Industry news

June 26, 2012: HKEx Targets Dual-Currency Listings; EU watchdog publishes draft derivatives rules; Libor Guardians Said to Resist Changes to Broken Benchmark Rate

Hong Kong Exchange, not content to sit around while waiting for the LME to arrive, announces plans to create a stock listing denominated both in HK dollars and the yuan.  ESMA, the EU’s financial regulatory agency, delivers its draft regulations to control derivatives transactions.  Despite allegations of rampant corruption and conflicts of interest in setting the LIBOR interbank lending rate, bankers and regulators are reluctant to make changes to how the rate is set, out of concern that changes may invalidate trillions of dollars worth of contracts based on the rate.

First Read

IDX 2012 at the Royal Exchange

The FOA-FIA International Derivatives Week opened on Monday with a cocktail party held at the Royal Exchange, the home of the first LIFFE trading floor.  Jim Kharouf and Patrick Lothian are attending the conference on behalf of John Lothian News.

Can you spot “the most interesting man in the world?”  

Others spotted at the event, i.e. people I can identify from the picture are Mike Glista of CQG, Allan Schoenberg of CME Group, Keith Todd of FFastfill, Simon Rostron of Rostron Communications, Clive Furness of Contango Markets, John Mathias of JM Consulting, Gedon Hertshten of GHF Group, and Steve Sparke of Marex Financial.

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VIX Futures Experience Most-Active Trading Week Ever
CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) announced today that several trading volume records were set during the week of Monday, June 18 through Friday, June 22, 2012.
http://jlne.ws/MvLVV6

**** Where is that VIX of the VIX?

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Independents benefit from ‘dark pool’ access
By Simon Mundy – Financial Times
A small number of independent stockbrokers have started offering access to “dark” trading platforms, profiting from a phenomenon that many peers say has contributed towards the industry’s dwindling revenue base.
http://jlne.ws/LyBf9U

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Top Traders Lured to Growing Commodities Merchants
Reuters
The landscape is changing for commodities merchants as global economic strength swings east, encouraging them to diversify into new products and increase scale while they also can skim the best traders off struggling hedge funds and banks. Moves by European and U.S. trading houses to leverage and expand their businesses from a focus on only one or two markets have led to a flurry of recruitment of high-profile traders in metals and agricultural commodities.
http://jlne.ws/LyBh1J

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Regulator Proposes New Rule for Large Derivatives Trades
By BEN PROTESS – NY Times
Wall Street traders making big bets on derivatives would receive relief from regulation only if they met certain standards under a rule proposed on Monday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to introduce a draft rule that limits how firms can qualify for exemptions through so-called block trades. Banks and brokerage firms place the trades, large private transactions typically negotiated outside the scope of an exchange, as a service to investors that want to purchase a big bulk of derivatives.
http://jlne.ws/LyBfqy

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Would The Markets Benefit From a Mandatory Lunch Break?
Advanced Trading
In an interview with Advanced Trading, Frank Partnoy breaks down why the markets need a mid-day breather, why flash crashes are inevitable in a complex system like the current marketplace, and why algorithms like the one Waddell & Reed used on May 6, 2010 are no longer in use.
http://jlne.ws/LyBhi8

**** If we could only stop the world from turning.  If we could only stop people from trading.  Sure, let’s get everyone on the planet to stop trading for an hour a day.  Sure, everyone would cooperate.  No one would cheat by going to an OTC market or making side deals over lunch.  None of that would happen.  I understand the problem, but what rubbish.

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Wall Street & Washington: Elections and Fiscal Cliff
Clarke Camper – Inside the Beltway
Update on various topics: US presidential election; US fiscal policy; Dodd-Frank and derivatives; and more.
http://jlne.ws/LyBhii

**** Even if the CFTC gets the funding it wants, it could still face an austerity budget because of the mandatory budget cuts at the first of the year based on last summer’s failed debt ceiling talks.  I say “failed” because, well, the end result will be an utter failure.  Get ready for the US government to take away the punch bowl and more at the first of the year.

