New way for institutional investors to access Asia-focused equity research to meet with key MiFiD II unbundling requirements

SocieteGenerale today announces a new agreement with Smartkarma, a curated online platform for investment insight focused on the Asian markets. Under this global agreement, SocieteGenerale will provide its institutional clients access to a new form of equity research based on demand driven and customised content* provided by the industry’s highly ranked analysts**, academics, data scientists and strategists.

SocieteGenerale is the first global investment bank to have an agreement with an emerging fintech company to provide equity research that is compliant with evolving research unbundling requirements, such as MiFID II.  Smartkarma’s rapidly growing platform currently provides access to over 100 investment insight firms, comprised of approximately 400 analysts. Its community of analysts have written on more than 1600 companies across 15 Asian markets, offering unconflicted, on the ground coverage, which in addition to large cap bottom up, also includes frontier markets, small and mid-caps and in-depth event driven IPO analysis. On average, 25 insights are published daily with active minute by minute discussions, where themes and ideas are debated, discussed and questioned among a community of experts, in real time.

Stephane Loiseau, Head of Cash Equities & Global Execution Services, Asia Pacific at SocieteGenerale said, “SocieteGenerale is excited to offer institutional investors an innovative solution to access high quality, independent equity research on Asian stocks with insightful investment ideas. This offering is complementary to our strong Cross Asset Research and Trading capabilities with access to over 125 markets and exchange venues globally. With this fast-growing ecosystem, we are providing clients with a new way to access research content that is compliant with the increased unbundling and transparent pricing requirements of research and trading services.”

Raghav Kapoor, CEO and Co-Founder of Smartkarma said; “In a short span, Smartkarma has emerged as the industry-leading model for research creation, distribution and monetisation. We are committed to bringing unbeatable efficiency and unprecedented transparency to the market while promoting revolutionary economics and seamless access. Smartkarma is excited to be working alongside SocieteGenerale in unveiling this new paradigm. Over the coming months we will work together to help clients optimise research budgets and meet evolving regulatory requirements without any need to modify workflow or add to administrative overheads.”

*Smartkarma provides investors with direct access to insight providers, creating a much stronger correlation between research demand and supply and addressing information overload concerns. Smartkarma’s predictive search engine matches research in real time with investor mandates, helping clients consolidate relevant information and stay abreast of evolving, complex financial issues.