Alpha Exchange, Techstars fintech firm solves one of the biggest challenges facing asset managers
MiFID II imposes a major transactional and administrative burden on asset managers, fintech firm Alpha Exchange uses technology to solve industry wide dilemma with launch of MiFID II toolkit.
Alpha Exchange, the Techstars backed fintech company today announces the expansion of their marketplace business. Launching an integrated end-to-end technology solution for fund managers to comply with new EU rules over the consumption and payment of investment research. The new feature set provides Alpha Exchange clients with a full service research offering.
Alpha Exchange has released a sophisticated MiFID II toolkit comprising firm-wide research tracking and evaluation tools. This technology enables asset management firms to monitor research consumption across their firm (multi-platform enabled) with the ability to rate research and analyst interactions in real time. In addition, the toolkit includes research budgeting software and an integrated payment portal supporting RPA and hard dollar payments.
The former Investec Asset Management co-founders, Emma Margetts and Scott Winship, launched the company in New York in 2016 as a platform for the discovery, consumption and compliant payment of investment research. Alpha Exchange signed their first investment banking POC with Barclays in September 2016.
Emma Margetts, co-founder says, “At this point in the MiFID II evolution, what is clear is that asset managers’ research analytics are incredibly poor. CIOs and research managers need to establish a mechanism to assess the quantity and quality of research being consumed and its ability to contribute to better investment decisions. Completeness of capture is key. Alpha Exchange provides the technology to do this.”
The company has begun piloting the software with a select pool of European asset management clients. With the unbundling of research from execution, a growing trend amongst European asset managers is to no long charge the cost of equity research to their funds and clients, this imposes a major transactional and administrative burden on asset managers.
Scott Winship, co-founder and ex-fund manager reports, “As MiFID II approaches, mid to small asset management firms are beginning to see the research ‘taps’ turned off. Alpha Exchange’s platform enables fund managers to purchase research with the flexibility to add on additional high touch research services.”
