IPC Systems Wins Second Consecutive FinTech Breakthrough Award

NEW YORK, March 16, 2021 – IPC, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for the global financial markets, today announced that its Connexus® Cloud solution has been selected as winner of the “Best Cryptocurrency Information Source” award in the fifth annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by FinTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global FinTech market today.

IPC sits at the hub of the worldwide financial markets through the Connexus Cloud ecosystem, an unparalleled trading network connected to more than 7,000 capital market participants across 750 cities in 60 countries worldwide. Sell-side firms, buy-side firms, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, energy firms, trade lifecycle providers, and market-data, as well as clearing and settlement firms, currently rely on the Connexus Cloud platform from IPC for trade execution, order routing, market data delivery, and more for traditional assets.

Connexus Cloud enables the seamless trading of digital assets through partnerships with a host of providers worldwide. These include Omniex, LMAX Digital and Gemini, institutionally focused investment and trading platforms for digital assets that have been integrated into the overarching Connexus Cloud offering. Such a broad range of options for digital asset trading affords financial institutions instant connectivity and access.

In addition, ICE Data Services’ Cryptocurrency Data Feed, which streams real-time and historical data for the most actively traded digital currencies globally, along with the CME CF Cryptocurrency Indices, are also part of Connexus Cloud.

“IPC is empowering the global financial community with a breakthrough platform for information exchange and collaboration in the financial markets, allowing users to access the latest information on digital asset trends and pricing,” said James Johnson, Managing Director, FinTech Breakthrough. “After receiving the honor of being named last year’s winner, IPC has continued to expand its cryptocurrency offerings on its Connexus Cloud platform and we are pleased to recognize the whole team, once again, with our ‘Best Cryptocurrency Information Source’ award for 2021.”

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program recognizing FinTech innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including Digital Banking, Personal Finance, Lending, Payments, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech and many more. The 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Award program attracted more than 3,850 nominations from across the globe.

“In this tumultuous time, this consistency and ability to serve means more than ever before and IPC will continue to uplevel its cryptocurrency offerings in the years to come,” said Bob Santella, Chief Executive Officer, IPC. “Being singled out by FinTech Breakthrough again this year lends credence to our vision, our efforts and our dedication to our network of clients and partners. We are absolutely thrilled to receive this 2021 FinTech Breakthrough Award.”

About IPC

IPC is a technology and service leader powering the global financial markets. We help clients anticipate change and solve problems, setting the standard with industry expertise, exceptional service and comprehensive technology. With a customer-first mentality, IPC brings together one of the largest and most diverse global financial ecosystems spanning all asset classes and market participants. As the enabler of this ecosystem, IPC empowers the community to interact, transact and react to market changes and challenges, and we collaborate with our customers to help make them secure, productive, compliant and connected. Visit ipc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@IPC_Systems_Inc).

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

 About FinTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for technology innovation and leadership around the globe, the FinTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in Financial Technologies and Services companies and products. The FinTech Breakthrough Awards provide public recognition for the achievements of FinTech companies and products in categories including Payments, Personal Finance, Wealth Management, Fraud Protection, Banking, Lending, RegTech, InsurTech and more. For more information visit FinTechBreakthrough.com.

The Future of Work

First Published: Digital Bulletin / March 2021

Following its partnership with GreenKey Technologies, IPC recently rolled out its data visualization tool – Blotter – which utilizes natural language processing and machine learning technology. Digital Bulletin speaks to Tim Carmody, IPC’s Chief Technology Officer, to learn more about how NLP is revolutionizing the financial services industry and what the technology holds for the future.

Read more: http://bit.ly/3sC8IWN

Three Predictions for the City of London in 2021

First Published: Global Banking and Finance Review / February 2021

If CIOs in the City of London were asked at the beginning of 2020 about their biggest concerns for the coming year, they likely would have answered: regulation, followed closely by operational efficiency improvements and the challenges of adopting new technologies. These issues undoubtedly remain important for 2021, but the post-pandemic city now has very different priorities. These three in particular stand out…

Read more: https://bit.ly/37SnHnH

Trading Rooms of the Future – IPC’s Outlook for 2021

First Published: Finance Derivative / February 2021 

The Covid-19 pandemic did not just affect our clients. As soon as the virus started to spread around the world and lockdowns started to come into place, it became apparent here at IPC that we would need to implement our own business continuity plan and work from home strategies. All of this had to take place on an incredibly tight timescale and to an unprecedented extent. We had to react and adapt faster than ever before in order to help our clients prepare for lockdown. There was a need to manage supply chains, gather client feedback, and produce updates for our products with increased levels of accuracy, clarity, and efficiency.

