NEW YORK, March 30, 2023 – IPC Systems, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for the global financial markets, has partnered with Dream Exchange, the first majority black-owned stock exchange, in formation. Dream Exchange is in the process of obtaining approval to open a National Market System stock exchange and will also open a new type of stock exchange called a Venture exchange which will list and tradeearly-stage small and medium-sized company stock.
The partnership combines IPC’s Connexus® Market Data solution and expertise with Multicast Market Data and Multicast Market Data into the Cloud, assisting the Dream Exchange in its promise to deliver fast and efficient execution, fair pricing, membership and market data. By combining IPC’s connectivity and cloud solutions, Dream Exchange will be able to access key market data sets through a network designed and optimized for participants in the capital markets.
“IPC is privileged and excited to be part of Dream Exchange’s vision and mission to increase participation in capital markets across all sectors of society. Our ability to provide access to Multicast Market Data through our ultra-low latency connectivity is important in facilitating extended access for a purpose-driven and inclusive financial ecosystem” – Mike Smith, Director of Network Services at IPC Systems.
“Dream Exchange is on an accelerated roadmap to opening. A key part of this has been establishing the connectivity we needed quickly, economically and robustly. Using Connexus® Cloud and working with the staff at IPC has greatly assisted us in getting this done” – Bruce Trask, Chief Technology Officer at Dream Exchange.
Connexus Market Data, powered by the award-winning Connexus® Cloud, is accessed via a single connection. Members of the ecosystem can link to one another and seamlessly communicate, transact, receive and distribute information. Connexus Market Data customers benefit from reduced cost of access, simplified management and advanced technical expertise from IPCs Market Data experts.
30 March 2023, LONDON – RISKGRID has launched a cloud-based ‘as a Service’ Risk Assessment platform to enable financial services firms to automate and standardise fragmented, cross-enterprise risk assessment practices, and to harness value and eliminate risk from internal risk assessment processes.
Delivered ‘as a Service’ with flexible subscription options, RISKGRID addresses the challenge of manual, static (and standalone), fragmented, and inconsistent risk assessment processes within financial firms. As well as the manual burden of managing largely spreadsheet-driven risk assessment processes, a lack of collaboration and integration between disparate enterprise-wide processes makes it difficult to derive any actionable insights from the activity with respect to risk trends and proactive issue resolution.
RISKGRID’s managed service solution enables fast and effective deployment of fully automated risk assessment frameworks that standardise cross-enterprise methodologies and processes, supporting stakeholder and regulatory risk management and reporting obligations, and maximising operational efficiency and organisational transparency.
Commenting on the launch, RISKGRID Founder and CEO, Steven Marshall said: “Despite ever-evolving financial services regulation around operational and financial risk, most risk assessments carried out within firms generate no intrinsic value to a business. A lack of process standardisation and cross-enterprise transparency makes it hard for companies to proactively identify – and efficiently respond to – trends and insights garnered through traditional, backward-looking, manual risk assessment activities.
He added, “Providing a single, comprehensive, aggregate and near real-time view of a firm’s risk, RISKGRID makes consistent, proactive, value-generating risk assessments more accessible to financial firms of all sizes, and enables them to more effectively anticipate and mitigate business risks.”
SAN FRANCISCO, NEW YORK – MARCH 29, 2023: PolySign, a leading provider of blockchain-enabled digital asset infrastructure for institutional investors, today announced the appointment of Charles (“Chuck”) Ocheret as its new Chief Technology Officer to oversee the next stage of its growth and technology development.
Ocheret brings with him over 35 years of software engineering experience across the finance, multimedia, and scientific industries. He has previously run technology, architecture and development at tier one hedge funds and investment banks where he has held responsibility for algorithmic trading, program trading, index and statistical arbitrage, automated market making, order management, trade warehouses, research platforms, as well as client and market connectivity for some of the most successful and highest-volume trading operations in the world.
He has presented on Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and Cryptocurrencies in Financial Services to the United States House Committee on Agriculture and has served on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Technical Advisory Committee (CFTC TAC) providing recommendations around DLT, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud and Cybersecurity. He has also served on the CFTC TAC Subcommittee on DLT and Market Infrastructure.
Commenting on the appointment PolySign CEO Jack McDonald said: “We’re thrilled to have Chuck join our senior leadership team as CTO of PolySign. With the various product initiatives we have underway at PolySign, Standard Custody and MG Stover, it was critical for us to find a professional of Chuck’s caliber and expertise in scaling infrastructure, coupled with his blockchain and digital asset experience.”