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TMX expects Maple bid resolution soon
By Philip Stafford in London – Financial Times
TMX Group, operator of Canada’s largest stock exchange, expects the long-running saga over its future to be resolved in just over a month’s time. Tom Kloet, chief executive, said on Monday he was hopeful TMX would receive the necessary approvals to allow Maple, the consortium trying to buy TMX, to proceed after Maple agreed to changes to its proposed corporate governance structure.
http://jlne.ws/LyBhyE

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What The Mother Of All Central Banks Says About The Financial System
Kenneth Rapoza – Forbes
The Bank for International Settlements, the mother of all the world’s Central Banks, released their 82nd Annual Report on Sunday with this to say about the economy: be prepared to lower your expectations.
http://jlne.ws/LyBhyI

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A Con Man Who Lives Between Truth and Fiction
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN – NY Times
“I’m a proven liar. Don’t believe anything I say.” That was what Samuel Israel III told me last week. He is the hedge fund manager convicted of running a $450 million Ponzi scheme who faked his own suicide in the summer of 2008 to avoid his prison sentence before turning himself in after a worldwide manhunt.
http://jlne.ws/LyBhP3

MarketsWiki.tv

Phil Flynn of The Price Futures Group Discusses the Outlook for Natural Gas & Carbon Markets
MarketsWiki.tv
Phil Flynn has followed the energy markets for more than two decades and recently joined The Price Futures Group as a senior market analyst. He spoke with JLN Environmental/Energy editor Jim Kharouf about the outlook for natural gas, shale gas and Canada’s oil sands. Flynn also gave his thoughts on the future of the carbon market and the US energy mix.
http://jlne.ws/LCfDZF

James Gellert of Rapid Ratings International Discusses MF Global & Credit Ratings Regulation
MarketsWiki.tv
James Gellert is Chairman and CEO of Rapid Ratings International, a financial services company that uses a proprietary quantitative system to rate the financial health of corporations and financial institutions. The company’s user-based compensation model offers an alternative to the “company pays” model used by NRSROs such as Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. Gellert spoke with John Lothian News Editor-at-Large Doug Ashburn about Rapid Ratings’ “user-pays” model, its early warning on MF Global, and credit ratings regulation under Dodd-Frank.
http://jlne.ws/KlhjB8

MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Simon Potter
http://jlne.ws/LWKobX

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MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

John Mathias; Jurgen Stark; Peter Praet; Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo; Vitor Manuel Ribeiro Constancio; Sung Hee Hong; Roger Ferguson; Joseph T. Pucci; Christopher H. Mendoza; Simon Potter; Hilary Till; Douglas Ashburn; Anna Schwartz

Companies, Organizations and Groups

European Central Bank; Kansas City Board of Trade; CME Group, Inc.; Economic Club of New York

Statistics

25,342,985 pages viewed, 6,920 articles, 143,378 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Hong Kong Exchange Targets Dual-Currency Listings
Wall Street Journal Blogs
Fresh after securing a deal to buy the London Metal Exchange earlier this month, Hong Kong’s ambitious bourse is now trying for another goal–a dual-currency stock on its exchange.
http://jlne.ws/LyBfXG

EU watchdog publishes draft derivatives rules
Reuters via Yahoo! News
The European Union’s securities watchdog published draft rules on Monday to meet a December global deadline for making the derivatives market safer and more transparent. The draft rules, open to public consultation ahead of finalization in September, will help determine the future economics and shape of a sector which was opaque with contracts mainly traded among banks.
http://jlne.ws/LyBiT9

Libor Guardians Said to Resist Changes to Broken Benchmark Rate
By Liam Vaughan and Gavin Finch – Bloomberg
The U.K. bankers and regulators charged with reviewing Libor in the wake of regulatory probes are resisting calls to overhaul the rate because structural changes risk invalidating trillions of dollars of contracts.
http://jlne.ws/LyBi5I

EU plan to rewrite eurozone budgets
By Peter Spiegel in Brussels – Financial Times
The EU would gain far-reaching powers to rewrite national budgets for eurozone countries that breach debt and deficit rules under proposals likely to be discussed at a summit this week, according to a draft report seen by the Financial Times.
http://jlne.ws/LyBiTo

Cyprus becomes 5th eurozone state to seek bailout
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Cyprus on Monday became the fifth eurozone country to request financial aid from its partners in the troubled European currency union as it struggles to shore up banks that took heavy losses on Greek debt.
http://jlne.ws/LyBimf

