Industry news

June 29, 2012: Germany moves to regulate high-frequency trading; CFTC Approves ICE Application for Dodd-Frank Swap Database; SEC Could Seek Nasdaq Upgrading

The German government takes its first steps toward creating a regulatory framework for high frequency trading.  The CFTC gives IntercontinentalExchange a regulatory nod to create the first Dodd-Frank-required swaps database. And rounding out the regulatory-related headlines, the SEC considers getting into the information technology business as it mulls requiring Nasdaq to upgrade its trading platform in the wake of the underwhelming Facebook IPO performance.  Keeping with the theme, in First Read today, John Lothian emphatically defines the difference between speculation and betting.

First Read

A Speculator Does Not Bet
As I was listening to one of the High Frequency Trading subcommittee reports at the Technology Advisory Committee Meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a week ago, I took umbrage at some of the language being used to describe trading.

Specifically, I mentioned that I abhor the use of the words “bet” or “betting” to describe what a speculator does. My words startled one of the subcommittee members who was delivering the report.

I said, there is a difference between betting and speculating. I then gave my definition of each. Betting is the creation of risk where there was none before. Speculation is the assumption of risk that previously existed. I gave the example of saying “I bet I can run faster than you” to explain betting.

A speculator speculates. They assume risk in a market that another participant does not want to hold any longer. Long hedgers need speculators willing to be short. Short hedgers need speculators willing to be long. Other speculators need other speculators to give them the liquidity to change their minds about the market direction. All of this is assumption of risk for a contract with a viable economic purpose where some participants have an economic interest in the underlying instrument or commodity and the speculators have a view of the value of the same.

Thursday morning I ran across a story on Huffington Post about how Republicans are not giving President Obama credit for recently lower gas prices after giving him the blame when prices were previously higher. Embedded in that story was a video interview with CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton.

Mr. Chilton was asked to explain how the futures markets work. Mr. Chilton repeatedly used the words “bet” and “betting” to describe various aspects of trading, including one sentence where he used the words speculators and bets in the same sentence.

I found Mr. Chilton’s interview very disconcerting. He does not seem to like traders who have a very short-term view of the markets (high frequency traders) or a long-term view of the markets (i.e. index funds or in his words “massive-passives”).

In one breath he was explaining that massive-passives are price insensitive and in another sentence he was saying they were bailing on commodities in 2008 after prices plunged. What he is missing is time frame and context. Index investors are price insensitive to individual movements of markets by are sensitive to the movements of the overall index from a long term standpoint.

He railed against the “Wall Street Premium” in oil prices without giving any explanation or thought to why it might exist and what value it might have in spurring exploration or new energy technologies. He is looking out for the little guy he said.

I have been over some of this before here about Mr. Chilton. However, the issue of using the language of betting to describe the markets at the highest levels of our industry bothers me.

As a broker, I have had customers that were gamblers in their approach to the markets. They were lousy traders. There are some traders who are good gamblers, but their underlying skills are in mathematics, statistics and game theory. These three skills can be applied to both gambling and trading.

While there are all kinds of ways to approach decision making in the markets, from gambling to throwing darts, from fundamental analysis to technical analysis, from behavioural finance to watching the other guy sweat, that does not change the underlying economic purpose of the underlying transaction. One is either a hedger or a speculator. One is either hedging a risk they already have or assuming a risk from someone else. Speculators do not create risk, they assume it.

Speculators in the futures markets provide liquidity and participate with their views in the price discovery process. In that role, speculators can and do move markets. Speculators speculate, they don’t bet.

~John J. Lothian

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Liffe gives notice to terminate clearing relationship agreement with LCH. Clearnet LTD
NYSE Euronext today confirmed that its London derivatives market, LIFFE Administration and Management has now given formal notice of termination with respect to the services currently received from LCH.Clearnet Ltd under the Clearing Relationship Agreement to support NYSE Liffe Clearing, NYX’s London-based derivatives clearing service.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQ0

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Torben Munch new CEO of Orc
The Board of Directors of Orc Group (“Orc”) has appointed Torben Munch as new CEO of Orc. Torben Munch joins Orc from SimCorp, a global software provider to the international investment management industry listed on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen, where he held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
http://jlne.ws/MFCJL2

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Maven Wave Partners Newsletter: Focus on Value Creation
Market Overview June 2012
Running A Change Management Marathon
Financial Services Spotlight
Are You Ready to Switch to Cloud?
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQ3

