Industry news
Date: Dec 10, 2012
December 10, 2012: India Options Trade Grows Fastest in World; New clearing rules spell stark choice over hedging strategies; Korea gears up for OTC clearing
India’s options market is growing at the fastest pace in the world, bringing a much-needed piece of good news to a region still trying to recover from the global financial crisis. New swaps regulation for central counterparty clearing puts pressure on hedge investors to either greatly increase collateral or switch to higher-risk products. And speaking of swaps, in Korea, KRX exchange plans to launch won-denominated interest-rate swaps next year.
First Read
2012 SEFCON III Videos
MarketsWiki.tv
The Wholesale Markets Brokers’ Association Americas (WMBAA) is an industry advocacy group made up of five inter-dealer brokerage firms (IDBs): BGC Partners, GFI Group, ICAP, Tradition and Tullett Prebon. Since 2010, the WMBAA has hosted an annual conference on issues surrounding swap execution facilities (SEFs), a new type of financial transaction execution entity created by the Dodd-Frank Act. On November 13, 2012, John Lothian News Editor-at-Large Doug Ashburn attended the third such conference, 2012 SEFCON III.
During 2012 SEFCON III John Lothian News interviewed five key members of the WMBAA. Click hereto watch all the interviews or choose one from below:
- 2012 SEFCON III Interview Highlights (watch »)
- European Swaps Perspective from Alex McDonald of the WMBA (watch »)
- An Intro to IDBs and SEF Regulation from ICAP’s Chris Ferreri (watch »)
- OTC Brokers vs. Exchanges and the Futurization of Swaps from Julian Harding of Tradition (watch »)
- Evolution of OTC Products and Regulations Across Jurisdictions from Shawn Bernardo of Tullett Prebon (watch »)
- Chris Giancarlo of GFI Group Discusses the Need for Regulatory Balance (watch »)
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Man Group CEO Clarke Said to be Planning to Step Down Early 2013
Jesse Westbrook & Kevin Crowley – Bloomberg
Man Group Plc (EMG) Chief Executive Peter Clarke is preparing to step down and will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Manny Roman, said a person with knowledge of the plans. Clarke is most likely to make the move early next year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
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**JK – Thus starting a tradition where all Man Group CEOs must have the name “man” in their names.
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Niederauer: life in NYSE driving seat
Tim Cave – Financial News
Despite the storied history of the New York Stock Exchange, when Duncan Niederauer became chief executive on December 1, 2007, it was hardly a glorious inheritance.
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**JK – My friend just inherited a ‘79 Buick LaSabre and it is glorious.
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Futures lobby group hires FSA’s top commodities regulator
Tom Osborn – Financial News
The policy lead for global commodity market regulation at the Financial Services Authority has left to take up a lobbying job at Europe’s largest futures market trade body, Financial News has learned.
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**JK – FOA pulls an FIA by grabbing a star from the FSA, starting ASAP.
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Fidessa voted FCMs’ ISV of the Year at FOW awards
Fidessa group plc has announced that it has been named Futures Commission Merchants‘ (FCMs) Independent Software Vendor of the Year at the Futures and Options World magazine awards. This prestigious award is testament to Fidessa’s market-leading capabilities to deliver the best derivatives trading solutions to FCMs operating in today’s challenging and rapidly changing markets.
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**JK – Gold star for Fidessa.
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SunGard’s Valdi And Global Network Win 2012 FOW International Award For Connectivity
SunGard has won “Best New Product from a Technology Firm – Connectivity” in the 2012 FOW International Awards for the extension of its Valdi solution and the SunGard Global Network (SGN) into China.
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**JK – And Sungard too.
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Derivatives trader 2.0: Sun is setting on old-school risk-takers
Joe Rennison – Risk.net
The words would chill any trader to the bone – partly because of the message, and partly because of the man speaking. Sitting forward in his chair, arms resting on the desk in front of him, the head of securities at one of the world’s big dealers is talking expansively about the future of the derivatives business, and what it means for the massed ranks of sales and trading staff on the building’s lower floors. “A lot of them won’t make it,” he says, matter-of-factly. “This is not going to be a cosmetic change.”
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What regulation means for traders: Less freedom, more work, new skills
Duncan Wood – Risk.net
Post-crisis regulation tends to be spoken about in pretty cold, impersonal terms – the pressure on bid-offer spreads or return-on-equity, for example. It’s easy to forget there is another type of impact – on the people who work in these markets – but UBS gave a pointed reminder of that when announcing its decision to exit the fixed-income business at the end of October.