Ocheret said: “I’m humbled to be joining this talented team who share a brilliant vision for transforming the digital assets landscape. The most exciting projects for me are those with a large outward-facing impact on a global audience. What PolySign is doing will eliminate friction and obstacles for the digital assets industry. It is exactly the type of innovation that regulators are encouraging to keep investors in this asset class safe.”
London – 9 March 2023 – Sustainable Trading, the non-profit membership network dedicated to transforming environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices within the business operations of the financial markets trading industry, celebrates its first anniversary year with the addition of 4 new members to its cross-industry initiative.
Cabrera Capital Markets, IEX Exchange, Iress, and Tourmaline Partners join an established group of market-leading financial firms committed to shaping a more sustainable financial markets trading environment.
In just a year since launching in February 2022, the collective contribution of Sustainable Trading members to Environmental, Social and Governance workstreams have resulted in the development of a set of Best Practices covering technology infrastructure, diversity, equity and inclusion, community engagement, employee wellbeing, governance desk practices and environmental business practices.
The Sustainable Trading workstreams are now defining a measurement framework that members can use to track and communicate the progress they are making to implement the best practices.
Founder and CEO Duncan Higgins said: “It has been a remarkable first year for Sustainable Trading, both in terms of the breadth and depth of our membership and the enormous progress that has been made with developing ESG best practices tailored to the trading industry. We are delighted to welcome this group of members that extends the diversity of our member base and will bring new experiences, insights, and ideas to our work programme.”
Sustainable Trading members contribute their expertise to focused Environmental, Social and Governance workstreams tasked with defining a portfolio of ESG best practices, tailored to the trading industry. Sustainable Trading will also oversee a measurement framework to enable efficient and comparable communication of ESG progress, facilitating an ethos of continuous ESG improvement.
Membership of Sustainable Trading is open to all financial market participants engaged in trading activity or providing trading-related services.
DENVER, HALIFAX, NEW YORK – MARCH 8, 2023: MG Stover, the leading and longest tenured fund administration firm for digital assets and a subsidiary of PolySign, Inc., has announced the launch of its new recruitment service. Since 2014, the firm has led the digital asset industry in developing accounting standards and the establishment of industry reporting and compliance best practices.
With the launch of MG Stover Placement Services, the firm adds a specialized recruitment facility to its suite of institutional-grade fund administration offerings to include:
- Executive / C- Suite Search
- Strategic Hiring – Middle Management and Specialists
- Access to:
- Fund Accountants
- Investor Services
- Sales and Business Development
- Software Developers
- Salary & Compensation Advice
Matthew Stover, President of MG Stover, commented: “The launch of MG Stover Placement Services is a much-needed first for the digital asset ecosystem. In such a rapidly changing industry, funds entering the space need support not only with data, portfolios and reconciliations but also help to find the right kind of specialized talent. Our placement service allows us to find and train the best professionals for ourselves as a business while also nurturing that talent to support our clients as the digital asset industry continues to grow and evolve.”
Brian Wolf, Chief People Officer, PolySign, said: “MG Stover has been a leader in the digital asset fund administration space for almost a decade. With this expertise and experience, we are connected to many industry players in this highly specialized field. Combine that with our white glove client service, it truly is a unique offering.”
New York, London and Singapore – 8th March 2023 – 3forge LLC, the leading provider of award-winning technology for real-time and historical data visualization and complex workflows, is proud to announce that it has achieved Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type I compliance in accordance with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) standards for Service Organizations, also known as SSAE 18.
Achieving this standard with an unqualified opinion provides the industry with assurances that 3forge LLC has the appropriate controls and practices in place to ensure client data is managed with the highest standards of security and compliance, and demonstrates their ongoing commitment to providing a secure and reliable service.
“While 3forge has always held itself to extremely high standards, our successful SOC 2 Type 1 audit attests to this” said Robert Cooke, Founder and CTO. He continued “We have the people, processes, and technologies in place to deliver the highest level of security and compliance, giving our customers and partners the peace of mind they need in an enterprise-class platform,”
3forge was audited by Prescient Assurance, a leader in security and compliance attestation for B2B, SAAS companies worldwide. Prescient Assurance is a registered public accounting firm in the US and Canada and provides risk management and assurance services including, but is not limited to, SOC 2, PCI, ISO, NIST, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and CSA STAR. For more information about Prescient Assurance, please reach out them at info@prescientassurance.com.
NEW YORK, HALIFAX – MARCH 3, 2023: MG Stover, the leading and longest tenured fund administration firm for digital assets and a subsidiary of PolySign, Inc., has won Best Administrator – Technology in Hedgeweek’s US Digital Assets Awards.
In its second year, the Hedgeweek US Digital Assets Awards recognize excellence among fund managers and service providers in the digital assets space.