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OIC And CISI Content Sharing Agreement Expands Access To Options Trading Education
The Options Industry Council (OIC) and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) have signed a content sharing agreement making OIC’s renowned equity options educational materials available to CISI’s global membership.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Gzv

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Bye-Bye, Wall Street: New Flavor Of Big Data May Be More Lucrative For Quants
David Leinweber – Forbes
The Internet’s been around since 1969, the web since 1990. I was one of the first 5,000 people on the Internet, back in 1971, when they were giving accounts to students at schools involved in developing the network that linked the 69 sites on the …
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQ5

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Paulson Forgoes Prognostication as Greatest Trade Sequel Flops
By Sheelah Kolhatkar – Bloomberg
John Paulson, founder of Paulson & Co., one of the world’s largest hedge funds, has close-cut black hair, dark eyes and a soft voice. There’s a fuss when he arrives, befitting a man who made one of the biggest fortunes in Wall Street history, as his general counsel and PR consultant jostle for seats next to him.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GzA

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Blame Fear, Not Greed, as Firms Hoard Cash
BY JOHN BUSSEY – WSJ
Here’s one way to explain the record stacks of cash that companies have amassed: Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it. Actually, that line is said to be Leonardo da Vinci’s. But if you spend any time with chief financial officers, you’ll hear the same admonition in one form or another.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQa

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A Shocking Indictment of the Culture of Banks
Robert Lenzner – Forbes
Will it never end? I mean the smarmy, unethical, illegal fixing of the financial markets by the great names of finance. This time it is the holiest market of the the London Interbank Offering Rate– LIBOR– the rate the major banks of the UK and Europe charge each other to borrow funds from each other. This is the equivalent of a cheating conspiracy in the US discount rate– at which banks borrow from the Fed and from each other to grease the daily trading of securities.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GzH

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Libor affair shows banking’s big conceit
Gillian Tett, Financial Times
Sometimes in life it feels sweet to say “I told you so”. This week is one such moment. Five long years ago, I first started trying to expose the darker underbelly of the Libor market, together with Financial Times colleagues such as Michael Mackenzie. At the time, this sparked furious criticism from the British Bankers’ Association, as well as big banks such as Barclays; the word “scaremongering” was used. But now we know that, amid the blustering from the BBA, the reality was worse than we thought.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQb

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OpRisk Asia: Rogue traders exploiting ‘weaknesses’ in op risk controls
Alexander Campbell – Risk.net
Rogue trading stems from failures of culture, supervision and controls, delegates at the OpRisk Asia conference heard during a panel discussion today. But its occurrence was also linked to a weakness in operational risk management, with risk departments unwilling or unable to stand up to business lines, speakers said.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GzK

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Private Equity Firms See a Brighter 2012
JANET MORRISSEY – NY Times
A survey by professional services firm Rothstein Kass found that 77 percent of 293 private equity firms polled believe there will be more attractive investment opportunities this year than last.
http://jlne.ws/MX0GQf

***JM: Even though it’s already the end of January, there’s still time for this kind of rapport… wait, it’s the end of JUNE???

JLN Interest Rates

Treasury Department Announces $204 Million In Proceeds From Pricing of Public Offerings of Preferred Stock in Seven Financial Institutions
As part of the strategy it outlined last month for winding down its remaining Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bank investments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it priced secondary public offerings of the preferred stock it holds in the following seven financial institutions at the following prices per share:

Fidelity Southern Corporation (Atlanta, GA), all of its 48,200 shares at $900.60 per share (approximately $43 million net proceeds);
Firstbank Corporation (Alma, MI), all of its 33,000 shares at $941.01 per share (approximately $31 million net proceeds);
First Citizens Banc Corp (Sandusky, OH), all of its 23,184 shares at $906.00 per share (approximately $21 million net proceeds);
MetroCorp Bancshares, Inc. (Houston, TX), all of its 45,000 shares at $981.17 per share (approximately $43 million net proceeds);
Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina, Inc. (Newton, NC), all of its 25,054 shares at $933.36 per share (approximately $23 million net proceeds);
Pulaski Financial Corp. (St. Louis, MO), all of its 32,538 shares at $888.00 per share (approximately $28 million net proceeds); and
Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (Greenville, SC), all of its 17,299 shares at $904.00 per share (approximately $15 million net proceeds).

For the rest of the report and a roundup of interest rate news, visit the JLN Interest Rates newsletter at http://jlne.ws/dhAkoq

MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Brian Portnoy
http://jlne.ws/ODstc7

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MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Henrik Hasselknippe; Abigail M. David; Brian Portnoy; Jennifer Ropiak

Companies, Organizations and Groups

Green Exchange Holdings LLC; Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment; Options Industry Council; Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Inc.

