FIA Tech announced that it raised an additional $25.4 million in a funding round led by six existing shareholders, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo, in addition to BNP Paribas. As a result, BNP Paribas joins FIA Tech’s ownership consortium and will serve on its board of directors. This capital raise brings the total funding for FIA Tech to almost $70 million.
FIA Tech is a futures industry technology provider and the capital will be used to accelerate the development of its Trade Data Network (TDN) initiative. TDN provides a shared ledger of trading information to address the fragmentation and lack of transparency in exchange traded derivatives (ETD) post-trade processing. The successful rollout of TDN is also expected to help reduce clearing delays for brokers and overall costs. The TDN initiative currently includes 16 banks/brokers and 40 investment managers and hedge funds with combined assets under management of over $37 trillion.
The initial rollout of TDN is focused on allocations processing and trade confirmations, with trade lifecycle transparency across the multiple brokers and the clearinghouse on each trade. Additional features include benchmarking, metrics tracking and reporting to drive best practices across the ecosystem. The initiative is also designed to drive value for the independent software vendor (ISV) community by reducing complexity in delivering services to clients.
Raphael Masgnaux, head of Global Technology Platforms for Global Markets at BNP Paribas, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to join the board of FIA Tech, a firm we have worked closely with over the years. Technology is a central pillar of BNP Paribas’ GTS 25 (Growth Technology Sustainability) Strategic Plan, and the TDN initiative promises to deliver a pivotal platform for the ETD industry.”
Nick Solinger, President and CEO of FIA Tech, said in a statement: “We are delighted that BNP Paribas will be supporting us on our next stage of development and equally pleased at the support from our existing investors to launch the Trade Data Network. TDN has already proven its operational resiliency for participants in recent times of high market volumes and volatility.”
In 2021 FIA Tech announced its Series A investment round of $44 million to fund the spin-off of the firm and advance FIA Tech’s efforts to bring innovative solutions to the derivatives industry. Original investors were ABN AMRO Clearing, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo.