This Week: Refinitiv/Scivantage; Goldman Sachs/ICE; ChartIQ; Aquis/NEX & More

Refinitiv Acquires Scivantage

Refinitiv has acquired wealth management solution provider Scivantage as part of its bid to extend its suite of solutions in the space.

Scivantage runs two primary solutions aimed at wealth management: digital client experience platform Wealthsquope and tax information reporting solution Maxit E2E. The platforms offer account and portfolio management, investment data, and tax information reporting.

Joe Mrak, global head of wealth management at Refinitiv, said the acquisition extends the partnership between Refinitiv and Scivantage, which already worked together on tax reporting and client portal platforms.

“Acquiring Scivantage at this stage affords a tremendous opportunity for us to work together on our shared goal of creating next-generation digital wealth management solutions that enhance the overall customer experience,” Mrak said. “Scivantage’s deep roots, knowledge and capabilities will enhance our wealth management portfolio of solutions, and we welcome our esteemed new colleagues to the Refinitiv family.”

Goldman Sachs Connects to ICE ETF Hub

Goldman Sachs has officially joined the ICE ETF Hub as an authorized participant.

The hub is a primary market platform for US-listed domestic equity and fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ICE said the hub allows participants to access a more standardized process to create and redeem ETFs. The exchange operator plans to add support for US-listed international equity ETFs and assembly of custom baskets by the end of 2020.

ChartIQ Releases Finsemble 4.0

ChartIQ has launched the latest version of its desktop integration platform Finsemble to improve application management and user experience.

The newest release adheres to Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium (FDC3) standards. The standards define specifications that let applications communicate with one another. Other new features include a new application catalog and a new application launcher to make it easier to organize applications, remote desktop support, and an updated user interface.

Asset Control Launches Ops360

Data management firm Asset Control launched a new workflow solution called Ops360 that allows investors to browse, process, and validate financial data.

Ops360 has a web interface and connects via RESTful API so users can have control in sourcing, governing, investigating, and exploring financial data. It’s the latest in a range of open source technology-based products from Asset Control.

“We are really pleased to launch this significant expansion in capabilities. Our roadmap focuses on business user enablement and leveraging more of the exciting open source technologies now available and this release ticks both boxes,” said Asset Control CEO Mark Hepsworth in a statement. “Business users increasingly want to self-service their data management requirements and experience an easier process to set up the data they need. Ops360 along with our new data-driven Business Domain Model facilitates this.”

AST Launches Private Equity Data Platform

AST’s Private Company Solutions has launched a new private equity data platform to help clients manage capitalization or cap tables and other ownership data.

Called Astrella, the platform mixes distributed-ledger technology and artificial intelligence to help users navigate their cap tables and determine when to exit an investment. The platform also supports APIs to connect with valuation providers, secondary trading applications and wealth management advisors. Private equity investment usually involves access to information and analysis on executive ownership, value across different investment rounds, and equity and ownership dilution.

“The private ownership market is increasingly global in nature and rapidly transforming from an undisciplined past to structured corporate activity, trading and investment. Today, spreadsheets are managing trillions of investor wealth and have simply not kept up with the increasing complexity of private companies’ cap tables, potentially costing investors significant returns at exit,” said Carine Schneider, president of AST Private Company Solutions. “Leveraging AST’s leading industry position in ownership data management, Astrella’s design elements and its ongoing technology team support are a perfect complement to this demand providing a robust data solution of institutional quality to an evolving market. We are very excited to launch this product and iterate upon it with new partners going forward.”

Aquis Gets FCA Approval for NEX Exchange Acquisition

The Financial Conduct Authority approved Aquis Exchange’s acquisition of NEX Exchange. Following the approval, NEX Exchange will be renamed Aquis Stock Exchange and it will have its own board.

The purchase—first announced in July 2019—is envisioned to further grow Aquis’ exchange services in Europe. The newly renamed Aquis Stock Exchange will now enter a consultation period with market participants, issuers and regulators. Aquis non-executive director Glenn Collinson will join the board of the Aquis Stock Exchange.

Rival Systems Builds CAT Reporting Service

Trading and risk management software provider Rival Systems has launched a reporting service for clients reporting into the consolidated audit trail (CAT).

The service will run on the vendor’s Rival Trader platform, but will also be available to clients running other trading platforms. The company said clients using its trader platforms will see log files automatically uploaded to the CAT repository at the end of the day. Users of other solutions, however, need to upload files to Rival’s file transfer protocol site, which will then be reformatted to the CAT readable format and then uploaded to the repository.