BearingPoint acquires risk management and reporting specialist RiValue

Interesting acquisition of a data technology platform for risk management and the respective reporting called RiValue. It has come a long way: formerly it has been a part of Value & Risk. BearingPoint seems to further evolve as a regulatory reporting system platform, complementing its services fueled primarily by its product ABACUS.

Buy-Side Technology Awards 2013: The Winners

This year's winners are out, with a few new names and some "surprises". Good to see that the number of categories did not increase once again (currently at 28). In case you are interested to compare to previous years, these are the results for 2012 and 2011.

BNP Paribas Completes Acquisition of Commerzbank Depotbank

Now that the deal is completed the usual mechanisms kick in: amongst them is the consolidating of IT infrastructure and systems. With it the already expressed challenge - and there is no shortcut.

Asset Control has a new owner

Interesting deal by Marline Equity that leaves me a tad bit puzzled in terms of synergy gains: the owner of a potpourri of systems and service providers outside the financial world buys one of the top reference data management systems, Asset Control. Looks a bit like Sungard to me.

BNP Paribas Buys Commerzbank's Depotbank Business

This deal was "in the air" for quite some time and several tries have been rumored. Other articles have named this deal the kick-off for the long awaited shrinking of the depotbank market in Germany. I am not sure that it would make the market pick up the pace in that regard.

The article uses a nice definition for depotbank: "Depotbank is a German term referring to a custodian carrying out clearing, custody and trustee services", a discrimination rather unknown in the anglo-saxon dominated world.

One challenge in carrying out this deal could be the IT infrastructure that the depotbank uses jointly with the core custody business or its outsource partners and that could require a major investment if the business is not completely migrated over to the BNP systems.

Dexia fund arm sale suffers setback

The acquisition of Dexia Asset Management by private equity firm GCS Capital seems to stumble says Ignite. This looks like a déjà vu: Deutsche Bank wasn't able to sell its fund admin arm to Guggenheim. Other deals did materialize, e.g.: BlackRock acquired Credit Suisse’s ETF business and Orix Corporation closed on Robeco, Rabobank's fund business.

Hauck & Aufhäuser to sell Lux private client ops

Yet another sale for Hauck & Aufhäuser. After selling its stake in Universal Investment, Hauck & Aufhäuser is now unhooking its private clients operations in Luxembourg.