This Week: Tradeweb, Microsoft, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and more

Tradeweb closes acquisition of Yieldbroker

Tradeweb Markets, an operator of electronic marketplaces, has completed its purchase of Australian trading platform Yieldbroker. The acquisition of the platform, which specializes in Australian and New Zealand government bonds and interest rate derivatives, will expand Tradeweb’s offerings in these areas.

Tradeweb announced the AUD $125 million acquisition in May 2023. “The pace of electronification in fixed-income markets is on the rise all over, and it’s particularly compelling in markets like Australia, where rates trading plays such an important role in the pension and sovereign bond markets,” chief executive offer Billy Hult tells WatersTechnology.

Australia’s pension fund market is the fifth largest in the world, and although not as significant, its sovereign bond market is still the 12th largest globally. Yieldbroker, like Tradeweb, was early to the digitization of fixed income and was founded in 1999, just three years after now-parent company Tradeweb’s own founding.

According to Hult, Tradeweb will “continue to evaluate investment opportunities that’ll enable us to better serve markets around the world.” The completion comes after Hult announced on the company’s second quarter results call that the acquisition had received regulatory go-ahead and would be closed “in the coming months.”

Through the acquisition, Yieldbroker’s clients will receive access to Tradeweb’s multi-asset offerings.

“The completion of Tradeweb’s acquisition of Yieldbroker is the start of an exciting opportunity for our clients in Australia, New Zealand and around the world,” Hult says.

Goldman Sachs sells personal financial management unit to Creative Planning

The Goldman Sachs Group has sold its Personal Financial Management unit to Creative Planning, a registered investment adviser and wealth management firm. The final transaction is set to close in Q4 of 2023.

In July of this year, Creative Planning entered into a custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS). Creative Planning’s wealth management teams will still have access to Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s services as it builds an investment management platform. 

Goldman Sachs & Co. is serving as financial adviser in the deal, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is providing legal counsel to Goldman Sachs.

JPMorgan ups stake in Brazilian bank C6

JPMorgan Chase has increased its ownership in Brazilian digital bank C6 from 40% to 46%. The increase is still subject to regulatory approval.

JPMorgan initially invested in the Brazilian bank in June 2021, and according to C6, the bank’s total credit portfolio has grown by R$9.5 billion to BRL 40 billion, since then.

Microsoft announces changes to Office 365 and Teams amid investigation by EU regulators

Microsoft has announced changes to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Teams’ subscription plans and interoperability functions after the European Commission opened an investigation last month into the company over competition concerns.

The European Commission’s investigation, which is currently ongoing, has raised issue with Microsoft charging business customers the same price for a business suite subscription with Teams as without Teams, and with the company’s lack of interoperability functions for competitor communication solutions.

Starting October 1, 2023, Microsoft will unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions without Teams will now be sold for €2 per month, or €24 per year, less than they were sold previously.

Microsoft says it will also enhance its interoperability functions within Microsoft 365 and Office 365 and will create mechanisms to enable third-party solutions to host Office web applications. 

Swift publishes results of blockchain experiments

Swift has published the results of recent experiments showing its ability to facilitate the transfer of tokenized value across multiple blockchains.

At present, tokenized assets are managed on different blockchains with different functionalities and liquidity profiles. Interoperability between blockchains would allow financial institutions to side-step building connections to individual platforms, which can pose operational challenges and costs.

Swift worked with Chainlink, a Web3 services platform, and multiple institutions and market infrastructure providers—including Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, Clearstream, Euroclear, Lloyds Banking Group, SIX Digital Exchange, and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation—on the experiments.

Chainlink connected the Swift network to the Ethereum Sepolia network by acting as an enterprise abstraction layer, and lent its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to complete interoperability between the destination and source blockchain.

AFEX signs memorandum of understanding with Ghana Commodities Exchange

AFEX Commodities Exchange has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ghana Commodities Exchange (GCX), to grow commodity trading across Nigeria and Ghana.

Under the partnership, AFEX and GCX will collaborate in the commodities trading, warehousing, quality standards, and market infrastructure development space. The organizations will partner on capacity-building initiatives, with both exchanges facilitating cross-border trading of warehouse receipts and increased market liquidity for commodities.

The move comes after AFEX expanded into Kenya in 2021 and Uganda in 2022 as a part of its larger Pan-African goal to enter eight African countries by 2023. The signing marks a move towards establishing consistent standards between the two countries.