchase and sale of digital assets for legal tender, and the trading of digital assets against other digital assets.

Hex Trust opened its first European office in 2022. The company is looking to expand its European presence as it prepares for the European Mica regulation, set to take effect by 2024.

Aarna Capital appoints European Depository Bank for digital banking solutions

Aarna Capital, a multi-asset brokerage firm based in Abu Dhabi, has appointed the European Depository Bank to deliver digital banking solutions to its clients.

Operating from Abu Dhabi Global Markets, Aarna Capital’s API-integrated solution will give institutional clients access to futures, options, foreign exchange, bullion, equities, CFDs, and fixed-income products through one online dashboard.