Miscellaneous

30-year T-bond; Upcoming Events

Statistics

25,465,571 pages viewed, 6,925 articles, 143,487 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Germany moves to regulate high-frequency trading
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Germany’s ruling coalition has agreed key points for regulating ultra-fast trading on stock exchanges such as giving regulator Bafin the right to oversee so-called high-frequency traders, coalition sources told Reuters on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvb

CFTC Approves ICE Application for Dodd-Frank Swap Database
By Silla Brush – Bloomberg
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted provisional registration to IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE)’s information database on energy, interest-rate, credit and other swaps as the first swap-data repository required under the Dodd-Frank Act.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jve

SEC Could Seek Nasdaq Upgrading
BY JENNY STRASBURG AND JACOB BUNGE – WSJ
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. may be forced by securities regulators to upgrade its trading systems in the wake of last month’s glitch-ridden stock sale by Facebook Inc. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating what caused the mishaps that plagued the Nasdaq Stock Market during Facebook shares’ debut on May 18 and the effects on brokers and investors who lost money.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvj

Euro area agrees bond support for Italy, Spain
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Euro zone leaders agreed on Friday to take emergency action to bring down Italy’s and Spain’s spiraling borrowing costs and to create a single supervisory body for euro zone banks by the end of this year, a first step towards a European banking union.
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6y

Libor Process Under Review
BY MAX COLCHESTER AND JEAN EAGLESHAM – WSJ
The process for setting one of the world’s most important interest rates veered toward a shake-up when the U.K. banking group responsible for the rate asked government officials to intervene. “We will now be asking the authorities to consider in what manner the Libor setting mechanism should be regulated in the future,” the British Bankers’ Association said Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvk

UK Treasury chief says HSBC, RBS, UBS, Citigroup being probed over interest rate manipulation
Associated Press
More global banks are being investigated for the alleged financial market manipulation that led to fines of $453 million against Barclays Bank, British Treasury chief George Osborne said Thursday, driving financial stocks lower.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvn

RBS set for fine as Barclays boss remains defiant
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Royal Bank of Scotland could face a hefty fine from the same interest rate rigging scandal that has hammered Barclays this week and left its boss Bob Diamond fighting for his job.
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6z

As Regulator Scores Record Fine, Support Emerges for Bigger Budget
By BEN PROTESS – NY Times
A tiny Wall Street regulator had a big money day. On Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Barclays $200 million, an expensive rebuke of the bank’s efforts to manipulate a key interest rate. Now, the agency’s allies in Washington are drawing on the Barclays case to push for a budget increase.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvp

Analysis: EBA bank watchdog faces own stress test from euro crisis
Reuters via Yahoo! News
This time last year the European Banking Authority was fighting a losing battle with Germany’s financial regulator, just seven months after it started work as the EU’s new supranational watchdog charged with overcoming national differences to tackle the bloc’s banking crisis. A year later and the EBA’s very survival is in question as the euro zone’s leaders debate whether nothing short of a banking union will break the death spiral that links the weak euro debtor nations with the banks whose debt they hold.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvq

Regulatory

CFTC Approves Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Enhance its Identification of Futures and Swap Market Participants
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) has approved for publication in the Federal Register proposed rules and related forms to enhance its identification of participants in Commission-regulated futures and swaps markets.
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6A

SEC Adopts New Procedures for Reviewing Clearing Submissions Under Dodd-Frank Act
The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules that establish procedures for its review of certain clearing agency actions. The rules were required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which called for a new regulatory framework for trading in over-the-counter derivatives, including swap agreements.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Jvt

Regulators Ramp Up Queries Into CDS Trades at Data Warehouse
By Katy Burne – Dow Jones
Regulators are increasing the number of queries they make into global credit-default swaps trades reported to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., according to figures the data warehouse provider released Wednesday. DTCC said regulators submitted 360 searches in May, the most recent month for which data is available, compared with 37 searches in the same month last year. In April, the number of searches rose to 579 from 77 a year earlier.
http://jlne.ws/MX0JLG

J.P. Morgan Models Get Regulatory Spotlight
BY JULIE STEINBERG AND DAN FITZPATRICK – WSJ
Regulators have stepped up scrutiny of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s internal controls by asking the bank to demonstrate that its risk models are designed and working properly, according to people close to the situation.
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6B

