Seven major global banks have shelled out $25.4 million to fund the ongoing development of a post-trade service for exchange traded derivatives.
The cash was doled out to FIA Tech, the former technology arm of the US Futures industry Association, which is leading the project.
Banks backing the initiative include FIA shareholders Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, as well as new arrival BNP Paribas.
Funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the Trade Data Network (TDN), an initiative that provides a shared ledger of trading information to address the fragmentation and lack of transparency in exchange traded derivatives (ETD) post-trade processing. The successful rollout of TDN is also expected to help reduce clearing delays for brokers and overall costs.
The TDN initiative currently includes 16 banks/brokers and 40 investment managers and hedge funds with combined assets under management of over $37 trillion.
The initial rollout of TDN is focused on allocations processing and trade confirmations, with trade lifecycle transparency across the multiple brokers and the clearinghouse on each trade. Additional features include benchmarking, metrics tracking and reporting to drive best practices across the ecosystem. The initiative is also designed to drive value for the independent software vendor (ISV) community by reducing complexity in delivering services to clients.
Nick Solinger, president and CEO of FIA Tech, says: “We are delighted that BNP Paribas will be supporting us on our next stage of development and equally pleased at the support from our existing investors to launch the Trade Data Network. TDN has already proven its operational resiliency for participants in recent times of high market volumes and volatility.”
In 2021 FIA Tech announced its Series A investment round of $44 million to fund the spin-off of the firm. Original investors were ABN Amro Clearing, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo.