Citi and World Bank Group member IFC have today announced a $1.2 billion risk sharing facility to support trade and economic development in several emerging markets.

Funding will be used to originate and fund trade finance transactions in Africa Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

The deal marks an extension of two existing facilities under IFC’s Global Trade Liquidity Program, having previously signed their first trade finance facility in October 2009. IFC will contribute an initial $600 million while Citi will provide an additional $600 million. 

“As the availability of global trade finance continues to decline, IFC is committed to working with Citi to find innovative ways to help expand trade finance flows in the developing world – and the Global Trade Liquidity Program is one such successful effort,” said Marcos Brujis, IFC director, Financial Institutions Group. 

The funding is expected to support trade in emerging markets by up to $6 billion through 2019 and Anurag Chaudhary, global head of distribution for Citi’s treasury and trade solutions spoke of the benefits of the partnership.

"Citi has been a trusted partner to banks, corporations and the public sector across the emerging markets for many decades, and through our collaboration with IFC – as well as other development and export credit agency partners around the globe – we are firmly committed to restoring the flow of trade and commerce financing around the world.” Chaudhary said. 

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The chief executive of Clearstream has suggested the market should proceed with caution when it comes to new technologies, praising the effectiveness of the status quo.

During a panel discussion at Sibos 2015 on ‘Global trends in regulated securities markets’ Marc Robert-Nicoud commended the value chain which central securities depositories and custodians have created, informing the audience to keep that in mind when discussing the role of new technologies.

“We can use new technology to make it [securities services] more efficient, but we need to recognise that the industry has made a lot of effort to be a safe, stable infrastructure that holds people’s money. That’s something we need to keep in mind.”

“The CSDs and custodians have created a value chain and that is very powerful for all markets and all the players.

“We should think of new technologies in that term. We have a well functioning industry.” 

One of the running themes of Sibos 2015 has been the use of new technologies – such as blockchain – in the industry in order to improve the efficiency of processes.

Robert-Nicloud, who heads up the clearing and settlement organisation Clearstream, suggested that the industry should take a ‘paranoid’ approach to blockchain.

“I understand the disruptive potential it is set to have,” he added. “Maybe on blockchain we need to be paranoid. It is going to take some years before we see large change to the industry based on blockchain.”

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Liquidnet has developed a new way to support execution decisions with its Algo Ranking Model.

The model is intended to enable buy-side traders to rank their execution strategies in real-time based on various criteria, including order characteristics, trading objectives, market conditions and performance targets.

Liquidnet said the Algo Ranking Model will utilise its institutional trading insights and quantitative expertise to turn complex data into information that an be actioned by traders.

It ranks algorithms from Liquidnet’s new suite based on three execution objectives; fill rate, performance and how the two are combined. Traders will receive a set of ranked algo strategies and can then pick the most appropriate for their trading strategy.

Rob Laible, global head of Liquidnet’s Execution & Quantitative Services Group, said: Today’s markets have become increasingly complex and our Members have said that many of the basic algo offerings have become commoditized. The only way to truly capture a performance advantage is by choosing the right strategy based on the conditions of the stock and market at the time of execution.”

Liquidnet said that the model will help traders who are under pressure to make decisions in seconds to choose the algorithm that is best for their order.

Seth Merrin, CEO and founder of Liquidnet, added: “With markets evolving quickly and the volume of data increasing even more rapidly, technology is key to enhancing decision making and productivity.

“We like to think of our Algo Ranking Model as the equivalent of a GPS for trading. When traveling from point A to B, you always have the option of simply jumping in a car and driving the route you assume would be best. But by using a GPS system, you can make a more informed decision based on speed, convenience, cost, or even a combination of all three.”

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LSEG said it had identified Proquote as not central to its current strategy for the information services division which Proquote formed part of.

Proquote runs a trading connectivity hub, Retail Service Provider, which offers retail trading to stockbrokers, market makers and private investors. IRESS will also acquire LSEHub, a FIX order routing business which connections institutional investors and brokers.

The deal is one of two confirmed today by IRESS, which is ASX listed and provides technology for the wealth management and mortgage industry in the UK and Australia.

IRESS also bought Pulse, which provides portfolio management software to asset managers.

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Matthew Oakeley’s appointment is a big hire for Investec, bringing with him some 25 years of industry experience, having previously held positions at Phillips & Drew and later UBS Asset Management.

The appointment comes as Investec Asset Management continues its investment programme in global technology.

Kim McFarland, chief operating officer at Investec Asset Management said: “Hiring Mat underlines our belief in the importance of developing a best-in-class technology capability to support our delivery to clients.

“Building on our global operations platform, Matt will not only bring significant experience to our team, he will also enable us to evolve in order to meet our clients’ needs.”

Oakley has been with Schroders since 2005 and led the project to replace the group’s portfolio accounting system between 2006 and 2008.

Schroders confirmed that his previous role (which he left in April) has been filled by Stewart Carmichael.

Oxford graduate Oakeley has already conducted some consultancy and advisory work for Investec Asset Management prior to taking up the new role, looking at the technology needs of the business as a whole.

A statement on his appointment is scheduled to be released to the wider media next week.

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Ullink is now offering FIX connectivity to the Tradegate Exchange for private investors via is global network.

Tradegate, which is owned by Deutsche Boerse, offers investors the opportunity to buy shares in unlisted German companies.

The tie up with Ullink will make it available through its NYFIX global network, enabling the use of FIX to trade in more than 3,800 names.

Thorsten Commichau, Tradegate’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to partner with Ullink’s market leading trading community, NYFIX. This is an important milestone for the expansion of our business which instantly makes our exchange accessible to a much wider community.”

Richard Bentley, Ullink’s Chief Strategy Officer, added: “We are excited to be the first vendor that offers access to such a popular and innovative exchange.

