Neptune Networks Ltd, a fixed-income pre-trade market utility, and Genesis Global, a low-code application development platform purpose-built for financial markets organisations, is to launch a new expanded Neptune platform developed by Genesis in early July. The enhanced Neptune service will offer its 115 clients and dealers a new web interface and several new features including: single name CDS, support for emerging market bonds and improved market analysis, including axe skews. All prior services and functionality offered by Neptune will remain available on the new platform.     Genesis began development of the new Neptune service in January and the firms believe

Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb Markets have announced an initiative to jointly explore the delivery of a consolidated tape for fixed income instruments in the European Union, with the intention to apply to become the consolidated tape provider (CTP) through the public procurement procedure, which the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, will organise. The companies believe that European financial markets would benefit greatly from a well-functioning fixed income consolidated tape, and industry collaboration will be essential to delivering a solution that utilises existing infrastructure to provide end users with access to reliable, high-quality MiFID II data.   The consolidated tape

Euronext Clearing, Euronext’s multi-asset clearing house formerly known as CC&G, has introduced a new VaR-based margin methodology on government bonds traded on MTS cash and repo platforms and BrokerTec and on MOT, EuroTLX and Hi-MTF platforms. The introduction of the new methodology falls under the next-to-come market best practice, following state of the art risk principles and parameters. The new VaR framework is a first major step toward the European expansion of Euronext Clearing, marking an important milestone of the Euronext “Growth for Impact 2024” strategic plan. The VaR-based margin methodology for Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish government bonds has

Citi has selected METACO to develop and pilot digital asset custody capabilities. The collaboration brings together METACO’s technology and digital solutions with Citi’s expansive custody network to develop a platform to enable clients to store and settle digital assets seamlessly and securely.

Almost half of financial services firms (44%) are planning to invest more in RegTech solutions in the next 12 months to cope with the growing pressure on the compliance function in this fast moving and increasingly complicated regulatory and operational landscape.  A further 41% expect to invest the same amount as the previous 12 months.   This investment is driving up the overall cost of compliance with almost all (90%) of financial services firms reporting increased compliance costs over the past five years. One in ten said costs have doubled.   That’s according to compliance technology and data analytics firm

Just over a year after going live, Brazilian startup Gavea’s commodities blockchain trading platform has reached the mark of $2.3 billion in bids and offers, around six million tonnes of products.  Some of the major players in the commodities industry are already clients, such as Amaggi, Agro Amazônia, FS Bioenergia, Inpasa, Gavilon, Lavoro, Cofco, and others. Developed with blockchain technology, the platform works as an OTC (over-the-counter) exchange, allowing buyers and sellers to know the counterpart they are dealing with, with transparency and no middlemen, providing full upstream traceability of products’ origin and promoting a fair and sustainable trading, with

BMLL, an independent provider of harmonised, historical data and analytics, has been selected to partner with New York University’s Mathematics in Finance programme, making its Data Lab available to NYU’s team of quantitative researchers.  Part of NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the programme and its research activities are directed by Professor Petter Kolm, a quantitative analyst specialising in market microstructure modelling and buy-side trading, who was named as “Quant of the Year” in 2021 by Portfolio Management Research (PMR) and Journal of Portfolio Management (JPM) for his contributions to the field of quantitative portfolio theory.  An NYU team, led

HSBC Asset Management (HSBC AM) is creating a new unit, the Capital Solutions Group (CSG), to sit within its alternatives business, HSBC Alternatives. The CSG will raise funds and create bespoke offerings in private and sustainable assets delivering flexible capital solutions for both institutional and wealth clients of HSBC Asset Management.   The CSG will become a new horizontal within HSBC Alternatives, collaborating with the existing investment capabilities of indirect alternatives, private credit, venture capital and real assets, to develop and scale solutions for both issuer and investor clients.   Borja Azpilicueta will lead CSG and move to HSBC AM

Citi and Bank of America, joined by Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Moody’s Analytics, have launched Octaura Holdings (Octaura), an independent company whose goal is to create the first open market electronic trading platform for syndicated loans and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). Built in collaboration with Genesis Global, the low-code software development platform for financial markets, Octaura aims to provide comprehensive trading solutions with natively integrated data and analytics. The Octaura venue for loans will launch first, with the CLO trading venue to follow. The company then plans to expand to other products in

BlockFills, a global digital asset trading and financial technology company, has partnered with TPAC Capital (TPAC) to offer institutions cryptocurrency structured product solutions. TPAC is the cryptocurrency joint venture of Pack Creek Capital and Finance Michigan, Inc, both commodities industry specialists.   BlockFills will be one of the few global digital asset electronic trading firms to offer institutions with tailored cryptocurrency structured product options. In addition, institutions like banks, hedge funds and others in the financial services sector will have the opportunity to offer structured product solutions for their clients through this partnership.   Customised structured product solutions help institutions