Industry news

August 17, 2012: Futures Industry Leaders Discuss Insurance Fund; MIAX Moves Closer to Becoming 11th U.S. Venue; ASX Says Open to Merger of Equals as Profit Slips

CME Group, its customers and other industry participants talk over the possibility of creating an insurance fund to protect traders.  The Miami International Securities Exchange makes progress towards opening its doors for business. In Australia, lack of business takes its toll on ASX, and its leader says the exchange is open to buying, merging or being taken over in order to stay viable.

First Read

CFTC Proposes Inter-Affiliate Clearing Exemption
Joe Mont – Compliance Week
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued a proposed rule that would exempt inter-affiliate swaps from mandatory clearing requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposal, approved by the CFTC on Thursday, asks the public to comment on whether inter-affiliate swaps pose less counterparty risk than swaps transactions with third parties.
http://jlne.ws/MASVBx

For a thorough overview of this topic, visit its MarketsReformWiki page at http://jlne.ws/NG6VaM

***JM: If you’re interested in regulatory reform and haven’t yet seen MarketsReformWiki, this is a great chance to acquaint yourself. For each topic, MRW brings together summary information, timelines, related links, embedded documents, video and commentary; quite possibly the most comprehensive source you can find for this kind of information.

++++, Jon

Quick View: The new normal?
Philip Stafford – FT.com
Judging by comments from traders so far this month, August statistics are likely to be even worse, even without the numbers skewed by the massive volatility on global markets a year ago. The problem runs deeper than accusations that the market structure is broken, although incidents such as the “flash crash” and Knight Capital’s erroneous trades do nothing to entice people to the market.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8bj

**** One of the worst mistakes repeatedly made is taking a cyclical period and then expecting it is a permanent fixture.  

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SEC may take stock market tip from Australia
Los Angeles Times
Australian regulators might be paving the way for one solution that would prevent the kind of high-speed trading blunder that slammed Knight Capital Group: a “kill switch.” The Australian Securities and Investments Commission this week proposed a set of requirements to halt runaway computer trading, including the introduction of an off switch that would immediately shut down programs. And regulators in the U.S. may consider similar safeguards.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8bp

**** We used to have kill switches in trading in the open outcry days when the firms would physically pull a trader out of the pit.  Now I am not saying the firms killed the trader, but it should be noted that some were never seen again.

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NYSE Euronext lines up Robson as tech head
Philip Stafford – FT.com
NYSE Euronext is lining up Jon Robson, head of Thomson Reuters’ new business development unit, to head up its IT services business NYSE Technologies, according to two people familiar with the situation.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8bu

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Jon Corzine (Yes, That Jon Corzine) May Start A Hedge Fund
Forbes
Brace yourself, and your wallet. Jon Corzine may open up a hedge fund.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8rK

“Hurley, the Boston University law professor, has this solution for people still willing to give Corzine money: a guardian ad litem. That’s a court appointed guardian for individuals who are deemed legally incompetent.”

What Should Jon Corzine’s Hedge Fund Be Named?
Zero Hedge
Since over the past five years hedge funds are better known for coming up with ingenious names, than for actually outperforming the market, we hereby wish to do the Honorable Jon Corzine a favor, and save him the money he would otherwise spend on an expensive naming consultant, by offering up the creative services of our audience in conjuring the name for his future hedge fund.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8rP

***JM: Answers are absolutely not for the faint-hearted when it comes to language…

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Wall Street’s Race to the 48-Millisecond Trade
ERIC OWLES – NYTimes.com
It took just 45 minutes this month for one of Wall Street’s top trading firms to lose $440 million, a loss that has focused attention on the potential problems associated with high-speed trading. Yet today’s technological challenges are not unlike those faced by traders in the 19th century, whose jobs were revolutionized by the advent of ticker machines.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8rU

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CBOE Extends Patent Battle With Rival Options Exchange ISE
Jacob Bunge – Dow Jones
CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE) reopened a years-long patent dispute with a smaller rival, centered on the technology that both exchange operators use to facilitate trading in stock-options contracts.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7nL

