Posts by Anna Reitman

ECB, machine learning, nowcasting

Researchers from the European Central Bank propose a granular framework that makes use of advanced statistical methods to approximate developments in economy-wide expected corporate earnings. In particular, they evaluate the…

Fintech Blueprint: “Bill Gross” of crypto fixed income Yearn in flurry of mergers

November 30, 2020

blockchain, Crypto, DAO, mergers, Yearn

Yearn is a blockchain-native fixed income active asset manager. For 2020 at least, Yearn is the “Bill Gross” of crypto, playing across trading fees, interest maximization, dividend farming, governance rewards,…

CLS and Finastra team up for buy-side and corporate netting services

November 30, 2020

automation, CLS, Finastra, FX, netting, standardization

CLS and Finastra will be providing Finastra customers with access to CLSNet, CLS’s bilateral payment netting calculation service. The move addresses increased demand from the buy-side for a centralized infrastructure…

ASIFMA: Hong Kong/Singapore markets need electronic solutions to overcome COVID operational challenges

November 30, 2020

ASIFMA, capital markets, coronavirus, COVID-19, electronification, Hong Kong, Singapore

ASIFMA (Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) released a report, “Operational Challenges in the Hong Kong and Singapore Capital Markets due to a Lack of Adoption of Electronic Means”.…

CNBC: Goldman, J.P. Morgan using drones for M&A reconaissance

November 29, 2020

acquisitions, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, mergers, technology

Goldman Sachs is among investment banks using drone technology to give its clients a bird’s-eye view of the companies they are bidding on, according to Stephan Feldgoise, the firm’s global…

ICMA: Ghana’s repo market reforms can be “blueprint” for seclending and derivatives

November 27, 2020

Africa, Ghana, ICMA, repo markets, Securities Lending

Ghana’s money markets have been in rapid development across the past few years, including becoming the 4th country in Sub Saharan Africa to adopt an Insolvency Act. Many of these…

ECB: banks to start self-assessment reporting for climate risk in early 2021

November 27, 2020

banks, climate risk, ECB

European Central bank (ECB) publishes final guide after considering comments from public consultation Banks to perform self-assessment on ECB expectations in early 2021 ECB to fully review banks’ practices in…

Get the weekly SFM update – our November 27 newsletter is online

November 27, 2020

Top Stories Trying to tie SFTR data back to existing market sources (Premium); SFM Interview: APIs are so hot right now, and so is hacking them (Premium); What the Financial…

J.P. Morgan is first validation agent in Global LEI system

November 26, 2020

DTCC, GLEIF, J.P. Morgan, LEIs

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announced that J.P. Morgan has become the first Validation Agent in the Global LEI System. The Validation Agent Framework, announced by GLEIF in…

Medium: four reasons why hyping AI is an ethical problem

November 26, 2020

AI ethics, artificial intelligence, ESG

Bias, discrimination, privacy violations, lack of accountability — AI entails a lot of ethical problems. Hyping AI creates additional ethical challenges on top of the existing ones, writes Dorothea Baur,…

SFM Interview: APIs are so hot right now, and so is hacking them (Premium)

November 25, 2020

Technology

APIs, cybersecurity, Open Banking, PSD2, topstory

Long tipped as one of the big technological developments to watch in banking, application programming interfaces (APIs) are a major component of the European Unions’s somewhat controversial open banking project,…

Colombia bourse to use blockchain for OTC derivatives collateral

November 24, 2020

blockchain, collateral, Colombia, DLT, exchanges, OTC derivatives

The Colombian Stock Exchange (bvc) and Framework Contract, a fintech, have teamed up to promote the Colibrí platform, which uses blockchain technology to improve operational efficiency in the exchange of…

DTCC launches insurance data analysis pilot program

November 24, 2020

data analytics, DTCC, insurance

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced a client pilot program for its new Insurance Information Exchange (IIEX) service, a new platform that will help clients turn massive quantities…

BIS research suggests “embedded” supervision for stablecoins/CBDCs

November 24, 2020

BIS, CBDC, crypto regulation, stablecoins

There is a dichotomy between existing stablecoins and planned global stablecoins. Existing stablecoins aim to serve as a means of settlement for automated financial products, offering the possibility of so-called…

Nasdaq CCP tech investment highlights cloud, APIs

November 24, 2020

CCP, Nasdaq, technology

While the burden of regulatory requirements on CCPs might seem heavy, they are also a major contributor to the strong position of confidence that CCPs have in the industry and…

WSJ: CCB pulls $3 billion short-term debt sale on blockchain after scrutiny

November 24, 2020

blockchain, China Construction Bank

One of China’s largest banks halted the planned debut of a digital bond on an exchange outside the country, shortly before the security was scheduled to begin trading on Nov.…