Matthew Stover, President of MG Stover, commented: “MG Stover has been leading the way in building fund administration services and related technology for digital assets since 2014. Our expertise has allowed hedge funds, including those who are not crypto-native, to enter this new asset class with confidence that all their back-office operations are properly handled.”
“We are excited and honored to have MG Stover & Co. be voted winner for the Best Administrator – Technology category,” added Jack McDonald, CEO and Chairman of PolySign. “This has been a collaborative effort of many people within the organization to support our top-tier client roster and validates our vision to build best-in-class institutional services across our organization.”
March 2, 2023 – (Oakland, CA) – McKay Brothers announced it has deployed the lowest latency private bandwidth from Aurora, IL to Toronto. McKay’s newest route connects the futures markets at the CME with the cash equity markets of TMX in Toronto in less than 4.3 milliseconds one way. McKay’s sister company Quincy Data offers select CME data at TMX. The industry-leading Quincy Extreme Data (QED) service distributes equity indexes, energy and metals futures at the lowest latency.
“Canadian markets continue to attract interest from international and Canadian trading firms,” said McKay Brothers and Quincy Data co-founder Bob Meade. “We are pleased to serve their needs to send private fills as well as provide them critical market data – all at the lowest latency.”
McKay Brothers revolutionized the market for lowest latency telecom services used for trading in financial markets. McKay’s wireless networks have been live in North America since 2012, Europe since 2014 and Asia since 2016. The company’s transpacific network went live last year, connecting the CME with trading hubs in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore at the lowest latency. Quincy Data is recognized as the leading distributor of extremely low latency market data via its global QED platform. McKay and Quincy have leveled the playing field for access to the fastest connectivity between financial markets and the most up-to-date market data.
February 28, 2023, Reston, VA – Transaction Network Services (TNS) is actively migrating client’s trading and market data systems from the existing Primary Data Center located in the City of London to the new London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Data Center near the Docklands, London.
Having secured significant infrastructure capacity in the new data center and added the new site to its expansive portfolio of Layer 1 accessible markets, TNS has been successfully relocating multiple clients. TNS is leveraging its Layer 1 switching solution to deliver ultra-low latency mutualized market access and network connectivity. The new LSEG Data Center is fully integrated onto TNS’ leading global network.
“Relocating to the new LSEG facility with TNS has been seamless for our clients,” said Jeff Mezger, Vice President of Product Management for TNS’ Financial Markets business. “We have already deployed the equipment, as opposed to those employing a DIY approach with a kit wait-time of up to a year, due to current global supply chain issues. We are providing a full suite of low latency services, including order routing and market data access. In addition to procuring, installing and management of trading infrastructure, we are helping our clients save crucial nanoseconds in the race to execute trades.”
Working with TNS is extremely cost effective, as those responsible for electronic trading can rely on TNS to research, acquire and maintain their exchange connections, data center space and equipment. TNS ensures differentiated services for a diverse range of market participants, from firms that require a partial rack up to global banks that require multiple contiguous cabinets.
TNS’ Managed Hosting solution delivers rack-optimized cabling and design utilizing the company’s ultra-low latency Layer 1 technology inside the data center. This enables firms to access execution speeds that are 10 times faster than traditional layer 3 architectures. TNS Layer 1 was the first architecture of its kind to be deployed globally and eradicates the need for multiple switches by using a simple, single hop architecture to deliver connectivity in as little as 5 to 85 nanoseconds.
TNS brings together over 2,800 financial community endpoints to address the needs of financial market participants worldwide. Traders that use the company’s diverse range of solutions, including its ultra-low latency Layer 1, benefit from TNS’ global point-of-presence footprint and extensive existing on-net connections, which include uninterrupted access to more than 60 exchanges with local, physical support around the globe.
The London Stock Exchange Group is home to several capital formation and execution venues including the London Stock Exchange, AIM, Turquoise, CurveGlobal, FXall and Tradeweb, offering customers extensive access to capital markets and liquidity across multiple asset classes.
GMEX Group (‘GMEX’), a leader in digital business and technology solutions for capital, commodities and sustainability markets, is proud to announce that it has won ‘Best Solution for Trading Digital Assets’ at the A-Team TradingTech Insight Europe Awards 2023.
The winners were selected by way of an industry-wide vote and were announced during the TradingTech Summit in London on 28th February 2023. These prestigious awards recognise excellence in trading solutions, services, and consultancy for capital markets, and focus on vendors who provide exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology, and data solutions.