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White Paper: Risk Management Data Capture, Analytics, Reporting and Interpretation Superstructure: A Growing Money Management Imperative
Kenneth L Grant – Concept One
As investment markets continue to operate under elevated, highly unstable and unpredictable risk conditions, one of the very few trends that can be clearly identified is the massive, and growing need for money management enterprises to develop, implement, and manage significantly enhanced “top-down” risk analytics and data architecture platforms, designed to meet an increasingly diverse and ever-expanding set of internal and external constituencies.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7nT

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Miami International Securities Exchange Announces Mock Trading Testing
Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC (“MIAX”) announced today that in preparation for the launch of its Options Trading Platform, MIAX is planning industry mock trading testing on the following dates: Saturday 9/8/12, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm ET; Saturday 9/15/12, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm ET; Saturday 9/22/12, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm ET. To arrange participation in the mock trading tests, please contact MIAX Trading Operations at TradingOperations@MIAXOptions.com.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7nZ

**** MIAX should not be confused with IMAX, one is new options exchange surrounded by competitors and another is a, well a theater that surrounds viewers with screens.

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Derivatives industry no likey new margin requirements
Posted by Lisa Pollack – FT Alphaville
A survey of financial market participants most likely to be negatively affected by new regulations on uncleared swap trades revealed that they don’t like this new-fangled way of doing things at all. No, no, they really don’t.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7Ee

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Quelle Surprise! SEC Plans to Make the World Safer for Fraudsters, Push Through JOBS Act Con-Artist-Friendly Solicitation Rules
Naked Capitalism
If you merely looked at the SEC‘s record on enforcement, you’d conclude that it suffered from a Keystone Kops-like inability to get out of its own way. The question remains whether that outcome is the result of unmotivated leadership (ex in the safe realm of insider trading cases) and long-term budget starvation leading to serious skills atrophy, or whether the SEC really, truly, is so deeply intellectually captured by the financial services industry that it thinks industry members don’t engage in fraud, they only make “mistakes”?
http://jlne.ws/OEh7Ef

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No ‘Phishing’: Banks Try to Sink Scammers
By ANDREW SEIDMAN – WSJ
If banks have their way, Internet scammers soon may have a tougher time deceiving people with bogus bank websites. Financial-services companies are snatching up new, exclusive Internet addresses in an effort to crack down on cybercrime, which one analyst said cost the industry an estimated $2.5 billion last year.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7Ei

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Information Management Network Conference: Derivatives Trading in the Era of Dodd-Frank’s Title VII
IMN will be hosting the inaugural Derivatives Trading in the Era of Dodd-Frank’s Title VII conference on September 6, 2012 in New York, NY.

The Dodd-Frank Act will have profound impacts on the entire financial industry, but Title VII – the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act – will have particular significance for OTC derivatives trading and market participants.

The conference will examine how market participants are effectively implementing technology and generating returns with OTC and exchange-traded derivatives within the parameters of new regulation and transparency requirements. The conference will bring together heads of trading desks, COO’s, CTO’s, general counsel and portfolio managers from top banks, pension funds, insurance companies and hedge funds. The conference will also feature exchanges, derivatives trading platforms, financial technology providers, swap execution facilities, clearing houses, broker-dealers, law firms, advisory firms and others concerned with the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on trading.
http://jlne.ws/PnXw9x

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AlphaMetrix Monaco 2012 Summit
The AlphaMetrix Monaco 2012 Summit is fast approaching. From September 12 – 14, an estimated 1,000 qualified investors, hedge fund managers and Service Providers will gather in Monte Carlo for two-and-a-half days of one-on-one meetings. As with all AlphaMetrix Summits, which have quickly become must-attend events for the industry, attendees in Monaco will have unparalleled opportunity to expand their networks and speak face-to-face with a large, diverse and hand-picked group of industry participants from around the world.

