Retirement products, service launches and partnerships.

J.P. Morgan has expanded its use of the Acin platform to cover its global markets business. The US bank has been working with Acin for the past two years, using the platform within a subset of the trading businesses to access benchmarking data for risks and controls.

Acin is an SaaS company that has created a digitised platform and peer-to-peer network for operational risk management.

This will be achieved via Acin’s industry benchmarking capability, through which customers can continuously assess risk and controls against anonymised peer data.

The expanded use of the Acin platform and network will ‘enable additional efficiency and a further source of practical validation’ within the bank’s operational management frameworks to ‘enable the firm to monitor key areas of risk,’ said Jamie Hamilton, global head of markets business control management, J.P. Morgan.

Acin’s platform digitises operational risk and control management for financial institutions via a standardised, industry-wide data protocol and a peer-to-peer network.

‘As Acin’s platform is adopted by other leading investment banks, the breadth and depth of the data it provides increases further, lifting standards across the whole industry,’ said Paul Ford (pictured), CEO and founder of Acin.

FactEntry, FVC roll out strategic valuation partnership

Bond valuation specialist FactEntry and structured product pricing and valuation provider FVC have have launched a strategic partnership for the valuation of client portfolios of bonds and structured products.

Accurate valuations of investments is a very hot topic after last year's market movements - Tim Mortimer, FVC

FactEntry and FVC will act as preferred valuation providers to each other for their respective product classes to enable both firms to provide a more complete service to their client base. The two companies have already successfully worked together on several client assignments.

"Accurate valuations of investments is a very hot topic after last year's market movements and increasing regulatory attention,” Tim Mortimer, CEO of Future Value Consultants (FVC), told SRP.

“We understand that clients need to service a wide range of instruments. We are building on the existing year long relationship to provide a more complete service. We also intend to cover other instruments that lie between our main focus, such as corporate convertible bonds and asset-backed securities in structured finance.” 

“Many of our clients have large bond portfolios which are accumulated from a number of channels. We frequently see a significant proportion of structured products in those portfolios,” said Sandeep Dhingra, CEO of FactEntry. “This enables us to concentrate on our core strength of bond valuations positions knowing that this important sector is well covered for our clients.”

Great American moves to show benefit of index annuities in portfolios

US annuity provider Great American Life Insurance Company has partnered with retirement income planning software provider for financial advisors JourneyGuide, to provide modelling on several indexed annuities in its range.

JourneyGuide will model Great American Life’s accumulation annuities, including the Index Frontier 5, Great American Life’s flagship registered index-linked annuity, improving annuity options and access to more products for its advisors.

The products included in the partnership include American Legend 7, Index Frontier 5, Index Protector 5 MVA, Index Protector 7 and Index Summit 6 (coming soon).

‘Technology is integral now more than ever,’ said Joe Maringer, senior vice president and national sales manager of Great American Life. “The ability for financial advisors and their clients to see the benefits that insurance can provide to a portfolio is extremely valuable.’

Great American is a leading provider of indexed annuities in the US market. The firm joined the insurtech module at multi-issuer structured products platform Simon Markets in January 2020 following the launch of its Index Protector 4 and Index Protector 5 MVA (market value adjustment) annuities offering a number of index strategies including the S&P 500, S&P 500 risk control, S&P US retiree, iShares US real estate, and iShares MSCI EAFE.

These products were launched to complement the firm’s flagship Index Protector 7 range which was launched at the end of 2018.

Great American is a top 10 provider of indexed annuities in the US with more than 130 live products with an estimated US$2.5 billion of assets under management linked to single equity indices, real estate, alternatives and commodities.

Leverage Shares adds 3x Tesla leverage play, cross-lists on Euronext

European provider of short and leverage (S&L) ETPs on single stocks, Leverage Shares, has cross-listed its newest 25 ETPs on Euronext - both Amsterdam and Paris venues.

The new lineup includes European energy companies Royal Dutch Shell and BP, ‘stay-at home’ tech stocks such as Zoom and Shopify, and additional leverage factors to its flagship Tesla ETPs which now include long 3x and short -2x.

‘Widespread vaccinations are under way and we are seeing a return to normalcy,’ said Oktay Kavrak, product strategy at Leverage Shares. ‘This coupled with rising rates means that the tech darlings of 2020 may lose the spotlight to sectors that have been hit hardest like aviation, energy and financials. Investors can play the rebound using our triple-leveraged ETPs or express negative sentiment via the inverse products – all in their local currency.’

Kavrak also noted that the steady rise in global air traffic in recent weeks indicates that consumers are increasingly comfortable with the safety of travel. ‘This means companies like Boeing could see further tailwinds, having climbed 18% since the start of the year,’ he said. ‘Global trading activity has been booming since the start of the pandemic and this has spilled over to S&L ETPs. Since last expanding their product range in 2020, average turnover in Leverage Shares ETPs has increased over 600%.’

Numerix partners with derivatives consultancy in capital markets push

Risk tech provider Numerix has launched a new partnership with consultancy and software company, First Derivatives (FD).

Under the partnership agreement, Numerix will embed FD’s network of consultants and capital markets expertise into its solution implementations ‘to further enhance the delivery of products and services to its global network of clients’. 

This partnership also supports Numerix’s strategic shift to use best of breed consultancies as part of its ecosystem of implementation partners globally as it seeks to expand into other areas.

‘At Numerix we are constantly exploring new ways to improve the quality of system support and implementation services we can offer to clients,” said Steve O’Hanlon, CEO of Numerix. “This partnership will allow Numerix to focus on our software development and technology. FD can focus on delivering the best services possible.’