Austria backs towards closer Europe in debt crisis
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Under fire from right-wing nationalists for helping out euro zone laggards, Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter stood before parliament this month to say why Europeans had to stick together.
http://jlne.ws/LyBiCA

Moody’s cuts debt ratings of 28 Spanish banks
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Spain’s battered banks have taken another hit, this time in the form of a sweeping downgrade by Moody’s.
http://jlne.ws/LyBj9V

Soros: Euro Summit ‘Fiasco’ Could Prove ‘Fatal’
Forbes
The twin crises of Europe — undercapitalized banks and massive risk premiums on sovereign debt — can not be tackled independently. And it is the lack of a comprehensive plan that has put the eurozone on the brink of disintegration with the clock running out, according to George Soros.
http://jlne.ws/LyBiCN

Health problems sideline Greek finance minister ahead of EU summit
The Associated Press
Greece’s designated finance minister resigned Monday after being rushed to the hospital on Friday, the prime minister’s office said. Vassilis Rapanos, chairman of the National Bank of Greece, had been named finance minister last week in the country’s new three-party coalition government. But he was taken ill before he could be sworn in Friday and has been in hospital ever since.
http://jlne.ws/LyBjGH

EU Summit To Fail As Capital Flight Accelerates On Hedge Fund Bund Shorting
Forbes
Europe, mired in a political crisis, will disappoint global markets once again this week, as a transcendental EU summit is blocked by Germany’s reticence to accept a broader fiscal and banking union, as George Soros suggested, while capital flight accelereates.
http://jlne.ws/LyBjGS

Report Suggests ECB Bank Supervision
By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER – WSJ
Euro-zone countries should transfer oversight of their banks to a European supervisor, possibly the European Central Bank, in return for allowing the bloc’s bailout fund to help insure deposits and wind down failing lenders, the European Union’s top officials proposed in a report that will be debated at their summit Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/LyBlOR

Regulatory

CFTC Data Breach Risks Agency Employees’ Social Security Numbers
By Silla Brush – Bloomberg
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission suffered a data breach in May, putting at risk Social Security numbers and personal information of employees of the country’s top derivatives regulator.
http://jlne.ws/LyBjXl

CFTC Approves Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Prohibiting the Aggregation of Orders to Satisfy Minimum Block Sizes or Cap Size Requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved for publication in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that re-proposes adding certain provisions to Part 43 of the Commission’s Regulations pertaining to block trades in swap contracts.
http://jlne.ws/LyBkdK

PREVIEW-Futures exchanges gear up for regulatory reforms
By Luke Jeffs, Reuters
Plans by the world’s futures exchanges to shake off weak trading activity by tapping reforms to open up a lucrative new market in European swaps clearing tops the agenda as the futures industry meets in London this week.
http://jlne.ws/M00AsX

Banks Preparing for the End
BY VICTORIA MCGRANE – WSJ
Some of the biggest banks are being asked to submit by July 1 road maps for how they can be quickly and cleanly liquidated, but a top regulator said he doesn’t back using the so-called living-will process to break them up.
http://jlne.ws/LyBm5r

[NFA] Guidance to Members Carrying Accounts for, or Transacting Business with Persons Exempt from Registration
http://jlne.ws/LyBkdW

[FINRA] Remarks by Executive Vice President Thomas M. Selman at the IRI Government, Legal and Regulatory Conference
http://jlne.ws/LyBkue

ESMA Publishes Its First Annual Report
http://jlne.ws/LyBkuj

ESMA Proposes Rules On Derivatives, Central Counterparties And Trade Repositories
http://jlne.ws/LyBmm1

ASIC implements new bank account switching rules
http://jlne.ws/LyBkuo

ASIC’S areas of focus for 30 June 2012 financial reports
http://jlne.ws/LyBmCk

ASIC acts to wind up Australia AFT Finance Market
http://jlne.ws/LyBkKO

UK’s Financial Services Authority Statement On Kaupthing Singer And Friedlander Limited
http://jlne.ws/LyBkKP