“We are committed to providing our trading community with access to the broadest range of liquidity venues and trading services, and our partnership with Tradegate is a strong illustration of that commitment.”

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Electronic derivatives trading specialist Orc Group has extended its connectivity to Borsa Istanbul as demand for Turkish investments increases.

A new high-speed interface will give users of Orc’s Execution Bricks and Trading Bricks platforms access to quoting and trading on Borsa Istanbul, which was formed in 2013 to bring together all exchanges operating in the Turkish capital markets.

“Turkey is becoming an increasingly attractive market, with a steady rise in trading activity and demand from the region,” said Jonas Hansbo, chief strategy officer, Orc Group. “We are delighted to offer all Orc clients high-performance connectivity to Borsa İstanbul and to have our first Turkish users of Orc’s next-generation trading platform active on Borsa İstanbul.”

Interest in investing in Turkey has grown in recent years after a number of market reforms in the country, intended to make it more compatible with the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive framework.

Borsa Istanbul has also signed agreements with the London Stock Exchange this year to distribute Turkish derivatives products to UK investors.

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Financial software company SunGard has been bought for $9.1 billion by banking and payments technology firm FIS, with the deal expected to close in Q4 this year.

The deal will see FIS acquired 100% of SunGard which employs more than 55,000 employees and has clients in over 100 countries worldwide.

SunGard, which provides technology across the financial markets, has annual revenue of around $2.8 billion and will see FIS significantly grow its enterprise banking and capital markets solutions.

“This is a significant milestone for FIS,” stated Gary Norcross, president and chief executive officer, FIS. “By bringing together two innovative companies with common business models, similar cultures, strong leadership and complementary solutions, we are enhancing our ability to empower our clients and deepen client relationships through an expanded full-service offering.

“Our focus has always been on championing the needs of our clients and we are excited about the opportunities this combination provides to further deliver on that commitment.”

The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and FIS is hosting a webcast later today to discuss the transaction.

Russ Fradin, SunGard president and chief executive officer said: “Our focus has always been on delivering more value to our clients and making decisions that achieve our growth and performance objectives.

“We are proud to become part of one of the financial services industry’s most respected and solidly performing companies. We embrace this transaction and believe it is the best outcome for our employees and the clients we are dedicated to serving.”

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However, the career crossroads at which they found themselves as a result of the broker’s collapse could since be seen as a blessing for many. 

This is certainly the case for one individual who is currently riding the FinTech wave and whose talent has been recognised by some of the best-known names in the City of London.

Gareth Mann worked at MF Global between 2006 and 2011, latterly as head of digital strategy, but in 2011 he left to found his own FinTech business Digital Contact – a company focussed on Big Data analysis for trading.

His work at the start-up soon got the attention of some known investors including banker John Maltby – the former boss of Kensington Mortgages and chief executive officer of Williams & Glyn Bank.

In an interview with The TRADE, Mann said the Digital Contact Trading.co.uk brand was founded on the belief that making sense of Big Data could give all traders a competitive edge – not just the big institutions which have been working on their own solutions for some time.

He says: “We have developed our systems to process billions of messages a day.  The first product we are releasing is for the active trader – the trader that sits at home. At this stage, it is already quite busy in the institutional area so we have gone for a B2C model.”

While Mann is going for those running their own trading accounts, he acknowledges that the business has also done work with some of the City’s larger institutions.

That may not come as much of a surprise, given the focus that companies such as Goldman Sachs, State Street and BlackRock have placed on analysing big data in real time since the credit crisis.

But despite the demand that exists for these vendor services in the FinTech world from the big names of capital markets, Mann believes there is more that can be done for individual traders and this is the thinking behind the launch of his new service Trading.co.uk.

The idea behind the new service is that it can act as a personalised ‘warning system’ for traders as major market-moving events begin to be noticed both in social media and from traditional news sources.

The user can choose how sensitive they would like their tailored news feed to be based on their own risk levels and personal beliefs.

Mann explains: “This is purely an early warning system. The feedback that we had is that this is product that traders want to use to get the pulse of the market.  They want to know about an event as soon as possible so they can react to it.

“It is having data that as a human being, they can react to, having data that allows people to make decisions.”

So how reliable is the system? When asked to give a specific example of how the system has worked during its testing phase he points to when a White House social media feed was hacked some months ago.

He says: “About a year ago, someone hacked the White House Twitter account and made a comment about going to war.  People do make [trades] on that. Our system has an algo that also looks at WHO is talking and what is the likelihood that each of the voices are authentic and that they have value in the data.

“Our system may consume market data but it isn’t driven by it. It is driven by the market conversation.”

Read the full interview with Gareth Mann in the forthcoming edition of The TRADE.

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The brainchild of the former head of investment funds and former head of European exchange traded products at NYSE Euronext launched with a focus on the aggregation of SME research for both institutional and retail investors.

In a statement, announcing the launch, Pedro Fernandes, co-founder and director of ResearchPool, said: “ResearchPool brings research distribution into the 21^st Century. For the first time, we combine open access and a transparent pay as you go pricing model to research using digital technology.”

Today’s launch is the latest in a series of new players arriving in the research space, which has altered significantly since the credit crisis. 

The majority of banks have cut the number of dedicated analysts working research and the buy-side has since questioned the validity and quality of some research purchased.

Asset managers have been keen to look at all of the alternative options including third party platforms and in-house staff who may be able to plug the research gap.

Under MIFID II research will be classified as an inducement which will make it subject to strict provisions which aim to unbundle trading and research fees.

Speaking to The TRADE ahead of the launch in May, James Woodley, co-founder said the platform makes its money be charging a transaction fee of around 75 pence per download and a commission of whatever the price of the research is set at – to 15%.”

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