Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have joined MarginSphere, AcadiaSofts online community for margin automation in the OTC derivatives market.
Previously, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and J.P. Morgan joined and helped AcadiaSoft develop MarginSphere, the central messaging service providing the electronic exchange of margin calls, substitutions and interest statements between counterparties engaged in collateral management. The automated service helps firms to reduce inefficiencies and manage risk.
The addition of four more of the worlds leading investment banks to MarginSphere ensures that buy-side participants that join the community can now have the majority of their margin calls automated, says Craig Welch, co-founder and CEO of AcadiaSoft. With greater attention on collateral management due to heightened regulatory oversight, it is now essential for firms to create efficiencies and increase transparency through automation of their margin call and collateral management operations. By bringing such a large percentage of the OTC market on to MarginSphere, AcadiaSoft is offering a means to improve how clients manage these processes.
MarginSphere allows dealers and investors to manage collateral communications online with access to instantaneous information. All activity is time stamped with an audit trail, creating more transparency and meeting regulatory requirements.
Global Custodian profiled MarginSphere in its Winter Plus 2012 edition. See “How to automate a margin call.”
(CG)