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**JK – Less freedom, more work – communism or capitalism? Discuss.
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Learning surveillance lessons from rogue trading
Richard Partington – Financial News
At 8am on September 15 last year, a familiar question spread like wildfire through the City of London and other financial centres worldwide: Could this happen to us?
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Common Sense: Insider Trading Persists, and Gets Stealthier
JAMES B. STEWART – NY Times
In March 1991, Michael R. Milken, once the richest and most powerful financier of his generation, entered prison, signaling the end of an era of junk bond-financed hostile takeovers and high-visibility prosecutions that law enforcement officials hoped would deter insider trading for generations.
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Look to your moral compass
William Hutchings – Financial News
One early December evening several years ago a plastic bag was stolen that was full, as it happens, of Christmas cards. The cards were all sealed, addressed and stamped; the planned drop-off had been frustrated, the postboxes being all blocked in a one-day UK postal strike. It might have been hoped that the thief would push them into a pillar box the following day – given the spirit of goodwill to all men at this time of year, and the fact that there was also a copy of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment in the bag. It didn’t happen.
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Wasendorf’s Chicago Lakefront Condo Sells for $1 Million
Brian Louis – Bloomberg
The Chicago condominium belonging to Russell Wasendorf Sr., the former futures brokerage executive who pleaded guilty to fraud in September, sold for $1 million, according to an attorney for the receiver in the case.
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JK – Only $214 million to go, to pay off customers. Check out our Restoring Customer Confidence series on solutions to problems like PFG and MF Global.
Push to exploit an ocean of information
Richard Waters in San Francisco – FT.com
It took atomic physicists Ari Tuchman and John Stockton four years to realise that there was no future for the business they had set up to make gyroscopes for nuclear submarines and missiles. Last year, however, they hit on a new use for the complex algorithms they had written: to predict what kind of people are most likely to buy tickets for Hollywood’s latest blockbuster films.
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The answer is more – not less – investment banking
William Wright – Financial News
There are very few questions to which a politically acceptable answer in the chancelleries of Europe is “more investment banks”.
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Bloomberg Weighs Making a Run for Financial Times
AMY CHOZICK and MICHAEL BARBARO – NYTimes.com
Not long ago, The Financial Times would have been the crown jewel of any media company, instantly conferring prestige and influence on its owner. Now, given the likely bidders, one of the world’s most respected and distinctive financial newspapers could end up as a trophy to help sell more computer terminals.
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**JK – A rather coy Mr. Bloomberg. Waiting to break the story with his own journalists?
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JLN Metals
Ivory Coast Gold Miners May Halt Sites on Tax, Group Says
Bloomberg
Gold-producing companies in Ivory Coast may have to shut down operations in the West African nation if parliament approves a proposed tax on profit, according to Nohou Kone, head of a miners’ group.
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SA’s Rand eyes gold refining plant in China
Reuters
The world’s biggest gold refiner, South Africa’s Rand Refinery, is considering setting up a refining plant in China within two to three years, joining hands with a local partner on its first such plant abroad, a senior executive said on Friday.
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Partitioned rights key in MPRDA amendment
miningmx.com
CABINET yesterday approved the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Draft Amendment Bill (MPRDA) which is expected to improve and simplify the legislative environment for mining in South Africa.
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Lead Stories
India Options Trade Grows Fastest in World as Sensex Tops BRICs
Bloomberg
India’s options market is growing at the fastest pace in the world, helping restore investor confidence in a stock market yet to recover from a 52 percent plunge during the global financial crisis.
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New clearing rules spell stark choice over hedging strategies
Tom Osborn – Financial News
Final rules defining the way the $639 trillion global swaps market is to be transferred to central counterparty clearing has left the buyside between a rock and a hard place: either firms put up large amounts of collateral cash or use other derivative products, which could expose them to more risk.
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Korea gears up for OTC clearing
Jeremy Grant in Singapore – FT.com
KRX, the Korean exchange, plans to launch voluntary clearing of won-denominated interest rate swaps in April next year in the latest sign that Asian markets are gearing up to meet the G20 mandate on over-the-counter derivatives.
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Uproar as pulled repo plan is dubbed ‘disaster for Europe’
Michelle Price – Financial News
Europe’s dealers and clearing houses are at loggerheads over a critical European project to mobilise funding and collateral flows. The European Association of Clearing Houses, or Each, has been accused of reneging on its commitment to the project, in what one dealer described as a “disaster for Europe”.