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

Market Extra: CME price shift decision headed for court battle
Market Watch
The Chicago Board of Trade is a place where hand signals are thrown wildly, orders are shouted, papers and coffee cups are scattered across the floor — and where daily settlement prices are established for the agricultural futures markets.
http://jlne.ws/LyBmCs

CME Presses On With Grain Pricing Changes Despite Lawsuit
By Jacob Bunge – Dow Jones
CME Group Inc. (CME) said it will press on with a planned change Monday to the way it calculates closing prices for its benchmark grain markets, despite a last-minute legal challenge from floor traders who fear the move will hurt their business.
http://jlne.ws/LyBkKQ

EEX bourse to spin off gas trade business
Reuters
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) said on Monday it will spin off its five-year old gas spot and futures trading arm into a new separate company called EGEX European Gas Exchange, to pave the way for cooperation with other bourses.
http://jlne.ws/NFgrMu

Hong Kong’s lucky number may clinch the LME deal
Matt Turner – Financial News
Over the past few years, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s chief executive Charles Li has grown used to hearing others sing the praises of the London Metal Exchange.
http://jlne.ws/LyBkKS

Hong Kong Exchange Renews Contract With NASDAQ OMX and Upgrades to INET-Based Trading Platform
HKEx Migrates to Genium INET Powered Platform for Derivatives Trading and Clearing
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. NDAQ -2.43% announces that the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) will upgrade its derivatives trading system (HKATS) and clearing system (DCASS) to NASDAQ OMX’s Genium INET technology. In addition HKEx has extended its support contract with NASDAQ OMX for a further five years. The platform upgrade is scheduled to be in effect by fourth quarter of 2013.
http://jlne.ws/MxC9Sz

Deutsche Börse and GreTai Securities Market signed cooperation agreement
Deutsche Börse and the Taiwanese GreTai Securities Market (GTSM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that reflects an agreement by both parties to exchange information in order to facilitate the further development of both financial markets.
http://jlne.ws/LyBmCB

Borsa Italiana’s Cash Market Go Live On Millennium – Clients Offered Ultra Low Latency And Superior Functionality – Updated Configuration Of Servers In Milan
London Stock Exchange Group is pleased to announce that Borsa Italiana’s cash markets have migrated to the ultra low-latency trading platform, Millennium Exchange. The Millennium Exchange offers new order types, broadening trading and investment opportunities for market operators*.
http://jlne.ws/LyBmCD

[CBOE] Restrictions on Transactions in CryptolLogic Limited
http://jlne.ws/LyBmSQ

[CBOE] Auction Responses
http://jlne.ws/LyBmSS

KCBT Independence Day Trading Hours
http://jlne.ws/LyBl1e

London Stock Exchange Welcomes Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Media & Technology To Main Market
http://jlne.ws/LyBmSY

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

KKR Raises $4 Billion for Deals in Infrastructure, Energy
Bloomberg
KKR & Co. , the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts , has gathered about $4 billion to invest in infrastructure and energy deals as the firm looks beyond corporate takeovers.
http://jlne.ws/LyBmSZ

Morningstar Reveals Alternative Investments Ratings
ETF Trends via Yahoo! Finance
Alternative investments and exchange traded funds have attracted a greater following as investors seek to diversify and hedge against the recent bouts of market volatility. In an attempt to better serve investors, Morningstar has launched Thursday the Morningstar Analyst Rating and Global Fund Reports for alternative U.S. mutual funds.
http://jlne.ws/LyBmT3

Is Your Hedge Fund Style “Drifting”? Quick, Catch It!
Forbes
Hedge fund style “drift” is said to occur when a hedge fund manager strays from their stated investment strategy. The term used to be an esoteric one, used only by professional hedge fund analysts. However, “drifting” is a problem that is lately coming into view more by regulators and in litigation by disgruntled investors.
http://jlne.ws/LyBl1t

Seeking elusive ‘alpha,’ investors scour the globe
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
You can leap off a mountainside in extreme skiing, kick and claw to near death in extreme fighting and twist yourself into a pretzel in extreme yoga. Why not turn investing into an adventure sport?
http://jlne.ws/LyBl1u

Institutional Investors And Corporations Suggest That Inflation-Linked Corporate Bonds May Provide Solution To Both Parties And Could Become An Interesting Substitute For Sovereign Debt
http://jlne.ws/LyBn9n

