London Exchange Taps Volante for Swift Messaging
February 2, 2009
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is planning to use software from Volante Technologies to integrate Swift messaging into its global matching, reconciliation, data integration and validation service.
The implementation will let customers of LSE's Web-based UnaVista platform transmit data through the Swift network in messages that are compliant with the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 15022 format. The London exchange currently transmits corporate action notifications in ISO 15022 message types over Swift's network.
"Data transmission through Swift messaging is an important option for our customers and will enable more firms to participate in UnaVista," said Mark Husler, head of business development for data and software. "We were looking for a solution with out-of-the-box support for Swift and other types of messaging standards with no need to change our system architecture, and we found that in Volante."
Launched in 2006, UnaVista allows LSE customers to reconcile disparate reference data obtained from multiple sources and formats, including proprietary systems. The service, which has about 1,300 customers including tier-one banks, also permits users to validate reference data held in numerous internal applications--securities masterfiles--with the exchange's data.
Vijay Oddiraju, chief executive of Volante, a New York-based data integration specialist, also cited the potential expansion of UnaVista's client base. "The Swift capability will open the door for many organizations to use the UnaVista platform through a message type they are already familiar with," he said, "rather than creating custom interfaces."
In addition to processing intraday data files in a multitude of formats, the integration of Volante's Designer software will enable LSE to process real-time messages over the Swift network, said Husler. In doing so, the exchange can extend UnaVista into reconciliation of cash and stock positions as well as confirmation between counterparties. "Such a reconciliation between internal applications allows our clients to improve operational efficiency and reduce risk," said Husler.
In September, LSE migrated its Sedol Masterfile service to UnaVista, allowing it to provide reference data and IDs for additional instruments-exchange-traded derivatives and new fixed-income products. In shifting the production of Sedol codes to UnaVista, the exchange has doubled the size of its database, Husler said. By the end of January, LSE will issue Sedols for 2 million exchange-traded derivatives in 80 markets worldwide, as well as international securities identification codes for U.K.-listed derivatives.
LSE is the second European market infrastructure to use Volante's Designer, a desktop application that automatically generates integration code for any platform, application or network, for Swift messaging integration. "With the Swift plug-in, Swift messaging catalog and all of the functions and validation rules already pre-built, Designer enables quick mapping to the destination application or database without the need for hand-coding," said Oddiraju. Implementation time is reduced by at least 60 percent over other integration approaches, according to Volante.
Volante, whose approximately 60 financial firm and market infrastructure clients include Omgeo, Brown Brothers Harriman, Broadridge Financial Solutions and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, in July was awarded a gold-label designation from Swift for messaging data services (MDS)--a new category of partners in its SwiftReady program.
Previously, Volante held a SwiftReady certification for messaging libraries, a category that was eliminated in favor of MDS, which includes support for service-oriented architecture and systems that can translate between ISO 15022 and 20022 message formats. MDS vendors must not only be able to map different application data formats into the Swift format and validate messages against Swift syntactical and semantic rules, but also transform Swift messages so that they can be understood by financial institutions' back-office applications.
