Thursday, May 2, 2024

JPMorgan Launches Buy Side Data Platform

J.P. Morgan’s Securities Services business has launched ‘Fusion by J.P. Morgan’ (Fusion), a data platform that delivers end-to-end data management and reporting solutions for institutional investors.

Fusion will allow clients to seamlessly integrate and combine data from multiple sources into a single data model that delivers the benefits of scale and reduced costs, along with the ability to more easily unlock timely analysis and insights.

The platform will combine rich, high quality data with a governance framework that can be leveraged consistently across the investment lifecycle.

Teresa Heitsenrether

Teresa Heitsenrether, Global Head of Securities Services, J.P. Morgan, said: “Data management is a key strategic focus for our clients and we are committed to supporting them on their data journey.”

“We’ve established a dedicated Data Solutions business within Securities Services led by industry experts, and through Fusion, we are developing a differentiated, cloud-native platform to help clients manage and leverage their data in a scalable, efficient way.”

Fusion’s open data architecture supports flexible distribution, including partnerships with cloud and data providers, all managed by J.P. Morgan data experts.

Building on Securities Services’ global operating model and rich data foundation as an industry leading custodian, fund administrator and middle office outsourcing provider, Fusion will combine position and transaction information with the client’s own data, as well as data from trusted third-party vendors and partners.

The platform’s single data model allows clients to extend the breadth and depth of their data, and query the relevant information with powerful analytics tools to aid in decision-making.

Gerard Francis, Head of Data Solutions, Securities Services, J.P. Morgan, said: “Investment managers use a wide range of data sources with varying formats to run their business but the effort to gather, clean, and organize this data is often manual and resource intensive.”

“We are designing Fusion to remove the friction and make data instantly usable for our clients. By partnering with leading industry providers, we are streamlining the data onboarding process, enabling clients to browse, visualize and access their data in the cloud or directly within their own applications.”

At launch, clients will have access to Fusion’s new and expanding web-based data catalog to easily browse and discover data that is immediately usable, and ready for consumption using the platform’s modern APIs.

Through Fusion, clients can integrate and benefit from the unique content generated by J.P. Morgan’s Global Research and Markets franchise.

BNYM, Citi, Wells and Others Join $105M Series B for Talos

BNY Mellon, Citi, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Stripes, DRW Venture Capital, SCB 10x, Matrix Capital Management, Fin VC and Voyager Digital have become new investors in Talos, a provider of institutional digital asset trading technology.

Jason Vitale

The $105m Series B funding round that values the company at $1.25bn, was led by global growth equity firm General Atlantic.

Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Illuminate Financial, Initialized Capital, and Notation Capital also extended their partnerships with Talos.

“This investment is the latest example of BNY Mellon’s commitment to the future of digital assets,” said Jason Vitale, Global Head of FX, Fixed Income and Equities at BNY Mellon.

“As a new advisor on Talos’ Strategic Investor Forum, I look forward to collaborating with the leadership team to help deliver resilient, comprehensive institutional solutions to the market,” he said.

Aaron Goldman, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financial Services at General Atlantic, added: “We believe the growth in digital assets is driving existing players and new entrants to seek out institutional-grade solutions. Talos provides enterprise grade order management, liquidity aggregation, algorithmic execution, reporting and compliance to market participants, which should allow for more efficient operations, better execution and lower total cost of ownership.” 

Aaron Goldman

“Crypto market structure is still evolving, and Talos’ vision to build a comprehensive toolkit for market participants across CeFi and DeFi positions the company as a competitive disruptor,” he said.

Since developing its platform in 2018, Talos has proven the product-market fit and viability of its institutional-grade technology, which powers the full trade lifecycle for trading, settlement, and more via a single point of access. The company’s client base spans the entire digital asset ecosystem, from buy-side institutions to financial service providers, and includes broker-dealers, prime brokers, hedge funds, banks, OTC desks, custodians, exchanges and lenders.