Banks & Brokers

Morgan Stanley Germany head steps aside in email row
Reuters via Yahoo! News
FRANKFURT – The head of Morgan Stanley’s German unit, one of the country’s best-connected dealmakers, has been granted leave of absence by the bank following an uproar over emails he reportedly exchanged with a regional politician.
http://jlne.ws/LyBl1x

Former World Bank exec to head NZ’s central bank
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Former World Bank executive Graeme Wheeler has been named as the next head of New Zealand’s central bank.
http://jlne.ws/LyBlhK

Bank of America Hires Goldman Sachs’s Diego De Giorgi for Europe
Bloomberg
De Giorgi will become joint head of global corporate and investment banking for Europe with Bob Elfring, Christian Meissner, Bank of America’s head of global corporate and investment banking, wrote in a memo to employees today.
http://jlne.ws/LyBn9u

Citi names Byers head of small business banking
New Jersey Herald
NEW YORK – Citigroup Inc. has named Jerome Byers head of small business banking as the company works to expand its offerings in the area. Citi said Byers will keep his position as president of its central region, which includes Illinois and Texas, and he is Citi’s Chicago market president.
http://jlne.ws/LyBn9x

Jefferies Hires Senior Analyst to Cover Oil Services and Equipment
Jefferies today announced the hiring of Brad Handler as a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering Oil Services and Equipment within the firm’s Energy research team.
http://jlne.ws/LyBlhP

The Litigation That Haunts Goldman Sachs
By PETER J. HENNING – NY Times
Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, may well be thinking of Michael Corleone’s famous line in the otherwise forgettable “The Godfather: Part III”: “Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in.” Judge Paul A. Crotty of Federal District Court in Manhattan issued a decision last week that will put the firm’s 2007 sales of collateralized debt obligations tied to subprime mortgages back under the microscope by refusing to dismiss an investor lawsuit accusing Goldman of making misleading statements about its ethical standards.
http://jlne.ws/LyBn9D

Brokers set to feast on client base of banks
Tom Osborn – Financial News
March marked the start of dividend season in Europe, the most active time of year for equity derivative desks, when a broker can expect to work 16-hour shifts several times a week and watch holiday plans sail out of the window.
http://jlne.ws/LyBn9E

J.P. Morgan Unit Shifts Operations
BY GREGORY ZUCKERMAN AND DAN FITZPATRICK – WSJ
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will improve risk management of the unit that racked up more than $2 billion of trading losses, while avoiding big bets on derivative and private-equity investments. But the unit intends to stick with a strategy permitting a wide variety of other, potentially risky investments, according to people close to the bank.
http://jlne.ws/LyBli1

JPMorgan to Terminate Overdraft Fees
Zacks via Yahoo! Finance
JPMorgan is all set to drop overdraft fees on debit card transactions of $5 or less, with effect from July. Currently, the company charges $34 per purchase, irrespective of the size of transaction.
http://jlne.ws/LyBodt

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Expands Access To LinkedIn, Twitter
By Corrie Driebusch – Dow Jones
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will now allow its full rank of financial advisers the option to join the worlds of Twitter and LinkedIn.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnpS

Progress Apama FX eCommerce Solution Deployed by Jefferies Bache Financial Services, Inc.
Progress Software Corporation announced today that Jefferies Bache Financial Services, Inc. has selected and implemented the Progress Apama FX eCommerce solution.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnpV

TradeStation CEO Salomon Sredni Elected to Board of Directors of Monex Group, Inc.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnpX

Clearing & Settlement

Clearinghouses Should Bear Losses on Member Default, ESMA Says
By Ben Moshinsky – Bloomberg
Derivative clearinghouses should use their own capital to cover losses when members can’t meet their obligations to prevent “a default waterfall,” Europe’s top markets regulator said today.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnpZ

BNP Paribas Australia Launches Custody, Settlement Business
Dow Jones
BNP Paribas SA launched a custody and settlements business in Australia and New Zealand on Monday, with a target of having 370 billion Australian dollars in assets under custody by the end of the year, as the French bank seeks new sources of growth in the Asia-Pacific region amid uncertainty at home.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnq0

