In the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent plummeting in value of mortgage-related derivatives such as CDOs, which in turn has generated a crop of unhappy investors, lawsuits and regulatory concern around improperly sold and priced derivatives, it's no wonder that companies that offer help in determining the value of derivatives contracts are coming out with new products. While many (Numerix, Maplesoft, Quantify) offer pre-built mathematical models for calculating the theoretical value of a derivative now and in the future, Markit, a provider of several derivatives indices, strives to provide actual prices at which certain types of derivatives are currently trading. (Reuters and NYSE Euronext also offer such derivatives valuations.)
Today, Markit announced it is working with six investment banks to develop a new platform that will aggregates the banks' and Markit's derivative pricing data to help institutional investors and fund managers value OTC derivatives and thus more accurately determine portfolio performance. The six banks -- Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS -- will provide Markit with end-of-day and end-of-month client valuations for OTC derivatives and cash securities. Markit will aggregate this information and offer clients access to a composite of dealer marks for cash securities and counterparty present values for OTC derivative positions, alongside Markit's own independent valuations, developed using industry-standard models.
Markit aims to launch the platform, Markit Valuations Manager, in the second half of 2008 with coverage of bonds and derivatives. The firm says the platform will later be expanded in phases to include more banks and all major cash and derivative asset classes, including structured instruments such as asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities.
Publish Date:21 February, 2008
Source URL:http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/blog/archives/2008/02/markit_six_inve.html
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
STP and Credit Derivatives - European Credit Management(ECM)
At European Credit Management, Tom Willoughby strives to achieve seamless and efficient post-trade processing for credit default swaps.
When Tom Willoughby joined European Credit Management (ECM) in mid-2006, he made a virtual jump from one end of the financial services marketplace to the other. The 34-year-old derivatives specialist had worked in the front office at Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, but left the sell side to take up an operations role on the buy side.
Over the past 18 months, Willoughby has focused on improving processing at ECM, particularly for credit derivatives. His overriding objective: to achieve post-trade automation as a means of keeping the firm's costs under control and headcount static.
Credit Curve
Based in London's fashionable Mayfair district-the heartland of many UK hedge funds-ECM was established in 1999 as a traditional long-only asset manager trading predominantly fixed-income securities. In 2005, as a result of demand from increasingly adventurous investors, the firm diversified into credit derivatives and now trades credit default swaps (CDSes) on behalf of 11 of its 18 investment funds. By the end of last year, ECM's assets under management had swelled to €21.3 billion ($31.5 billion) with an overall staff headcount of 172.
The growth of CDS trading was the principal reason behind Willoughby's appointment to ECM, as the firm needed to move toward greater automation in the trade processing chain. While at first ECM might have transacted just 12 CDS trades per month, volumes have grown year-on-year, with a 300 percent rise last year. As many as 180 trades are executed on the busiest trading days.
"Like all businesses, ECM had developed a bespoke way of processing with no standard agreements or conventions in place," says Willoughby. When he took up the newly created post of derivatives operations manager, he was tasked with putting into place standards and systems to move ECM in the direction of more seamless and efficient post-trade processing.
At the top of Willoughby's agenda in 2006 was choosing a platform for confirming trades. ECM at that time decided on an ad-hoc basis whether to confirm through dealer-owned network SwapsWire or through the US-based Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), depending on the trade and the counterparty. Although SwapsWire is a "hugely successful system" for confirming interest-rate derivatives, Willoughby says he was not as confident in using it for credit derivatives. The system relies on the dealer to enter the trade and the buy side to affirm the trade in order to obtain confirmation, he says. Dealers usually confirm interest-rate derivative trades within minutes of execution, mainly because their real-time risk systems don't update until the trades are confirmed. But as risk systems are much more independent for CDS trades, there is no such motivation to confirm immediately and Willoughby says time was often wasted chasing up the sell side for confirmations.
DTCC Deriv/Serv better answers the challenge of the credit market, he says. Where SwapsWire requires dealers to input their trades manually-a process that is not scalable and prone to errors-DTCC offers a direct feed from the dealer's trading system.