“Talos has built the most powerful technology infrastructure stack aggregating connectivity across the crypto ecosystem, exemplifying Stripes’ focus on truly amazing products and teams that are obsessed with disrupting dynamic and important markets,” said Ken Fox, Founder and Partner at Stripes. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Talos as they further catalyze and accelerate the institutional adoption of digital assets.”

The funding comes on the heels of rapid growth for the firm, which has seen institutional trading volume explode over 20x year-over-year. 

The company intends to leverage this capital to scale and diversify the firm’s industry-leading institutional-grade digital asset platform that powers both buy-side and sell-side firms and seeks to accelerate Talos’s expansion into APAC and Europe. 

Anton Katz

Additionally, the firm expects to expand its product lines to support the complete, end-to-end trade lifecycle and strengthen its powerful pre and post-trade tools.

Talos also intends to leverage the funding to further expand its team across the globe. 

The team has grown by over 400% during the past year and offers opportunities in New York, Europe and Singapore, as well as fully remote roles.

Anton Katz, co-founder and CEO of Talos, said: “This funding round represents a major inflection point for the industry. We’ve long heard that ‘the institutions are coming’. The institutions are now here, and we’re extremely proud to be the digital asset trading platform of choice for leading institutions around the world.” 

“We believe that the digital assets infrastructure will have a wide-scale impact on the entire financial industry and ultimately, we will see traditional asset classes migrate to use this new technology as well. Our investors, which include some of the most storied institutions on Wall St., share this belief and we’re honored to have their confidence and support,” he said.

Treliant Forms Alliance with KX

Treliant, a global financial services consultancy, has built an alliance with KX, a worldwide leader in real-time data analytics, to provide consulting and implementation services around KX Insights, its real-time streaming analytics platform.

The alliance aims to support clients of both organizations with industry leading implementation and support capabilities.

Treliant’s Capital Markets practice, which currently focuses on delivering large scale business and regulatory driven change projects in addition to digital transformations, is now leveraging its specialist data and data management capabilities to expand its offerings for its client base.

KX is a key part of the critical infrastructure for many of the world’s leading financial institutions.

Paul Walsh

Together, Treliant’s excellence in service delivery combined with KX’s market-leading real-time analytics and decision intelligence technology will assist buy-side firms, sell-side institutions, and infrastructure providers such as exchanges, to create insights supporting real-time decision-making, which can be leveraged to deliver enhanced business performance.

“KX Insights delivers industry-leading, real-time streaming data analytics solutions that transform how firms make decisions and derive key business value as data driven organizations,” said Paul Walsh, Head of the Capital Market’s Digital Transformation practice within Treliant.

“Combining our specialized data and project delivery capabilities, we look forward to working with KX, to deliver solutions around KX Insights for our capital markets and financial services customers, giving them improved time-to-value and faster time-to-market”.

“The financial services landscape continues to be transformed by rapidly changing market conditions and technology choices, and the business insights locked within real-time data can be transformative for firms in the financial services sector,” said Conor Twomey, Head of Customer Success at KX.

“By leveraging Treliant’s delivery capabilities and data experts, we’re giving our customers even greater choice of who they work with for the implementation of our market-leading KX technology.”

A key part of Treliant’s Capital Markets practice focuses on innovative data solutions, delivered both on client site and through two services centers, in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Łódź, Poland, (with a third in North America scheduled for a later date).

Treliant offers high quality, experienced project teams, including highly skilled KX specialists who deliver quant analytics, risk management, regulatory compliance, and trade surveillance projects powered by real-time data analytics.

KX engineers have years of experience in developing, deploying, and supporting KX-based applications and mission critical solutions built on top of kdb+, the world’s fastest time-series database.

The KX team will work closely with Treliant’s KX specialists to offer consultancy services, training courses, and technical support solutions customized for client needs.

“This announcement further demonstrates our strategy of widening the aperture of opportunity for KX and our partners to solve mission-critical in the moment decisions for customers,” said Paul Hollway, Head of Partnerships KX. 

Whither Options Trading?

 

Will the exit of the scarred retail trader crater options trading?