Indexes & Products

Russell completes annual global index reconstitution process to reflect today’s global markets
Today marks the first day of the newly reconstituted Russell Global Indexes following the completion of Russell’s annual index reconstitution on June 22nd. Final membership lists for the Russell Global, Russell 3000, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, Russell Midcap and Russell Microcap Indexes, accounting for approximately $3.9 trillion in assets benchmarked, were confirmed after Friday’s market close. Final lists of additions and deletions are available on the Russell reconstitution website.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnq3

STOXX LAUNCHES EURO iSTOXX 50 EQUAL RISK INDEX
New index initiated by and licensed to Lyxor to underlie exchange-traded fund
STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, tradable and global index concepts, today announced the launch of the EURO iSTOXX 50 Equal Risk Index. The new strategy index applies an equal risk contribution (ERC) concept to the EURO STOXX 50 Index in order to spread the overall risk of the portfolio equally between the 50 index components. The new index, which is based on the Modern Portfolio Theory, aims to achieve maximum risk diversification.

S&P Indices Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices – Completion Of A Plan Of Arrangement Between Denison Mines Corp. And Energy Fuels Inc.
http://jlne.ws/LyBodE

Actividades De Construccion Y Servicios S.A. Of Spain Added To Dow Jones Global Select Dividend Index
http://jlne.ws/LyBodF

Dividend Outlook Launches Coverage Of IBEX 35 Stocks
http://jlne.ws/LyBodI

Direxion Announces Modifications To Eight Exchange-Traded Funds
http://jlne.ws/LyBnq7

Technology

Orc selected by Nano Capital in France for Eurex Market Making
Orc, a leading provider of technology and services for the global financial industry, today announced that Nano Capital, a newly established Paris-based trading firm, has chosen Orc Market Maker to support the firm’s market making operations on Eurex.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnq9

SunGard Launches WealthStation Mobile Report Access for Financial Advisors
SunGard has launched WealthStation Mobile Report Access to help advisors engage with clients and demonstrate their value, as part of its comprehensive wealth management mobility strategy.
http://jlne.ws/LyBotZ

Broadridge Launches UK Private Client and Stockbroking Solution
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (BR) today announced the launch of its retail and private client stockbroking and custody processing solution, PROactive Broker, to the UK and Ireland markets.
http://jlne.ws/LyBou0

OptionsCity Software to integrate with YellowJacket
Press Release
OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of electronic trading solutions, today announced that it has signed an agreement to integrate with YellowJacket, an advanced communication platform operated by IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) designed to meet the needs of traders and brokers in the derivative markets. OptionsCity’s pricing and theoretical values will be displayed within ICE’s YellowJacket interface beginning in the third quarter of 2012.
http://jlne.ws/MxC9Sz

Enforcement

SEC Halts $100 Million Real-Estate Based Ponzi Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against a Utah man and company charged with operating a real estate-based Ponzi scheme that bilked $100 million from investors nationwide.
http://jlne.ws/LyBou2

New York Attorney General Schneiderman Obtains $410 Million Settlement With J. Ezra Merkin In Connection With Madoff Ponzi Scheme
Madoff Middleman Will Return Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars To Investors And Charities – Schneiderman: This Settlement Is A Victory For Justice & Accountability For Many Victims Of Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme
http://jlne.ws/LyBnGt

Marin hedge fund manager in hot water over ‘luxurious’ spending while failing to pay settlement
Marin Independent Journal
A Marin hedge fund manager faces seizure of his assets and criminal prosecution after he failed to pay most of a $14.2 million fraud settlement while continuing to finance what a federal judge called a “luxurious lifestyle.”
http://jlne.ws/LyBouc

[ASIC] Former financial adviser pleads guilty to dishonest conduct
http://jlne.ws/LyBnGx

Environmental & Energy

EEX spins off Gas Business into Own Company
EEX Press Release
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) will spin off the Natural Gas Spot and Derivatives Market into a separate company owned to 100 percent with the corporate name “EGEX European Gas Exchange”. Five years after the launch of exchange gas trading in Germany, this step paves the way for cooperations in the field of natural gas trading.
http://jlne.ws/OiQZOh

**RKB – New company, called EGEX European Gas Exchange, intended to pave the way for cooperation with other bourses, officials say. Poland is nearer to launching its own (See below).