"DTCC was a lot quicker in trying to answer the massive growth of the market," Willoughby says. "If we can leave the office every night and know that we've submitted our trades to DTCC, I feel in a better position than if we are waiting for counterparties to submit their trades to SwapsWire."
Under Willoughby's watch, ECM has migrated all of its CDS trades onto DTCC Deriv/Serv for confirmations, leaving interest-rate derivatives to be confirmed through SwapsWire, which he says is the best system for that market. But the firm has internally built its own reconciliation tool for interest-rate derivatives, which extracts the trades from SwapsWire, compares them to the trades in ECM's trading system and automatically affirms them if the details match. Building such a reconciliation tool for CDS trade matching would have been too complicated and costly, especially since DTCC's service was already available, says Willoughby.
Missing Piece
There has been much progress made since the US Federal Reserve called in the major dealers in 2005 to demand that they clear the backlog in unconfirmed CDS trades. DTCC's Deriv/Serv confirmation service and the trade information warehouse, which stores the golden copy of every trade, have greatly improved overall efficiency. But as Willoughby says, simply connecting up to DTCC is not enough to totally eradicate errors. "It's all well and good to submit a trade to DTCC on trade date, but if it's not correct then DTCC can quickly become a warehouse for unmatched trades," he says. "If trades were being captured and submitted incorrectly on the sell side, it could take days to resolve because you had to contact the relevant people at the banks to sort things out."
Willoughby looked to T-Zero, the Creditex-owned platform that markets itself as the "missing piece" in the credit derivatives processing puzzle. T-Zero allows buy-side firms such as ECM to "affirm" trade details with their sell-side counterparties before processing begins and the trade hits DTCC. This means that both sides start processing the trade knowing they have the same details recorded. There is also no discrepancy when a buy-side entity splits the trade across a number of its investment funds.
ECM went live with T-Zero in June 2007 but its progress has so far been hindered by the slow uptake on the sell side, he says. "Initially, there was a failure to recognize the extent of the problem that resided in the back office and hence the need for T-Zero," he says. "Most of the big banks felt that they were already paying for DTCC and shouldn't have to pay for another platform just to get the trade confirmed."
The last few months have seen a rise in the use of T-Zero and the platform, which was launched in 2005, has now signed up 14 major dealers and more than 160 buy-side firms. However, Willoughby says he questions how effectively the sell side is actually using it. "Three or four of our largest counterparties still don't use T-Zero and we are getting to the stage where our potential volumes are restricted by the fact that they don't have auto-affirmation," he says. "Once they use it effectively, we will be closer to the utopia of having DTCC as a pure warehouse of confirmed trades that have been auto-affirmed at T-Zero."
Willoughby's mission for 2008 is the same as it has been since he joined ECM: continuing on the eternal trail to automation. He says he has found the technology that fits the firm best and his mission now is to get all his sell-side counterparties signed up to the same platforms. "We have to get out to our counterparties and almost try to influence them in the direction they go," he says. "If we arrive in the morning to unmatched trades in DTCC, we have to question why that is happening." He looks forward to a time when all trades are confirmed by both sides on trade date. When ECM's employees no longer have to chase counterparties after the trade is done, the dream of no-touch STP for credit derivatives will be achievable.
By Joel Clark
ECM Stats
Headquarters: London
Offices: Capetown, Chicago, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Madrid, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo
Assets Under Management: €21.3 billion ($31.5 billion)
Number of Clients: 426
Number of Investment Funds: 18
Total Staff: 172
Biography
Name: Tom Willoughby
Age: 34
Hometown: Hitchin, Hertfordshire, UK
Education: University of Portsmouth
First Job: FX clerk at SBC Warburg
Family: Just married in September 2007.
Last Book Read: The Night Manager by John le Carre.
Favorite Place: Chamonix, France
Last Holiday: My honeymoon in Antigua.
Last Gadget Bought: A remote-control toy helicopter for Christmas.
Best Part of the Job: The great diversity of the buy side.