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Fiduciary management set for relentless expansion
William Hutchings – Financial News
The market for one of the most controversial asset management business lines, fiduciary management, has topped E1 trillion this year and is set to grow by a further 30% over the next three years, while the number of clients using it is set to more than double. Fewer than 15 providers are expected to reap the benefit of this expansion.
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Basel Liquidity Rule May Be Watered Down Amid Crisis Concerns
Bloomberg
Global banking regulators will this week seek to resolve clashes over how far to ease a planned liquidity rule, amid calls for the standard to be watered down and delayed because it may thwart economic recovery.
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Banking Industry Squirms Over European Rate Probe
DAVID ENRICH – WSJ.com
The scandal over banks’ attempted manipulation of interest rates has mostly centered on the London interbank offered rate. But Libor’s lesser known cousin, the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, is facing mounting attacks.
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Banking union won’t work while sovereigns get special treatment
Ben Wright – Financial News
Imagine if you will – and it shouldn’t be too hard – that a political impasse has just prevented a country’s government from agreeing a new budget. Or, equally plausibly, that a major bank is circling the drain and has had to be nationalised. Or that a freak storm has wreaked billions of dollars worth of damage to a nation’s infrastructure. Or, as I’m feeling pessimistic, all three. At the same time.
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Regulatory
SEC’s Aguilar Warms Up to Money-Fund Overhauls
JESSICA HOLZER – WSJ.com
The $2.6 trillion U.S. money-market fund industry is headed toward a drastically new look next year, as a regulator who blocked an overhaul effort this past summer has dropped his opposition.
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Britain tightens grip on foreign banks
Brooke Masters, Chief Regulation Correspondent – FT.com
The UK’s chief financial watchdog has sharply tightened its grip on overseas banks that want to take deposits in Britain, pressuring them to open locally-regulated subsidiaries with their own access to cash and capital.
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CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Issues Interpretative Guidance and No-Action Letter for Operators of Securitization Vehicles
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) today issued a letter providing additional guidance to securitization vehicles regarding whether they may be excluded from the definition of commodity pool.
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CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Issues No-Action Letter for Operators of Mortgage REITs
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) today issued a no-action letter to mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs).
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CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Provides No-Action Relief to Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants from Compliance with Statutory Disqualification Prohibition with Respect to their Association with Certain Persons
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) announced the issuance of limited no-action relief to Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants (collectively, Swap Entities) from compliance with the prohibition in Regulation 23.22(b) against permitting a person who is subject to a statutory disqualification to effect or be involved in effecting swaps on behalf of the Swap Entity.
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[ASIC] SMSF auditor registration guidance and competency standards
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[ASIC] Guidance to improve the quality and reliability of investment research
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities
MIAX Options Exchange Successfully Launches
MIAX Options Exchange (“MIAX”), the newest U.S. equity options exchange, announced a successful launch today of its much anticipated trading operations with the rollout of its first symbol, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (“CLF”). MIAX achieved approximately 4.21% of market share of CLF on its first day of trading.
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NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes for November 2012
NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced trading volumes for its global derivatives and cash equities exchanges for November 20121. Global derivatives average daily volume (“ADV”) of 8.1 million contracts in November 2012 decreased 2.5% compared to November 2011, but increased 12.2% from October 2012. Trading volumes in European and U.S. equities, declined year-over-year but U.S equities improved from October 2012 levels.
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NASDAQ OMX Wins FOW Best Innovation Award For The Genium INET Nordic Integration
NASDAQ OMX proudly announces that the Futures and Options World (FOW) has awarded NASDAQ OMX the Best Innovation by an Exchange Award 2012 for the Genium INET platform integration in the Nordic and Baltic markets.
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The MIAX Options Exchange Joins OCC
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Urs Widmer Reinforces SIX Swiss Exchange As COO
As of 1 December 2012, Urs Widmer is a member of the Executive Board of SIX Swiss Exchange. As the new Chief Operating Officer (COO), he is responsible for the area of Business & Market Development. In this function, he is in charge of Business Engineering, Issuer Relations, Marketing Communications and Member Relations.
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BM&FBOVESPA Announces November Market Performance
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Exchange Council Approves Swiss Intraday Market – 15-Minute Contracts Will Expand To Switzerland
The Exchange Council of the European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT has approved the introduction of an Intraday market in Switzerland, scheduled to launch in Q2 2013.