Finance firms see regulation denting prospects: CBI
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Financial firms saw strong growth in the second quarter but have become less optimistic about longer-term prospects owing to regulatory concerns, according to a survey on Friday.
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6E

CFTC Issues Order of Provisional Registration as a Swap Data Repository to ICE Trade Vault, LLC
http://jlne.ws/OEd8YM

Testimony by SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro Concerning The “JOBS Act In Action Part II: Overseeing Effective Implementation Of The JOBS Act At The SEC” , Before The Subcommittee On TARP, Financial Services And Bailouts Of Public And Private Programs Oversight And Government Reform Committee, U.S. House Of Representatives
http://jlne.ws/MX0JLM

BM&FBOVESPA: Agreement To Establish CAF Signed By Bodies
Mergers And Acquisitions Committee (CAF) To Operate As A Voluntary Self-Regulatory Organization, Inspired By The UK’s Takeover Panel
http://jlne.ws/MX0JLP

ESMA Proposes Remuneration Guidelines For Alternative Investment Fund Managers
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6L

ESMA Publishes 2011 Activity Report On IFRS Enforcement In The EEA
http://jlne.ws/MX0H6O

Canadian Securities Regulators establish regulatory framework to manage electronic trading risks [CSA]
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) announced today it is proceeding with the implementation of NI 23-103 Electronic Trading, which establishes a regulatory framework for the oversight and management of the risks associated with the use of electronic trading on Canadian marketplaces.
http://jlne.ws/MX0JLU

ASIC updates policy guidance on approach to cross-border financial regulation
http://jlne.ws/MX0Hn7

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority Report On NZX General Obligations Review
http://jlne.ws/MX0Hne

Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority – Finansinspektionen – Decision On Temporary Floor On The Discount Rate
http://jlne.ws/MX0K2g

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

London Stock Exchange welcomes 1,000th exchange traded product
More than 1,000 Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) are now listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Since the launch of London’s first ETF in 2000, its range of products has grown to include 644 ETFs, 316 ETCs and 46 ETNs. The 1,006 products are offered by 17 separate issuers.
http://jlne.ws/MX0K2h

EEX extends Incentive Model on Natural Gas Derivatives Market
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) extends its incentive model on the Natural Gas Derivatives Market by three additional months and thus creates further impulses for long-term exchange trading.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Hnl

WSE To Start Cooperation With One Of The Prominent Figures Of CEE Capital Markets
As of June 2012, the Warsaw Stock Exchange has hired Mr Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, the former President of the Budapest Stock Exchange and former Global Head of UniCredit’s Securities Services, as the Senior Advisor to the President and CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDz

Oslo Børs Lists Bond Loans Intended For Swedish Investors
Oslo Børs is today listing two bond loans that are intended for Swedish investors and are registered with Euroclear Sweden. The bonds are issued by Hafslund ASA. This is the first time that Oslo Børs has listed bond loans that are registered with a foreign central securities depository.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDA

Warsaw Stock Exchange Publishes Composition Of New Segments On NewConnect Market For The First Time
http://jlne.ws/MX0K2p

NZX: Strong Partnership Will Deliver results For Markets
http://jlne.ws/MX0K2s

Direct Edge Trading Notice #12-26: Fee Schedule Changes for EDGA and EDGX Exchanges
http://jlne.ws/MX0KiI

Penny Pilot Program – Classes to be Added July 3, 2012
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDD

CBSX Trader News Update CBSX to Disable All-Or-None Orders
http://jlne.ws/MX0KiO

Program Trading Averaged 46.0 Percent of NYSE Volume during June 18-22
http://jlne.ws/MX0KiS

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

TABB Says US Buy Side Is Expanding Its Use Of Options Trading Through New Products, More Complex Strategies
US options traders tell TABB Group that they are actively exploring new ways to use options, expanding the types of options products they use, turning to more complex strategies such as multi-legged spread trades and increasingly executing these orders through direct market access (DMA) and algorithmic trading tools.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDF

Goldman Sachs Raises More Than $1 Billion So Far for Newest Private Equity Secondary Fund
Dow Jones
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has collected at least $1.2 billion for its newest fund focused on the purchase of private equity interests on the secondary market, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDG

Federal Reserve Board And Treasury Department Agree That Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) Requires Less Credit Protection As It Winds Down
http://jlne.ws/MX0KiY