Source URL: http://www.watersonline.com/public/showPage.html?page=702957
Publish Date: 1 February, 2008
When Tom Willoughby joined European Credit Management (ECM) in mid-2006, he made a virtual jump from one end of the financial services marketplace to the other. The 34-year-old derivatives specialist had worked in the front office at Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, but left the sell side to take up an operations role on the buy side.
Over the past 18 months, Willoughby has focused on improving processing at ECM, particularly for credit derivatives. His overriding objective: to achieve post-trade automation as a means of keeping the firm's costs under control and headcount static.
Credit Curve
Based in London's fashionable Mayfair district-the heartland of many UK hedge funds-ECM was established in 1999 as a traditional long-only asset manager trading predominantly fixed-income securities. In 2005, as a result of demand from increasingly adventurous investors, the firm diversified into credit derivatives and now trades credit default swaps (CDSes) on behalf of 11 of its 18 investment funds. By the end of last year, ECM's assets under management had swelled to €21.3 billion ($31.5 billion) with an overall staff headcount of 172.
The growth of CDS trading was the principal reason behind Willoughby's appointment to ECM, as the firm needed to move toward greater automation in the trade processing chain. While at first ECM might have transacted just 12 CDS trades per month, volumes have grown year-on-year, with a 300 percent rise last year. As many as 180 trades are executed on the busiest trading days.
"Like all businesses, ECM had developed a bespoke way of processing with no standard agreements or conventions in place," says Willoughby. When he took up the newly created post of derivatives operations manager, he was tasked with putting into place standards and systems to move ECM in the direction of more seamless and efficient post-trade processing.
At the top of Willoughby's agenda in 2006 was choosing a platform for confirming trades. ECM at that time decided on an ad-hoc basis whether to confirm through dealer-owned network SwapsWire or through the US-based Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), depending on the trade and the counterparty. Although SwapsWire is a "hugely successful system" for confirming interest-rate derivatives, Willoughby says he was not as confident in using it for credit derivatives. The system relies on the dealer to enter the trade and the buy side to affirm the trade in order to obtain confirmation, he says. Dealers usually confirm interest-rate derivative trades within minutes of execution, mainly because their real-time risk systems don't update until the trades are confirmed. But as risk systems are much more independent for CDS trades, there is no such motivation to confirm immediately and Willoughby says time was often wasted chasing up the sell side for confirmations.
DTCC Deriv/Serv better answers the challenge of the credit market, he says. Where SwapsWire requires dealers to input their trades manually-a process that is not scalable and prone to errors-DTCC offers a direct feed from the dealer's trading system.
"DTCC was a lot quicker in trying to answer the massive growth of the market," Willoughby says. "If we can leave the office every night and know that we've submitted our trades to DTCC, I feel in a better position than if we are waiting for counterparties to submit their trades to SwapsWire."
Under Willoughby's watch, ECM has migrated all of its CDS trades onto DTCC Deriv/Serv for confirmations, leaving interest-rate derivatives to be confirmed through SwapsWire, which he says is the best system for that market. But the firm has internally built its own reconciliation tool for interest-rate derivatives, which extracts the trades from SwapsWire, compares them to the trades in ECM's trading system and automatically affirms them if the details match. Building such a reconciliation tool for CDS trade matching would have been too complicated and costly, especially since DTCC's service was already available, says Willoughby.
Missing Piece
There has been much progress made since the US Federal Reserve called in the major dealers in 2005 to demand that they clear the backlog in unconfirmed CDS trades. DTCC's Deriv/Serv confirmation service and the trade information warehouse, which stores the golden copy of every trade, have greatly improved overall efficiency. But as Willoughby says, simply connecting up to DTCC is not enough to totally eradicate errors. "It's all well and good to submit a trade to DTCC on trade date, but if it's not correct then DTCC can quickly become a warehouse for unmatched trades," he says. "If trades were being captured and submitted incorrectly on the sell side, it could take days to resolve because you had to contact the relevant people at the banks to sort things out."
