This collaboration aims to streamline operations, mitigate risks, and simplify workflows for shared clients in the financial services industry. 

“Our partnership with Aladdin represents a pivotal evolution for Saphyre, building on our already extensive network of top-tier investment managers and financial institutions,” said Ray Shivers, COO of Saphyre. “By seamlessly integrating our AI-powered onboarding and data management solutions with the Aladdin platform, we are not only addressing critical operational challenges but also enhancing the experience for our clients at scale.” 

Saphyre noted that financial institutions frequently grapple with challenges such as fragmented systems, labour-intensive processes, and regulatory hurdles during pre-trade onboarding and account maintenance.  

This tie-up, linking AI-driven onboarding and data management solutions with the Aladdin platform, aims to provide an efficient solution to these issues. 

Shivers added: “This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to setting new industry standards in operational excellence by driving efficiency, and reducing risk and regulatory compliance for our clients.” 

The integration introduces end-to-end automation for investment managers, addressing operational challenges and adapting to evolving industry requirements in the financial services sector. 

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Saphyre’s technology manages the onboarding and maintenance of custody, broker trading, and buy-side accounts.

It also synchronises associated reference data between such entities in real time, providing users with a “golden source of data” to all external permissioned parties using the platform.  

Saphyre suggests this solution eliminates issues related to failed trades downstream and allows for better real-time collaboration which should support participants in light of the global shifts to a T+1 settlement regime.

“Having Capital Group, a top five financial investment management firm, join this endeavor is incredibly exciting,” said Stephen Roche, president and co-founder at Saphyre.

“Capital Group is elevating its finance operations while at the same time helping streamline procedural engagements with their counterparties. The benefits of using the Saphyre platform will continue from the start of a new fund through settlement after every trade execution.”

Several buy-side institutions have opted to integrate Saphyre’s solution in the last six months. Among the most recent names are Jupiter Asset Management, abrdn and Legal and General Investment Management.

Saphyre won the Fintech of the Year Award at Leaders in Trading 2023.

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Stephen Roche

As part of the move, Jupiter will leverage Saphyre’s platform for the onboarding and maintenance of its trading relationships with brokers and custodians.   

Saphyre’s automated intelligence enables onboarding and maintenance of custody and broker trading, alongside synchronising associated reference data in real-time. As a result, a single data source is created for all external parties.  

“We’re thrilled to welcome Jupiter, a leading financial investment management firm, to our endeavor,” said Stephen Roche, president and co-founder of Saphyre.  

“By implementing our technology, Jupiter will be able to ensure data integrity throughout the entire lifecycle of a fund, accelerating pre-trade to post-trade processes for their firm as well as their broker and custodial partners.”  

The offering also addresses fail trade issues, alongside facilitating real-time, T+0 collaboration between parties, particularly relevant for T+1 commitments.  

“We are excited to join the Saphyre platform and utilize the technology to support the growth in our institutional and international client base,” said Clive Phillips, head of client group business management and onboarding.   

“[…] Onboarding of Jupiter clients will be enhanced by the improved visibility, timeframes and accuracy of account set ups and data exchange with market participants (counterparties and custodians) and contribute to speed to market and the overall client onboarding experience.” 

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The investment firm joins a growing list of sell-side firms using the service including the likes of Citi, Northern Trust, Standard Chartered, along with Deutsche Bank most recently joining back in March. 

Stephen Roche

Saphyre’s automated intelligence streamlines the onboarding and maintenance processes for custody, broker trading, and buy-side accounts, while synchronising associated reference data in real-time. This ensures a real-time golden source of data accessible to all external parties.

Additionally, Saphyre’s solution addresses issues related to failed trades downstream and facilitates real-time collaboration, crucial for meeting upcoming T+1 commitments. 

Stephen Roche, president & co-founder of Saphyre, said: “We’re ecstatic to have ABRDN, a leading financial investment management firm join our endeavor. By deploying our technology ABRDN will maintain data integrity through the lifecycle of a fund. Providing them with speed in the pre-trade thru post-trade processes not for just their firm, but also with their broker and custodial counterparts.” 

Read more: The TRADE announces Leaders in Trading 2023 award winners

The startup’s technology digitises pre-trade data and activities across multiple counterparties, maintaining a memory of data and documents. This eliminates the need for clients to search or resubmit information and expedites flow in a digitally structured manner, accessible and understandable by any permissioned counterparty in the finance industry. 

In speeding up the onboarding process, Saphyre claims it eliminates 70%-75% of redundant or inefficient post-trade activities.    

