BlackRock and AccessFintech partner, LSEG collabs with OpenAI, Apex launches Pisces service, and more

It’s officially December, so happy holidays, everyone!

Announced this week

BlackRock, AccessFintech partner to enhance post-trade connectivity

BlackRock has partnered with data and workflow collaboration network AccessFintech. Through BlackRock’s Aladdin investment management platform, the firms aim to deliver bilateral connectivity and real-time post-trade collaboration between the global buy-side Aladdin platform community and more than 250 capital markets and asset servicing institutions already connected to AccessFintech’s Synergy Network.

This partnership seeks enable secure, API-first connectivity between buy-side firms and their counterparties, giving Aladdin clients real-time insight into trade lifecycle events. It delivers cross-asset, multi-region data with AI-driven analytics, accelerating remediation and reducing operational risk across securities, private markets (loans), and derivatives (swaps).

BlackRock has also made a strategic capital investment in AccessFintech for an undisclosed sum.

CJC launches 24/7 market data support service

Market data technology consultancy and service provider Crown Jewels Consultants (CJC) has launched its Market Data Continuity (MDC) support service. MDC is a fixed monthly subscription and includes 24/7 access to CJC’s global market data specialists, with a fixed number of on-site hours. Every support request is treated as a “severity level 1” incident, ensuring triage and resolution by experts.

MDC is designed for financial firms that cannot afford market data interruptions but do not need a full managed service. MDC addresses risks by giving clients priority access to senior engineers at CJC, who can diagnose and resolve issues remotely or on-site, without the long-term cost or commitment of a traditional managed service.

Centreon secures Sixth Street investment to grow observability platform

Centreon, a European provider of IT monitoring and observability solutions, announced a partnership with Sixth Street, a global investment firm. The platform was revealed during Centreon’s November Summit and will unify IT infrastructure monitoring, log management, and digital experience monitoring into a modular, open observability solution. With Sixth Street’s support, Centreon aims to accelerate product innovation, enhance AI-driven automation, analytics, and full-stack observability.

LSEG announces new collaboration with OpenAI

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has released an Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector for ChatGPT users and enterprise customers of OpenAI, with plans to make ChatGPT Enterprise available for LSEG employees. The connector is expected to be live in ChatGPT next week.

In an extension of its LSEG Everywhere strategy, the exchange will grant access to data licensed through its products, like Workspace and Financial Analytics, to ChatGPT users and enterprise customers.

LSEG’s AI-ready content will be accessible through an MCP-powered connector in a phased rollout, starting with LSEG Financial Analytics. ChatGPT users with licensed credentials will be able to access and analyze LSEG financial market data and news directly within the ChatGPT app. Following this first release, LSEG will provide ChatGPT users and enterprise customers with additional data categories and functionality.

Path cleared for Etrading Software to deliver UK bond consolidated tape

The suspension of the UK bond consolidated tape procurement process has been lifted, following a legal challenge by fintech Ediphy to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) bidding process. Rival fintech Etrading Software, which was previously awarded the tape contract by the FCA, can proceed with building and delivering the tape.

The UK bond tape is planned to go live on June 22, 2026. Over the coming months, Etrading Software will release technical specifications, publish contracts and fee levels, form a consultative committee, and launch a series of industry webinars to support preparation. It will also provide a detailed roadmap to assist the industry in preparing for the tape’s launch.

Apex launches Pisces services for LSE’s private securities market

Apex Group, a provider of fund and asset servicing solutions, has launched a Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (Pisces) suite of services, which will include trade fulfillment as a registered auction agent (RAA) on the London Stock Exchange’s Private Securities Market, operating under the Pisces framework.

Announced earlier this year, Pisces enables the intermittent trading of secondary shares in private companies, helping private equity managers, corporates, founders, and employees access liquidity without requiring a full company sale. At the point of a secondary share sale, Apex Group will manage the trading process as an RAA, as well as provide licensing application support and customer and asset due diligence.

TNS expands global market data access with connectivity to TFX

Transaction Network Services (TNS) has expanded its global market data infrastructure in Asia-Pacific with connectivity to  the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX), one of Japan’s derivatives exchanges. This collaboration provides TNS customers with direct access to TFX, delivered anywhere across TNS’ global network.

The addition of TFX completes TNS’ connectivity across all major Japanese exchanges and offers domestic and international firms comprehensive, managed access to Japan from a single provider. TNS now delivers its full suite of services in Japan, including hosting, data, and connectivity. TNS’ Japanese exchange portfolio also includes Japannext and the Japan Exchange Group, which encompasses the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Osaka Exchange, and Tokyo Commodity Exchange.

FactSet, Arcesium debut tech to unite front, middle, and back offices

FactSet has strategically partnered with Arcesium, a provider of enterprise data management solutions, to deliver unified investment management for front-, middle-, and back-office asset management workflows across public, private, and alternative markets.