Willoughby looked to T-Zero, the Creditex-owned platform that markets itself as the "missing piece" in the credit derivatives processing puzzle. T-Zero allows buy-side firms such as ECM to "affirm" trade details with their sell-side counterparties before processing begins and the trade hits DTCC. This means that both sides start processing the trade knowing they have the same details recorded. There is also no discrepancy when a buy-side entity splits the trade across a number of its investment funds.
ECM went live with T-Zero in June 2007 but its progress has so far been hindered by the slow uptake on the sell side, he says. "Initially, there was a failure to recognize the extent of the problem that resided in the back office and hence the need for T-Zero," he says. "Most of the big banks felt that they were already paying for DTCC and shouldn't have to pay for another platform just to get the trade confirmed."
The last few months have seen a rise in the use of T-Zero and the platform, which was launched in 2005, has now signed up 14 major dealers and more than 160 buy-side firms. However, Willoughby says he questions how effectively the sell side is actually using it. "Three or four of our largest counterparties still don't use T-Zero and we are getting to the stage where our potential volumes are restricted by the fact that they don't have auto-affirmation," he says. "Once they use it effectively, we will be closer to the utopia of having DTCC as a pure warehouse of confirmed trades that have been auto-affirmed at T-Zero."
Willoughby's mission for 2008 is the same as it has been since he joined ECM: continuing on the eternal trail to automation. He says he has found the technology that fits the firm best and his mission now is to get all his sell-side counterparties signed up to the same platforms. "We have to get out to our counterparties and almost try to influence them in the direction they go," he says. "If we arrive in the morning to unmatched trades in DTCC, we have to question why that is happening." He looks forward to a time when all trades are confirmed by both sides on trade date. When ECM's employees no longer have to chase counterparties after the trade is done, the dream of no-touch STP for credit derivatives will be achievable.
By Joel Clark
ECM Stats
Headquarters: London
Offices: Capetown, Chicago, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Madrid, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo
Assets Under Management: €21.3 billion ($31.5 billion)
Number of Clients: 426
Number of Investment Funds: 18
Total Staff: 172
Biography
Name: Tom Willoughby
Age: 34
Hometown: Hitchin, Hertfordshire, UK
Education: University of Portsmouth
First Job: FX clerk at SBC Warburg
Family: Just married in September 2007.
Last Book Read: The Night Manager by John le Carre.
Favorite Place: Chamonix, France
Last Holiday: My honeymoon in Antigua.
Last Gadget Bought: A remote-control toy helicopter for Christmas.
Best Part of the Job: The great diversity of the buy side.
Source URL: http://www.watersonline.com/public/showPage.html?page=702957
Publish Date: 1 February, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Markit to launch multi-dealer valuations platform
UK market data vendor Markit Group is working with six Wall Street banks to launch a global, multi-bank, cross-asset client valuations platform.
The Markit Valuations Manager platform will provide electronic delivery of daily OTC derivative and consensus cash valuations from Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS alongside Markit's own independent valuations.
Recent regulatory and accounting changes have increased the importance of reliable, independent valuation sources for funds, says Markit and the new platform will provide the buy side with an "accurate, efficient tool to handle the increased regulatory and accounting burden".
The new system will also enhance the integrity of position information, counterparty marks and third-party valuations, says the vendor.
"Regulators around the world are increasingly focused on the importance of greater transparency, establishing best practice for client valuations, and a trusted, independent process is key," says Jeff Gooch, EVP and head of valuations and trade processing, Markit.
David Lefferts, managing director at Markit, will lead the new initiative.
The platform is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 with core coverage of bonds and derivatives. Markit says the system will subsequently be expanded in phases to include more banks and all major cash and derivative asset classes, including structured instruments such as asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities.
In recent weeks both Nyse Euronext and Reuters have launched valuations services for asset management portfolios of complex and structured financial products.
Source URL:http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=18117
Publish date: February 21, 2008
Aite Reveals Top 10 Investment Trends for 2008
Just in case your firm's IT managers aren't looking forward, Aite Group is doing it for them. The Boston-based research and advisory firm released its top 10 securities and investments trends for 2008. Among the hot topics this year will be OTC derivatives processing, international market fragmentation, data integration and aggregation, and corporate actions processing.