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The bank joins a growing list of sell-side firms using the service including the likes of Citi, Northern Trust, Standard Chartered, along with buy-side outfits Legal & General, Franklin Templeton and American Century.

The fintech also has relationships with custody giants BNY Mellon and JP Morgan dating back to 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Saphyre’s automated intelligence handles onboarding and maintenance of custody, broker trading, and buy-side accounts while synchronising in real-time associated reference data between them. This provides a real-time golden source of data to all external parties. 

The fintech also notes that downstream, its solution eliminates issues relating to failed trades, and at the same time enables real-time, T+0, collaboration between parties which is necessary to meet the upcoming T+1 commitments.  

“We are thrilled to have Deutsche Bank, one of the most prestigious financial firms in the industry, join the family of capital market firms on the platform,” said Stephen Roche, president & co-founder of Saphyre. “By having them as part of our network, not only will Deutsche Bank realise middle- and back-office operational benefits, but our mutual buy-side clients will gain them as well. All while being first to trade on any new funds.”

Saphye won Fintech of the Year at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading awards 2023, in a category supported by Instinet.

The start-up’s tech digitises all pre-trade data and activities across multiple counterparties with its platform maintaining memory of data and documents, resulting in clients not having to search or resubmit information, and expedites flow in a digitally structured manner so that it can be consumed and understood by any permissioned counterparty in the finance industry.

In speeding up the onboarding process, Saphyre claims it eliminates 70%-75% of redundant or inefficient post-trade activities. 

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Through utilising the technology, FXall hopes to streamline the setup of funds to drastically reduce settlement times, ensuring clients are settlement and trade ready within a 24-hour timeframe.

Gabino Roche, CEO and founder at Saphyre, said: “Saphyre is further demonstrating that it’s a comprehensive solution for finance and its operations. Not only does Saphyre set up your funds quickly and seamlessly, but it also provides trading and post-trade benefits; especially in addressing the plethora of concerns that come with the T+1 deadline.”  

Users who are setting up new funds through FXall will now benefit from a ‘single entry’ process, allowing them to set-up their funds for all their liquidity providers at one time and share necessary legal documents more efficiently. Plus, clients will now have full visibility into each bank’s onboarding progress.

“This benefit will remove the unnecessary delays related to the KYC processes occurring in post-trade today,” added Stephen Roche, president of Saphyre.

Banks will now be able to gain benefit from utilising Saphyre’s API to consume account onboarding data and approve those accounts methodically in FXall, allowing them to be ready to trade in 24 hours. Also, FX liquidity providers can now complete their KYC for these accounts to trade FX, equities and fixed income.

“We are committed to improving and evolving the way our clients experience FXall,” said Jill Sigelbaum, head of FX strategic development and partnerships, LSEG. “Incorporating Saphyre’s innovative technology solution into the platform enables us to offer our clients a new systematic and effective onboarding process. We’re very excited about our partnership with Saphyre as we roll out this new solution to our clients.”  

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This award recognises those trailblazers looking to revolutionise the way the industry operates by optimising workflows, creating new routes to market ,and offering up new and innovative technology to replace manual tasks.

After an extensive selection process, The TRADE and Instinet have chosen an eclectic selection of firms for this year’s shortlist, including: Ediphy, Octaura, Saphyre and smartTrade Technologies.

Ediphy

Designed as a single point of entry to the fixed income markets for participants, Ediphy has made waves in the last 12 months. The firm is known for both its data and analytics,and its fixed income execution offerings, combining the two to become a swiss army knife for fixed income traders looking to navigate the markets.

At the end of last year, Ediphy launched its credit and cleared interest rate swaps solution alongside its existing government bond trading capability. Since this expansion of its remit, the firm has announced several other new initiatives aimed at further assisting participants using its platform.

In June, Ediphy launched a new artificial intelligence tool for assessing bonds liquidity, aimed at addressing challenges posed by fragmentation in the fixed income markets.

Named Liquidity Checker, the tool allows users to input their own bond interests in a personalised watchlist and subsequently gives real time notifications of shifting liquidity.

The system scans the market and then notifies users of the optimal time to trade their chosen instruments. If their chosen bonds are lacking liquidity, the tool allows users to broaden their search to alternative options. It also has a “smart search” function that will make its own suggestion to similar bonds for the user’s chosen portfolio based on reference and market data.

This was followed by a new all-in-one platform aimed at addressing workflow and data challenges in the fixed income space, namely data overload and disparate workflow environments, launched in September. In practice, the solution captures internal data for clients, including orders, axes and RFQ history and subsequently combines this with liquidity data from various market gateways.