GMEX Group is in its tenth anniversary year. While its business started in traditional finance, developing exchange matching engines, clearing, settlement and custodial solutions, the firm was early to get involved in the digital assets space with the launch of GMEX Fusion in 2017, a unique centralised and distributed ledger market infrastructure suite for exchanges and post-trade operators. It now has multiple solutions, including its MultiHub ‘network of networks’ service, which bridges both traditional and digital assets, removing the need to integrate with multiple venues and custodians. This integrates with Pyctor (a recent acquisition from ING), a highly secure digital asset custody solution and blockchain settlement network that is interoperable with multiple public and private blockchains.
Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group said: “We are thrilled to have our success formally recognised with this industry award for offering the best solution for trading digital assets.” He continued, “GMEX Group is a pioneer in the domain of hybrid finance, offering a set of trading and post-trade solutions that support both traditional and digital assets across multiple asset classes, including carbon credits and ESG securities on the same platform infrastructure designed to operate in regulated markets.”
To learn more about the award winners, visit the A-Team Insight website (https://a-teaminsight.com/awards/tradingtech-insight-awards-europe/).
14 February 2023, Reston, VA – Transaction Network Services (TNS) today announced the launch of its standardized Dedicated Server offering, which is the first phase in the deployment of its new Cloud platform for financial markets. This new product, designed specifically for high-performance trading, utilizes TNS’ state-of-the-art bare metal servers, as well as ultra-low latency trading connectivity through TNS Layer 1.
TNS will offer 16 standardized server options that have been optimized for front and middle office trading infrastructure to meet the specific computing needs of clients. TNS’ Dedicated Server is designed to deliver low latency performance of trading applications and multiple dedicated server options will be available. Additionally, TNS’ inventory of servers will allow for rapid installation, alleviating supply chain challenges for hardware.
“Our new Dedicated Server solution significantly reduces time-to-market for our customers,” said Jeff Mezger, TNS’ Vice President of Product Management, Financial Markets. “Traditionally, it could take months to procure the necessary hardware to connect to a new market. With our inventory of bare metal servers, we can quickly and easily provide customers with the infrastructure they need, allowing them to access new markets and opportunities faster than ever before.”
“Leveraging our buying power and specification standards also allows TNS to make these servers available with more flexible and lower cost commercial options than buying a bespoke server specification. These servers have been extensively tested in our hardware lab to ensure that they are tuned for optimal performance as required by today’s trading platforms.”
The cost of TNS’ Dedicated Server rental includes a monthly fee with terms as short as one month. This allows the flexibility to pay for server rentals on a month-to-month basis without committing to a long-term contract for a high-end server.
“This is the first step in addressing a significant gap in the industry,” said Mezger. “In contrast to larger competitors, these offerings have been specifically designed to meet the performance and demands of the capital markets.”
The deployment of bare metal services by TNS is the first phase in the rollout of the company’s new Cloud platform. The complete suite of hosting solutions will offer a range of dedicated and shared compute options to meet the needs of traders and investors of all types.
TNS brings together over 2,800 financial community endpoints, supported by a global, 125-strong point-of-presence footprint. Specifically designed and engineered to address the needs of financial market participants worldwide, TNS offers a range of connectivity, colocation, cloud, market data and VPN solutions within its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) portfolio. Its solutions are monitored 24x7x365 by TNS’ Network Operations Centers in the US, UK, Australia, and Malaysia. For further information visit tnsfinancial.com.
About Transaction Network Services (TNS)
Founded in 1990 and with headquarters across USA, Europe and Asia, TNS is a leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure, connectivity, market data and analytic services for the Financial Markets community. Delivered as a fully managed Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, TNS provides an unrivalled, global, mission-critical footprint that significantly reduces the burdens, complexities and costs attributed to firms ‘going direct’. Through its ultra-low latency connectivity, its global market data offerings and its dedicated 24x7x365 local support, TNS remains the trusted solution provider to more than 750 counterparties globally.
January 12, 2023 – (Geneva, Tokyo) McKay Brothers International’s (MBI’s) Josada team has extended its lowest latency market data service into Shanghai. MBI’s QED service is the fastest way to receive select CME and ICE Futures market data, including: energy, metals, FX, agricultural/softs, and equities. The service can inform traders on local exchanges such as the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) and Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).
“We are excited to serve the large and growing electronic trading community in Shanghai – both local and international firms,” said Francois Tyc, MBI’s Managing Director. “All firms can benefit from both the lowest latency market data and also from our commitment to a level playing field, since any firm can purchase our premier services.”
McKay’s industry-leading Quincy Extreme Data (QED) platform is a normalized market data feed of select instruments from leading financial exchanges around the world. QED services are tailored to meet the needs of both: firms seeking the lowest latencies as well as firms whose value equation focuses on latency improvements over even the fastest fiber.
Further details of the QED symbol set offered in Shanghai are available here . McKay previously announced the availability of its lowest latency market data between Illinois and Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.