While industrywide enhancements have been made in processing OTC derivatives in recent years, there still is much room for improvement, according to Aite. But 2008 will see innovation in the trading, clearing and settlement of OTC derivatives across asset classes, notes the report.
Further, Aite believes the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and the inevitable changes to European market structure in 2008 will receive increased attention in 2008. Specificaly, the viability of multilateral trading facilities and systematic internalizers will be under close scrutiny, the firm says.
According to Aite, the top technology priority in 2008 for Wall Street will be data integration and aggregation, with the industry spending more than $2.5 billion on enterprise data management and integration technologies, a category that is growing 20 percent a year. Aite notes, however, that many of these spending initiatives lack the flash necessary to sell to senior management and will end up pork-barrelled in other projects.
Additionally, the financial industry at large should be looking to get a handle on corporate actions processing, or what Aite calls "the last frontier in straight-through processing and risk-reduction efforts." Corporate actions departments are beginning to shed their cost center images and are being viewed as an opportunity to drive efficiency and create a competitive advantage by improving client service, the firm contends, adding that software vendors are likely to try to capitalize on this shift.
Top 10 Investment Trends For 2008
- Subprime Goes Prime-Time
- Continued Expansion of Electronic Trading
- Socially Responsible Investing
- Market Fragmentation in Europe and Asia
- Data Integration
- ETFs and Other Low-Cost Alternatives
- Outsourcing: All Talk Becomes a Little Action
- Self-Directed for Cost and Competition
- RIA Space Sees Double-Digit AUM Growth
- Corporate Actions a Legimitate Priority
Note: Trends are listed in no particular order
Source URL - http://www.financetech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206800367
Publish date:February 19. 2008
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Markit to Acquire Swapswire to Fortify OTC Derivatives Processing Infrastructure
UK data supplier Markit announced an agreement to acquire Swapswire, an electronic trade confirmation network backed by dealers for processing OTC derivatives. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in early 2008.
The deal follows a string of acquisitions by Markit and solidifies Markit’s role as a powerhouse brand position in the derivatives space, comments Brad Bailey, senor analyst at Aite Group, in an email sent to the media. Markit, which is 70 percent owned by major derivatives dealers, provides pricing, a portfolio valuation service, trade processing of OTC derivatives through its acquisition of Communicator last year, and owns indexes. Last month, Markit bought out International Index Company (IIC), owner of the iTraxx Indexes and CDS IndexCo, which owns the CDX indexes.
“Swapswire has helped out a lot on the interest-rate swap confirmation process, “ says Bailey in an interview. “Most of the dealers use them and they’ve been getting a lot of traction on the equity derivatives side as well,” says Bailey. Interestingly, Markit is 70 percent owned by the major dealers derivatives dealer and Swapstream is 95 percent owned by the major derivatives dealers, notes Bailey.
Swapswire is an automated service, owned by 21 dealers, that allows market participants in the OTC derivatives markets to complete trade date confirmations immediately upon execution. Major dealers, inter-dealer brokers, prime brokers and buy-side institutions rely upon on the service.
In a statement, Markit said it plans to combine the Swapswire confirmation capabilities with its trade processing workflow platform to provide the OTC derivatives market with a cross-asset trade processing solution, critical mass and a global network. The enhanced platform will have over 200 buy-side institutions, 50 dealers and 45 inter-dealer brokers.
With the relentless growth in OTC derivatives, which has put pressure on operational infrastructure and raised regulatory concerns, Chip Carver, CEO of Swapswire, stated that the industry faces significant hurdles. By combining Swapswire and Markit together, “We will be able to provide the financial markets with the best possible tools to overcome these challenges,” Carver further stated in the release. The combined business will be co-headed by Jeff Gooch, EVP and head of trade processing and valuations at Markit and Carver.