Octaura

In April, Octaura, an electronic trading, data, and analytics solution for syndicated loans and CLOs, officially launched into the market as the first comprehensive syndicated loan trading venue delivering trading protocols, real-time data and analytics on a single platform. The firm has received backing from Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Moody’s Analytics, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. It was also shortlisted for The TRADE’s Editors’ Choice Outstanding Electronic Trading Initiative in 2022.

Backed by the seven syndicated loan market dealers, Octaura developed a platform which allows clients to execute via traditional request for quote (RFQ) on single line items, or a list of facilities, leading to other portfolio trading protocols based on participant demands like optimisations and ramps. Built in collaboration with Genesis Global, Octaura asserts that its platform reduces friction points and potential errors inherent to manual trading with automated trade bookings, utilising straight through processing and working with order management system providers to develop pre- and post-trade integration functionalities.

The loan trading platform is currently live with 81 buy-side clients and 11 dealers, with another 50 buy-side firms in the onboarding process.

In October, Octaura Holdings integrated list and request for quote (RFQ) protocols to its existing syndicated loan trading platform. The new protocols will provide clients with faster trade execution and enhanced price transparency with straight-through processing, alongside streamlining trading workflows for dealers and buy-side investors.

Up next for Octaura is tackling the CLO market. The firm is currently onboarding accounts for the launch of a beta version of the CLO trading platform, which will feature dealer axes and RFQ protocols later this year. Octaura is also developing a solution for the “challenging and time-consuming” BWIC process, which is expected to launch next year.

Saphyre

After an incredibly strong 2022 for Saphyre, the firm has continued to excel and innovate, constantly pushing the boundaries of its client offering. Saphyre’s interoperable artificial intelligence technology helps firms to digitise and structure shared data and documents pre-trade. This allows firms to assess risk faster, as well as speeding up the onboarding process by eliminating inefficiencies in the booking, confirmation, and settlement process.

Last year, saw Saphyre receive backing from JP Morgan and BNP Paribas in a Series A funding round of $18.7 million and gained traction for its flagship artificial intelligence solution from Legal & General Investment Management. Among the other major names added to its roster in 2022 was Societe Generale, which onboarded Saphyre’s platform for buy-side fund onboarding. The work gained the firm a shortlisted nomination for the Fintech of the Year award at Leaders in Trading 2022.

However, Saphyre’s work did not stop there and in 2023, co-founders Gabino and Stephen Roche, have shown no signs of abating when it comes to further innovating their platform. In February, the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) FXall business entered into a strategic alliance with Saphyre to digitise account onboarding for FXall clients through Saphyre’s AI technology.

Saphyre’s AI technology gives liquidity providers the ability to systematically approve accounts and is validated and live for a subset of FXall clients – with plans for all FXall clients to receive the offering as additional enhancements are made this year. The technology will offer asset owners and buy-side users the ability to share all their FX account data and documents with their respective liquidity providers and FXall. Elsewhere, sell-side users will have the same capabilities alongside being able to provide statuses to the accounts’ KYC, tax, credit risk, legal and ops setup activities.

smartTrade Technologies

Last but not least, smartTrade Technologies has had a stellar year both in terms of bolstering its offering and expanding its client base. The firm provides an end-to-end multi-asset electronic trading and payments technology suite across foreign exchange, crypto, fixed income and derivatives. According to smartTrade, it is connected to more than 130 liquidity providers.

It’s core offerings include LiquidityFX, an ultra-low latency FX trading solution, smartFI, a sell- and buy-side fixed income trading solution, and its expansive suite of analytics. In March, Japanese securities firm SMBC Nikko Securities selected smartTrade Technologies’ fully hosted and managed FX platform LiquidityFX to enhance its FX trading activities in Japan. The platform provides aggregation, smart execution, risk management, order management, analytics, payments and multi-channel distribution, alongside offering support for a range of instruments including FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFs and options.

The firm prides itself on its newly established artificial intelligence offering. Announced in September, the ‘smart Copilot’ tool aims to enhance front office payments and trading. smart Copilot leverages the integration of several large language models (LLMs) and technologies including OpenAI ChatGPT to provide an enhanced and tailored sales assistance offering that optimises trading.

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Recognising the most innovative pioneers in the industry, the Fintech of the Year Award is one of our most highly regarded categories, with previous winners going on to shape the trading and execution landscape.

This year’s award will be presented during The TRADE’s annual gala awards dinner, returning this year to The Savoy Hotel in London on 8 November. 

Fintech of the Year joins our other prestigious awards categories, including: Editors’ Choice, Algorithmic Trading, Execution Management Systems, Outsourced Trading, Rising Stars of Trading and Execution, and Buy-side Awards.

