Sanctions compliance: New service by SIX now tracks and monitors ETFs to ensure compliance with global regulatory jurisdictions

Sanctions compliance: New service by SIX now tracks and monitors ETFs to ensure compliance with global regulatory jurisdictions

SIX adds ETF sanctions screening to the existing Sanctioned Securities Monitoring Service (SSMS)

(PRESS RELEASE) ZURICH, 10-Nov-2022 — /EuropaWire/ — SIX Group, the operator of the infrastructure for the Swiss financial centre, has announced the launch of a new service that will track and monitor ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to ensure compliance with global regulatory jurisdictions. The company will add  ETF sanctions screening to the existing Sanctioned Securities Monitoring Service (SSMS) with the aim to support even greater sanctions compliance for global client base.

With heightened sanctions scrutiny, there is greater need for banks, asset managers and wealth managers to have transparency into all types of indirect investment vehicles, including ETFs. To address this market need, SIX has created a new module to provide a broad analysis of the constituent securities of ETFs.

Following the acquisition of ULTUMUS in July 2021, SIX has expanded the data coverage available to clients across passive funds. Now covering 97% of the global ETF market (close to 10,000 ETFs), Ultumus is indeed one of the largest ETF calculation houses in the world and offers global composition data and providing risk assessment and technical solutions. Now, covering the value chain from listing and trading to data and analytics delivery, SIX has developed a leading position in the Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) ETF sphere.

SMSS from SIX brings together vast amounts of securities information, plus analysis of sanctioned entities and sanctions regimes for pre- and post-trade screening. Utilizing the unparalleled ETF look-through data from ULTUMUS, this new module from SIX helps making ETFs more transparent for clients by identifying sanctioned securities present in ETFs.

If an ETF is tainted with sanctioned securities, SIX supports clients in identifying this change through access to daily sanctions data for most major regimes. This helps to minimize the risk level and protect market participants from compliance breeches or investment strategy misalignments, while also protecting the portfolio value should the sanctioned securities contribute to an impact on liquidity and devaluing of the ETF.

Oliver Bodmer, Senior Product Manager, Financial Information, SIX, comments: “Increased requirements from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to ensure all funds are screened for sanctions has added another layer of complexity for market participants with regards to their “sanctions compliance”. As a result of this new development, the SIX service now tracks and monitors ETFs, in addition to equities, bonds, structured products and options, to enable compliance with global regulatory jurisdictions and safeguarding our clients against compliance and portfolio risks.”
More information about SSMS ETF by SIX.

Media contact:

Jürg Schneider
MEDIA RELATIONS
Head Media Relations
+41 58 399 2129

SOURCE: SIX Group