About McKay Brothers International
McKay Brothers International, through its Quincy Data and Josada affiliates, is the acknowledged leader in providing low latency market data and wireless networks between financial markets. McKay companies distribute select market data sourced from major exchange groups in Europe, Asia and North America via the ultra-low latency QED market data service. McKay launched long-haul microwave networks in the US in 2012, Europe in 2014 and Asia in 2016. Many of the world’s most sophisticated trading operations utilize the low latency networks and market data from McKay. Learn more at: www.mckay-brothers.com or www.quincy-data.com
London, 15 December 2022 – Sustainable Trading, the non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming Environmental, Social and Governance practices in the financial markets trading industry, today welcomes BNP Paribas Asset Management and Degroof Petercam to its membership network.
Since its launch in February 2022, Sustainable Trading has expanded membership to 50 firms, representing the full spectrum of participants across the financial markets trading industry. BNP Paribas Asset Management, the investment arm of the leading international bank, and independent Belgian investment house Degroof Petercam, are the latest to join the growing Sustainable Trading network, increasing the geographic breadth of its members. Other member organisations include global banks, exchanges, investment managers, broker dealers and trading technology and service providers.
Thanks to the collective efforts of members, an initial set of Sustainable Trading Best Practices have been developed covering themes including trading technology infrastructure, environmental business practices, diversity, equity and inclusion, community engagement, employee wellbeing and improved governance practices. Comprising 34 best practices, with 86 individual elements, these practices were approved for distribution to members earlier in December.
As we develop and further evolve these best practices, Sustainable Trading will also establish and oversee a measurement framework to enable members to extract clear and comparable metrics on progress in their delivery of the practices, facilitating an ethos of continuous Environmental, Social and Governance improvement.
Duncan Higgins, Founder and CEO, Sustainable Trading said: “As we approach the end of our first year, we are delighted to bring on board two major European firms. BNP Paribas Asset Management and Degroof Petercam join our diverse membership network dedicated to driving industry-wide Environmental, Social and Governance change. We look forward to their unique perspectives and expertise as they engage with our working groups and contribute to our best practices programme.”
Emmanuel Blanc, Head of Sell-Side Relationship Management, BNP Paribas Asset Management added: “We see Sustainable Trading as an important catalyst of change within the value chain of the asset management industry. Joining this organisation will help us to collectively drive change as well as help us to progress the goals of our Global Sustainability Strategy.”
François Wohrer, Group Head of Degroof Petercam Investment Banking commented: “Creating responsible prosperity is at the core of our DNA and business strategy. We are convinced that we have an active role to play in accompanying positive changes in the financial industry to a more sustainable future. In this regard, we are delighted to join Sustainable Trading and its distinguished list of members. We look forward to helping define industry standards and accelerating the pace of change for ESG within the trading industry. As part of our ESG journey, we are keen to integrate sustainability into the entire value chain which our investment house brings to its clients, of which trading is an integral part”.
About Sustainable Trading
Sustainable Trading is a non-profit membership network dedicated to transforming environmental, social and governance practices within the business operations of the financial markets trading industry. The organisation runs a series of workstreams where firms contribute to the development of best practices for operational challenges faced by the industry. Through adoption of the best practices and utilisation of a standardised measurement framework, members can improve their businesses, demonstrate progress towards E, S & G goals and positively impact the wider industry.
Membership of Sustainable Trading is open to participants within financial services who are engaged in trading or providing trading-related services.
London, New York – [13th December, 2022] – Specialist financial services marketing and communications agency, The Realization Group (TRG), has announced the appointment of Ollie Cadman as Chief Executive Officer. In this new role, Cadman will drive TRG’s ambitious strategy for scaling in 2023 and beyond. His appointment reinforces the agency’s leadership and success in promoting firms across the spectrum of FinTech, traditional and decentralised finance.
Cadman will work alongside co-founders Melanie Budden and Colin Slight to execute the company’s strategic agenda to expand its footprint and offerings within global financial markets. This appointment concludes a number of recent updates to the senior team including:
- addition of Helen Disney, Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets, and Peter Evison, Director of Operations to the TRG Board
- appointment of Directors Wendy Chan (North America) and Carina Evison (EMEA) to the Leadership Team
Cadman was previously Chief Product Officer at Eventus where he led the firm’s global product management and go-to-market initiatives. Prior to this, he held senior management roles at several financial services and FinTech firms, including Vela (now Exegy), J.P. Morgan and London Stock Exchange Group.
Guy Remond, TRG Chairman said: “Ollie’s appointment caps a year of rapid growth and success for TRG. In 2022, we have consolidated our position as an industry-leading consultative marketing and communications agency in financial services. We have also grown our influence as educators and commentators, positioning firms at the intersection of traditional and decentralised finance.”
