Industry news

August 30, 2012: Switzerland seeks tighter off-exchange oversight; Asean bourse link set for September launch; Chinese Banks Funneled Money to Iran, Prosecutors Believe

Switzerland’s financial regulators shift closer to a US perspective, and plan to exert more control over private derivatives trading.  A multi-market data link receives regulatory approval in Asia, setting the Asean connection on a path to go live in September.  In the latest chapter of the thriller, “Who Sneakily Sent Money to Iran?” prosecutors believe that Chinese banks may have also been involved.  In today’s First Read, you’ll hear about the upcoming annual Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners charity day; and former JLN summer intern Stephen Hurst considers the cloudy skies facing aspiring bankers and financial workers.

First Read

Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners will Host their Annual Global Charity Day on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Every year Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners commemorate the 658 employees they lost on September 11, 2001 through their annual Charity Day. This year’s Charity Day will take place on Tuesday, September 11.

“Celebrity brokers” will visit Cantor Fitzgerald’s trading floors at 110 East 59th Street and BGC Partners’ trading floors at 199 Water Street, to carry out real trades with both companies’ clients over the phone (with a licensed broker) in order to help raise money for selected charities.

Cantor Fitzgerald and its affiliates have raised more than $77 million over the past seven years. Last year, approximately $12 million was raised in a single day which was donated to more than 200 charities around the globe.

For more information you can visit:
Cantor Fitzgerald
http://www.cantor.com/CD/charity_day_2012

BGC Partners:
http://www.bgcpartners.com/about-us/charity/Charity_Day_2012/

++++

Structure’s Lynchpin
By Stephen Hurst

This commentary draws from Stephen Hurst’s summer experience as an intern at both John J. Lothian & Co. and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This is a view from the bottom: The Summer Intern.

Some call summer internships fantastic. Those who know better call it grunt work. My personal favorite is the CFTC’s title for me: “Volunteer.” While interns are occupying more office space today than probably ever before, it disappoints me to say that fewer college grads are now able shed the menial title of intern to become demi-gods of the khaki universe, full-time employees.

One has to ask, what happened to the hiring structure that the financial world designed, built and practiced? It was rather simple and effective – gain some summer experience, learn the ropes of the financial world a bit, graduate and bring your experience and enthusiasm to the markets.

It has long been believed that a structured timeline of internships and summer analyst positions would all but guarantee a respectable starting position in the financial industry upon graduation.

In recent years, this path has been damaged. Volumes are dropping across stock, options and futures exchanges and so are hirings in the financial industry. The tumultuous economic climate we currently exist in has led to broken promises at large banks where this process went unchanged for years.

And chances are, it will be a long time before things get better too. It doesn’t take a genius to know a 0%-interest-rate environment and high costs of regulatory compliance mean tough times for the financial industry. The crisis of investor confidence we are experiencing has thrown everything into the air and now firms and their recruiters are waiting to see what things will look like when the dust settles.

Veterans of the industry tell me to steer clear at all costs; the relatively smooth waters we’ve been seeing are getting progressively choppier with each hiring cycle. As one executive put it simply,  “banking just isn’t going to make the same money as it had.”

The job search situation is becoming so dire that websites are now peddling guides on how to “break into banking.” For a small fortune you can learn anything that an investment banking training program will pay you to do. Needless to say, I’m skeptical. To me, finance hiring is starting to look a lot like what the hiring environment of legal practices has now become: Yes, a relevant degree from a top-tier school will probably land jobs at desirable places, but unless you’re bringing in clients and are immediately adding revenue to the firm’s bottom line, you’re out of luck. The scary thing is the simplicity of the underlying logic: why should a firm that’s not making money take on any additional costs and risk of hiring if its not immediately making them money?

The current hiring conditions make me glad I have a few more years in the world of academia ahead of me and apprehensive about what lies ahead. But a smarter man than I once said, “with great change comes great opportunity.” I think there are great things to come in the world of finance, but those great opportunities will likely be harder to find, and will certainly be on a different path.

++++

Expanding the Role of SIPC

Neal L. Wolkoff – MarketsReformWiki
Following the collapses at MF Global and Peregrine Financial Group the futures industry has been considering various steps to reclaim investor confidence in the safety of funds deposited with registered futures commission merchants. Regulators have adopted various proposals to improve audit standards by requiring electronic record submissions, and self-reporting by FCMs of transfers of segregated funds that exceed prescribed thresholds.
http://jlne.ws/NvjHNt

++++

Scandinavian derivatives battered by cold front
David Wigan – FOW
Liquidity begets liquidity, financial market wisdom dictates, but the opposite is also true: lack of liquidity begets dead markets – a fact to which operators of Scandinavian derivative exchanges, based on recent experience, will readily testify. Out on the fringes of the European continent, the environment is at its most fragile, meaning the impact of upheavals in the global financial markets have been more keenly felt than in more highly populated centres.
http://jlne.ws/S1ioaH

++++

Is The Tyranny Of Shareholder Value Finally Ending?
Steve Denning – Forbes
“Down With Shareholder Value” Joe Nocera declared stridently in the New York Times earlier this month. “It feels as if,” Nocera wrote, “we are at the dawn of a new movement — one aimed at overturning the hegemony of shareholder value.” Is a new era in capitalism finally dawning?
http://jlne.ws/PPPk2E