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[CBOE] Trader E-News
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[CBOE] All-Or-None (AON) Orders
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TOM MTF Statistics Week 49 2012
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TOM Insight November 2012
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Hedge Funds Rose Last Month as Cohen’s SAC, Winton Gained
Bloomberg
Hedge funds climbed 0.2 percent in November after posting declines during the two previous months, as markets reversed losses following the U.S. elections.
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Paulson’s Hedge Funds Suffer Another Tough Month
CNBC via Yahoo! Finance
November proved another disappointing month for Paulson & Co.’s umbrella fund, Advantage, and its Gold fund, sending the two funds’ year-to-date performance down more than 17 percent and nearly 30 percent respectively, according to people who have been briefed on the results.
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Two fund managers prepare plans to cut jobs
Mike Foster – Financial News
Asset managers Henderson Global Investors and Union Investment of Germany have embarked on separate initiatives to cut their staff by nearly 10%.
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Private equity defends 11% tax payments
Kiel Porter – Financial News
The private equity industry has come out in defence of its UK tax arrangements after an analysis showed the effective rate paid by the portfolio companies in which it invests was less than half the headline rate.
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Transport for London routes cash into hedge funds
Reuters via Yahoo! News
LONDON – The pension fund of Transport for London, the government body in charge of the capital’s transport network, is putting more money into higher-risk hedge funds to help to plug a funding gap.
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Corporate bond risk rises as liquidity dries up
William Hutchings and Sophie Baker – Financial News
Asset managers are warning that liquidity in the European corporate bond market is drying up as a result of regulatory and commercial pressures on banks, mimicking some of the conditions that presaged the credit crunch.
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The Fabulous Life Of Steve Cohen— The Hedge Fund Manager At The Center Of The Storm
Business Insider
Billionaire Steve A. Cohen, who runs the super-secretive hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, is known on Wall Street for being one of the most successful traders.
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Glencore’s Deal for Viterra Clears Final Regulatory Hurdle
IAN AUSTEN – NYTimes.com
The $6.2 billion purchase of Viterra, Canada’s largest grain handler, cleared its final regulatory hurdle after approval by Chinese authorities.
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CFTC Commitments Of Traders Reports Update
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S&P Capital IQ Strengthens Leading Financial Information Platform For Assessing Market Risks And Opportunities
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Banks & Brokers
JPMorgan Said to Ask Employees to Help Fund U.K. Tax Settlement
Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. asked more than 2,000 current and former employees to contribute to a settlement with the U.K.’s tax authority over their use of an offshore trust for bonus payments, according to a person briefed on the situation.
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Tullett Prebon Named Interdealer Broker Of The Year At Futures And Options World International Awards
Tullett Prebon has been named the inaugural Interdealer Broker of the Year at the Futures and Options World International Awards 2012.
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Deutsche Bank directors to question board-sources
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Deutsche Bank’s directors will question the management board over claims the lender failed to recognize billions of euros in unrealized losses during the financial crisis, two sources said. The supervisory board, which has 20 independent directors “is seeking answers from management”, a person familiar with the body said on Friday.
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Deutsche Bank Reduces Investment Bank, Research Teams in Brazil
Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG , Germany’s largest lender, reduced employees in its Brazilian investment bank and research units as part of a global effort to save 4.5 billion euros by 2015.
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RBS Starts 200 Million-Pound Fund to Help Businesses Save Energy
Bloomberg
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest taxpayer-owned lender, started a 200 million- pound fund to help U.K. businesses reduce energy use and lower costs.
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HSBC sells central American operations
Rose Jacobs – FT.com
HSBC has completed the $800m sale of some of its central American operations to Banco Davivienda, Colombia’s third-biggest bank by assets.
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Clearing & Settlement
LCH.Clearnet awarded FOW’s ‘Best Clearing House, EMEA’
LCH.Clearnet Group (LCH.Clearnet), the international clearing house, today announced it has been awarded Futures and Options World’s (FOW) award for Best Clearing House, EMEA. The judging panel said the award acknowledged LCH.Clearnet’s world-class risk and collateral management expertise, and innovative multi-asset class clearing solutions.
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Clearstream’s November 2012 figures
In November 2012, the value of assets under custody held on behalf of customers registered an increase of 3 percent to EUR 11.2 trillion (compared to EUR 10.9 trillion in November 2011). Securities held under custody in Clearstream’s international business increased by 1 percent from EUR 5.87 trillion in November 2011 to EUR 5.92 trillion in November 2012 – while domestic German securities held under custody increased by 5 percent from EUR 5.0 trillion in November 2011 to EUR 5.2 trillion in November 2012.
