US financial giants Bank of New York Mellon and investment management group BlackRock are putting aside their rivalry by forming an alliance in which they will integrate one another’s customer data.

The union will see BNY Mellon, which keeps investment firms’ books, deliver real-time information on trades, asset prices and cash positions to the 40 to 50 clients it shares with BlackRock’s Aladdin, a platform used by money managers use to analyse their investment portfolios and manage theirrisks.

The two groups, which hope that the alliance will bring in new revenue streams, said they are also working together to provide new solutions to give clients additional flexibility and insights through the investment lifecycle from the front office to operations to accounting.

“This collaboration builds on a multi-year effort by BlackRock Solutions and BNY Mellon to transform the investment manager operating model,” the two groups announced.

“These joint efforts, demonstrated through years of BNY Mellon servicing BlackRock, have already helped to increase transparency at multiple stages of the investment lifecycle, accelerate information delivery, and synchronise the data that supports core functions for asset managers.”

The announcement comes in a week when BlackRock has announced several changes to its senior management, while BNY Mellon recently announced that it had appointed Michael Demissie to lead its activities in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and distributed ledger technology (DLT). He is joining the group from State Street.