Buy-Side Technology Awards 2017: Best Data Provider to the Buy-Side—RIMES Technologies

The RIMES Managed Data Service (MDS) outstrips its competitors due to its sheer breadth and depth of data coverage, feeding data directly into buy-side front-, middle-, and back-office systems, helping to address index and reference data challenges faced by asset managers, such as customization and blending (combining data from multiple sources into a functioning dataset), asset allocation support, preview and pro forma data, credit ratings and classifications, price aligned analytics and security identification.

RIMES has further extended the reach of the MDS by introducing several new features over the course of the last 12 months, including an enhanced managed blend feed service alongside new blend inventories reports that support complex blend methodologies, an enhanced preview service for greater operational efficiencies in benchmark management, and a new Index Benchmarks Inventory report capability.

If the introduction of Mifid II wasn’t enough for asset managers to contend with in January next year, Esma’s other significant regulatory project, the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR), is also being rolled out to the European financial markets in tandem, which aims to introduce a common framework and consistent approach to benchmark regulation across the EU, whereby supervised entities that use indices as benchmarks and issue financial instruments or contracts that reference an index are considered BMR users. In response to BMR, RIMES launched the RegFocus BMR Control service in September this year, extending its specialist managed service for buy-side compliance officers, RIMES RegFocus, launched last year to reduce the risk of insider dealing and market manipulation, in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).

RegFocus BMR Control aims to help users determine whether they are a benchmark administrator, contributor or user, and if so, for which benchmarks. The solution’s inventory management system provides an understanding of indices and benchmarks used by a firm, with immediate alerts showing any areas at risk of non-compliance. RegFocus BMR Control also includes data enrichment capabilities that allow users to augment attributes from one or a set of benchmarks.