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December 2008 - MPI Europe and Cogent Team to Implement Commission Sharing Arrangement Solutions in Europe
Cogent Consulting LLC and MPI Europe have developed a strategic partnership to help institutional brokerage and investment managers in Europe implement and manage Commission Sharing Agreements (CSA) faster and more easily. Following the September 15th Lehman UK bankruptcy, more managers want to spread their risk by using a greater number of CSA brokers, creating demand for the right technology platform to manage CSAs efficiently. Under the agreement, MPI will implement Cogent’s CSA Trak™ and CSA Trak BD™ solutions for buy and sell side firms across Europe. CSA Trak, from US-based Cogent, a pioneering developer of cross-broker commission management systems, is the leading platform for helping institutional brokers and their clients manage CSAs . CSA Trak turns the complexity of setting up these arrangements with a large number of sell and buy side accounts into a simple web-based solution that is as easy as using an online banking account.

August 2008 - MPI Europe enters yacht in Sail Intel Regatta
It is what passes for summertime here in the UK and so last month we ventured forth onto the high seas as part of the annual Sail Intel Regatta to have a bit of fun and networking. As with our entry to the same event last year, our crew was made up of MPIE staff, clients and alliance partners – several of whom had not sailed much before – but who quickly bonded when faced with a common challenge. Our yacht, the good ship MPI Europe, tacked, gybed, manoeuvred and skilfully avoided other boats, to make its way through to an impressive 10th place in a fleet of over 30 boats, in the final race. Clicking on the link in the title leads to a picture of yacht and crew in full sail!

May 2008 - Faster Payments make a slow but steady entrance
As you may know that MPIE have a vested interest in FastPayments.co.uk the Faster Payments industry information site. So we have been monitoring the progress of this scheme in the last few weeks running up to it’s roll out on the 27th May 2008. Reports are that the final “live” testing has gone well, and that the scheme is operating as planned – indeed if you bank in the UK by the time you read this, you may have already have made a Faster Payment through one of the main clearing banks. However, this will be a slow and steady beginning rather than a mass rush with not all scheme banks being able to initiate payments (although all main banks will be able to receive them) and with many banks starting the scheme with far lower maximum payments than the intended scheme maximum of £10,000. The avowed plan is that as the scheme beds down the limits for each bank will increase. We wish the scheme well as we believe it is a significant step forward in UK payments. For more details, you can go to our fastpayments.co.uk site and visit the Frequently Asked Questions, or get in contact/ask us any questions either through this site.

Apr 2008 – MPIE partner firm Kurtosys Systems opens New York office
To address the growing demand for Kurtosys Managed Services within the Asset Management and Asset Servicing industry, Kurtosys Systems Inc. has announced the opening of a New York office. Mash Patel, CEO, commented: "We are pleased by the positive momentum that we have been building over the last twelve months. Providing a New York office will allow us to service our growing customer base and to address the increasing demand for our unique data aggregation and client reporting platform. Customers view Kurtosys as an extension of their operations and accordingly, we understand how they use our service platform. Our customers have purchased a service and not software, consequently, they do not need to manage the underlying technology; we do it for them. Having a New York office puts us closer to our customers."

Jan 2008 - MPIE predicts polarisation, not extinction for small equity exchanges
Research done by MPI Europe predicts that smaller European equity exchanges will not be wiped out by major MiFID exchanges, but will offer different non-competing, localised services instead. For a fuller version, read our Finextra.com blog.