Banks & Brokers

Diamond Seen Surviving Libor Storm After Barclays Plunges
By Howard Mustoe – Blooomberg
Barclays Plc’s investors aren’t joining lawmakers in calling for Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond to quit, though they say record fines for Libor manipulation threaten to doom his turnaround plan for the bank.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kj1

Barclays Big-Boy Breaches Mean Libor Fixes Not Enough
Bloomberg
The blueprint regulators gave Barclays Plc and other banks for correcting Libor-rate abuses may not be enough to salvage a benchmark so discredited it needs to be overhauled, some investors say.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDJ

JPMorgan Cushions Drew’s Retirement With $21.5 Million
Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. ’s decision to let Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew retire four days after the bank disclosed a $2 billion loss in her division allowed her to walk away with about $21.5 million in stock and options.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kzi

Goldman Said to Hold Third Electronic Bond-Trading Session Today
By Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will hold its third internal bond-trading session today after helping its clients buy and sell $150 million of debt on the system in the last week, according to a person familiar with the initiative.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kzj

Fed’s Fisher says mega banks get “unfair subsidy”
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Large financial firms that have gotten even bigger since the financial crisis earn backdoor government subsidies because of a perception they will be bailed out, a top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDM

Cantor Fitzgerald Broker-Dealer May Add 800 Workers
By Laura Marcinek – Bloomberg
Cantor Fitzgerald LP, the investment bank with a workforce of about 8,000, plans to add another 800 employees to its broker-dealer in coming years through acquisitions and hiring.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDO

Goldman trims U.S. staff: sources
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Goldman Sachs Group Inc trimmed staff in its U.S. operations on Thursday, amid a slowdown in capital markets activity, three people familiar with the matter said.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HDP

Kerviel ‘Love’ May Not Be Enough to Overturn Verdict
By Heather Smith – Bloomberg
Jerome Kerviel’s statement last week that he “loved” Societe Generale SA (GLE) may have come too late to help him win a reduced sentence for causing the bank’s 4.9 billion-euro ($6.1 billion) trading loss.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kzm

In N.Y. Fed Maiden Lane Sale, Credit Suisse Wins
Dow Jones
Credit Suisse topped winners on Thursday at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest sale of complex mortgage- and other asset-backed securities that have been stalwarts during the volatile financial markets this year.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HU4

GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. Announces Agreement to Acquire Open E Cry, LLC from optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.
GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc., a global provider of online trading services, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Open E Cry, LLC, an online futures broker, from optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HU5

Robert H. Herz Elected to Morgan Stanley Board of Directors
http://jlne.ws/MX0HUb

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Names Susan Swart To Chief Information Officer Post
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kzp

Clearing & Settlement

TriOptima captures 90% of collateralized OTC derivatives on triResolve as ISDA reports daily reconciliation of OTC portfolios grows for both large and small firms
TriOptima announced that its counterparty exposure management service, triResolve, regularly reconciles 6.3 million OTC derivative trades representing 90% of the collateralized OTC derivatives market. In its recently-published ISDA Margin Survey 2012, respondents indicated that daily reconciliations increased from 31% to 47% for all firms, and from 61% to 71% for large firms primarily due to adoption of the triResolve service.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Kzu

Interbolsa signs ECB T2S framework agreement
NYSE Euronext today announces that Interbolsa has signed the European Central Bank’s Target2Securities Framework Agreement. T2S was initiated in 2006 and has been implemented to integrate and bring further efficiencies to the European securities settlement infrastructure. It will be introduced from 2015.
http://jlne.ws/MX0HUe

CME Group Clearing Advisory
IMPORTANT: LSOC Customer Swap Collateral Reporting
http://jlne.ws/MX0HUk

CME Group Clearing Advisory
NYMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members (6E) Effective Friday, June 29, 2012
http://jlne.ws/MX0IaA

CME Clearing – Performance Bonds / Margins
Performance Bond Requirements: Nymex New Products – Effective Friday, June 29, 2012
http://jlne.ws/MX0IaC

CME Clearing – Performance Bonds / Margins
Performance Bond Requirements: Equity Index FX and Interest Rate Outrights and Agriculture Intra-Commodity Spreads- Effective Friday, June 29, 2012
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPO

Indexes & Products

UBS Breaks Launch Record with 64 New ETFs in London
ETF Trends via Yahoo! Finance
Swiss bank UBS on Thursday launched 64 new exchange traded funds on the London Stock Exchange to break the one-day launch record. UK investors now have access to 66 ETF share classes from UBS, according to a press release.
http://jlne.ws/MX0IaE

