This Week: TS Imagine/CLSA; MSCI/Burgiss; HSBC/Calastone and more

TS Imagine adds CLSA’s AI-powered European algo suite to list of brokers

Trading technology provider TS Imagine has added CLSA’s AI-powered European algo suite to its list of certified brokers. The algos will be offered on TS Imagine’s TradeSmart order and execution management system (OEMS), which has connections to more than 250 listed brokers and venues, in addition to broker algos.

According to Chris Hollands, TS Imagine’s head of sales for Emea and North America, the AI algo services will be offered for equities, which could prove to be an area of opportunity as UBS begins the arduous process of assimilating Credit Suisse—and the acquired bank’s suite of algorithmic trading services, Advanced Execution Services (AES)—into its own portfolio of tools.

Although TS Imagine is broker-neutral, Hollands says that in today’s market landscape, clients are looking for “new places to get their orders executed and having some kind of compelling differentiator—which this adaptive AI is. [It’s] definitely a reason why a client looking for a broker might go to CLSA.”

CLSA’s AI-powered algo suite uses neural networks and execution planning to “learn” as it trades. According to metrics provided by CLSA, which is owned by Chinese investment bank Citic Securities, the AI can predict price direction over about 40% of a stock’s trading day with 90% accuracy.

CLSA’s Asia-Pacific roots blended with Emea are a big reason for the broker’s growth, Hollands says. “The biggest clients, they want that global player. They don’t want to enter into arrangements with region-specific brokers,” Hollands says. “Not to say that there aren’t exceptions, but when it comes to the algo offerings, increasingly the buy side wants a broker that can provide global coverage.”

TS Imagine and CLSA are marketing the offering in partnership, but the CLSA algo suite will be offered on other platforms, Hollands says. Clients who already have an executing relationship with CLSA will automatically be offered access to these algos as part of their current agreement.

MSCI acquires the rest of Burgiss Group

MSCI announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 66% of The Burgiss Group for $697 million in cash. Since its initial investment in January 2020, MSCI will have invested more than $900 million to acquire all of Burgiss.

The Hoboken, NJ-based vendor provides data, analytics, and technology solutions for investors in private assets. Burgiss’ Caissa Platform, which was developed exclusively for institutional investors, provides users with a view of the drivers of performance and risk in both public and private investment in total portfolios. The vendor’s dataset covers over 13,000 private asset funds around the world, representing $15 trillion in cumulative investments across private equity, private real estate, private debt, infrastructure, and natural resources in 195 countries. Burgiss serves about 1,000 clients—limited partners, general partners, and financial intermediaries—in 40 countries with more than 650 employees across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South Africa.

This deal builds on MSCI’s growth in the space after its 2021 acquisition of Real Capital Analytics. According to MSCI, the company currently offers private real estate data and analytics covering over 1 million properties representing more than $45 trillion in transactions and portfolio assets in over 170 countries.

HSBC partners with Calastone on new ETF OMS

HSBC is teaming with Calastone as part of the launch of its new ETF Platform Solutions offering. The bank will leverage the vendor’s ETF Servicing platform, which is powered by its Distributed Market Infrastructure (DMI) and provides real-time processing and visibility of order management through to the underlying trade. ETF Platform Solutions will also leverage HSBC’s digital data integration interface. Together, the OMS will offer ETF issuers live processing and monitoring capabilities during both the placement and settlement phases.

Offerings include portfolio composition file (PCF) production, ETF net asset value (NAV) attribution analysis, authorized participant services, HSBC’s ETF fair value algorithms, swap provision and execution with FX4ETFs, and HSBC FX overlay services.

CME Group consolidates FX business

CME Group has announced the realignment of its FX futures, options, cash, and over-the-counter (OTC) FX businesses into one unit. The decision follows the upcoming departure of Jeff Ward, CME’s global head of Electronic Broking Services (EBS), in September. The new unit will be led by Paul Houston, CME’s current head of futures and options.

According to the exchange, FX futures and options saw a 24% average daily volume increase in contracts to 985,000 last year.

Edgewater launches FX trading tech and credit services for Middle East

Edgewater Markets, a trading technology provider that specializes in FX, has launched a credit intermediation service for Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) currencies—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—and Egypt on its EdgeFX trading tool. By offering the GCC currencies online, users can trade directly with local banks in the region.

The vendor is onboarding local liquidity providers and will act as a credit intermediary for users. FX trading will be offered 24/5 via a graphical user interface (GUI).