Remond continued: “We are delighted to welcome Ollie to the TRG team and very much looking forward to harnessing his expertise and experience to drive our next phase of development.”
Cadman commented: “As a previous client of TRG, I was always impressed with the firm’s specialist approach to elevating financial markets participants, allowing them to achieve visibility in a crowded marketplace and converting that into tangible growth. TRG has built a world-class team with wide-ranging industry knowledge and experience. I’m pleased to have this unique opportunity to realise the firm’s significant potential in the years to come.”
Among other significant milestones in 2022:
- TRG was voted ‘Best PR, Communications, and Marketing Firm’ in the Institutional Asset Manager Awards
- Helen Disney was ranked among the 100 Most Inspirational Women in Blockchain
About The Realization Group
Established in 2002, The Realization Group is a B2B consultancy-led marketing agency operating at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi. We are a team of subject matter experts in the Financial Markets, spanning traditional markets, FinTech and Digital Assets. TRG enables clients to maximise visibility in the market and accelerate growth by offering a full range of marketing and media communications services, creating the right strategy, and employing the most effective tactics to deliver tangible results.
10 December 2022, London – Brickendon announced today that it has been named the winner of Best Workplace for Change and Transformation in the Top 1% Workplace Awards 2022 powered by Harrington Starr.
Top 1% Workplace Awards 2022 are based on organisations showcasing marketplace brilliance, not only from exceptional cultures and leadership but also in focussing on technology teams to drive the evolution of financial services. Brickendon stood out from their competition by having a people-first strategy. As assessed by the judges “they are shaping the future of work through their approach to a reflective work-life balance, anonymised measurement strategies and most notably, their ability to create multi-talent teams.” As transformation specialists providing consulting, business and technology expertise to organisations, Brickendon have strived to build the evolution of financial services and understand that talent is not isolated to a single place but worldwide. This embraces the limitless opportunities out there and is a new way of working with regards to our approach to hiring and team creation. Virtual working is effective; and backed by Brickendon’s strong understanding of their employees and their needs, the company is thriving in this new era.
Chris Burke, CEO at Brickendon comments; “It is wonderful to have our amazing culture recognised in these most prestigious awards. At Brickendon we put people first, our people and our clients, and this has been the foundation of the exponential growth of our company.”
About Brickendon
Brickendon is an award-winning global transformational management and technology consultancy, specialising in innovative solutions and products that save our clients time, money and reputation. Our people are intelligent and focused high achievers, with an average of 10 years’ domain experience. For more information, visit www.brickendon.com
LONDON, SAN FRANCISCO, NEW YORK, December 9th, 2022 – Bosonic, a decentralized Financial Market Infrastructure (dFMI) business, announces an industry first in going live with Cross Custodian Net Settlement (CCNS) in which trades in USDC and ETH were executed, cleared, and settled atomically between two digital asset custodians, First Digital in Hong Kong and Propine in Singapore.
Cross Custodian Net Settlement (CCNS) enables custodians to net settle on behalf of all their institutional clients who are either trading on the Bosonic Network™, or trading on other digital asset venues that are using Bosonic Enterprise™ for clearing and settlement and connecting to Cross Custodian Net Settlement via their preferred custodians.
Custodians load digital assets that need to be physically delivered between custodians in a CCNS Smart Contract on Layer-1 public blockchain protocols. Both the institutional clients and the custodians eliminate counterparty credit and settlement risk, reduce their intraday exposures, and improve balance sheet efficiency, addressing the key issues that are inherent in today’s operating model in the industry.
Rosario Ingargiola, CEO, Bosonic commented: “This is a pivotal moment in the industry where CCNS will effectively eliminate counterparty credit and settlement risk in digital asset markets with atomic exchange, both trader-trader in real-time, and now custodian-to-custodian for net settlement movements. We’ve been building CCNS for some time and have been looking forward to going live with custodians who are pleased to partner with us on this milestone event. Our vision has always been to remove friction and risk in digital assets, and this is even more important than ever before.”
Rosario added: “We are very pleased to be working with First Digital and Propine both pioneers and innovators with great leaders building the future of digital assets. I’m also very pleased to confirm we have a growing network of custodians in the Working Group that are about to go-live and will collectively define the new standards in digital asset infrastructure. Bosonic technology and the role of the custodian makes digital assets safer for institutional clients and fiduciaries.”