That seems to be the conventional wisdom, but ongoing strength in the institutional sector can at least partly offset that, and rapid technology innovation may keep retail resilient after all.  

Those were some of the crosscurrents discussed Tuesday at the “State of the Industry” panel at the Options Industry Conference in San Antonio.

Henry Schwartz, Senior Director and Head of Product Intelligence at Cboe Global Markets, noted that the options market is on pace to expand about 6% this year, down from 30% last year and 50% in 2020. Those historical growth rates were fueled by pandemic boredom, low interest rates, and government stimulus cash, among other factors. 

Henry Schwartz, Oboe

“There was a spectacular amount of new activity” in 2020-21, Schwartz said, driven by small trades in single-stock options, with a wider range of contracts that gained liquidity. 

“There was much more day trading of options than we’ve ever seen, with lots of churn,” Schwartz said. The boom was decidedly “not in big, highly negotiated institutional blocks.”

Schwartz cited other data that shows retail options brokers boosting their overall market share from about 50% to 60% in recent years, as well as all 16 options exchanges with “a pretty decent slice” of the pie. “If that’s the case, then they’re all serving a purpose,” he said. Cboe and Nasdaq are the two leading U.S. options exchange operators.

Now, with speculative stocks down 25-50% or more this year, the question for the options market becomes “does retail know what to do in a sideways or down market, or are we going to go in reverse?”

Annabelle Baldwin, Chief Revenue Officer at SpiderRock, an options fintech and advisory firm, said the options market may not be a retail story going forward, but there is reason to believe the overall trend will stay positive.

“I think the pie will grow because we are getting smarter about doing things, about providing automation to clients,” she said. “The risk has been priced in by a community of professional customers. There is a lot of market uncertainty going forward, but there is also a lot of knowledge and years of expertise that will make the pie grow bigger.”

“On the institutional side, we are collectively building tools for clients to trade options and scale far more efficiently than ever before,” she added. 

Antonio Goncalves, Senior Vice President Americas, Board Advisor Devexperts and dxFeed Data Solutions, Devexperts, Inc., noted a “rise of the apps” trend that has fully automated options trading, which attracts retail customers from the U.S. and heretofore obscure markets such as Brazil and Chile. 

“It is inevitable that we will grow, and that comes from the rise of the apps,” Goncalves said. 

US Acting Comptroller Of The Currency Urges to Update Frameworks for Bank Mergers

Michael J. Hsu

The time is ripe to rethink the frameworks used to analyze bank merger applications, according to Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu.

“Without enhancements, there is an increased risk of approving mergers that diminish competition, hurt communities, or present systemic risks,” he said before the Brookings Institution. 

“On the other hand, imposing a moratorium on mergers would lock in the status quo and prevent mergers that could increase competition, serve communities better, and enhance industry resiliency,” he added.

On Monday, May 9, Aaron Klein, senior fellow in the Center on Regulation and Markets at Brookings, invited remarks from Hsu about the need to rethink large bank resolvability and industry resilience.

Ten years ago, in the wake of the financial crisis, Congress changed the way large banks could merge or be acquired, according to Klein. 

Today regulators have begun rethinking what considerations should guide evaluations of bank mergers in light of new competition from financial technology firms and credit unions, the increased consolidation of the industry and lessons learned in the aftermath of the financial crisis, consumer and community needs, and changes in the nature of banking, he said.

In his remarks, the Acting Comptroller said that bank mergers should serve communities, support financial stability and industry resilience, enhance competition, and enable diversity and dynamism of the banking industry. 

“Revisions to the bank merger framework would help to realize this goal,” he said.

Under the Bank Merger Act, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the appropriate federal banking agency have shared responsibility for assessing the competitiveness impact of a proposed merger, he said. 

The Acting Comptroller said that DOJ’s recent request for public comment clearly signals a desire to update its guidelines and analytical framework. OCC staff has been engaging with DOJ staff, as well as staff of other federal agencies, on this.

Hsu said that in healthy mergers, the acquiring bank can improve the risk management and controls of the target bank, and ensure that the integration of systems, processes, and people is executed in a timely manner as planned, and the business model unfolds as projected. 