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Euroclear Bank Welcomes CME Clearing Europe To The Global Collateral Highway
Euroclear Bank and CME Clearing Europe have today signed an agreement to help mutual clients fulfil their collateral obligations to meet initial margin requirements at CME Clearing Europe. Euroclear Bank will source and manage securities collateral for this purpose on behalf of clients from its global ‘Collateral Highway’.
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CME Clearing Europe Expands its Metals Offering with Two Iron Ore Contracts
CME Clearing Europe, CME Group’s European clearing house, today announced that it has added two new over-the-counter (OTC) Iron Ore contracts for clearing: Iron Ore 62% CFR China Calendar Swaps and Iron Ore 62% CFR China Average Price Options beginning Monday, 10 December 2012 subject to regulatory approval.
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How to participate in a CCP
Financial institutions can participate in a central counterparty (CCP) in two ways — either as a direct or an indirect clearing member.
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Novitas Partners Advises Clearstream On The Establishment Of Its Hedge Fund Business In Dublin
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Clearing Advisory: FEC+ Post-Trade Processing Test Script
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CME Clearing – Crude Oil, Metals, Natural Gas, and Refined Products Outrights; Crude Oil, Refined Products, and NGLs Intra-Commodity Spread Charges – Effective Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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CME Clearing: ERIS Interest Rate Swap Futures Calendar Spreads and Inter Commodity Spreads– Effective Friday, December 7, 2012
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Indexes & Products
Fidelity Seeks SEC Approval for Actively Run ETF Lineup
Christopher Condon – Bloomberg
Fidelity Investments, the firm that lost its position as the biggest U.S. funds provider after ignoring exchange-traded products for years, is seeking to open an actively run ETF lineup starting with a corporate bond fund.
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Ex-iShares chief joins Warburg Pincus
Jennifer Bollen – Financial News
Warburg Pincus has appointed the former global chief executive of iShares as an executive in residence. The hire comes as the private equity firm plans its first investments in the exchange-traded funds sector.
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Unscheduled component change in MDAX
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Vienna Stock Exchange Launches Distributing Indices On The ATX
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NASDAQ OMX: Semi-Annual Review Of The OMX Iceland 6 Index
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S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes In Canadian Indices – A Deletion From The S&P/TSX Composite Index
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S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes In Canadian Indices – A Deletion From S&P/TSX Venture Composite And Venture Select Indices
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Component Changes Made To Euro STOXX Select Dividend 30 Index
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Technology
SunGard Wins Two Banking Technology Readers’ Choice Awards for Trading and Risk Management
SunGard has won two categories in the sixth-annual Banking Technology Readers’ Choice Awards. Banking Technology readers chose SunGard’s Front Arena, a global capital markets solution that delivers position management and electronic trading across multiple asset classes and business lines, as “Best Trading System 2012.” Likewise, SunGard’s Adaptiv, a suite of solutions for enterprise-wide risk management, was voted “Best Risk Management Product or Service 2012.” SunGard’s solutions for trading and risk management have been recognized in every Banking Technology Readers’ Choice Awards since their 2007 inception.
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Misys Tops World Rankings In Trading And Risk Management Software – First Place Awarded In Risk Technology Rankings For Its Portfolio Of Products, Including Its Innovative Collaborative Risk Management Solution, Misys Global Risk
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Dell Accelerates Servers For High Frequency Algo Trading
Forbes
Dell has developed a speed edge for high frequency traders. The computer company has created firmware, the Dell Processor Acceleration Technology, for several of its high end Intel-based servers. It allows users to increase the speed of PowerEdge R620, R720 and R720xd servers with the Intel E5-2690 processor by 13 to 31 percent just through downloading a free BIOS update.
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Enforcement
Ex-Trader’s Gambit Bites Goldman
JAMILA TRINDLE AND LIZ MOYER – WSJ
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. became the latest top Wall Street bank to suffer a trading-related black eye, agreeing to pay $1.5 million to settle civil charges that it failed to supervise a former trader.
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SAC Capital’s InterMune Trades Said to Be Probed by FBI
Saijel Kishan & Patricia Hurtado – Bloomberg
SAC Capital Advisors LP’s trading in InterMune Inc. (ITMN) in 2010 as well as trades in Weight Watchers International Inc. (WTW) last year are being investigated by the U.S., a person familiar with the matter said.