Details and registration can be found at http://jlne.ws/OEh7Em

MarketsWiki.tv

Author Bob Swarup Discusses the History of Financial Crises & His Outlook for Managed Futures
MarketsWiki.tv
Author Bob Swarup has had financial crises on his mind for some time – about 2,500 years worth actually. Swarup, a partner at UK-based pension buyout firm Pension Corporation, discussed his new book on the history of financial crises and the outlook for managed funds while at the 2012 Emerging Managers Forum in London. Interview by JLN Managed Futures editor Jim Kharouf.
http://jlne.ws/MZVezn

JLN Interest Rates

Fed may tolerate inflation rate above 2%
WSJ.com
The Federal Reserve may need to be willing to let inflation rise above its 2% target to reduce “quite elevated” levels of unemployment, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/PfDSx8

Ben Bernanke’s Waiting Game
Wall Street Journal Blogs
The Fed is likely to put off launching any new programs unless it’s absolutely necessary.
http://jlne.ws/OkXT3L

Global demand for U.S. Treasuries remains healthy
CNN Money
Investors in the rest of the world continued to buy U.S. investments in June, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. Foreign investors purchased a total of $16.7 billion worth of U.S. securities.
http://jlne.ws/N39mIc

MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

David Casterton; Ian Dudden; Edward F. Condon; Simone Reinhold; Robert E. Rubin; John Shay

Companies, Organizations and Groups

Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange; Trading Technologies International; ICAP; Beirut Stock Exchange; Xignite; 2100 Xenon Group

Miscellaneous

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act; Base metal; Job Postings

Statistics

27,349,829 pages viewed, 7,070 articles, 146,566 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Futures Industry Leaders Discuss Insurance Fund
By JACOB BUNGE And AARON LUCCHETTI – Dow Jones
Senior officials from CME Group Inc. on Thursday met with customers and futures industry leaders to examine the potential for establishing an insurance fund to safeguard traders.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8YM

Miami Options Exchange Moves Closer to Becoming 11th U.S. Venue
Nina Mehta and Nikolaj Gammeltoft – Bloomberg
The Miami International Securities Exchange’s planned U.S. options venue will compete for orders by giving priority to market makers that meet certain quoting requirements, according to its application to regulators.
http://jlne.ws/NG6A8b

ASX Says Open to Merger of Equals as Profit Slips
WSJ.com
ASX Ltd. is open to buying an overseas exchange company or else pursuing a merger of equals after its failed tie-up with Singapore Exchange Ltd., the Australian firm’s chief executive said Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7UJ

UBS chairman says not currently in Libor settlement talks: paper
Reuters via Yahoo! News
UBS isn’t currently in settlement talks with authorities to end allegations it manipulated key interest rates, the Swiss bank’s chairman says in a newspaper interview. “UBS was the first bank to go to the authorities when we had grounds for suspicion in 2010. As a result, we received conditional immunity, meaning we are a key witness,” Axel Weber says in Friday’s edition of German daily Handelsblatt.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8YR

After MF Global, a Need to Find New Ways to Protect Customers
STEPHEN J. LUBBEN – NYTimes.com
The MF Global story still lingers as an insolvency matter, but now we hear rumblings that there will be no criminal charges. It may well be that no crimes were committed, but if this is so, it is time to seriously rethink how broker-dealers handle customer property.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7US

For Europe’s Economy, a Lost Decade Looms
International Herald Tribune
With the exception of Germany, none of Europe’s biggest economies have returned to the level of economic output they had at the beginning of 2008.
http://jlne.ws/OEh7UV

Luxembourg to feel pinch of banking union
Alex Barker in Brussels – FT.com
When it comes to the big political sacrifices required to create a single European bank supervisor, tiny Luxembourg will be one of those countries feeling the pinch most acutely. The dilemmas facing the Grand Duchy, a home from home for the eurozone’s biggest banks, offer a window on the fraught diplomatic talks ahead for all EU member states as they lay down the first plank of a banking union.
http://jlne.ws/OEh8Z3

Regulatory

CFTC Proposes Inter-Affiliate Clearing Exemption
Press Release
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued a proposed rule to exempt swaps between certain affiliated entities within a corporate group from the clearing requirement of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Section 723 of the Dodd-Frank Act added Section 2(h) to the Commodity Exchange Act to establish a clearing requirement for swaps.
http://jlne.ws/OEhaQA

Statement of Support: Clearing Exemption for Swaps Between Certain Affiliated Entities – CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler
http://jlne.ws/OEhaQF

Joint Statement Of Dissent By CFTC Commissioners Jill Sommers And Scott O’Malia – Clearing Exemption For Swaps Between Certain Affiliated Entities
http://jlne.ws/OEh9fp

