AcadiaSoft Expands Margin Call Platform with Four More Investment Banks

BAML, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley to join four others on MarginSphere.

AcadiaSoft, a provider of collateral management services, announced its online community for OTC derivatives margin automation, MarginSphere, will include four additional investment banks: BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley. The new group doubles the number of major dealer institutions on the project to eight, joining Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and JP Morgan.

MarginSphere works as a central messaging service that facilitates electronic exchange of margin calls, substitutions, and interest statements between counterparties with mutual collateral management, using automation to reduce inefficiencies, manage operational risk, and bring greater transparency to the margin call process.

"The addition of four more of the world's leading investment banks to MarginSphere ensures that buy-side participants that join the community can now have the majority of their margin calls automated," says Craig Welch, co-founder and CEO of AcadiaSoft.

Developments in regulation are also driving MarginSphere. "With greater attention on collateral management due to heightened regulatory oversight, it is now essential for firms to create efficiencies and increase transparency through automation of their margin call and collateral management operations," adds Welch.