Commcise, a buy-side focused commission management, research valuation and research accounting platform, and RSRCHXchange, an aggregator and marketplace for institutional research, have teamed up to deliver an integrated research solution to support the research consumption, valuation and accounting data requirements of buy-side and sell-side firms.

With the MiFID II implementation deadline only a few weeks away, there is an urgent need for investment managers to have their research funding data, consumption data and accounting data in one place in order to comply with the latest requirements. Under the new unbundling regulations due to be implemented on 3 January 2018, buy-side firms are required to integrate many areas of their existing business processes including the discovery, consumption, funding, budgeting and evaluation of research, research accounting, reporting, control and governance.
 
Together, the RSRCHXchange and Commcise systems provide asset managers with an end-to-end research workflow solution accessed via a secure buy-side controlled portal. Functionality includes research discovery and procurement, content entitlement management, consumption tracking across 500+ research providers, bottom-up research valuation and fund level research accounting. Users can budget for research by desk/strategy and fund level, value research, and track research funding with integrated support for RPA and P&L payments. Research accounting can now be administered at Fund level, with detailed MIFID II ex-ante and ex-post reporting
 
The collaboration allows research consumption statistics to be passed from the RSRCHX platform to Commcise via an API. Commcise makes this readership and procurement data from RSRCHX available alongside all other sell-side and buy-side contributed data in a MiFID II transparent and audited manner. Commcise manages the allocation of all research costs to clients using a proprietary fair allocation algorithm to allow asset managers to evidence that investors are benefiting from the research that has been consumed. 
 
Commcise Managing Director Amrish Ganatra, says: “We are delighted to partner with RSRCHXchange to provide our customers with access to high quality readership data from a broker-neutral, independent and un-conflicted research platform. The industry has long had a need for collaborations that bring together market leading providers in a way that is intuitive for the buy-side and sell-side”
 
RSRCHXchange Co-CEO Jeremy Davies (pictured), says: “We strongly believe a collaborative approach is the most comprehensive and efficient way not only to get ahead of MiFID II research unbundling but also to operate a research-led investment process. Partnerships ensure we remain at the forefront of financial technology innovation and provide the best possible service to clients by offering connections to other best-in-breed solution providers.”