Tuhina Singh, CEO Propine said: “Whatever activity you do with digital assets, it starts from a place where they are securely stored and can be safely transferred. A licensed, institutional-grade custodian is thus a prerequisite for crafting a digital assets strategy. Partnering with a licensed service provider is critical, as it provides the necessary investor protection and recourse, as both regulatory and contractual obligations, in case things go wrong, as they sometimes do. The CCNS network, connecting the custodians globally, provides a necessary layer of infrastructure, absolutely crucial to realizing the full potential of, what is essentially and natively, a global asset class. We are glad to be part of this network at its genesis and are committed to growing the industry.”
Didier Lavallee, CEO, Tetra Trust Company, Canada’s first licensed digital asset custodian added: “The recent macro events have highlighted the necessity and importance of institutional investors using a separate and regulated custodian. Tetra Trust is excited to partner with Bosonic on their Cross Custodian Network to create a safe, secure and efficient way for institutional investors to transact.”
Luke Brereton, State Street Digital said: “Our clients are looking for institutional-grade digital asset custody and related services. State Street continues to be focused on delivering to our client’s innovative services and the benefits of our scale and experience. We are building a leading digital business and exploring industry initiatives is an important part of our strategy to establish robust market infrastructure.”
Vincent Chok, CEO First Digital, a public trust company headquartered in Hong Kong: “Digital asset custodians will have a crucial role to play in the next 6-12 months, especially given the state of the market now with trust being eroded in CEX’s. Going forward, we will see players increasingly rely on qualified custodians, the best of which will dominate market share. Institutional investors, now more than ever, will pay closer attention to security and fund segregation. A key driver for digital asset custodians looking to build a sustainable business model is enabling next-generation security, which means incorporating multi-sig, sharding and multi-party computation. When it comes to traditional institutions with large amounts of money and their reputation at risk, having military-grade online and offline security protocols, stringent Anti-Money Laundering and KYC requirements plus client asset segregation is critical.”
Vincent added: “However, innovative technology is not the only component integral to protecting your assets. First Digital has joined a Cross-Custodian Net Settlement (CCNS) Working Group, spearheaded by Bosonic. This is an industry first to include a range of institutional custodians from around the world undertaking net settlements and payments for digital assets and fiat via a layer-2 blockchain, aiming to further enhance safety and efficiency across the market. In addition to this, the business has also expanded beyond just simple custody, we provide a microcosm of a circular economy, which includes balance sheet management, full transparency, counter-party visibility, and escrow services removing friction points for our customers. Most importantly we have a wealth of experience in compliance, regulation, and providing legal frameworks for this new asset class.”
Giorgia Pellizzari, Head of Custody, Hex Trust, a fully licensed and insured custodian with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Italy and Vietnam: “The importance of digital asset custodians has never been greater, as the industry needs trust, security, and transparency to facilitate the next phase of growth. It’s vital for initiatives such as the CCNS network to connect global custodians and deliver highly-secure and compliance-focused services for institutional clients. Hex Trust is looking forward to helping the network grow and providing vital services to enable further institutional participation via fully regulated clearing and settlement services for digital assets.”
Jason Nabi, CRO Bosonic “The whole team at Bosonic is thrilled to be collaborating with such industry leaders in digital assets. This is not only an industry first, but it is rather unique regarding the best of crypto native and TradFi coming together to better serve institutional clients and enhance asset safety. The network of custodians is already in double digits and global, with the best custodians from Hong Kong to Canada working with Bosonic. Having a regulated Custodian with a focus on institutional clients supporting their fiduciary responsibility, is, as we have learned over the years in TradFi, very important. The same standards are clearly needed in institutional DeFi and crypto, especially considering the FTX crisis.”
About Bosonic
Founded in 2016, Bosonic is a leading decentralized financial market infrastructure (dFMI) company with offices in San Francisco, New York and London providing best-in-class infrastructure that eliminates counterparty credit and settlement risk in digital asset markets. The Bosonic Network™ provides institutional clients with a patented solution that is custodian-agnostic, enables tokenization of assets and collateral, provides liquidity aggregation and DMA to the best Exchanges and Market-Makers, and at the core, runs real-time payment vs payment (PvP) atomic exchange and settlement, with cross-margining, multilateral netting, cross-custodian net settlement and payments. The Bosonic Network™ is delivering infrastructure that is reshaping the future of Digital Asset markets by eliminating risk and maximizing capital efficiency for hedge funds, family offices, banks, brokers, asset managers and other market participants.
About Propine
Established in 2018, Propine is the first independent digital asset custodian licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Propine’s bespoke institutional solutions are at the forefront of innovation, and well-placed in the paradigm shift that is surging through global financial systems architectures.
About First Digital
First Digital brings traditional fiduciary services into the digital-first world through technology and developing financial services infrastructure that lets us and our clients create world-class financial products and services.