FTSE Wins Index Provider Of The Year Award
http://jlne.ws/MX0IaF

BME: IGBM Index New Composition For The Second Half 2012
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPQ

BATS Announces Annual Changes To BATS 1000 Index – U.S. Equities Market Benchmark Celebrates Three-Year Anniversary
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPR

Bucharest Stock Exchange Launches BET-BK Index On July 3
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPU

Enforcement

In Case Against Philip Falcone, a Warning to Others
By PETER J. HENNING – NY Times
Hedge fund managers have long flown underneath the radar, doing pretty much as they pleased with little oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Securities fraud charges filed against Philip Falcone and his firm, Harbinger Capital Partners, are a warning that funds can now expect the same scrutiny that Wall Street banks and brokerage firms receive.
http://jlne.ws/MX0IaK

SEC Shuts Down $42 Million Ponzi-Like Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has obtained an emergency court order to halt an alleged Ponzi-like scheme operated by Small Business Capital Corp. and its principal Mark Feathers, who raised $42 million by selling securities issued by Investors Prime Fund LLC and SBC Portfolio Fund LLC – two mortgage investment funds they controlled.
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPV

CFTC Obtains Default Judgment against The Trade Tech Institute, Inc., Technology Trading International, Inc., and Robert Sorchini for Fraudulent Solicitation of Managed Commodity Trading Accounts and Obtains Consent Judgment against Richard Carter as Controlling Person of Both Companies
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPW

UK’s Financial Services Authority Agrees Settlement With Four Banks Over Interest Rate Hedging Products
http://jlne.ws/MX0KPZ

[ASIC] Former Director of SA insurance broker charged
http://jlne.ws/MX0KQ0

[SIX] New Value Ltd sanctioned for errors in financial statements
http://jlne.ws/MX0KQ3

Environmental & Energy

EU climate boss calls for early U.N. carbon plan
Reuters
The European Union is looking to a U.N. body to decide on a global scheme for curbing airline emissions at its November meeting, the bloc’s climate boss said on Thursday, after inconclusive talks in Montreal this week.
http://jlne.ws/Ly54kL

Carbon Errors Make Australia Wiser as Gillard Sets Price Record
Bloomberg
Australia is setting the world’s highest price on carbon emissions as it seeks to avoid mistakes made when Europe started the biggest cap-and-trade system seven years ago.
http://jlne.ws/OBWGH8

Court ruling to shift greenhouse gas fight back to Congress
Reuters
An appeals court decision to uphold proposed federal greenhouse gas rules may shift the fight over regulating the heat-trapping emissions back to Congress, where lawmakers may step up efforts to diminish the EPA’s power or renew efforts to set a price on carbon, experts said.
http://jlne.ws/NTH0xG

Asia-Pacific

China to experiment with freer yuan in Shenzhen financial zone
By Rachel Lee – Reuters
China took another step towards a more freely traded yuan on Thursday, announcing plans for a test zone for the currency’s convertibility in Shenzhen, the same city that first tried out China’s broader economic reforms some 30 years ago.
http://jlne.ws/MX0L6l

Tokyo bourse ‘widens insider trading probe’
AFP via Yahoo! News
Tokyo’s bourse will search the offices of dozens of brokerage houses as part of a widening crackdown on insider trading, a report said Thursday, as lawmakers eye tough new rules to curb the practice.
http://jlne.ws/MX0L6o

HK stock market in venture with Chinese exchanges
AP
Hong Kong’s stock exchange says it’s setting up a joint venture with mainland Chinese markets to develop new products as it seeks to raise competitiveness.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Ird

Notice Of Issuing “Scheme Of Perfecting Delisting System Of Shanghai Stock Exchange-Listed Companies”
http://jlne.ws/MX0L6u

SGX reports FY2012 results on 27 July
http://jlne.ws/MX0L6z

Frontier Markets

Oman plans Islamic finance rules before year-end
Reuters via Yahoo! News
SYDNEY – A regulatory framework for Islamic finance is taking shape in Oman as government bodies move towards meeting the country’s stated aim of making sharia-compliant products available to the public this year. But logistical challenges and the limited size of the market may prevent entrants to the business from making quick profits.
http://jlne.ws/MX0LmN

HSBC to Shed Stake in Indian Banks
Zacks via Yahoo! Finance
HSBC is now planning to sell its stake in two Indian private sectors banks – Axis Bank and YES Bank. The company is expected to raise about $429.5 million from this divestiture.
http://jlne.ws/MX0Irn