The TRADE and Instinet would like to extend their congratulations to the following shortlisted nominees for 2023:

• Ediphy
• Octaura
• Saphyre
• smartTrade Technologies

2022 winner: Appital

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Saphyre’s patent-approved AI technology gives liquidity providers the ability to systematically approve accounts and is validated and live for a subset of FXall clients – with plans for all FXall clients to receive the offering as additional enhancements are made this year.

The technology will offer asset owners and buy-side users the ability to share all their FX account data and documents with their respective liquidity providers and FXall.

Elsewhere, sell-side users will have the same capabilities alongside being able to provide statuses to the accounts’ KYC, tax, credit risk, legal and ops setup activities. Each FX account and provider will have real-time ready-to-trade statuses.

“We are excited to be the first FX trading platform to offer Saphyre’s digitised solution to all our buyside and bank clients,” said Jill Sigelbaum, head of strategic development and partnerships for FX at LSEG.  

“Embedding Saphyre’s technology into our account set-up and approval process will greatly improve the overall onboarding experience and offer our user community time and cost efficiencies.”

Saphyre claims that its automation reduces the risk of settlement errors significantly when asset owners and investment managers use Saphyre’s platform with their custodians and banks to set up new accounts. “Banks are settlement-ready with Saphyre, because the custodial account opening process occurs weeks in advance of trading and the platform notifies liquidity providers to onboard those same accounts well in advance,” the fintech said in a statement.

“Our relationship with FXall is another example of our platform helping firms to work smarter through our patented AI-powered digitisation technology,” said Gabino Roche, CEO and founder of Saphyre.

“FX front office teams on the buy-side and sell-side benefit because liquidity providers can seamlessly execute and settle trades against new or updated funds without trade errors, regarding account setup or reference data changes. Saphyre serves as a permissioned distributed technology of reference data. This means Saphyre’s clients have a one-stop shop to synchronize data between asset owners, investment managers, custodians, sell-sides, executing and post-trade processing platforms.”

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One of our most hotly contested awards, FinTech of the Year recognises the pioneers shaking up the way the industry operates, creating new pathways and developing best-in-class, cutting edge technology solutions. This year we’ve got a diverse and eclectic crowd competing for the crown: including an algorithmic book-building platform, a cloud-based OEMS, a low-code app development platform, and more. Read on to discover the candidates for 2022’s FinTech of the Year. 

Appital 

FinTech pioneer Appital, in partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) pan-European trading venue, Turquoise, this year launched crucial new bookbuilding technology for the buy-side.  

Mutual buy-side users are now able to gain access to liquidity sourced on Appital’s platform and a single point of access for deal execution via the Turquoise venue, with straight-through processing to its network of settlement venues. The Appital platform allows institutional investors to execute large volumes with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion, and to filter the types and sizes of opportunities they are looking for using specific requirements. 

It aims to give buy-side firms better exposure to deal flow opportunities by providing heads of trading and portfolio managers a more holistic picture of liquidity and illiquid small and mid-cap stocks. 

The platform went live in August, with Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) completing the first trade, and it has proven to be highly popular with the buy-side, with over 30 asset managers signing up prior to launch.  
 
The initiative has also been heavily supported by the industry, recently receiving an additional £1.7 million from Frontline Ventures and several other angel investors earlier this month, taking its total investment to date to £4.85 million. 
 
“[It] gives asset managers the opportunity to be proactive, gain access to deal flow opportunities and encourage liquidity in the market,” explained Paul Squires, head of trading for EMEA equities and Henley fixed interest at Invesco, a buy-side user of Appital, speaking to The TRADE. 

Capital Markets Gateway (CMG) 

CMG’s platform streamlines workflows and delivers information and analytics in real-time providing users with speed to market and analysis vital to decision making. CMG’s platform offers a simpler way to monitor the capital raising landscape, perform due diligence, make investment decisions and collaborate. 

Earlier this year, the FinTech launched its end-to-end equity capital markets (ECM) platform, CMG XC, which digitally connects the buy-side and the sell-side. 

The XC platform transforms ECM, CMG said, by providing connected infrastructure across industry participants and streamlining the entire new issue lifecycle – essentially improving the way ECM deals are managed. 

Speaking to The TRADE, Greg Ingram, co-founder and CEO of CMG said: “The value of streamlined communication and workflows from a broad range of participants underscores the efficiencies of leveraging a common platform to serve the mutual benefit of both underwriters and institutional investors.  

“Underwriters will use XC to publish an offering to potential investors simultaneously, thereby eliminating the inherent inefficiencies of analogue communications, namely redundant emails and a wave of telephone calls.” 