6 December 2022, Reston, Va – Transaction Network Services (TNS) is now connected to Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), as a market data vendor. Opening up access to Israel’s sole exchange, with order routing and market data connectivity to the TASE matching engine in Tel Aviv, allows TNS’ customers to capitalize on trading activities in this growing market.
Under the new agreement, TNS can deliver TASE market data globally via a high availability backbone with minimal network latency. TNS’ low latency network enables clients to access TASE alongside the comprehensive European, US and Asia Pacific exchange connectivity already provided.
“This latest exchange connection allows TNS to provide access to approved recipients, including exchange members and market data vendors,” said Jeff Mezger, TNS’ Vice President of Product Management, Financial Markets. “This project includes market data for TASE’s equities and increases the number of market data feeds we now offer globally.”
TASE is the listing exchange for Israeli companies, including The TA-35, the main stock index consisting of 35 Israeli companies. TASE is also home to a derivatives market including equity index derivatives (such as TA-35 index futures), FX derivatives and equity options. In 2021, daily turnover on TASE for equities was US$581 million, up from $540 million in 2020.
TNS’ offering delivers lower overall costs compared to a DIY approach, thanks to TNS’ mutualized exchange connections and status as a registered data vendor with TASE. This allows trading firms to focus on their core business instead of diverting the attention of internal resources to maintain an extensive, specialized infrastructure.
TNS brings together over 2,800 financial community endpoints, supported by a global, 125-strong point-of-presence footprint. Specifically designed and engineered to address the needs of financial market participants worldwide, TNS offers a range of connectivity, colocation, cloud, market data and VPN solutions within its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) portfolio. Its solutions are monitored 24x7x365 by TNS’ Network Operations Centers in the US, UK, Australia, and Malaysia. For further information visit tnsfinancial.com.
About Transaction Network Services (TNS)
Founded in 1990, and with headquarters across USA, Europe and Asia, TNS is a leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure, connectivity, market data and analytic services for the Financial Markets community. Delivered as a fully managed Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, TNS provides an unrivalled, global, mission-critical footprint that significantly reduces the burdens, complexities and costs attributed to firms ‘going direct’. Through its ultra-low latency connectivity, its global market data offerings and its dedicated 24x7x365 local support, TNS remains the trusted solution provider to more than 750 counterparties globally.
NEW YORK & LONDON, 6 DECEMBER, 2022 ─ Cowen Digital LLC, the digital asset division of Cowen Inc., has announced the appointment of Taylor Cable as Managing Director, Cowen Digital Europe. Cable, who is based in London, will lead Cowen Digital’s European and Asian activities.
Cable formerly held institutional positions at Blockchain.com including COO of BCAM (Blockchain.com Asset Management) and Head of Institutional Client Trading. Prior to Blockchain.com, he was COO and Executive Director at AiX and spent 16+ years at Moore Capital Management in a variety of positions including Portfolio Manager and Senior Trader.
Drew Forman, Head of Cowen Digital, commented: “As Cowen Digital continues to grow, we are thrilled to have an executive of Taylor Cable’s calibre to head up our expansion into Europe and Asia. Taylor is an important addition to our growing team as we expand our range of products and services globally.”
Taylor Cable added: “Cowen Digital is a pioneer in delivering institutional grade access to the digital asset ecosystem and I am very excited to join the team at this pivotal time to grow our presence in Europe and Asia. With Cowen Digital’s best-in-class offering, we have an enormous opportunity to become the undisputed leader in digital assets for institutions globally”.
Cowen Digital allows institutional clients to seamlessly secure, access and leverage cryptocurrencies in their portfolios. Investors can trade digital assets through a single partner, in the same way as they would approach any other asset class. Custody solutions are provided via our strategic partnership with Standard Custody and Trust Company LLC, a qualified, insured NYDFS regulated custodian.
About Cowen Digital LLC
Cowen Digital, the digital asset division of Cowen Inc., brings Cowen’s proven expertise in traditional finance to the digital ecosystem. Leveraging Cowen’s capabilities in Markets, Research, Prime Brokerage, Investment Banking, and Investment Management, Cowen Digital supports and assists institutional clients as they explore the evolution of blockchain and digital assets. Learn more here.
About Cowen Inc.
Cowen Inc. (“Cowen” or the “Company”) is a diversified financial services firm that operates through two business segments: a broker dealer and an investment management division. The Company’s broker dealer division offers investment banking services, equity and credit research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing and commission management services. Cowen’s investment management segment offers actively managed alternative investment products. Cowen Inc. focuses on delivering value-added capabilities to our clients in order to help them outperform. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide. Learn more at Cowen.com.
Cowen Digital Europe is a trading name of Cowen Execution Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.
