Armeet Sandhu and Dan Dougherty discuss how the new partnership between EquiLend and Stonewain will benefit clients
Could you tell me a bit about the partnership between EquiLend and Stonewain?
Dan Dougherty: The partnership between EquiLend and Stonewain combines the forces of two leading technology firms in the securities finance space to offer a powerful new engine to market participants from which to drive their businesses. The EquiLend Spire platform incorporates EquiLend’s suite of services—NGT, post-trade suite, DataLend market data and performance measurement and EquiLend clearing services central counterparty (CCP) connectivity—and offers seamless integration with the modular and scalable Spire platform. As a result, firms can benefit from full straight-through processing covering their entire business, including trading, accounting, security, risk analysis and compliance, reporting and operations. The partnership allows us to collaborate for the benefit of the industry, with best-in-class technology offered by both firms now together in one streamlined platform. Clients can also benefit by creating efficiencies across their business operations and lower the total cost of participating in the securities finance marketplace.
What opportunities will the EquiLend Spire solution provide?
Dougherty: The launch of the joint EquiLend Spire solution allows clients to bring their entire operation into one single, fully integrated platform. Many firms currently juggle countless different technology solutions to manage all their business functions; rather than managing those platforms and relationships in a piecemeal fashion, the EquiLend Spire solution is one seamless platform covering everything a firm needs to run a securities finance business. Furthermore, the open architecture allows firms to build their own customisation right on top, such as artificial intelligence or machine learning functions. As enhancements are made to EquiLend Spire over time as industry needs evolve, no new build is required by clients, lowering IT costs for firms.This also allows new features to be added, including new EquiLend services such as EquiLend Exposure or Securities Financing Transaction Regulation functionality, without the need for extra build from clients. Built on a modern tech stack, EquiLend Spire offers full straight-through processing with the full lifecycle of a securities finance trade covered from trade initiation through the entire post-trade process. In short, a client could plug into EquiLend Spire and be ready to run their securities finance business from day one.
What are the benefits of being able to manage a book of business on a single and integrated platform?
Armeet Sandhu: Today we see a consolidation of activities that were siloed in the past. As the industry changes and business units are consolidated into a combined business offering—such as bringing together securities lending, repo and collateral functions—disparate technology systems across those business lines will cost time, effort and technology investment. Instead, if you leverage a comprehensive platform such as EquiLend Spire you can do it all in one place, enabling those forward-thinking firms who have aligned these business units all to “speak the same language” using one technology. This is what we offer out of the box. Another benefit to this is that a view of global exposure and risk management assessment becomes much simpler.
Are there any risks of having the entire business in one central place?
Sandhu: The risk of disparate systems having data leaks, data synchronisation problems and stale data far outweighs any perceived risks with a centralised solution. A major reconciliation problem exists when issues arise as different systems communicate. When you have one system and need to evolve your business, you have just one system to update-whereas if you have multiple systems it becomes a much riskier and more involved project. Not to mention the fact that the cost of buying and maintaining one single system is much less.
What were the main challenges in creating this solution?
Sandhu: Our primary objective was making sure that we were creating a solution that would provide value and benefit to our end customers. The biggest concern that we discussed when we created this solution was to ensure we were creating a solution that had a need in the industry. We also spent a great deal of time ensuring that the different features we were building into the solution were symbiotic and not overlapping.
How important is it for firms to embrace new technology? Are there still a lot of people in the industry using legacy systems?
Dougherty: A few solutions exist in the marketplace for firms to manage a variety of business functions. None is as robust as the EquiLend Spire platform, which has the added unique benefit of incorporating the full suite of EquiLend services. This allows firms access to the entire ecosystem of the securities finance market. Technology is key to running any business today, and we understand that many firms have pain points when it comes to technology.
We believe that when technology hinders rather than supports your business it can spell disaster. That’s why we built EquiLend Spire: to fill a gap in the market for well supported, trusted technology that offers economies of scale, comprehensive features, information security and forward-thinking technology.