Swap Dealers May Get Until January to Complete CFTC Registration
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other firms may have until January to register swap-dealing units subject to the highest collateral and conduct standards under U.S. efforts to cut risk in the $648 trillion market.
http://jlne.ws/OEh9fs

The Truth About the SEC and Wall Street
CNBC via Yahoo! Finance
For as long as any one can remember, there has been a lot of concern among self-styled “watchdogs” about the movement of officials between the SEC and the businesses it regulates or the law firms that represent those businesses. The assumption has long been that SEC officials who plan to join Wall Street firms would pull their punches to curry favor with future employers-and would later be able to extract more leniency for their Wall Street clients from former colleagues still at the commission. But a study released earlier this month suggests both of these concerns might be misplaced.
http://jlne.ws/OEhb70

NFA’s Board of Directors approves rule to enhance the customer segregated funds protection regime
The Board of Directors of National Futures Association (NFA) today approved amendments to NFA Financial Requirements that will require each futures commission merchant (FCM) to provide its Designated Self-Regulatory Organization (DSRO) with view-only access via the Internet to account information for each of the FCM’s customer segregated funds account(s) maintained and held at a bank or trust company. The same requirement would apply to the FCM’s customer secured account(s) held for customers trading on foreign futures exchanges.
http://jlne.ws/OEhb73

[NFA] Archive of “Regulatory Requirements for Previously Exempt Commodity Pools” webinar
http://jlne.ws/MWabg9

U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Brainard To Attend Apec Finance Ministers Meeting, August 29-30, 2012
http://jlne.ws/OEh9w1

ESMA Publishes Summary Of Responses To Its Consultation On Materiality In Financial Reporting
ESMA published today a summary of responses received to its consultation paper on materiality in financial reporting. The summary provides an overview of the key issues raised by respondants in relation to the consultation paper.
http://jlne.ws/OEhb7d

[AMF France] Risk and Trend Mapping No12 – 2012 Risk and Trend Mapping for Financial Market and Savings
http://jlne.ws/OEh9Mk

[AMF Canada] Extension of Consultation Period 25-401: Potential Regulation of Proxy Advisory Firms
http://jlne.ws/OEhbnu

ASIC consults on requirement to manage conflicts of interest in litigation schemes and proof of debt schemes
http://jlne.ws/OEhbny

Canadian Securities Regulators publish notice to clarify definition of Preliminary Economic Assessments in NI 43-101 [CSA]
http://jlne.ws/OEh9My

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority Welcomes Ruling On Asset Preservation Orders
http://jlne.ws/OEhbnH

SEC Publishes MIAX Form 1 Application On Website
http://jlne.ws/OEhbDW

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

Chi-X Canada to Introduce New ATS
TORONTO – August 17, 2012 – Chi-X® Canada ATS Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of alternative
trading venue operator Chi-X® Global Holdings LLC, today announced plans to launch a second lit
marketplace, CX2™ ATS, in the first quarter of 2013.* With CX2, Chi-X Canada will establish a unique
and different market model and further provide the trading community with innovative solutions that
result in greater choice and functionality.
http://jlne.ws/PtrtU0

Cetip Bets Brazil Bond Trading System to Tap Growing Demand (1)
By Gabrielle Coppola – Bloomberg
Cetip SA-Mercados Organizados, Brazil’s largest securities clearing house, is starting a new electronic bond-trading platform to tap into surging demand for corporate debt as interest rates tumble to record lows.
http://jlne.ws/OEha33

EEX integrates Energy Market Data from the Czech Republic in Transparency Platform
http://jlne.ws/OEhbE7

Direct Edge Trading Notice #12-32: Introducing The Route Peg Order
http://jlne.ws/OEhajq

Exercise Of Ibovespa Options Generates BRL 6.66 Billion Financial Volume On BM&FBOVESPA
http://jlne.ws/OEhajt

CBSX Appointment System Access Requirement
http://jlne.ws/OEhaju

Program Trading Averaged 28.7 Percent of NYSE Volume during Aug. 6-10
http://jlne.ws/OEhajy

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Cetip Bets Brazil Bond Trading System to Tap Growing Demand (1)
By Gabrielle Coppola – Bloomberg
Cetip SA-Mercados Organizados, Brazil’s largest securities clearing house, is starting a new electronic bond-trading platform to tap into surging demand for corporate debt as interest rates tumble to record lows.
http://jlne.ws/OEha33