By leveraging FactSet’s global data infrastructure and Arcesium’s cloud-native technology, the partnership delivers data consistency and analytics. It combines FactSet’s advanced front- and middle-office analytics and portfolio management tools with Arcesium’s back-office technology, including Investment Book of Record, Accounting Book of Record, and reference data solutions.

What you might have missed from us

Robeco tests credit tool built in Bloomberg’s Python platform

Dutch asset manager Robeco is testing a credit cross-currency relative-value tool it built using BQuant, Bloomberg’s Python-based data science and analytics platform. The offering seeks to generate alpha by exploiting cross-currency spread differentials between bonds issued by the same issuer in different currencies and was built during Bloomberg’s Code Crunch Hackathon in Singapore.

Randell Ho, a Robeco credit analyst, says there is room for improvement in the credit space, which doesn’t have the same level of available data as other asset classes.

During the hackathon, LGT Investment Management had also developed a multi-asset backtesting and quantitative dashboard to evaluate and test investment ideas. It participated in Code Crunch to test BQuant’s viability for developing custom applications.

Waters Wavelength Ep. 341: Citi’s Pitts and Topa

This week’s podcast guests are Citi Investor Services’ Michele Pitts, managing director and global product head of transaction management; and Marcello Topa, director for global market advocacy, policy, and strategy, who join Wei-Shen Wong to talk about UK and EU T+1 settlement.

CME, LSEG align on market data licensing in GenAI era

The two major exchanges say they are licensing the use case, and not the technology, as the new era of GenAI creates unpredictability for market data managers about new licensing costs. This is “critically important” to both exchanges as market data fees and licensing costs have always been a point of contention with end-user firms, who see price increases nearly every year.

For example, if a firm uses machine learning to manipulate transcript data of earnings calls, analyst briefings, and corporate presentations that they license from an exchange, data vendors don’t license that data differently just because the firm uses machine learning.

“AI might be enabling new use cases, but automation, machine learning, and natural language processing have all been available for a decade—why is [generative] AI any different? It’s really just all of that on steroids,” says Debbie Lawrence, group head of data strategy and management at LSEG.

Chicago datacenter outage forced clearers to turn away clients

An outage at a Chicago datacenter run by CyrusOne last week caused banks to turn away client trading and clearing business. Issues with a cooling system forced CME to take offline platforms used for its equity, foreign exchange, bond and commodity markets, and individual financial institutions with co-located servers were left in the same position.

The incident has increased concerns about a risky combination of aging technology and the lack of substitutes if a large central counterparty (CCP) experiences an outage. An executive at one dealer, which had co-located servers for trading, says it had to “suspend customer operations and take our servers offline until temperatures normalized” to avoid causing damage.

Tokenized assets draw interest, but regulation lags behind

The US, EU, and the UK have shifted toward more blockchain-friendly messaging as the technology resurges.

In the US, legal experts say the excitement about tokenization reflects financial firms’ recognition of blockchain’s potential, and an upcoming bill is expected to clear up confusion around classification of tokenized securities.

But in Europe, the issue is more complex. The EU does not regulate tokenization through a single, centralized authority; instead, it allows its 27 member states to interpret EU laws within their own legal frameworks. Market readiness, infrastructure development, and overall technological maturity vary wildly between countries.

TCB Data–Broadhead pairing highlights challenges of market data management

In the latest Waters Wrap, Anthony Malakian looks at the recent release of TCB’s new market data administration platform, powered by Broadhead’s Digital Rights for Data Management, a distributed-ledger technology (DLT)-based digital contracts engine. The vendors hope that combining TCB’s established reporting infrastructure with DRDM’s digital contract and auditing technology will help users with market data rights management.

However, skepticism of blockchain’s suitability for this remains, and rightfully so, Tony writes.

People Moves: DTCC, Fenergo, Propellant, L&G, and more

A look at the past month’s people moves in the capital markets technology and data space, including Rimes, tZERO, DTCC, and more.

In other news

Scientology-Linked Startup Dream Exchange Loses Bid for SEC License, The Wall Street Journal

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Dream Exchange’s application for a license to run a stock exchange two months after The Wall Street Journal reported on the start-up’s undisclosed financial ties to the Church of Scientology. The SEC said its decision was based on non-public information from an investigation into potential securities-law violations, as well as “press reports raising questions about the potential misuse of funds.”

Dream Exchange is a Chicago-based startup that is seeking to become the US’s first majority Black-owned stock exchange. It also seeks to establish itself as a venture exchange to list and trade small to mid-sized, early-stage company stock.

In an order posted by the SEC, the regulator said although it hasn’t made any determinations in connection with the investigation, “the information currently before the Commission raises questions about DreamEx’s capacity” to operate as a stock exchange.

On Monday, Dream Exchange announced that it will promptly refile its application to register as a national securities exchange following the order denying its current Form 1 application.