Napier Park Achieves Citi Spinoff, Volcker Compliance with Sky Road
The collaborative project among Napier Park and Sky Road's technology teams allows the newly separate alternative asset manager to comply with the Volcker Rule well ahead of its July 2014 deadline, by migrating its trading operational systems to an independent datacenter and taking over daily IT support from its previous backers at Citi.
"The relationship really goes back further even than CCA, to when some of Napier Park's principals, including COO Michael Williams, were at Carlton Hill Global Capital. The big change in the past year was simply the scope," says Eiman Abdelmoneim, Sky Road's director of product strategy. "That broader, core support includes Napier Park's front- and back-office systems, market data interfaces, trading and reconciliation flow with its prime brokers and fund administrators, as well as risk processing. But both partners got into this with an acknowledgement that to achieve full Volcker compliance, it takes more than just pure technology alone."
Key Dynamic
Napier Park completed its legal separation from Citi in February of this year, but Abdelmoneim says a broader combination of people, processes, and IT is involved the switch, which can only be successfully achieved by first taking a step back to examine both sides of the spinoff.
"The key dynamic with Volcker is the timeline, and the end objective is continuity," he says. "You have to start with the end-user, what they're doing, why, and who they're interacting with, and then determine how the technology facilitates that, or the action they'd like to complete. So these projects vary greatly. There is a technical impact, in so much as when a fund operates within the walls of a larger entity, it might come to rely on certain systems and processes that are proprietary within the bank to drive certain strategies, and if those are located within the bank's other business lines, they might not be able to move outside as easily. Each case, in that sense, is different, and will therefore have to do with the parent entity [in this case, Citi] as much as they do with the new one."
Napier Park's COO Williams, meanwhile, says Sky Road's managed services model will help extend the partnership further down the line. "In light of the rapid delivery requirements, we needed a partner with both the domain expertise and track record of managing and developing trading platforms end to end. Sky Road was a critical part of the team that delivered ahead of schedule with zero disruption to our business processes, and as Napier Park continues to grow, we are confident that Sky Road will enable us to build upon and streamline our trading and risk platforms to best serve our investors."
As for similar spinoff implementations leading up to next July's deadline, Abdelmoneim has few doubts that they'll be growing, too. "We absolutely expect to see more," he says.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Printing this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. Copying this content is for the sole use of the Authorised User (named subscriber), as outlined in our terms and conditions - https://www.infopro-insight.com/terms-conditions/insight-subscriptions/
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Trading Tech
The IMD Wrap: Talk about ‘live’ data, NAFIS 2024 is here
This year’s North American Financial Information Summit takes place this week, with an expanded agenda. Max highlights some of the must-attend sessions and new topics. But first, a history lesson...
MarketAxess builds strategy around X-Pro
MarketAxess profits were down in Q1, but revenues were up and automation volume hit a record $94 billion.
Canada’s triparty repo launch aims to fill C$60bn void
Test trades on TMX/Clearstream platform represent “quantum leap” for creaking funding markets.
People Moves: NorQuant, Tradition, Duco, HKEx, SimCorp, Hazeltree, Xceptor, Broadridge, and more
A look at the past month’s people moves in the capital markets technology and data space.
Bank-led consortium takes aim at position reporting
Five banks, including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, have joined forces to mitigate interpretation and implementation errors in position reporting disclosures.
This Week: BBH, AllianceBernstein add data solutions, Deutsche Börse-Nodal Exchange, and more
A summary of some of the latest financial technology news.
Consortium backs BGC’s effort to challenge CME
Banks and market makers—including BofA, Citi, Goldman, Jump and Tower—will have a 26% stake in FMX.
Symphony boosts Cloud9 voice offerings with AI
The messaging and collaboration platform builds on Cloud9’s capabilities as it embraces the AI wave in what CEO Brad Levy calls “incremental” steps.
Most read
- Waters Wavelength Podcast: S&P’s CTO on AI, data, and the future of datacenters
- Chris Edmonds takes the reins at ICE Fixed Income and Data Services
- BMO’s cloud migration strategy eases AI adoption