Funds Europe looks at some recent developments in fund management technology, which have included business wins for providers of broker research solutions and solutions for other aspects of MiFID II.
First State enters settlement portal
First State Investments is the first firm to use an automated post-trade messaging solution for investment funds resulting from partnerships between fund administrator BNY Mellon, and tech firms Bravura Solutions and Calastone.
First State is using Bravura’s Babel tool, via BNY Mellon, to access Calastone Settlements, a new settlement service from financial technology firm Calastone. Calastone said its system could result in settlement payment volumes and values being reduced by up to 52%.
Andy Chesterton, of Bravura Solutions, claimed the tool was “a huge step forward” for the funds industry that “vastly improves automation in the post-trade market and fund manager liquidity”.
The Babel interface retains a full history and audit trail of payment history, with any discrepancies highlighted in advance of settlement date.
SimCorp enhances Dimension
SimCorp has upgraded its Dimension investment management platform, one of the most widely used systems.
SimCorp Dimension 6.2, which connects front-office processes with back offices, has several enhancements to “help institutional investors manage the spate of regulatory demands”, the firm said.
Enhancements include a new facility for transaction reporting under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
Fund manager Schroders is one of 180 investment clients that use Dimension.
Broker research: Pictet selects Comcise
Pictet Asset Management has selected CommciseBUY in order to evaluate the value of broker research.
Commcise, which specialises in commission management and research evaluation tools, is receiving data about Pictet AM’s research providers directly from the providers to help validate Pictet’s research payments in line with regulation.
Ed Atkins, global head of trading at Pictet AM, said the firm has a “sophisticated and granular approach” to monitoring research commissions.
Broker research: FactSet chooses Liquidnet
FactSet, a financial information and analytics firm, has selected Liquidnet’s Broker Vote and Commission Management System as its preferred solution to integrate with its own research management tool, called FactSet RMS.
Fund firms can use the solution to track investment activity related to broker research they have bought, pay for it, and see the value they derive.
David Hannibal, of FactSet, said firms needed to track and review valued interactions in order to comply with MiFID II compliant.
SIX facilitates regulatory document exchange
SIX Financial Information, which is owned by Swiss market infrastructure provider SIX Group, recently launched a platform designed to simplify data and document exchange between fund managers and other market participants operating under several European regulatory regimes.
The Regulatory Hub platform enables electronic exchange of data and documentation that will be necessary under regulations such as MiFID II from January next year, as well as the existing Ucits regime.
The regulations variously require fund firms to produce key investor documents and prove the suitability of products for customers.
SIX said its platform would, for example, enable relationship managers to interact with product issuers and make sure products match their client profiles and report back on who they sold to.
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