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Could technological advances hold the key to hedge fund managers meeting both the increased service expectations of investors, and fulfilling new regulatory requirements? Joe McGrath investigates…
Buy-side firms have long recognised the importance of technology in today’s market, and nowhere more so than in the case of hedge funds, which have historically attracted investors and amassed capital by being at the cutting edge of both technological and market developments. In recent years though, investors have been demanding even more in terms of tech-driven services from hedge fund managers.
According to interviews with industry professionals, investor expectations with regard to enhanced
Mirabella Group, the regulatory hosting arm of ACA Compliance Group, has added a Tied Agent solution to its existing alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) service in Malta.
This new solution helps non-European Economic Area (EEA) firms to interact with their EEA clients using MiFID passporting.
Mirabella has created a new subsidiary, Mirabella Malta Advisers Limited (MMAL), which will act as Principal to locally based Tied Agents, which will be owned by non-EEA firms. This Tied Agent service saves non-EEA based firms money, time and effort, and importantly draws on Mirabella’s existing and significant UK-based expertise in this area. MMAL’s local permissions include: provision of investment advice;
Digital Assets Data, a financial technology and data company focused on the burgeoning cryptoasset industry, has closed its first equity funding round, led by North Island, the investment firm of prominent technology investor and Silver Lake co-founder Glenn Hutchins, along with his son, James Hutchins.
After launching the Digital Assets Data platform with a USD6 million raise in its seed round earlier this year, this new injection of capital is an extension to the seed foundation and brings the total funds raised by the company to USD9.2 million.
The Digital Assets Data platform provides asset managers and other market participants
Optiva Securities is implementing JHC System’s JHC Neon (Neon) in a drive to increase control and transparency. The deal follows JHC’s recently announced partnership which makes Neon available for clients of Jarvis Investment Management (Jarvis).
With its global HQ in Mayfair London, specialist stockbroker Optiva Securities is expanding its business to offer discretionary services. Neon will be integral to this aim, giving managers a 360- degree view of all their clients. The sophisticated monitoring and risk functionality will provide oversight to ensure that they are always within the mandates agreed by clients
Christian Dennis, CEO at Optiva Securities, says: “As
Quantexa, a decision intelligence company specialising in AI and network analytics, has added John McAdam, board member of data visualisation company Tableau, to its board.
With over 30 years’ experience, McAdam served as president and CEO of F5 Networks where he brought the company to profitability and grew annual revenue from USD100 million to USD2 billion. Prior to this, he was General Manager of the web server sales business at IBM, after serving for 10 years as President and COO of Sequent Computer Systems, which was sold to IBM in September 1999.
Working with Tier 1 customers globally, including HSBC, Quantexa
Northern Trust has established a dedicated options trading desk within its institutional brokerage business, expanding its global capabilities in response to growing demand from asset owners and asset managers.
The Chicago-based options desk provides institutional clients globally with options trading and streamlined reporting for prime brokerage.
“As sophisticated investors navigate fluctuating markets, Northern Trust continues to broaden our capabilities to increase speed, provide transparency and manage market impact, all of which can contribute to investment performance results,” says Guy Gibson (pictured), Global Head of Institutional Brokerage. “This new options trading desk demonstrates our commitment to meet the evolving needs of
Prime Trust, a crypto custodian and trust company, has launched PrimeX allowing clients to instantly transfer any asset between Prime Trust account holders in real-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Prime is being adopted by iexchanges, OTC desks, market makers, stablecoins, and traders, giving Prime Trust account-holders the ability to form counterparty relationships in real-time to effect and settle transactions in fiat and crypto assets.
PrimeX, through a network of Smart APIs, enables Prime Trust’s institutional and retail clients to instantly transfer assets (whether they are traditional assets like fiat currencies, stocks, bonds,
Truvalue Labs, a specialist in AI-driven environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, has launched a raft of enhancements to its ESG data platform, including the integration of the final codified Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) framework, expanded company coverage to more than 16,000 public and private companies globally, the addition of six new languages and expanded fixed income coverage.
The company also announced the release of its new artificial intelligence engine, Truvalue AI, which enables rapid implementation of any investment framework whether ESG-specific such as SASB or proprietary client-defined categories.
Truvalue AI was built using a highly scalable multi-pipeline architecture
Fewer than half of hedge fund managers are currently applying environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in making equity investment decisions. But, for those that do, the impact on their portfolios is considerable and growing, according to the Backstop-BarclayHedge Fund Manager Survey.
The survey found that more than four in 10 – 41.4 per cent – of respondents consider ESG factors in selecting equity securities. Of those considering ESG factors, on average 52 per cent of assets are currently allocated based on ESG ratings.
While 42 per cent of assets were allocated last year based on ESG factors, that percentage
FIX Trading Community has launched a new set of message types to further support periodic future payment management in the post-trade space.
The process for periodic payments and cash flow operations management has been, and still is a heavily manual and fragmented process, with multiple different ways in which firms communicate and agree on expected future payments. For example, an expected coupon payment on a swap contract when calculated needs confirming between trading parties. The introduction of a new set of FIX standard messages will allow firms to send and receive details relating to expected periodic payments, a process which
