Euroclear has continued on the acquisition trail this month by signing an agreement with the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) whereby Euroclear will acquire 100% of Xtrakter, the ICMA subsidiary, for an undisclosed cash amount. Ignace Combes, deputy CEO of Euroclear, explains that the acquisition is part of the firm’s drive to broaden its trade matching service offering with more asset classes and extended life cycle management.

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Piggybacking on the trend towards making data management more relevant to the front office, Trillium Software has formally launched its Data Intelligence & Governance (DIG) solution. The solution is aimed at providing firms with data analysis, data quality and reporting software technology combined with consultancy services for business users in risk management. Ed Wrazen, vice president of product management and strategy at Trillium Software, explains that the offering brings together skills that the vendor has acquired via customer implementations.

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GlobeOp Financial Services has appointed risk management veteran Tony Glickman as global head of risk services and member of its operating committee. He will report to Vernon Barback, GlobeOp president and chief operating officer, and will be based in the company’s New York City office.

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The latest Reference Data Review podcast.

In this episode:

FIMA 2008, surprisingly for a financial services conference, focussed on the negative aspects of capitalism – stressing that a range of deadly sins including greed and sloth had got the world in to the mess it is in today. However, as our podcast points out, that doesn’t necessarily mean the future is bleak for reference data.

Running time: 4 minutes 13 seconds

Click the play button below to listen now:

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Investment accounting solutions vendor Pendo Systems has formed an exclusive strategic alliance with buy side data management solution vendor Data Agent to deliver an integrated solution aimed at streamlining data management for financial services firms. The two firms are attempting to provide customers with a multi-dimensional platform on which to manage their investment data.

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Interactive Data Corporation has announced its intention to acquire the majority, at 64%, of NTT Data Financial Corporation (NDF) from NTT Data Corporation for 1.9 billion yen, or approximately US$20.2 million, in cash. The two firms have been redistribution partners for more than 14 years but Interactive Data made the decision to have a direct presence in Japan as part of its plan to accelerate its growth in the region, according to Jim Farrer, managing director of Interactive Data Asia Pacific.

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SmartStream Technologies has opened a new development centre in Mumbai, India, to further expand the company’s offshore software development operations. According to the vendor, the relocation to larger premises is as a result of the decision to run a greater proportion of new solution development out of India.

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  Reference Data Review - Issue 70 - November 2008 (820.8 KiB)
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Given the current financial crisis it was unsurprising that this year’s FIMA conference – held in London on 11 to 13 November – was focused on surviving the current financial crisis by employing better data management strategies. Although numbers were down and a number of familiar faces, such as Citi’s John Bottega, were absent, the mood remained cautiously optimistic. Data management, it seems, has been thrust into the spotlight as the result of increased regulatory scrutiny and the spectre of reputational risk.

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Unusually for a financial services conference, this year’s FIMA focused on the negative aspects of capitalism; the topic of the seven deadly sins kept cropping up throughout the sessions – including greed, sloth and gluttony (well, at the buffet table at the very least…).

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Yuanta Financial Holdings has deployed NumeriX Excel within its risk department to provide analytics and pricing for derivatives and structured products. Via the implementation of the solution, the Taiwan-based firm hopes to more accurately price and calculate mark-to-model prices as well as measure the risk for these products, says Connie Lin, chief risk officer at Yuanta.

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Brazil-based hedge fund Paineiras Investimentos has selected Xenomorph’s TimeScape data and analytics management system to replace its current Excel-based solution for data management and validation, risk management and back testing. The hedge fund hopes the system will significantly accelerate its trading and risk management processes, according to partner and trader in the firm Andre Portilho.

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The current financial crisis has highlighted that financial institutions do not have a sufficient handle on their data and has prompted many of these institutions to re-evaluate their approaches to data management. Moreover, the increased regulatory scrutiny of the financial services community during the past year has meant that data management has become a key area for investment.

But given that IT spend is down as a whole, how is this impacting the implementation of enterprise data management (EDM) projects? Is strategic investment in particular areas of the processing chain with regards to data taking priority over wider EDM implementations?

The EDM Council celebrated its third anniversary this year and it has achieved some level of success in the industry in the past three years by providing data management with the attention it deserves. However, despite the progress in getting people talking about data at an abstract level, a report by the EDM Council earlier in the year indicates that EDM is still not on the C-level radar. According to the report, data management has a heightened prominence and is more mature than it was three years ago, but it is still seen as a tactical problem.

What lies ahead for the EDM community this year?

  RDR Special Report: Enterprise Data Management (801.1 KiB)
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The Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Council added 12 new member institutions to its ranks to help it champion the cause for industry collaboration on data management issues. Michael Atkin, managing director of the not for profit organisation, reckons the new additions demonstrate the rising importance of data management in the market.

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NumeriX, an analytics provider for structuring, pricing and valuation of derivatives and structured products, has extended its integration partner agreement with Calypso Technology, with whom it has been working with since 2005. As a result of this expanded agreement, Calypso users will now have access to NumeriX’s pricing and risk analytics software.

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Despite the downturn in the markets, corporate actions automation has not fallen off the industry radar, according to speakers at CityIQ and Swift’s London seminar at the end of October. Rather than driving down spending, a reduced tolerance for risk provoked by recent events could instead encourage increased investment in corporate actions automation in the coming months, attendees to the event were told.

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Following a difficult year in terms of performance and the departure of a number of senior executives, corporate actions solutions vendor Corero has decided to finish the year with a new head of sales: Mats Forsgren. He will be responsible for all sales activities globally with the Corero Financial Markets division and joins from Chris Fowler International, a financial printing firm.

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Markit has added Sal Naro to its New York office and appointed him to the position of executive vice president and global co-head of equities, commodities and risk management. He will work in partnership with London-based executive vice president Niall Cameron.

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Following the launch of its jobs website last week, LakeFrontData Consulting has added two new data management consulting services to its consultancy services offering. The firm has created enterprise data management (EDM) capability assessments and managed data service vendor evaluations, which it says are aimed at providing clients with a holistic view of their requirements.

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Interdealer broker Icap and Prism Valuation have finalised an agreement that will allow the valuations provider to use Icap data as the main underlying source of OTC information for its services. Although financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Icap has also become a minority shareholder in the vendor.

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