Solutions
ALTX East Africa has gone goes live with its high tech exchange in Uganda.
The team, led by chief executive Joseph Kitamirike, has built the exchange since 2013, and spent most of the last eight months optimising their systems, aiming to deliver a world class securities exchange facility. The platform obtained regulatory approval in 2014 and depository approval was secured in 2015.
ALTX East Africa is coming to the market having met several of its design goals, including building a competitive facility based upon high performance technology, reducing settlement time to less than a day, enabling trading of assets
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) plans to list S&P 500 Index (SPX) Monday-expiring Weeklys options, beginning 15 August 2016, pending regulatory approval.
With the expected introduction of SPX "Monday Weeklys," CBOE will now offer SPX options with Monday, Wednesday and Friday weekly expirations.
CBOE's new SPX Monday Weeklys options will generally have the same characteristics as CBOE's Wednesday- and Friday-expiring SPX Weeklys options, with the exception of their listing and expiration dates.
The initial expirations for the new Monday Weeklys are planned for 22 August and 29 August. Going forward, new expirations for the Monday Weeklys will typically
State Street Corporation has agreed to participate in a pilot programme to test DTCC-Euroclear GlobalCollateral’s Margin Settlement Messaging Service.
Powered by Margin Transit Utility (MTU) technology, GlobalCollateral’s Margin Settlement Messaging Service has been developed to provide straight-through-processing for the settlement of margin obligations.
By participating in the pilot programme, State Street aims to further streamline its margin call processes, increase transparency through automated collateral settlement tracking, enhance client service, and improve custodian communications. State Street will initially pilot the MTU functionality with select client portfolios to evaluate how the technology could be leveraged more broadly.
As the industry
Bill Prew (pictured) from the INDOS Group has written a note on the implications of Brexit on AIFMD depositaries. “A UK withdrawal from the European Union (EU) following the 23 June 2016 ‘Brexit’ Referendum has potential implications on the existing requirement for UK Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) to appoint, in certain circumstances, a depositary under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD),” he writes.
“To recap, AIFMD introduced a requirement for certain AIFMs to ensure that a depositary is appointed to perform a fiduciary oversight role over the Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) which they manage. The depositary requirements for UK
Neptune, the open standards network for pre-trade indications in bond markets, has formed a new company, Neptune Networks Ltd, to run the utility.
The board will be comprised of members of the banks and asset managers involved in the collaboration for the past 18 months.
Neptune says it recognises the importance of joint buy-side and sell-side governance in order to best meet the challenges in the industry.
17 dealers are currently connected to the system distributing over USD70 billion of gross notional and 13,000 structured pre-trade indications across 8,500 ISINs to their clients. The network is continuing to grow,
Northern Trust has enhanced its peer universe comparison capabilities with the addition of intelligence derived from eVestment universe data.
The integration of eVestment’s universes expands clients’ access to a global array of more than 500 manager peer universes across six asset classes and 74 countries.
Through Northern Trust’s Investment Risk and Analytical Services (IRAS) peer universe comparison capabilities, clients can compare the performance of investment managers’ decile ranking against a broad universe of manager mandates ranging from public to private markets. By providing access to proprietary and third-party universes, Northern Trust offers comparisons at the investment plan, programme and
Cloud technology – The scale of a manager's IT infrastructure will largely depend on the type of trading strategy. A quantitative market neutral statistical arbitrage fund is likely going to spend more capital on front-office portfolio management, risk management systems and server storage capabilities than a specialist credit strategy that trades infrequently.
Either way, investors will expect the manager to have a well-oiled machine in place: well-established workflow processes, operational controls, and, as far as possible, front- to back-office system integration.
One of the most popular routes to establishing a sound technology infrastructure is to appoint an outsourced cloud provider. It
By Dean Hill, Executive Director, Eze Castle Integration – There is no shortage of threats to financial services firms, and the list of requirements from investors and regulators alike is growing at a rapid pace. As a startup, it's important to demonstrate to investors that you take your business seriously, hence, investments in operational excellence are required. On the cybersecurity front, that means leveraging technology infrastructure with robust, security-rich features including intrusion detection and ongoing traffic monitoring, regular vulnerability assessments and next-generation software, firewalls and patches to keep hackers out and firm assets secure.
But beyond technology safeguards, today's successful
There are a number of important considerations for a fund manager, especially a start-up, when it comes to selecting an onshore depositary to an onshore AIF. But before these are explored, it is perhaps worthwhile explaining exactly what the role of the depositary is under AIFMD, given that alternative fund managers have never had to use one before.
Safekeeping of the AIF’s assets
There are two parts to this. Firstly, providing custody of financial assets that are held directly by the depositary (i.e. stocks and bonds, options and futures). Secondly, performing record keeping and ownership verification of an AIF's assets,
There are a multitude of costs that a start-up alternative fund manager faces today, especially with respect to those looking to establish a hedge fund under AIFMD. From regulatory costs and waiting to receive FCA authorisation, to office and IT and staffing costs, the amount of burn capital that managers initially account for can rapidly disappear down the drain.
Which is why Linear Investments is proving to be a whole lot more than merely a boutique prime broker. In short, Linear has spent a number of years building out its trading and risk management systems to provide start-ups with a