ECB working group on euro risk-free rates consults on Euribor fallbacks

November 23, 2020

€STR, ECB, EURIBOR, fallbacks, FIX Orchestra, RFRs

Various fallback rates proposed, based upon the euro short-term rate (€STR) Potential events described that could trigger fallbacks Stakeholders asked to provide their views by 15 January 2021 The working…

Get the weekly SFM update – our November 20 newsletter is online

November 20, 2020

News and Notes, Uncategorized

weekly update

Top Stories If everyone is dodging responsibility for March’s Treasury market volatility, then what caused it?; SFM Interview: MarketAxess’ CRO on All-to-All traction in an age of COVID (Premium); Hedge…

RMA: shape of model risk management to come

November 19, 2020

model risk, RMA

While both the past and future of analytical quantitative models in financial services are extremely rich in scope, there are key trends shaping the future of model risk management that…

CACM: AI should go “green” by considering compute cost in research

November 19, 2020

artificial intellgence, ESG

Researchers writing for the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery advocate increasing research activity in Green AI, defined as AI research that is more environmentally friendly and inclusive. Since…

First electronic SOFR vs Fed Funds compression trade executed via Bloomberg SEF

November 19, 2020

Bloomberg, EFFR, electronic trading, Risk Free Rate, SOFR

Bloomberg announced that the first electronic SOFR versus Effective Federal Funds Rate (“EFFR”) basis swap compression trade was executed on the Bloomberg SEF (BSEF). The participants successfully executed a 10-year…

DTCC research shows 20-25% cost savings from post-trade automation

November 19, 2020

automation, DTCC, post-trade

Certain post-trade processing costs for cash securities at large broker-dealer firms could be reduced by 20-25% through automation, according to a recent survey of nine of the world’s leading broker-dealer…

BNY Mellon: China CBDC progress implications “huge”, but RoW wary

November 19, 2020

Bank of China, CBDC, retail

China is experimenting with a digital renminbi, the first time a major nation has piloted issuing a digital currency. The implications are huge, from enabling micro-targeted economic stimulus to transforming…

RavenPack: medium-term alpha from news sentiment for APAC multifactor equity models

November 19, 2020

APAC, data analytics, Equities, NLP, RavenPack

Data provider RavenPack’s latest white paper looks at the impact of news sentiment, either as standalone or enhancing factor, and its application to quantitative investment strategies (QIS) for Asia Pacific…

Genesis and Symphony team up for interoperable apps

November 19, 2020

applications, automation, digitization, genesis, STP, Symphony, technology

Low-code application platform Genesis and Goldman-backed messaging service Symphony announced a partnership to provide interoperable technology and applications that adhere to privacy and regulatory standards at a time when the…

ECB picks Italy’s SIA and UK’s Colt to link Eurosystem market infrastructure

November 19, 2020

Colt, ECB, ESMIG, SIA, T2S

SIA, the European payments giant, has been chosen by the European Central Bank (ECB), in partnership with Colt Technology Services, for its link to the Eurosystem’s market infrastructure through a…

ICE authorizes BofA as first API user for ETF share creations and redemptions

November 18, 2020

APIs, automation, Bank of America, ETFs, Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange announced that Bank of America became the first authorized participant to use ICE ETF Hub’s FIX (Financial Information eXchange) API (application programming interface) to communicate ETF share creations…

AlgoDynamix launches cloud-based quantum for financial analytics

November 18, 2020

AlgoDynamix, Quantum Computing, unsupervised learning

AlgoDynamix announced the launch of quantum computing for behavioural forecasting for financial analytics. The new cloud-based service uses technology provided by D-Wave Systems, and will make calculations up to 10,000x…

SFM Interview: MarketAxess’ CRO on All-to-All traction in an age of COVID (Premium)

November 18, 2020

Fixed Income, Liquidity Management, Technology

All to All, electronic trading, Fixed Income, MarketAxess, topstory

The shift to electronic trading for bonds may have been underway before the COVID crisis, but it’s been accelerated in the pandemic’s wake with surging trading volumes amid volatility. We…

Realizing a quantum generative adversarial network using a programmable superconducting processor

November 18, 2020

GANs, machine learning, Quantum Computing, quantum technologies

Generative adversarial networks are an emerging technique with wide applications in machine learning, which have achieved dramatic success in a number of challenging tasks including image and video generation. When…

Neudata: Quantopian shuts doors, co-founders and team moving to Robinhood

November 17, 2020

fintech, Neudata, Quantopian, Robinhood

Crowd-sourced fintech platform Quantopian announced it’s ended operations. Inconsistent performance has proved to be a theme across such investing platforms — in January, competitor WorldQuant laid off 130 employees and…

AcadiaSoft/TriOptima UMR phase 5 soft launch has 57 firms in 2020, estimate 250+ firms in scope

