CB.Net has signed an agreement to become a licensed re-distributor of Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) issued by Swift. The agreement will allow CB.Net to integrate BIC data into its flagship product and directory of international payments reference data, the BankSearchPlus database.

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Following months of industry speculation about whether it had dropped the idea altogether, Swift has finally confirmed its plans for the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) in the area of business entity identification. Swift indicated at the start of the year that it was reviewing the business case for introducing an international business entity identifier (IBEI) and it seems that after a period of reflection, it will be extending the BIC to cover non-financial institutions. However, its request for an extension of the BIC standard, which was submitted to ISO TC068 last month, only covers financial messaging and is not an all-encompassing IBEI.

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Entity data management has historically been a rather overlooked area of the reference data landscape, but with the increase focus on managing risk, the industry is finally taking notice. It is now generally agreed to be critical to every financial institution; although the rewards for investment in entity data management appear to be rather small, the consequences for getting it wrong are severe. Settlement, legal, financial, regulatory and reputational risks are all inherent in a failure to properly manage entity data.

Risk mitigation has become the key driver for change in this current economic climate and entity data plays a significant part in this. The emergence of golden copy logic and enterprise data management in the entity data space is a positive step forwards for the industry with regards to better data management. Financial institutions are continuing to invest in improving their entity data management and the vendors in this space have stepped up to the plate to provide more integrated services. Connectivity and integration have become important buzzwords for the entity data landscape.

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Broadening the adoption of a standard identifier for business entities, Telekurs Financial has implemented the International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) codes for its Valordata Feed (VDF) and its financial display Telekurs iD. The vendor has been working on this implementation since June 2007 in order to allow European customers to identify participants in the processing chain of cross-border securities trading via IBEI codes.

Data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing vendor Markit has released a new license for its Reference Entity Database (RED) for smaller buy side firms.

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Data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing vendor Markit has released a new license for its Reference Entity Database (RED) aimed at smaller buy side firms.

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Broadening the adoption of a standard identifier for business entities, Telekurs Financial has implemented the International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) codes for its Valordata Feed (VDF) and its financial display Telekurs iD. The vendor has been working on this implementation since June 2007 in order to allow European customers to identify participants in the processing chain of cross-border securities trading via IBEI codes.

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Desjardins Group has signed a three-year deal with CounterpartyLink for the provision of legal entity data as part of a larger counterparty and issuer risk project that will also see Desjardins – the biggest co-operative financial group in Canada – implement SunGard Adaptiv Credit Risk.

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As Reference Data Review went to press, it emerged that Swift could be having second thoughts about pressing ahead with previously-announced plans to allocate BIC-like codes to funds – dubbed CIVICs (Reference Data Review first brought to light Swift’s CIVIC plans as far back as September 2006).

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Another month, another twist in the tail of the International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) story. In fact, there could be two twists this month if the Swift CIVIC initiative does turn out to be on the skids.

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The UK Financial Services Authority has calmed market practitioners’ fears about the new Alternative Instrument Identifier (AII) for use in identifying some derivative instruments in MiFID transaction reports (Reference Data Review, September 2007) by clarifying that individual firms will not have to use the code for the time being.

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The results of the second ballot among national markets on ISO 16372 International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) are in - and with eight countries voting against and six for (plus three abstentions and four no votes), the future’s not looking very bright for the standard. That said, as one industry observer puts it, “it’s not dead until a stake is driven through its heart!” The plan now is to discuss the vote and the extensive comments provided by the national markets at the ISO TC68 SC4 plenary meeting in South Africa in November, so the story continues.

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Swift has signed a deal with Deutsche Boerse-owned counterparty data specialist Avox to help it with the process of cleansing its BIC1 code database of so-called ‘unconnected BICs’. The agreement appears to mark the first step in a broad Swift initiative to extend the coverage of its BIC directory and creating BIC-like codes to identify funds (collective investment vehicle identification codes, or CIVICs) in response to the market’s call for an alternative to the ISO’s International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) code, which remains in incubation.

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Complinet has signed a global contract with Reuters that will allow Reuters DataScope Select users to screen selected entities against international sanctions lists, watch lists and other information that can help them comply with counterparty and Know Your Customer regulations. The deal follows the recent tie-in between the two companies that established Complinet as Reuters’ source for embedded sanctions lists (Reference Data Review, May 2007). Under the latest agreement, Complinet will provide Reuters’ Enterprise Information group with a screening capability based on its Global Screening technology platform and drawing on its extensive database of international sanctions and watch lists from more than 11,000 sources and 120 sanction lists and enforcement records from bodies across the globe.

Quantifi has received Certified Alliance Partner status under Markit’s certification programme. The Markit Alliance certification program was launched earlier on this year to ensure the technical integration of Markit’s data services by third party vendors. Quantifi received this certification after demonstrating that its integration of CDS, CDS Indices, RED (Reference Entity Database) and Tranche data met Markit’s defined standards.

At the end of June, work will kick off between National Numbering Agencies (NNAs) including Telekurs, the London Stock Exchange and WM Datenservice to test the interoperability of international business entity identifier (IBEI) files. Though work has not been completed on the ISO standard IBEI, some NNAs are issuing their “own” IBEIs, to meet the industry requirement for a unique business entity identifier to support transaction reporting under MiFID.

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As it evaluates third party database solutions and prepares to select a partner or partners to bolster its data gathering and validation capabilities, bank-owned messaging services provider Swift is making progress towards the creation of a directory of collective investment vehicle identification codes (CIVICs) based on the bank identifier code (BIC). However it is resolute in its decision not to become the registration authority for the proposed international business entity identifier (IBEI).

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Concern among industry participants is growing about the possible operational and financial implications of the current lack of a standard International Business Entity Identifier (IBEI) for use in transaction reporting under MiFID. The issue raised its head (again) during a meeting of experts this month in London under the auspices of an ISO Working Group

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Markit has developed an extension to its Reference Entity Database (RED) product, RED for Equities. The solution is already in use by clients.

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Markit has teamed up with Charles River Development to integrate its credit pricing and reference entity data into the Charles River Investment Management System (IMS) for fixed income. Markit’s data will be consistently mapped and readily accessible throughout Charles River IMS for mutual customers. For Charles River’s clients, the deal will offer a “completely integrated credit derivative workflow within their order management system”, which the vendor believes will result in increased accuracy, efficiency and standardization of derivative trading with counterparties. The XML feed will be made available in Version 8 of the IMS system and will initially include data such as Markit REDTM, iTraxx and Dow Jones CDX constituent data, credit curves and reference entity information.