“Such cases are win-win: Communities are better served, and the resulting institution is more safe and sound than the two banks individually,” he said.

Bank supervisors are generally well-positioned to assess whether the financial and managerial resources of the acquiring bank are capable of executing a merger effectively and efficiently, he said. 

“I do not see a need at this time for significant changes in how supervisors assess this prong,” he said. 

With that stated, too-big-to-manage is a risk with mergers, especially for banks engaged in serial acquisitions, he said. 

A review of institutions that grew through multiple mergers could reveal 11 additional factors for supervisors to consider when assessing banks’ financial and managerial resources, he added.

The Acting Comptroller does not think the statutory prongs of competitiveness, safety and soundness, meeting community needs, and financial stability need to be revisited. 

“Rather, the modes of analysis used by regulators to apply these factors need to be improved. My sense is that the degree and nature of change required varies by prong,” he said.

FIA Tech Opens New Operations Center

FIA Tech, the futures industry’s leading technology provider, has launched a new client services and operations center in Tampa, Florida. FIA Tech’s client services team is the primary interface for FIA Tech’s global client base and is responsible for the onboarding of new clients, overall client satisfaction and implementation of initiatives across FIA Tech’s various business lines.

“Tampa is a strong center for financial technology operations and client services teams, supported by its proximity to large financial institutions. We have seen strong recruitment interest from highly qualified professionals either based in or looking to relocate to Tampa and we will continue to hire in the region,” said Nick Solinger, CEO of FIA Tech.

Nick Solinger

“Long before the pandemic, FIA Tech was committed to diversity of office locations and flexible work from home arrangements to attract and retain top talent globally.”

FIA Tech’s Tampa-based team supports clients across multiple FIA Tech services including Atlantis, Databank, eRecs and Fees and Commissions solutions.

In January, FIA Tech announced the opening of an office in London, its first outside the United States. The company already has offices in Washington D.C, New York and Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a research and development center in Latvia and support operations in Mumbai.

About FIA Tech

FIA Tech is the leading technology provider to the exchange traded derivatives industry. Owned since 2021 by a consortium of ten leading clearing firms and the Futures Industry Association, FIA Tech will be investing to further the development of existing products that have successfully served the industry and launch innovative new solutions to improve market infrastructure across the listed and cleared derivatives industry. FIA Tech works in partnership with the broader industry, including exchanges, clearinghouses, clearing firms and other intermediaries, independent software vendors, buyside firms and end users to bring efficiency to the exchange traded and cleared derivatives industry. 

Current FIA Tech services include digitally managing give-up agreements, meeting regulatory compliance requirements arising from CFTC, MIFID II and exchange regulatory compliance, reconciling and settling brokerage fees and providing reference data products that are required across the pre- and post-trade space in futures and equity options. 

Source: FIA Tech

ISDA Adds FX Definitions and Related Documents to its Digital Documentation Platform

Scott O’Malia

ISDA has announced that its flagship FX definitions and related annexes, supplements and templates have been added to the ISDA MyLibrary electronic documentation platform, creating significant efficiencies in how firms access and navigate these documents.

The announcement comes ahead of the 36th ISDA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Madrid on May 10-12, which will explore the steps being taken to automate and digitize derivatives markets.

The new additions include ISDA’s 1998 FX and Currency Option Definitions and 15 other related documents. They join the 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions, the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement, and the 2022 ISDA Securities Financing Transactions Definitions and SFT Schedule Provisions, which are already on the platform.

“This marks another important step in the effort to digitize our new and legacy documents, making it much more efficient for firms to use them. The platform allows users to easily navigate the documents, compare different versions with marked-up changes, and search for key terms without having to trawl through pages and pages of paper. Digitizing our documentation is a big priority for ISDA as we look to create efficiencies and cut costs for our members, which is why it’s a key focus for this year’s AGM,” said Scott O’Malia, ISDA’s Chief Executive.

