OES MarketGroup has partnered with Portware to provide National Market System (NMS) connectivity and NMS-compliant routing services to financial institutions on Portware’s global, broker-neutral, multi-asset trading and strategy systems. OES will provide Portware with RegNMS-compliant trading centre connectivity for outbound router services, enabling Portware’s sell side clients to meet mandatory trading and compliance requirements of RegNMS.

Despite all the hype surrounding MiFID’s compliance deadline, investment banks are scrambling still to upgrade their IT systems in order to fall in line with the new rules. However, the real challenge, according to Scott Sellers, president and COO of Azul Systems, will be compliance on an “ongoing basis” and that calls for raw performance.

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Consultancy Headstrong and event stream processing provider Aleri have partnered to develop solutions for MiFID compliance. Headstrong has implemented a best execution solution framework using the Aleri Streaming Platform for pre and post-execution scoring. The proof of concept is running at a global investment firm operating in London. Aleri CEO Don DeLoach says the partners are in advanced discussions with around five very large financial institutions. The relationship with Headstrong “will be fruitful in a number of initiatives”, he says.

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The Islamic finance industry, with assets estimated at more than $750 billion, is one of the fastest growing in the world, due in part to increased acceptance of Islamic (Shari’ah or Syariah) funds. These alternative investments, which must conform to Islamic law, are increasingly attracting investors from around the world, according to Charles River Development, which also contends that technology is playing a key role in helping global investment professionals create and manage the compliance aspects of these and other ethically-based funds.

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GL Trade will offer, free of charge, market data collection services to all institutions seeking to publish prices within the framework of MiFID.

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Euronext is to introduce a best execution algorithm, real-time dissemination of off-orderbook trades and new transaction reporting services as part of its preparations for MiFID in November 2007. Other MiFID requirements for post-trade transparency will be met through the provision of a real-time publishing facility for members to disseminate data on off-orderbook trades in European equities and ETFs listed on regulated markets in general.

Twelve dealers have stated they will use Swapswire to reach compliance with the 2005 Novation Protocol, published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). ISDA issued the protocol to reduce derivatives settlement backlogs, a large percentage of which are due to novations, the mechanism by which buy-side clients exit derivatives positions prior to maturity by transferring the rights and obligations of the original transaction to a third party. The 12 dealers are ABN Amro, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS Investment Bank. The Swapswire system allows the transferor to communicate a fully defined derivative transaction with all trade detail to both the so-called remaining party and the transferee. The remaining party can signal their consent, and the transferee can also confirm that they have received and are in agreement with the trade details. The process used effects a fully ISDA-compliant legal novation confirmation in electronic format, eliminating the need for the three parties to separately generate and match novation documentation. Swapswire supports a wide range of OTC derivative products including interest-rate, credit and equity derivatives.

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), due to be implemented across the European Union by April 2007, has been described by some as pure cost pain for little liquidity gain. Whether or not you subscribe to that particular view, what’s certain is that the pending regulation will have significant impact on the front office in terms of conduct of business, best execution and order-handling processes?

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TransactTools has released the latest version of its OpenFIX system for testing compliance with all versions of the FIX protocol. The new release adds equity application-level tests for both buy-side and sell-side systems. TransactTools is a FIX Protocol Ltd.-authorized certifier of FIX compliance.