Following several trial offerings, the launch enabled connectivity across syndicate banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley interacting with asset managers such as Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, amongst others, via the CMG XC network. 

Enfusion 

Cloud-native software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Enfusion this year launched a pioneering new order and execution management system (OEMS) named Enfusion Express, backed by Cowen.  

The new solution is tailored specifically to the needs of smaller fund managers with AUM typically less than $100 million. Enfusion describes the new system as a means for smaller managers with limited recourses, but comprehensive requirements, to access sophisticated pre-trade, execution, and post-trade solutions. In addition, Enfusion Express will help reduce manual processes, improve real-time, portfolio-level visibility, and streamline connectivity to managers’ execution, fund administration, prime brokerage and other partners. 

As the size and complexity of these small funds grow, they can easily upgrade to Enfusion’s platform for enhanced OEMS capabilities, full portfolio management and accounting functions, analytics, and outsourced managed services. 

“Enfusion Express addresses the operational needs of smaller funds, both newly launched and existing, that remain an underserved but growing segment of the market. Sell-side firms are recognizing and responding to their unique needs, as evidenced by an uptick in solutions like outsourced trading desks. We see an opportunity to provide best-in-class solutions to these managers as they look to scale their firms while deepening our relationships with our ecosystem partners,” said CEO Thomas Kim. 

Genesis Global 

The Genesis low-code application development platform accelerates the software development process for clients across financial services.

Following a $200 million Series C funding round earlier this year, the firm received a further $20 million from investors including Bank of America, BNY Mellon and Citi, which will allow the app developer to expand its operations as interest in its platform continues to grow. 

Genesis has been utilised by financial markets companies to accelerate the application development process, allowing for an increase in the pace of technology innovation alongside operating and upgrading complex legacy systems. 

“Our clients and environment demand more innovation and productivity in terms of IT output,” said David Trepanier, head of structured products, global credit and special situations at Bank of America. “The low-code solution provided by Genesis accelerates the development process and allow us to more quickly build out and launch new trading protocols and processes.” 

Financial services firms have made digital transformation a priority as they seek to differentiate themselves, reduce the cost and complexity of existing systems, innovate and to adapt better to changing regulation, and Genesis is being used by firms across the software value chain to automate spreadsheet processes, enhance existing systems, replace legacy technology and to develop new, more robust, first-time applications. 

“Our investment in and collaboration with Genesis allows us to create applications and solutions faster to meet the increasing demands of our clients,” said Avi Shua, CIO, head of investment management, wealth management and pershing technology at BNY Mellon. “The ability to develop, customise and integrate applications with speed is critical, and provides our developers a toolset to make robust and flexible platforms that can scale. 

OpenGamma 

London-based margin optimisation FinTech OpenGamma helps asset managers to increase the efficiency of portfolios through collateral management.  

In February this year Allianz X, the digital investments unit of the investment manager, and its subsidiary PIMCO, led a $21 million funding round for the firm, the proceeds of which were used to expand its existing offering, including the launch of automated workflow solutions for the treasury management of asset managers.  

“OpenGamma’s solutions are a small revolution for many investors and asset managers,” said Kevin Harder, manager at Allianz X. “Thanks to OpenGamma, collateral management is no longer a back-office issue but instead becomes an active performance driver.” 

The additional funding follows several partnerships with OpenGamma in the last few years with the buy-side and other analytics providers. Most recent was its partnership with hedge fund Aspect Capital in March 2021, which saw the systematic investment manager increase its use of OpenGamma’s margin analytics across the markets it trades, building on an existing relationship since 2018. 

Saphyre 

Saphyre has been making waves this year with its interoperable AI technology that helps firms to digitise, structure and maintain memory of shared data and documents in pre-trade. This allows firms to assess risk faster, as well as speeding up the onboarding process by eliminating inefficiencies in the booking, confirmation, and settlement process. 

Saphyre claims it allows firms not only to assess risk faster and more clearly, but also speed up their onboarding processes and eliminate 70-75% of redundant or inefficient post-trade activities. 

Since its launch in 2017, the firm has received 104 issued patents and has been integrated with seven different platforms as part of its interoperability design. 

In March 2022, JP Morgan and BNP Paribas backed the firm in a Series A round of $18.7 million, which the FinTech is using to accelerate its product development initiatives in both its pre- and post-trade offerings, as well as to support its ongoing expansion of interoperability initiatives with a number of other FinTech/vendor solutions in the industry. 

The winner of Best Challenger Exchange will be announced at the Leaders in Trading 2022 gala awards dinner at The Savoy Hotel on 2 November.  

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