November 17, 2020

AcadiaSoft, Initial Margin, Phase 5, TriOptima, UMR

AcadiaSoft and TriOptima announced that 32 IM Phase 5 firms have successfully joined their IM Phase 5 soft launch initiative and more than 25 additional firms are scheduled to join…

ECB announces independent review of payments system outage

November 16, 2020

ECB, T2S, technology

Independent review to be launched on payments infrastructure TARGET2 incident on 23 October 2020 caused outage lasting almost 10 hours Findings of the review to be published by the second…

AFME report finds tech adoption accelerating but needs clear “change agenda”

November 16, 2020

AFME, PwC, technology

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the journey of investment banks’ technology transformation, but both consistent regulation and further investment are needed to ensure banks in Europe can fully deploy competitive…

Bank of Italy’s Franco says “trusted cloud” needed for data privacy and security

November 15, 2020

alternative data, Bank of Italy, Big Data, bigtech, data management

An astonishing amount of digital activity is occurring at any given moment. This explosion stems from the aggregate action of 4.5 billion internet users, a number that is projected to…

triBalance completes first FX SA-CCR optimization cycle

November 13, 2020

FX, SA-CCR, TriOptima

TriOptima announced the completion of its first triBalance FX cycle optimizing exposures for clients who calculate their leverage ratio capital requirements under the Standardized Approach for Measuring Counterparty Credit Risk…

Get the weekly SFM update – our November 13 newsletter is online

November 13, 2020

Top Stories The Impact of SFTR on Industry Data Analytics; Finadium: US Repo Participants on Market Conditions and Prospects for 2021; What banks and trading firms say about choosing AI…

J.P. Morgan adds ESG risk data to institutional platform

November 12, 2020

data analytics, ESG, J.P. Morgan, RepRisk

ESG data science firm RepRisk announced that it’s working with J.P. Morgan to offer front-office decision makers access to ESG risk data through the bank’s multi-asset data and analytics platform…

BNY Mellon sending buy-side non-cleared margin flow to AcadiaSoft

November 12, 2020

AcadiaSoft, BNY Mellon, non-cleared derivatives margin

Buy-side derivatives market participants are now able to fully outsource their entire non-cleared margin workflow via the market’s first end-to-end collateral solution developed by BNY Mellon. Going forward, BNY Mellon’s…

ICMA puts European repo market at €7.9bn in latest survey

November 12, 2020

ERCC, European Repo Market Survey, ICMA

The European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC) of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has released the results of its 39th semi-annual survey of the European repo market. The survey,…

ASIFMA publishes Asia repo market survey

November 12, 2020

APAC, ASIFMA, Repo

ICMA’s European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC) and ASIFMA have published the results of a second survey of the Asia-Pacific repo market. Using similar methodology to the long-established ICMA ERCC…

SCMP: China Construction Bank to sell $3bn of debt on blockchain

November 11, 2020

bitcoin, blockchain, China Construction Bank, Fusang

China Construction Bank has partnered with Hong Kong-based fintech company Fusang to launch the sale of $3 billion worth of debt on a blockchain, the first digital security issued by…

Tradition launches risk free rate data packages on AWS cloud

November 11, 2020

€STR, alternatives to LIBOR, Ameribor, AWS, RFRs, SOFR, SONIA, Tradition

TraditionDATA, the data arm of global interdealer broker Compagnie Financiere Tradition (Tradition), announced the availability of various interest rate swap and FX data products on AWS Data Exchange. This is…

What banks and trading firms say about choosing AI platforms (Premium)

November 11, 2020

Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Technology

artificial intelligence, Benchmarks, cloud technologies, hardware acceleration, machine learning, STAC, standards, topstory

The promise of financial AI has resulted in a growing number of advanced technologies that are supposed to deliver it. We hear from experts at a recent conference organized by…

BBH identifies outsourcing trends in Q4 update

November 10, 2020

BBH, outsourcing

As firms grapple with the difficulties of a distributed workforce and seek to reduce costs and physical footprints, Brown Brothers Harriman has seen an uptick in outsourcing decisions across foreign…

Tradition facilitates first bilaterally-brokered CAD/USD swap trade using LCH SwapAgent

November 10, 2020

cross-currency swaps, LCH SwapAgent, non-cleared derivatives, Tradition

Tradition has facilitated the first, brokered CAD/USD cross-currency swap trade using LCH SwapAgent in late October. Tradition is a global interdealer broker in over-the-counter commodity and financial products. SwapAgent is…

SGX digitizes transaction signing ahead of CSD services going online in 2021

November 9, 2020

CSDs, digital ID, digitization, SGX

Singapore Exchange (SGX) is pioneering the use of SingPass to authorize, or sign, transactions that require a high level of security. SGX’s Central Depository (CDP) began offering SingPass access including…

BIS: UK regulatory sandbox findings show increase in capital raising for fintechs

November 9, 2020

BIS, fintech, fundraising