Brevan Howard co-founder to step down
Sam Jones – FT.com
Christopher Rokos, co-founder of Europe’s second largest hedge fund manager, Brevan Howard, is to leave the firm. Mr Rokos is one of the most prominent hedge fund traders in the industry, and was one of the wealthiest men in Britain until he moved to Geneva with Brevan in 2010.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcb0

Debt dealers await move from greed to fear
Henny Sender – FT.com
During the financial crisis of 2008, Sunny Verghese, the chief executive and founder of Olam, a soft commodities supplier in Singapore, saw the prices of his company’s equity and debt plummet. Having more faith in its prospects than the market did, he bought back a lot of that debt at a huge discount. Today his equity is down on various global jitters but his debt is actually trading at a premium.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcb8

A Single Tweet From Bill Gross Reveals Why He Recently Had The Worst Year Of His Entire Career
Business Insider
In any case, to the extent that [Ryan] has criticized Ben Bernanke in terms of the dual mandate – i.e., focusing on employment in addition to inflation – going forward, given a 50-50 chance of him being the vice president, perhaps the selection of a future Fed chairman in January of 2014 might be related to another “hard money” type of outlook.
http://jlne.ws/OEhdvA

CalPERS Commits $530 Million To Asia Real Estate Funds
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today announced a $530 million investment commitment to two new real estate funds that will target investments in China.
http://jlne.ws/OEhdvB

In Defense Of Short-Sellers: Bans Cost Investors More Than $1B In 2008
Forbes
There’s been a lot of talk about short-selling bans and their effectiveness over the last couple of years. From Jim Chanos with Enron and David Einhorn with Lehman Brothers then and Green Mountain Coffee now, there have been many cases of short-sellers effectively targeting companies that markets eventually condemned.
http://jlne.ws/OEhdvC

Gauging the ‘Bill Gross Effect’ for Stocks
U.S.News & World Report LP via Yahoo! Finance
Why do we listen to stock market forecasts ? Because we can. Forecast, that is. Anyone can do it. The experts are wrong as often as they are right, studies show. And who remembers what someone said about the market six months or a year back?
http://jlne.ws/OEhcru

PRESENTING: Abby Joseph Cohen’s Epic Presentation On What’s Really Happening In Markets And The Economy
Business Insider
Goldman Sachs investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen is out with a massive presentation on the state of the world economy and investment environment.
http://jlne.ws/OEhdvP

Cusack Spars With Pimco On Underwater Mortgages as Risk Recedes
Bloomberg
Local governments from New York to California are increasingly considering plans to seize mortgages to protect their housing markets against homeowners abandoning properties with values below what they owe.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcrz

JIM ROGERS: Neither Presidential Candidate Will Get Us Out Of This Mess
Business Insider
As the elections get closer the rich and famous are getting more vocal about who they’re backing. Enter commodities guru Jim Rogers who thinks neither President Obama, nor Republican hopeful Mitt Romney can do much to help revive the American economy.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcrJ

The Fear Gauge Goes Quiet—Too Quiet
BY SPENCER JAKAB – WSJ
Wall Street’s famous “fear gauge” is scraping along the bottom once again. Should that, counter-intuitively, spook investors? Not necessarily, although there probably are more fundamental reasons to wonder if we are now in a period of summertime calm before September storms.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcrK

Banks & Brokers

Goldman independent research arm dies, shunned by clients
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Goldman Sachs Group Inc has given up trying to sell research from independent analysts to its institutional clients, after spending millions of dollars on distribution only to find that big money managers had little interest.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcI1

Sweden’s Banks Conceal Mortgage Risks Borg Pledges to Lay Bare
Bloomberg
Sweden’s banks, Europe’s safest on paper, have been hiding mortgage-asset risk behind rules the government now says are out of date and too lax. Finance Minister Anders Borg said yesterday he wants banks to raise the risk weights on their mortgage assets as a next step to enforcing some of the world’s highest capital ratios.
http://jlne.ws/OEhe2I