Read more: http://bit.ly/3cSGuCQ

IPC Ushers in New Era of Institutional Digital Asset Trading

NEW YORK, February 16, 2021 – Institutional investors around the world are turning to IPC, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for the global financial markets, to capitalize on the growing momentum behind cryptocurrencies. Several industry developments, from Bitcoin’s recent record high, to favorable policy trends, have created a surge in institutional interest on IPC’s Connexus® Cloud platform.

Connexus Cloud is an unparalleled multi-cloud platform for the global financial markets, an ecosystem that interconnects more than 7,000 diverse capital market participants across 750 cities in over 60 countries. Its suite of mission-critical managed solutions includes a portfolio of products for trading digital assets like security tokens and cryptocurrencies, for which Connexus Cloud won the 2020 FinTech Breakthrough Award for “Best Cryptocurrency Information Source.” Among other integrations, Connexus Cloud users can access:

  • CME CF Cryptocurrency Pricing Products: CME’s CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and Real-Time Index, CME Ether futures real-time market data.
  • Gemini: Gemini provides a crypto native finance platform which includes exchange and custodian solutions for the institutional investor.
  • ICE Data Services’ Cryptocurrency Data Feed: The ICE Cryptocurrency Data Feed streams real-time and historical data for many actively traded digital currencies globally.
  • LMAX Digital: LMAX Digital, the institutional crypto currency exchange, provides physical trading and custodial services.
  • Omniex: Institutional investors can access many cryptocurrency surveillance and trading tools through Omniex, an institutionally focused investment and trading platform for digital assets.

Originally perceived as an alternative to traditional financial instruments, cryptocurrencies and security tokens are increasingly seen as sophisticated asset classes similar to private equity or venture capital. Investors and policymakers are incorporating digital assets into their strategic planning; for example, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently approved the use of stablecoins for the settlement of financial transactions by regulated banks. These developments have formed a virtuous feedback loop accessible on IPC’s institutional-grade network. In addition, IPC has also partnered with enterprise blockchain software firm R3 to support the Corda blockchain networks through Connexus Cloud.

“The strength of Connexus Cloud’s security protocols, combined with the expanse and composition of our institutional community of global financial market participants, enables a ground-breaking ecosystem for digital asset trading,” said Mike Smith, Director, Global Exchange Relations Management, IPC.

 About IPC

IPC is a technology and service leader powering the global financial markets. We help clients anticipate change and solve problems, setting the standard with industry expertise, exceptional service and comprehensive technology. With a customer-first mentality, IPC brings together one of the largest and most diverse global financial ecosystems spanning all asset classes and market participants. As the enabler of this ecosystem, IPC empowers the community to interact, transact and react to market changes and challenges, and we collaborate with our customers to help make them secure, productive, compliant and connected. Visit ipc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@IPC_Systems_Inc).

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

 Media Contacts:                                                                     

 Drew Pierson

Finn Partners for IPC

+1 212 529 4810

Drew.Pierson@finnpartners.com

Terri Bloore

Finn Partners for IPC

+44 207 017 8422

Terri.Bloore@finnpartners.com

Raewyn McBain

Pink Tiger Media for IPC

+852 9765 9275

Raewyn.McBain@pinktigermedia.com

IPC’s Next-Generation Portal Marks Significant Milestone in Digital Transformation Roadmap

 

NEW YORK, February 4, 2021 – IPC, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for the global financial markets, today launched its next-generation IPC Portal, a consolidated, integrated hub to access its award-winning Connexus Cloud  and Unigy  platforms. The Portal marks an important step in IPC’s company-wide, multi-year digital transformation strategy and will be the basis for all future product innovation. It reaffirms IPC’s commitment to fostering greater collaboration with partners and customers to significantly enhance their productivity.

“The IPC Portal provides seamless access to our best-in-class global financial cloud ecosystem,” said David Brown, Chief Operating Officer, IPC. “Fostering collaboration through compelling digital transformation initiatives like the Portal is critical for customer success.”

The IPC Portal is an innovative, unified resource that removes complexity for customers and partners utilizing the flagship Connexus Cloud and Unigy solutions. Powered by advanced analytics, the modernized IPC Portal will serve as a one-stop-shop to help customers and partners and is integral to all future product and service enhancement efforts.