Features of MyLibrary include:

  • Comparison Tools: The electronic format allows ISDA to revise and update its new documents in full each time an amendment is required, avoiding the need to publish separate supplements. Users can easily view the prevailing version of the document as of any date and can compare different versions in blackline as they are published.
  • Navigation and Search: Firms can navigate through the documents via index links and can perform complex searches based on words, phrases or categories across all documents on the platform. Embedded links within the text allow users to view definitions of terms via pop-up boxes, while links to external resources provide access to useful materials, including video explainers.
  • Bookmarks: Users can bookmark documents and topics, and the list of bookmarks will be preserved for each user. Firms can also save collections of documents, parts of documents or different versions of the same document for future reference.

Documents on MyLibrary can be viewed on both desktop and mobile devices. For more information, contact onlinelibrary@isda.org.

Automation of derivatives markets is one of the main themes of this year’s AGM, with sessions on the digitization of documentation and digital regulatory reporting. Other issues covered include crypto derivatives, sustainable finance and benchmarks. A full AGM agenda is available here.

Source: ISDA

TECH TUESDAY: Nasdaq Breaks Ground in Cloud Migration

TECH TUESDAY is a weekly content series that covers all aspects of capital markets technology. TECH TUESDAY is produced in collaboration with Nasdaq.

On May 3 Nasdaq held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the expansion of its primary data center in Carteret, NJ, a milestone in its journey to build a cloud-enabled infrastructure for capital markets.  

In November 2021 Nasdaq announced a multi-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Nasdaq is incorporating AWS Outposts directly into its core network to deliver ultra-low-latency edge compute capabilities from its primary data center in the Equinix NY11 facility in Carteret.  This is one step towards creating the first AWS Private Local Zone for the capital markets industry. 

Breaking ground in Carteret, NJ, 20 miles outside of New York City

Nasdaq will be able to run latency-sensitive applications in the cloud and give clients access to cloud-based capabilities, including virtual connectivity services, market analytics and machine learning. 

Adena Friedman, President and Chief Executive of Nasdaq, said in Nasdaq’s January results call: “The partnership gives us expansion opportunities within Carteret which we can then deploy to other major markets around the world. We will become more of a managed service provider to our market technology clients.”

In order to address critical workloads without impacting the experience for clients Equinix and AWS are doubling the size and the power of the data center, a process which is due to finish in 2024. 

Nasdaq has been using the AWS cloud for more than a decade to power several services and offerings. When the global pandemic drove new, record volume its cloud strategy facilitated the delivery of additional capacity without impacting other critical workflows.

“The new normal is an ultra-high-volume environment that can accommodate highly dynamic periods,” said Friedman. “We need the on-demand scale, elasticity, and flexibility that the cloud provides to address an evolving market environment.”

This next step will establish a cloud-based infrastructure for all market participants.  

“Over the last decade, Nasdaq and AWS have developed a strong relationship rooted in trust, innovation, and commitment,” said Scott Mullins, General Manager, Financial Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS). “Nasdaq and AWS have co-designed an edge compute platform leveraging AWS Outposts, that is packaged and tailored for ultra-low latency capital markets use cases. These edge devices, deployed directly at Nasdaq’s primary data center in Carteret, New Jersey, are the next step in Nasdaq’s cloud journey with AWS.”

Nasdaq MRX, one of the group’s six options venues, is slated to become the first market to migrate to AWS later this year. In addition, the partnership will include opportunities to explore using AWS’s cloud capabilities across Nasdaq’s anti-financial crime, data and analytics, and market infrastructure software solutions.

MIAX Submits Draft Registration Statement on Proposed IPO

PRINCETON, N.J — May 6, 2022 — Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH) today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The registration statement is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any offers, solicitations of offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (“Securities Act”). This announcement is being issued in accordance with Rule 135 under the Securities Act.

About MIAX


MIAX’s parent holding company, Miami International Holdings, Inc., owns Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC (MIAX®), MIAX PEARL, LLC (MIAX Pearl®), MIAX Emerald, LLC (MIAX Emerald®), Minneapolis Grain Exchange, LLC (MGEX), and Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

Options Industry Conference Celebrates 40th Anniversary

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) will host its 40th annual Options Industry Conference on May 10-12, 2022 at La Cantera Resort & Spa in San Antonio, one of America’s most picturesque cities.