Justice for Goldman Sachs?
Susan Antilla – CNN
C-SPAN isn’t the usual place to find violations of the seven dirty words you can’t say on television, but April 27, 2010, was an exception. At an 11-hour hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat, culled from a trove of incriminating Goldman Sachs e-mails and let loose with some merciless questions for his Goldman witnesses.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcIb

ICAP to create Global Broking Division – 2012 – News – In the News – News Events – ICAP.com
ICAP plc, the world’s leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade risk and information services, is today announcing an internal reorganisation which will for the first time create a single, global voice broking division to reflect the changing nature of its business and serve customers more effectively.
http://jlne.ws/N2wcje

British banks no longer trusted by over three in five Brits
PRWeb
They may hold UK consumers’ life savings and partially own most of their homes, but banks are no longer trusted by over 3 in 5 of Brits (62%), new research from Currencies.co.uk can reveal. As many as one in three (36%) hasn’t trusted banks since the start of the recession in 2009, and only a tiny 6% still have complete trust in them, regardless of the recent crises.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcIf

Families of bomb victims sue StanChart
Tracy Alloway in New York – FT.com
The families of US marines killed in a 1983 bombing in Lebanon filed a civil suit against Standard Chartered on the same day the UK bank agreed a $340m settlement with a New York regulator related to its handling of payments from Iran.
http://jlne.ws/OEhej9

Goldman Sachs’s Brafman Said to Leave Firm After 11 Years
Bloomberg
Lester R. Brafman, a managing director in the high-yield debt sales and trading department at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , left this week after 11 years at the firm, according to five people familiar with the matter.
http://jlne.ws/OEhejf

ANZ extends executive pay freeze
Neil Hume in Sydney – FT.com
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has moved to defuse some of the criticism of bank profits in Australia and demonstrate restraint on pay ahead of delicate negotiations with staff and unions by extending a pay freeze for top executives.
http://jlne.ws/OEhcYF

Evercore Wealth Management Appoints Jordan Szekely Vice President and Financial Advisor
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
Evercore Wealth Management, LLC, today announced the appointment of Jordan Szekely as a Vice President and Financial Advisor.
http://jlne.ws/OEhejo

Judge rules Assured Guaranty can move forward with UBS suit
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Assured Guaranty Ltd can move forward with part of a lawsuit accusing UBS AG of falsely representating the quality of the loans underlying $1.49 billion of mortgage-backed securities it insured, a federal judge has ruled.
http://jlne.ws/OEhezE

JPMorgan Plans 10-Year Euro Benchmark Senior Unsecured Bond
http://jlne.ws/OEhcYN

JPMorgan Chase Announces Conference Call Date to Review Third Quarter 2012 Earnings
JPMorgan Chase & Co. will host a conference call to review third quarter 2012 financial results on October 12, 2012 at 9:00a.m. . Third quarter financial results are currently scheduled to be released at 7:00a.m.
http://jlne.ws/OEhezM

HSBC, Credit Suisse Sacrifice Employees to U.S., Lawyers Say
Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance
Swiss banks are turning over thousands of employee names to U.S. authorities as they seek leniency for their alleged role in helping American clients evade taxes, according to lawyers representing banking staff.
http://jlne.ws/OEhdfa

Clearing & Settlement

CCPs’ EMIR preparation stalled by regulatory ambiguity
thetradenews.com
Clearing houses have blamed regulatory delays for the lack of progress on the development of solutions to ensure the protection of buy-side assets under new European OTC derivatives legislation. The acknowledgement follows concerns raised by UK buy-side trade body the Investment Management Association (IMA) in response to a consultation held by the European Securities and Markets Authority on detailed rules underpinning the European market infrastructure regulation (EMIR).
http://jlne.ws/OEhdfd

CLS hires JP Morgan veteran as chief executive
Joel Clark – Risk magazine
Foreign exchange settlement utility CLS has appointed David Puth as its new chief executive, effective August 21. Puth spent 19 years of his career at JP Morgan, where he held a number of senior roles, including oversight of the bank’s foreign exchange, interest rate derivatives, commodities and emerging markets businesses.
http://jlne.ws/OEheQc

Indexes & Products

Investors Added $378 Million to High-Yield Funds This Week – Lipper
Dow Jones
Investors poured $378 million into “junk”-rated mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the week ended Wednesday, marking the 10th straight week those funds have added cash, according to Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters.
http://jlne.ws/OEheQr