Among many other dynamic features, the Portal will provide:

    • Integration with existing customer service solutions
    • Automated Unigy health checks
    • Connexus Voice global inventory management
    • Call detail records
    • Contact management
    • In-depth reporting and insights, such as user heat maps

Connexus Cloud is an unparalleled multi-cloud platform for the global financial markets, an ecosystem that interconnects more than 7,000 diverse capital market participants across 750 cities in over 60 countries. The Connexus Cloud suite of mission-critical managed solutions includes a portfolio of products, such as Connexus Extranet, Connexus Ethernet, Connexus WAN, and Connexus Hub, which facilitate a flexible model for services with global availability at premier colocation facilities. The world’s top financial institutions rely on Connexus Cloud for fast, reliable connectivity to all aspects of the trade lifecycle – order creation, order placement, trade execution, clearing, settlement, reporting, and market data delivery.

The Unigy platform utilizes the latest trading communications technologies and a services-oriented architecture to bring flexibility and scalability to financial organizations. The unified communications platform makes the entire trading environment more productive, intelligent, and efficient.

“The IPC Portal represents a momentous step forward in the digital transformation roadmap we’ve developed after extensive customer advisory sessions,” said Robert Coole, VP, Cloud Technologies, IPC, whose team led this groundbreaking initiative. “It is a holistic entry point to our industry-leading network and services interconnecting the global financial community.”

About IPC

IPC is a technology and service leader powering the global financial markets. We help clients anticipate change and solve problems, setting the standard with industry expertise, exceptional service and comprehensive technology. With a customer-first mentality, IPC brings together one of the largest and most diverse global financial ecosystems spanning all asset classes and market participants. As the enabler of this ecosystem, IPC empowers the community to interact, transact and react to market changes and challenges, and we collaborate with our customers to help make them secure, productive, compliant and connected.

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

Forecast 2021: Digital Transformation Ramps Up

First Published: TabbFORUM / January 2021

Are you experienced in the digital transformation? Get ready because it’s on its way. In this edition of Forecast 2021, written by Sam Belden of Forefront Communications, financial technology pros at IPC, MackeyRMS and OpenFin provide their insights on the landscape ahead and the move toward greater digitization.

Read more: http://bit.ly/3a51YsP

AFTAs 2020: Best Communication Infrastructure Provider—IPC

First Published: WatersTechnology / January 2021

IPC Systems once again picks up the award for best communication infrastructure provider for its flagship solution, Unigy, claiming back the award from last year’s winner, TransFICC.  Unigy, which currently has more than 110,000 users, aims to provide communication continuity of the back and middle offices, as well as other regulated users’ communications across a unified platform. In the last year, IPC pulled together its two flagship offerings—the Unigy trading floor communications system and the Connexus Cloud infrastructure—to create Connexus Unigy. This is the first time the company has combined the two business lines into a single product offering.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2KL5v76

How 2020 Was The Coming-of-Age Year for Blockchain

First Published: Blockchain Tribune/January 2021

2020 was a year unlike any before, with the COVID-19 pandemic providing unprecedented circumstances and situations that impacted all aspects of our day-to-day lives. This included working from home, nationwide lockdowns, and the need to adhere to social distancing measures where possible. Amid the unprecedented events affecting our lives and our economies in 2020, blockchain was seen to be entering its coming-of-age year.

Although 2020 may have gotten off to a slow start, by the end of the year we were able to see blockchain’s true potential. In order to observe blockchain’s importance to the financial sector, it is necessary to take a look at whether blockchain has been implemented and used in real-life situations, whether that be in the form of new infrastructure projects or blockchain start-ups. And sure enough, despite the numerous challenges presented throughout the course of 2020, we have entered a new era for blockchain.

It must be noted that although the uptake of blockchain has been slow, this isn’t abnormal. With blockchain’s value lying in highly complex, regulated markets such as the financial services industry, it would be unfair to compare blockchain’s adoption to the rise of AI, Cloud, and the Internet of Things. This is because blockchain is better suited to collaborative, complex, multi-party, and critical application use-cases.

The new generation of Blockchain

We are seeing a surge in optimism of blockchain in the financial industry with Gartner, one of the world’s leading information technology research and advisory companies, predicting that blockchain will be fully scalable by 2023. For example, when looking at the enterprise space, customers are beginning to understand the practical purposes of blockchain’s deployment, thus resulting in more investment in blockchain, in terms of both money and time. At IPC, we also have a positive view of blockchain’s future, particularly in the enterprise field.