According to statistics from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the OTC derivative markets grew by 25 percent in the first half of 2007, compared to 12 percent in the second half of 2006. Meanwhile, the average number of outstanding confirmations doubled year-on-year, according to Markit’s Quarterly Metrics report, which surveys operational data from the top 18 dealers. Markit says the aggressive volumes have led to mounting backlogs of unconfirmed trades, which attract regulatory scrutiny.
Bailey agrees, “There are still a lot of fundamental problems with derivatives processing such as front-office errors.” This summer’s credit crisis highlighted a lot of problems the market is having in terms of errors, he says.
In a statement, David Lown, EVP at PIMCO, which is a buy-side client of Markit’s comprehensive workflow services said, “the deal will be of immense value to the buy-side community. The integration of SwapsWire’s real-time confirmation tool into the Markit service will give us a cross-asset platform with electronic straight through processing, allowing us to support our growing OTC derivative businesses with greater operational efficiency,” added Lown.
Bailey said the combination of Markit and Swapswire “is a positive step from a buy-side perspective,” because buy-side institutions are confused about resource allocation decisions and which vendors will be around in the future. Also, Markit will eventually provide connectivity into two industry confirmation systems.
Through Communicator’s pipes, Markit provides the connectivity to DerivServ, the DTCC’s matching service for credit derivatives, says Bailey. However, Swapswire has not built connectivity to DerivServ, notes Bailey. Bailey says the deal positions Markit to offer connectivity to both Swapswire and DerivServ. “Their clients will be able to type trades into these two major utilities,” says Bailey.
Now that Swapswire will be part of market, it will make it easier for buy side firms to go to DerivServ or Swapswire because the connectivity will be provided through Markit, says Bailey. If this were to happen, PIMCO, which is a buy-side client of Markit’s workflow service, could do a trade and pump that to DerivServ (via Markit) and now they’ll own Swapswire, he says.
Source URL: http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/blog/archives/2007/12/market_to_acqui.html?cid=nl_wallstreettech_week
Publish date: December 05, 2007
The deal follows a string of acquisitions by Markit and solidifies Markit’s role as a powerhouse brand position in the derivatives space, comments Brad Bailey, senor analyst at Aite Group, in an email sent to the media. Markit, which is 70 percent owned by major derivatives dealers, provides pricing, a portfolio valuation service, trade processing of OTC derivatives through its acquisition of Communicator last year, and owns indexes. Last month, Markit bought out International Index Company (IIC), owner of the iTraxx Indexes and CDS IndexCo, which owns the CDX indexes.
“Swapswire has helped out a lot on the interest-rate swap confirmation process, “ says Bailey in an interview. “Most of the dealers use them and they’ve been getting a lot of traction on the equity derivatives side as well,” says Bailey. Interestingly, Markit is 70 percent owned by the major dealers derivatives dealer and Swapstream is 95 percent owned by the major derivatives dealers, notes Bailey.
Swapswire is an automated service, owned by 21 dealers, that allows market participants in the OTC derivatives markets to complete trade date confirmations immediately upon execution. Major dealers, inter-dealer brokers, prime brokers and buy-side institutions rely upon on the service.
In a statement, Markit said it plans to combine the Swapswire confirmation capabilities with its trade processing workflow platform to provide the OTC derivatives market with a cross-asset trade processing solution, critical mass and a global network. The enhanced platform will have over 200 buy-side institutions, 50 dealers and 45 inter-dealer brokers.
With the relentless growth in OTC derivatives, which has put pressure on operational infrastructure and raised regulatory concerns, Chip Carver, CEO of Swapswire, stated that the industry faces significant hurdles. By combining Swapswire and Markit together, “We will be able to provide the financial markets with the best possible tools to overcome these challenges,” Carver further stated in the release. The combined business will be co-headed by Jeff Gooch, EVP and head of trade processing and valuations at Markit and Carver.
According to statistics from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the OTC derivative markets grew by 25 percent in the first half of 2007, compared to 12 percent in the second half of 2006. Meanwhile, the average number of outstanding confirmations doubled year-on-year, according to Markit’s Quarterly Metrics report, which surveys operational data from the top 18 dealers. Markit says the aggressive volumes have led to mounting backlogs of unconfirmed trades, which attract regulatory scrutiny.
