ITG and Commcise have integrated their research payment and management tools for an end-to-end unbundling service.
The tool will allow the buy-side to administer the research payment process from unbundling, reconciliation, budgeting, consumption and tracking.
Commcise will track and manage budgets for research funding and consumption and then calculate fund-level rebates in real time to be delivered to ITG for repayment to clients.
Both parties said the partnership is aimed at addressing the challenging of MiFID II’s unbundling holistically, given the now short timeline.
Jack Pollina, managing director at ITG, explained the combined tool enhances the value of ITG’s already established unbundling service.
“With MiFID II fast approaching, investment firms need to rethink their research spend processes and ensure what they have in place is compliant with the new regulations,” he said.
Amrish Ganatra, managing director at Commcise, added through the combined technology, the buy-side will be able to provide evidence of compliance with MiFID II.
Commcise recently teamed up with Convergex’s Westminster Research Associates to integrate technology for a similar unbundling tool.
Both firms explained the buy-side is looking to improve efficiencies, reduce operational costs and a single integrated solution that can handle all key aspects of commission sharing agreements (CSA) and research payment accounts.