This Week: Tradeweb/Nasdaq, HSBC, CME/BrokerTec, Esma, Acquis, SimCorp & more

Tradeweb to acquire Nasdaq’s US fixed income trading platform

Tradeweb, an operator of electronic markets for rates, credit, equities, and money markets, has entered into a definitive agreement to take over eSpeed, Nasdaq’s US fixed income trading platform. ESpeed is a fully executable central limit order book in on-the-run US Treasuries. As part of the integration process, the platform will become part of Tradeweb’s Dealerweb solution, serving the wholesale sector.

The $190 million, all-cash transaction is expected to close in later in 2021, but is still subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

HSBC rolls out Sympricot chatbot for FX options

HSBC has launched Sympricot, a new chatbot that delivers instant pricing and analytics for foreign exchange options. The bot uses natural language processing to analyze complex trading information from numerous sources on market color, pricing and liquidity, digitize it, and distribute it to clients and internal users withing the bank.

Sympricot is designed to make complex FX options data, such as event weightings, relative-value analytics and volatility time-series charting, more accessible to users.

CME Group completes migration of BrokerTec

CME Group has announced that BrokerTec, a provider of electronic trading and technology service in fixed income, has migrated its US Treasuries benchmark trading and US Repo platform to CME’s Globex. The move completes the migration of the BrokerTec platform and follows the integration of BrokerTec’s EU government bond and repo markets in January.

As part of the integration, the existing BrokerTec Global Front End application has been integrated into the CME Globex, and real-time BrokerTec data can be streamed with CME Group futures and options data via the CME Market Data Platform.

CME Group acquired BrokerTech in November 2018.

Esma launches supervisory action with NCAs on Mifid II product governance

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) is launching a common supervisory action (CSA) with national competent authorities (NCAs) on the application of Mifid II product governance rules across the European Union. The CSA will be conducted in 2021 and will allow Esma and the NCAs to assess the progress made by manufacturers and distributors of financial products. The CSA will be used to analyze areas such as whether the cost and charges of products are compatible with the needs of their objectives, whether manufacturers and distributors periodically review the target market and distribution strategy of their financial products, and what information is exchanged between manufacturers and distributors, and how frequently is this done.

Esma issued guidelines on product governance requirements in 2017 and more recently published a series of Q&As on Mifid II and Mifir, all of which are to be considered for this 2021 CSA.

Isda selects Kinetix and Linklaters for documentation platform

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has chosen Kinetix Trading Solutions and Linklaters to develop a user platform that will allow market participants to access Isda documentation in electronic form. The vendor and law firm were selected following a request for quotation issued in June.

The first documents for delivery through the new platform will be the forthcoming 2021 Isda Interest Rate Derivative Definitions and Isda 2002 Master Agreement. Other documentation will be available on the platform over time.

Acquis commences trading in Swiss shares

Acquis, the exchange services group, has announced that it has resumed trading of Swiss shares on its pan-European exchange facility, Acquis Exchange.

On February 3, 2021, the UK parliament granted equivalence to Switzerland’s stock exchanges and the trading of Swiss shares on UK trading venues. The shares will be traded on Acquis Exchange’s London venue and will include over 125 key Swiss names including Novartis, Roche, and Nestlé.

Since July 2019, EU trading venues have been banned from trading Swiss shares, as the EU did not renew equivalence with Switzerland.

Eastspring Investments selects SimCorp Coric for client reporting services

Eastspring Investments, the Asian asset management business of Prudential, has deployed SimCorp Coric to provide client reporting capabilities across its business. The buy-side firm selected the vendor to automate and improve the timeliness of its client reporting, helping to minimize the amount of coordination and manual intervention required across teams. The initial implementation was completed in three months.

“As the Asian asset management industry continues its rapid growth, the competition to win and retain clients is becoming increasingly fierce. Clients now want a greater volume of investment data and consistent reporting on-demand. Being able to deliver this is not only a core requirement but delivers a superior client experience that can make a real difference,” Oliver Johnson, senior vice president, and managing director at SimCorp, Asia-Pacific said.