Poland ready for gas exchange in Q4-regulator
Reuters
Regulators, suppliers, exchange operators and pipeline operators are making enough progress in talks to launch a gas exchange in Poland in the fourth quarter of 2012, the head of the energy regulator URE said on Monday.
http://jlne.ws/On0H3k

Norway pledges $141 mln for Africa clean energy
Reuters – Point Carbon
Norway is to provide 850 million Norwegian crownsto fund clean energy projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Liberia, finance that could unlock private sector investment in new types of carbon markets, the country’s government said on Monday.
http://jlne.ws/LbvbQi

Asia-Pacific

Asian hedge funds ditch short-selling for long-only game
By Nishant Kumar – Reuters
Some of Asia’s oldest hedge funds are ditching short-selling as investors pull out of the strategy on concerns that bearish bets are failing to pay off and not worth the hefty fees they bring.
http://jlne.ws/LyBoKu

Nomura CEO in hot seat as insider probe drags on
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Nomura Holdings CEO Kenichi Watanabe faces shareholders on Wednesday with no clear answers as to how to resolve a damaging insider trading probe that is hitting business at Japan’s top brokerage and has raised doubts over his leadership.
http://jlne.ws/LyBoKy

Ex-SMBC Banker Arrested Amid Insider Trading Probe
Bloomberg
A former SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. executive was arrested yesterday, becoming the first banker from a major Japanese brokerage to be detained for suspected insider trading since 2008.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnWV

‘China fund’ turns to Japan amid Europe fears
AFP via Yahoo! News
Europe’s financial turmoil has seen the Chinese government quietly pour tens of billions of dollars into Japan’s stock market, analysts say, despite the neighbours’ lingering historical animosity.
http://jlne.ws/LyBoKF

Private Wealth Fuels Record Singapore-Dollar Bond Sales
Bloomberg
Singapore-dollar bond sales rose to a half-year record as private-wealth clients in the city-state, which has the world’s highest density of millionaires, sought refuge in the local currency.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnX0

Borsa Italiana’s Companies Go To Asia
Starting on 25 June in Tokyo and closing on 27 June in Singapore, after a stop in Hong Kong, Borsa Italiana’s roadshow takes in the regions most important investment markets and is aimed at strengthening relationships between international investors and Italian listed companies.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnX1

[TSE] TSE has published the index value of TSE Home Price Index for April.
http://jlne.ws/LyBnX8

[TFX] Reduction of Block Trade Minimum Volume Threshold
http://jlne.ws/Mvoetm

[OSE] Handling of Security Options based upon Issues to be Delisted
http://jlne.ws/LyBp14

[OSE] Change in Component Issues of OSE 300 Stock Price Index, OSE 250 Adjusted Stock Price Average
http://jlne.ws/LyBnXc

[OSE] Adjustment of Strike Prices in Security Options
http://jlne.ws/LyBqSA

HKEx Announces Temporary Holiday Risk Management Arrangements
http://jlne.ws/LyBp1a

Shenzhen Stock Exchange: Analysis Released On Features Of New Share Offering And Trading
http://jlne.ws/LyBqSH

Frontier Markets

S.Africa wakes up to neighbours as Europe struggles
Reuters via Yahoo! News
South Africa prides itself as a first world country in a third world continent, trading mostly overseas, but is starting to train its sights on its poor but fast-growing African cousins as turmoil in Europe slashes exports to its traditional markets.
http://jlne.ws/LyBp1c

Miscellaneous

Nervous investors fill Swiss safes with cash, gold
Reuters
Investors trying to protect their wealth from global economic uncertainty have been stashing bank notes, gold bars and other valuables in Swiss banks, fuelling demand for safe deposit boxes. The euro zone debt crisis and fear that loose policy by central banks will stoke inflation have sent investors in search of extra security. New deals to prevent secret bank accounts in Switzerland being used for evading taxes may also be contributing to the trend.
http://jlne.ws/LyBqSP

Charities Still Honoring Bankers Despite Role In Financial Crisis
The Huffington Post
The master of ceremonies made a mistake as he named John Thain one of the year’s finest dads, introducing him as the chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc.
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