Bailey agrees, “There are still a lot of fundamental problems with derivatives processing such as front-office errors.” This summer’s credit crisis highlighted a lot of problems the market is having in terms of errors, he says.
In a statement, David Lown, EVP at PIMCO, which is a buy-side client of Markit’s comprehensive workflow services said, “the deal will be of immense value to the buy-side community. The integration of SwapsWire’s real-time confirmation tool into the Markit service will give us a cross-asset platform with electronic straight through processing, allowing us to support our growing OTC derivative businesses with greater operational efficiency,” added Lown.
Bailey said the combination of Markit and Swapswire “is a positive step from a buy-side perspective,” because buy-side institutions are confused about resource allocation decisions and which vendors will be around in the future. Also, Markit will eventually provide connectivity into two industry confirmation systems.
Through Communicator’s pipes, Markit provides the connectivity to DerivServ, the DTCC’s matching service for credit derivatives, says Bailey. However, Swapswire has not built connectivity to DerivServ, notes Bailey. Bailey says the deal positions Markit to offer connectivity to both Swapswire and DerivServ. “Their clients will be able to type trades into these two major utilities,” says Bailey.
Now that Swapswire will be part of market, it will make it easier for buy side firms to go to DerivServ or Swapswire because the connectivity will be provided through Markit, says Bailey. If this were to happen, PIMCO, which is a buy-side client of Markit’s workflow service, could do a trade and pump that to DerivServ (via Markit) and now they’ll own Swapswire, he says.
Source URL: http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/blog/archives/2007/12/market_to_acqui.html?cid=nl_wallstreettech_week
Publish date: December 05, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Derivatives Processing Will Attract More Dollars, Attention in 2008
CHALLENGE: As OTC derivatives grow increasingly popular, accurate pricing and risk evaluation is more important than ever. Automating derivatives processing also will be a priority in 2008 -- not just for efficiency's sake, but also to help firms mitigate market volatility.
One of the biggest originators, Merrill Lynch, took a huge writeoff for its losses and ousted its CEO. "This summer certainly highlighted ... the complexity of dealing with products that are hard to value," Bailey notes. The need has never been greater for buy- and sell-side firms to invest in technology to keep their derivatives involvement as immune to market volatility as possible. Implementing analytics software that can help with better pricing and risk evaluation, and accurate and timely trade capture and processing, will be top priorities in 2008.
Where the Industry Is Now: As a result of the CDO fiasco, some of the work that had been going on to automate derivatives processing (particularly the DTCC's Deriv/Serv and Trade Information Warehouse for processing and storing derivatives contracts) suffered a setback, and attention shifted toward technology that helps price derivatives, assess their risk and capture trade details. At the SIBOS conference in October, delegates discussed the need to get to T+30 -- the ability to process derivatives within 30 days. "The OTC market has evolved in a very inefficient way, and we're trying to automate big parts of it," Bailey says.
Focus in 2008: Broker-dealers will continue to urge clients to use Deriv/SERV. However, some dealers still need to make sure their software can read and produce Financial products Markup Language (FpML) so that it speaks what is becoming the common language of derivatives. Buy-side firms will upgrade their technology, especially those that plan to invest more heavily in derivatives. Some will turn to outsourcing or hosted solutions so that they don't have to build in-house.
Industry Leaders: The so-called "Fed 14" -- the 14 broker-dealers that promised the Federal Reserve in 2005 they would remedy their derivatives processing backlogs of up to 90 days -- are probably the furthest along in derivatives automation.
Technology Providers: DTCC, SwapsWire, T-Zero, CreditMatch, Markit and Thomson Tradeweb all have been evolving their derivatives technology offerings. Several vendors, some new to the space, introduced derivatives processing offerings at SIBOS in October: Content management system vendor Interwoven launched DealConnect for DTCC, which lets buy-side firms and broker-dealers connect with the DTCC's Deriv/SERV Trade Information Warehouse; Wall Street Systems unveiled a hosted back-office clearing and settlement system; Document Sciences and Volante Technologies announced a partnership to automate the production and transmission of trade confirmations over a range of messaging systems; and Message Automation and City Networks launched Proactive Derivatives, a solution for automating post-trade management of OTC derivatives.
