Versana launched an industry-backed syndicated loan platform, bringing to market a new centralized solution that digitally captures agent banks’ deal data on a real-time basis, providing the modern foundation for future market innovation and collaboration. Versana connects banks, institutional lenders and their service providers to deliver transparency, efficiency and velocity to this $5 trillion market.
Versana’s syndicated loan platform is revolutionary for the private sector of the corporate credit market, providing unprecedented transparency. Loan and position level details range from global borrower commitments and outstandings to historical transaction cash flows, positions on a fund-by-fund basis, base rate contract details as well as digitized event notices.
Founding investors J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citi and Credit Suisse, working with their respective loan syndications and debt capital markets divisions, created Versana to initially address the operational inefficiencies and technological fragmentation in the U.S. leveraged loan market. The platform is now connected and live with real-time loan data. All four founding banks are now Versana subscribers and its first early-adopter clients.
Propelled forward by the banks’ asset class expertise and managed by Versana’s team of seasoned banking and technology professionals, the platform is the market’s first real-time, multi-tenant solution centralizing corporate loan data flowing directly from leading administrative agent banks’ books and records. With its launch, Versana facilitates straight-through processing and long-term, scalable market growth, enabling participants to convert from legacy analog processes to a state-of-the art, self-service data and technology platform that accommodates future innovation.
“This is truly a monumental day for the entire loan market,” Cynthia Sachs, founding CEO and board member of Versana, said. “Versana is the long-awaited digital data and technology solution that the syndicated loan market has so greatly needed. We are thrilled to launch this platform with the innovative and strategic support of our founding investors for a better – and ultimately bigger – corporate credit market.”
“We’re excited to join with other leading agent banks to mark the launch of the Versana platform,” Alex Naboicheck, head of U.S. leveraged loan trading at Bank of America, said. “The fact that all four founding banks have invested capital as well as committed to contribute their administrative agent loan data to the system speaks volumes about our belief in this initiative. We’re proud to play such an integral role as the platform comes to market.”
“This exciting effort will lead the digital transformation of the syndicated loan market,” Joseph Ferraiolo, head of debt capital markets operations and merchant bank policy at J.P. Morgan, siad. “Moving to a digitized format will further enable market participants to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and lenders will have ease of receiving their loan holdings data to enable faster decision making to recycle and grow liquidity in the market.”
“The launch of the Versana platform is a major milestone in our mission to transform the syndicated loan market by bringing innovation and technology to bear across the loan lifecycle,” Jeff Cohen, global head of leveraged finance at Credit Suisse, said. “We’re excited to be playing a part in achieving this aspirational goal.”
“With the launch of the Versana platform, real-time sharing of loan information is becoming a reality,” Nina Guinchard, global head of transaction management at Citi, said. “We’re helping take syndicated loan data and technology infrastructure to the next level, something that is critical for the continued growth of the industry.”
The open, permissioned-based system is designed specifically for the private nature of the asset class and is a key feature of the platform. The initial scope of the solution is focused on the U.S. institutional market, namely Term Loan As and Bs. As additional agent banks, lenders and service providers join, Versana plans to further enhance its product offerings to meet the evolving needs of its clients throughout the loan ecosystem.
“The Versana platform has been built by a team of veteran banking and technology professionals with decades of experience working in the loan ecosystem,” David Kamp, CTO of Versana, said. “Knowing firsthand the challenges faced by participants in this space, we have built a robust and secure foundation to modernize the market by leveraging smart contracts and distributed-compute and event-processing engines.”