TRG Screen Integrates PEAR Policy Database After Axon Acquisition

New York-based data inventory and cost management platform vendor TRG Screen has completed the integration of Axon Financial Systems and its PEAR (Policies, Explanations And Reporting) database of exchange data policy information. Through the integration, TRG Screen is looking to leverage PEAR’s content to generate greater insight for clients, while also embarking on a project to unify TRG’s existing FITS (Financial Information Tracking System) and InfoMatch systems.

TRG Screen acquired Axon in June 2019. After beginning the technical integration in the fourth quarter of last year, the vendor has just released new versions of FITS and InfoMatch that both integrate with PEAR and its content.

As a result, FITS and InfoMatch users will be able to see notifications of when an exchange updates its policies or changes its prices for data, whether or not they subscribe to PEAR. Those who also subscribe to PEAR will receive specific details of the new policy or price change, while as part of a deeper integration, FITS and InfoMatch will assess the financial impact of upcoming changes. Additionally, users can—with just a couple of mouse clicks—interact with the platforms to automatically apply the updates when they take effect, and can upload lists of their preferred exchanges from FITS or InfoMatch into PEAR, rather than having to upload and maintain these details manually, says Richard Mundell, chief product officer at TRG.

But PEAR will do more than just help firms remain compliant with their data licenses: it will also bring TRG a new business opportunity.

“PEAR brings something to TRG that we didn’t have before: a content business, whereas previously we provided tools and containers,” Mundell says. “There are a lot of opportunities to build on that, and we can expand the content in PEAR around management of market data and information services subscriptions.”

Though the vendor does not have any specific plans or timescales for expanding the content in PEAR, Mundell says it has plenty of ideas. “This would help give more insights and trend analysis. For example, if you had an exchange notice telling you about price rises, you can feed that into future trading analysis,” he adds.

Axon’s founders used a strong structure and taxonomy when building PEAR, Mundell says, which made it easy to integrate with the vendor’s existing products. “The technologies have all been built in a way that makes integrations like this relatively straightforward,” he says. “And we made sure that the way we implemented it in FITS and InfoMatch is the same, as it doesn’t make sense to implement it differently, twice over.”

In addition, TRG has begun work on a project to combine the FITS and InfoMatch platforms over the longer term. “There are features that one platform has but the other does not,” Mundell says, adding that this project is currently in the requirements-gathering stage.

“We are fully committed to both products—supporting, enhancing, and selling both products, and working with clients to determine how we can bring them together,” he says. “I think it’s logical for them to come together as a best-of-breed solution.”