Software that enables model-based pricing, from vendors such as Numerix, Quantifi and Maplesoft, will be big this year as firms strive to bring more intelligence to their derivatives investments. Software that helps match documents between counterparties and handle the workflow of derivatives, such as Document Sciences' offering, also will be considered.
Price Tag: According to Bailey, dealers spent $610 million on IT just for credit derivatives in 2007. "There have been a lot of setbacks, but I see sell-side firms spending around $740 million on credit derivatives technology next year," he predicts.
Source URL: http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204203549Publish Date: November 26, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Ucits III Drives Demand for Independent Valuation
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has rolled out Xenomorph's TimeScape data management solution in response to mushrooming demand for more complex financial instruments among buy-side firms seeking independent valuation services.
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has rolled out Xenomorph's TimeScape data management solution in response to mushrooming demand for more complex financial instruments among buy-side firms seeking independent valuation services.
SGSS has integrated the data management system in its derivatives operations support services, which the fund administrator offers to asset management clients in a five-year deal. The data management services provided by TimeScape, including the independent valuation of structured derivatives products and risk management support, are in demand as a result of the EU's Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities III (Ucits III) directive. The pan-European legislation has extended the range of financial instruments in which funds are able to invest.
Rachid Lassoued, head of financial engineering at SGSS, says the firm last year witnessed "surging demand" for independent valuation services for complex derivatives products, chiefly among buy-side firms. Investment banks are also requesting the services for their insurance, corporate and fund management clients, says Lassoued.
"In the past, buy-side firms relied on the counterparty's valuation services in a trade. There was no independent check. Also, every time you have a crisis, there is an incentive for firms to go to independent valuation services," says Lassoued.
"The growth in more sophisticated financial instruments among buy side firms is the driver. More asset managers are using derivatives," says Xenomorph CEO Brian Sentance.
TimeScape's validation capabilities are also utilized to control and cleanse multiple sources of market and instrument data for use by other downstream systems.
SGSS began integrating the TimeScape solution earlier this spring with Summit, the fund administrator's front-to-back office system for derivatives. Officials from both parties decline to disclose the value of the deal.
Source URL: http://www.watersonline.com/public/showPage.html?page=printer_friendly&print=637354
Publish Date: 1 November, 2007
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) has rolled out Xenomorph's TimeScape data management solution in response to mushrooming demand for more complex financial instruments among buy-side firms seeking independent valuation services.
SGSS has integrated the data management system in its derivatives operations support services, which the fund administrator offers to asset management clients in a five-year deal. The data management services provided by TimeScape, including the independent valuation of structured derivatives products and risk management support, are in demand as a result of the EU's Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities III (Ucits III) directive. The pan-European legislation has extended the range of financial instruments in which funds are able to invest.
Rachid Lassoued, head of financial engineering at SGSS, says the firm last year witnessed "surging demand" for independent valuation services for complex derivatives products, chiefly among buy-side firms. Investment banks are also requesting the services for their insurance, corporate and fund management clients, says Lassoued.
"In the past, buy-side firms relied on the counterparty's valuation services in a trade. There was no independent check. Also, every time you have a crisis, there is an incentive for firms to go to independent valuation services," says Lassoued.
"The growth in more sophisticated financial instruments among buy side firms is the driver. More asset managers are using derivatives," says Xenomorph CEO Brian Sentance.
TimeScape's validation capabilities are also utilized to control and cleanse multiple sources of market and instrument data for use by other downstream systems.
SGSS began integrating the TimeScape solution earlier this spring with Summit, the fund administrator's front-to-back office system for derivatives. Officials from both parties decline to disclose the value of the deal.
Source URL: http://www.watersonline.com/public/showPage.html?page=printer_friendly&print=637354
Publish Date: 1 November, 2007
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