New generation blockchain companies are starting to lead the way in illustrating how the technology can be utilised in an intelligent manner, so that it can be used appropriately in today’s world. An example of this can be seen with R3, an enterprise software company. The organisation is currently working with an ecosystem that contains over 200 financial bodies, including institutions, trade associations, regulators, professional services, and technology companies to develop Corda – a blockchain platform that enables next-gen transparency, security and efficiency in business. Corda has been designed specifically for businesses to enable them to deliver two interoperable and fully compatible distributions of the platform which is capable of addressing issues such as data privacy and transactional certainty, as well as scalability limitations.

How partnerships can add value

By prioritising integration to stay ahead of the blockchain curve, both application service providers and subscribers must partner with respective service and product providers at an operational level. Real value is provided with the integration and support from the hyper-scale platform community such as Microsoft Azure and AWS. This, in conjunction with IPC’s API first strategy, creates end-to-end solutions that help to solve issues that businesses face. The importance here is APIs, with an API partner integration approach giving institutions the ability to easily access data and provide key insights, as well as inspiring innovation for the company/market need.

Service providers like IPC can play a crucial role in this situation by supporting operationalisation in the systems-oriented context. These service providers are a natural connector, providing connectivity to key market participants. For example, IPC is able to access all trading methods and asset classes, including over 4,500 buy-side, 2,000 sell-side and more than 75 exchanges.

The new model

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on almost every aspect of our lives. While it is easily apparent to see the damage and destruction that this pandemic has caused from an economic, health and societal perspective, blockchain may be able to help the global economy to make a resurgence. In fact, the World Economic Forum listed blockchain as one of the technologies that ‘will benefit all countries currently impacted by COVID-19’. This is due to blockchain providing an efficient approach that is capable of reducing trade costs on a global scale.

Blockchain, being non-partisan and open to all, allows users to act quickly at a lower cost with low barriers for innovation – all of which are key components when it comes to supporting the economy during a period of economic downturn. Although blockchain adoption was slow in its early stages, 2020 appears to have been the year that blockchain came into its own and we expect to see further implementation of the technology in 2021.

IPC’s Unigy Wins ‘Best Communication Infrastructure Provider’ in the 2020 American Financial Technology Awards

NEW YORK, December 7, 2020 – IPC, a leading global provider of secure, compliant communications and highly secure cloud solutions for the global financial markets, today announced that its Unigy platform has won the 2020 American Financial Technology Awards (AFTAs) “Best Communication Infrastructure Provider.” This recognition is bestowed to the firm that provides the most innovative communications infrastructure to the capital markets.

“Unigy is a prime example of IPC’s focus on making the trading environment more efficient and productive through a unified communications solution,” said Bob Santella, Chief Executive Officer, IPC. “The 2020 Waters AFTAs’ recognition of Unigy is testament to its strength in meeting the mission-critical communications and collaboration needs of financial firms around the world.”

IPC’s Unigy utilizes the latest trading communications technologies and a services-oriented architecture to bring flexibility and scalability to financial organizations. The unified communications platform is designed specifically to make the entire trading environment more productive, intelligent and efficient. Unigy enables financial organizations to enhance IPC applications or develop their own to work on the platform, giving them greater control through a fully integrated communications solution.

“IPC has once again shown itself to be one of the industry’s leading providers of communications infrastructure by emerging top in the Best Communication Infrastructure Provider category in this year’s American Financial Technology Awards, thanks to its flagship Unigy platform,” said Victor Anderson, Global Content Director, WatersTechnology.

Hosted by Waters magazine and WatersTechnology.com, the AFTAs recognize excellence in the deployment and management of financial technology within the asset management and investment banking communities.

 About IPC

IPC is a technology and service leader powering the global financial markets. We help clients anticipate change and solve problems, setting the standard with industry expertise, exceptional service and comprehensive technology. With a customer-first mentality, IPC brings together one of the largest and most diverse global financial ecosystems spanning all asset classes and market participants. As the enabler of this ecosystem, IPC empowers the community to interact, transact and react to market changes and challenges, and we collaborate with our customers to help make them secure, productive, compliant and connected. Visit ipc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@IPC_Systems_Inc).

About WatersTechnology

Each month, Waters reports and analyzes the practical implementation of financial technology in the wholesale banking and securities industries. Since its launch in 1993, financial IT professionals worldwide have relied on the magazine for its focused, in-depth coverage of financial market data and technology as well as the human issues of talent management, staff retention and compensation within the financial services community. With more than 10,000 subscribers, Waters readers enjoy the insights of CIOs and CTOs from the global capital markets. Waters is published by Incisive Media Plc. For more information, please visit www.watersonline.com and www.incisivemedia.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projection and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.