UBS ETFs on MSCI Brazil launched on Xetra
http://jlne.ws/OEhgaL

BM&FBOVESPA Announces The Second Preview Of The Ibovespa And Other Indices, Valid For September-December 2012
http://jlne.ws/OEhf6O

Technology

MIAX To Offer High Performance Trading Platform Built On Cisco Ultra-low Latency Intelligent Network
http://jlne.ws/OEhf6T

Enforcement

SEC Charges College Football Hall Of Fame Coach In $80 Million Ponzi Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a former college football coach who teamed with an Ohio man to conduct an $80 million Ponzi scheme that included other college coaches and former players among its victims.
http://jlne.ws/OEhfne

‘Broken’ Fund Shifts the Blame
By KIRSTEN GRIND – WSJ
Nearly four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “broke the buck” at his money-market mutual fund, Bruce R. Bent is blaming the U.S. government. The 75-year-old Mr. Bent and his son, Bruce Bent II, are set to go on trial in October on civil charges of misleading investors, ratings firms and trustees of the Reserve Primary fund as it wobbled in September 2008.
http://jlne.ws/OEhgaZ

Oracle Settles Foreign Corrupt Practices Charge with SEC for $2 Million
Dow Jones
Oracle Corp. agreed to a $2 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, after the regulator accused the software firm of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
http://jlne.ws/OEhgrg

Ex-Morgan Stanley executive gets prison time in bribery case
Reuters via Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – A former Morgan Stanley real estate dealmaker was sentenced to nine months in prison on Thursday for skirting the bank’s internal controls in an effort to enrich himself and a Chinese government official.
http://jlne.ws/OEhfnp

ASIC takes action on payday loan advertising
http://jlne.ws/OEhgrp

[ASIC] GE Money changes personal loan online advertising
http://jlne.ws/OEhfDJ

SIX Exchange Regulation reaches agreement with Allreal Holding Ltd
SIX Exchange Regulation has reached an agreement with Allreal Holding Ltd in connection with breaches of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the 2011 annual financial statements.
http://jlne.ws/OEhfDU

Environmental & Energy

EEX grows carbon market share
Environmental Finance
ICE Futures Europe has maintained its dominance among carbon exchanges this year, while EEX’s market share has been boosted by auction volumes.
http://jlne.ws/RZDP93

AP IMPACT: CO2 emissions in US drop to 20-year low
AP
In a surprising turnaround, the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the U.S. has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years, and government officials say the biggest reason is that cheap and plentiful natural gas has led many power plant operators to switch from dirtier-burning coal.
http://jlne.ws/NL9RS4

GAO: EPA rules pose acceptable “reliability challenges” for utility industry
The Hill’s E2 Wire
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Thursday said the implementation of four environmental rules will likely pose electric “reliability challenges,” though not the full-blown problems Republicans and the utility industry have claimed.
http://jlne.ws/TIPngN

Asia-Pacific

Sliding Investment in China Signals Confidence Waning
Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance
Foreign direct investment in China fell to the lowest level in two years in July, fueling concern that waning confidence in the nation’s growth prospects may restrain any economic rebound.
http://jlne.ws/OEhgHW

Thai Bond Electronic Exchange Ready To Trade Scripless Govt Saving Bonds
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Securities and Futures Commission Reprimands And Fines RBC Investment Management (Asia) HK$4 Million
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Frontier Markets

Nigeria’s Inclusion in JPMorgan Bond Index To Spur Capital Inflows
FOX Business
Nigeria’s impending inclusion in JPMorgan Chase & Co’s benchmark emerging markets debt index could spark capital inflows into the west African country’s debt market and free up funds that could be lent to companies and households, analysts said.
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Judging the impact of a junk-rated India: not as bad as it looks
Reuters via Yahoo! News
As India faces the prospect of being the first BRICS country to lose its investment-grade credit rating, investors have already delivered their verdict: to them, the country already trades at “junk”, which should temper any ensuing market reaction.
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Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Report
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MCX – COMDEX Weekly Market Report: August 10, 2012 âE“ August 16, 2012
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The Egyptian Exchange: Eid El Fitr Vacation
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