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Hefner Husband Takes Insider Trading Into Playboy Bedroom
Greg Farrell – Bloomberg
Christie Hefner, former chief executive officer of Playboy Enterprises Inc., said she was shocked as her husband of 15 years, William Marovitz, confessed to her that he was being investigated for suspicious trading in Playboy shares. They were in their apartment atop a 42-story Lincoln Park tower overlooking the glittering Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan on a March evening in 2010.
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Ex-Brokers Plead Not Guilty Over Alleged Insider Trading
CHAD BRAY – WSJ.com
Two former brokers and law-school classmates pleaded not guilty Friday to criminal charges that they traded ahead of a $1.2 billion acquisition by International Business Machines Corp. based on a tip from one broker’s roommate.
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SEC Charges Prominent Entrepreneur in Miami-Based Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a prominent Miami-based entrepreneur with defrauding investors by grossly exaggerating the financial success of his company that purportedly produced housing materials to withstand fires and hurricanes. Claudio Osorio stole nearly half of the money raised from investors to pay the mortgage on his multi-million dollar mansion and other lavish highlife expenses.
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SEC Charges Florida-Based Lawyer with Forging Attorney Opinion Letters for Microcap Stocks
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against a Florida-based securities lawyer for issuing fraudulent attorney opinion letters that resulted in more than 70 million shares of microcap stock becoming available for unrestricted trading by investors.
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Commissioner Bart Chilton Concurring In part And Dissenting In Part To The Settlement In The Matter Of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Respondent, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton
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Boiler room money launderer ordered to pay £320,882
Michael McInerney, of Richmond, North Yorkshire, has been ordered to pay £320,882 by Southwark Crown Court for his role in a major boiler room share scam. The order was made on Tuesday 4 December.
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[Canada] Two Nanaimo residents admit to roles in alleged illegal distribution
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Environmental & Energy
UN climate talks extend Kyoto Protocol, promise compensation
BBC
UN climate talks in Doha have closed with a historic shift in principle but few genuine cuts in greenhouse gases.
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**RKB — The big players, the US, EU and China accepted the agreement with varying degrees of reservation and Russia not happy, the BBC reports. U.S.’s Stern: “We don’t like this text, but we can live with it.”
Kyoto Deal Blocks Carbon Market Access for Some Nations
Bloomberg
The deal to extend pollution limits under the Kyoto Protocol restricts the ability of Japan, Russia, Canada and New Zealand to take advantage of carbon market mechanisms under the United Nations treaty.
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**RKB — Helpful breakdown here of the technical differences between pacts, participants and what it means for markets. Read more from the UNFCCC.
Climate Talks Yield Commitment to Ambitious, but Unclear, Actions
The New York Times
The annual United Nations climate change negotiations concluded here late Saturday after the customary all-night negotiating session and recriminations over who must bear the costs and burdens of a warming planet.
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Asia-Pacific
Taiwan to become third offshore RMB clearing and settlement centre
Garima Chitkara – Risk.net
As with Taiwanese travellers to China, renminbi transactions will no longer need to stop in Hong Kong on their way to the mainland. A clearing mechanism between the RMB and NTD means that Taiwanese traders can directly settle their invoices through a clearing bank in Taiwan without going through Bank of China in Hong Kong.
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Japan sinks into fresh recession
Ben McLannahan In Tokyo – FT.com
Japan slipped into a recession in the six months to September, boosting opposition leader Shinzo Abe’s case for more fiscal stimulus and “unlimited” monetary easing to spur growth in the world’s third-largest economy.
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Tokyo Commodity Exchange: Good Delivery Material Price Differential For December 2012 Rubber Contract
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Osaka Securities Exchange SPAN Parameter Updated – December 17, 2012 – December 21, 2012)
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Press Conference By Ikko Nakatsuka, Japan’s Minister For Financial Services
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Japan’s Financial Services Agency: Overview Of Major Banks’ Financial Results As Of September 30, 2012
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Hong Kong’s Securities And Futures Commission Survey Shows Active Investment Products Market
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Shenzhen Stock Exchange: To Improve Investors Relation Management, To Enhance The Transparency Of Fair Information Disclosure
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Frontier Markets
Morgan Stanley Middle East M&A Head Fort Departs: Sources -Reuters
Dow Jones
Morgan Stanley’s Peter Fort, head of mergers and acquisitions for the Middle East and North Africa is leaving the bank, the Reuters news agency said Sunday on its website, citing three unnamed sources.
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The 16th Annual Conference Of The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) Launches Its Activities On 3rd Of December 2012 In Cairo With The Participation Of The Egyptian PM
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