The event will be the first one since Covid-19 pandemic.
Dan Busby

The conference focuses on the key topics facing the options industry, from the regulatory shifts in the U.S. and Europe to the technological developments that are driving monumental change in markets around the globe. It’s the first in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic, said Dan Busby, Chief Administrative Officer at OCC. Last year was all virtual, which worked out well, he said but “it’s going to be great to get back in person again”.

The Options Industry Conference, which attracts approximately 400 industry participants year-after-year, is known for its combination of industry education, exciting networking opportunities and events. The premier annual event for top-level management and trading professionals presents content at the intersection of business and regulation, delivering what the industry needs to advance together.

Mike Hansen, Managing Director of Clearing and Settlement Operations at OCC said: “Our goal is to provide a unique opportunity for all the attendees to discuss with their peers the key initiatives that are moving the industry forward.”

This three-day event brings together the most diverse and accessible group of key industry professionals, influential speakers, and top-quality content to curate an experience of connecting, learning, and engaging. There will be two keynote speakers this year – Margaret Brennan, Moderator of CBS News’ Face the Nation and CBS News’ Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent; and Dawn DeBerry Stump, a former Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Hansen thinks that’s going to be a really “thought provoking conversation”.

Mike Hansen

The panels include: “State of The Industry”, “Rise of Retail: What’s Next?”, ‘Current Issues in Market Structure”; “Institutional Perspectives on Today’s Options Markets”; “New Frontiers: Innovations Changing the Industry”; and “Secure Markets: Tackling Cybersecurity Challenges” – to name a few.

“I’m really looking forward to taking in as much as I can from all the panels. I really can’t pick one,” Hansen said.

Busby added that he’s looking forward to the “State of The Industry” panel, moderated by Henry Schwartz, Senior Director, Head of Product Intelligence, Cboe: “It’s a really great insight into where we are and where we’re going.”

New topics for the year include: “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” moderated by Elizabeth King, President, ESG & Chief Regulatory Officer, Intercontinental Exchange; and “Secure Markets: Tackling Cybersecurity Challenges” moderated by John P. Davidson, Chief Executive Officer, OCC. “One of our top cyber employees – Erik Dries, Executive Director Cyber Defense, OCC, will also be participating,” commented Busby.

On May 3, OCC announced that year-to-date average daily volume through April 2022 was 41.8 million contracts, up 4.2% compared to year-to-date average daily volume through April 2021. Total volume was 782.8 million contracts, up 9.4% compared to April 2021.

The record-breaking growth in the US listed option volume from 2021 has persisted into 2022, said Hansen. “Our critical risk management, our clearing and settlement services have continued to keep pace with these volumes,” he said. “We’ve also seen a significant growth in market participants. So, we’ve been able to handle what the industry has sent our way in terms of volume,”

“As we modernize our technology infrastructure and replace our legacy system, that’s going to enable us to continue to serve our clearing member firms and the greater investing public for years to come,” he said.

When asked about recent developments at OCC, Busby said that the organization is in the middle of a massive technology transformation – the Renaissance Initiative. “We’re continuing to develop our new platform and completing functionality,” he said.

“As part of that technology transformation, we are looking to gain regulatory approval to move our technology into a cloud environment,” he added.

Busby added that in the Q3, OCC will be releasing technical specifications for clearing members and exchanging those to get ready for the new platform. “There’ll be sample data for them to start testing their systems, so it will be massive orchestration with the industry,” he said.

According to Busby, OCC is also planning to release new functionality “What If- Margining.” It’s a simulation, where clearing members will be using for the first time with OCC an API based platform to submit portfolios on a regular basis. “It is an opportunity for members to view theoretical types of margin scenarios for analysis and understand how margin requirements change as positions do”,” he explained.

Busby further said that OCC is working with various vendors to launch the new clearing risk and data platform in mid-2024.

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