++++

An algorithmic future is almost here
Richard Waters – FT.com
The computer-driven stock trading that produced the “flash crash” of 2010 might seem like the latest tech-driven fad to hit Wall Street, but it has a surprisingly long history.
http://jlne.ws/PPPk2F

++++

Comment: OTC rules need regulatory harmony
Larry Thompson – FT.com
When the G20 members met in 2009 to design the post-crisis regulatory framework, they set an ambitious but necessary goal – to improve the integrity and efficiency of the financial system by enhancing transparency in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkzT

++++

Freeh Calls for Peace in Fight Over MF Global Money
BEN PROTESS – NYTimes.com
An MF Global trustee on Wednesday called for a “global settlement’ in the scramble to recover money from the bankrupt brokerage firm, a bid for peace amid a bitter fight over limited resources and missing customer cash.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkzV

++++

The financial system rests on quicksand
John Gapper – FT.com
If anything is calculated to cause despair about the prospects of making the financial system safer, it is the failure of the Securities and Exchange Commission to tame the $2.6tn US money market fund industry. Mary Schapiro, the SEC chairman, has tried her best but she was stymied last week.
http://jlne.ws/PPPk2M

++++

A Monetary Innovation That Changed the Civil War’s Course
Franklin Noll – Bloomberg
In the summer of 1861, shortly after the start of the Civil War, U.S. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase negotiated a loan of gold from northeastern banks. Until that gold arrived in Washington, the government planned to issue $50 million in demand notes, a currency payable on demand in gold at any Treasury office, to fund the military effort.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkzW

++++

Philip Delves Broughton: Take Those Two Weeks Off–Or Else
PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON – WSJ.com
As any parent of young children can tell you, one of the best ways to stop bad behavior from escalating is to enforce a timeout, sending everyone involved into their own private space to take a breath, calm down and figure out what exactly is going on.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQd

JLN Options

First Trust To Launch VIX ‘Tail Hedge’ Fund
Brendan Conway, Barron’s
The rise of volatility trading products continues. First Trust Advisors is set to launch what it’s calling the First Trust CBOE S&P 500 VIX Tail Hedge Fund on Thursday, according to an NYSE Arca trader notice this afternoon. The fund will trade under the ticker VIXH.
http://jlne.ws/ST36SM

More On This Week’s VIX ‘Tail Hedge’ Fund Launch
Brendan Conway, Barron’s
The Twittersphere didn’t exactly lay out the welcome mat for the First Trust CBOE S&P 500 VIX Tail Hedge Fund (VIXH), which launches on NYSE’s Arca exchange on Thursday. Here’s a deeper look at how this fund plans to hedge against market calamity, judging by the prospectus.
http://jlne.ws/QTXNOh

Leveraged Volatility Fund Set For 1-for-10 Reverse Split
Brendan Conway, Barron’s
“Alternative” assets tend to be radically different from the stocks and bonds to which most investors are accustomed. To wit: One of the most popular leveraged volatility funds, down 93% year-to-date, is set for a 1-for-10 reverse split a little over a week from now. Traders who know this product know that the complex engine under the hood all but requires periodic reverse splits.
http://jlne.ws/NvhYHJ

MarketsReformWiki

CFTC Final Rule: Confirmation, Portfolio Reconciliation, Portfolio Compression, and Swap Trading Relationship Documentation Requirements for Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants
On August 27, 2012, the CFTC issued its second round of final rulemakings related to internal business conduct standards for swap dealers and major swap participants (SD/MSPs). Also referred to by the commission as “risk management procedures,” the final rule combines three previously proposed rules
http://jlne.ws/OFhBan

***JM: The link will take you to the MarketsReformWiki page that aggregates, summarizes and explains the information related to the rule.  Well worth a look.

MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Gary DeWaal
http://jlne.ws/OrEXQu

++++

MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Lorna Kiewert; Gary DeWaal; Bruce Blythe; Tom Joyce

Companies, Organizations and Groups

FTSE Group

Miscellaneous

Upcoming Events

Statistics

27,778,926 pages viewed, 7,084 articles, 146,883 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Switzerland seeks tighter off-exchange oversight
Reuters
The Swiss government plans to tighten oversight of privately-conducted derivatives trading, bringing the country into line with a broader push in the United States and European Union.
http://jlne.ws/PPPk2X

Asean bourse link set for September launch
Jeremy Grant in Singapore – FT.com
A share trading system linking key markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is expected to go live next month after regulators approved the launch of a first stage of the project linking the Singapore and Malaysian bourses.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmYm

Chinese Banks Funneled Money to Iran, Prosecutors Believe
New York Times
Prosecutors say they found evidence that banks may have been flouting United States sanctions against Iran.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQi

Britain May Ease IPO Rules to Prevent $15 Billion Drain
Bloomberg
As Avast Software NV (AVST) planned its initial public offering last year, Chief Executive Officer Vincent Steckler considered listing the Czech anti-virus software maker in London before finally settling on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t want that to happen again.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmYs

New York Fed Gets More Time to Give Congress Libor Info
Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York was given more time to comply with a congressional request for information about staff communications with banks involved in setting the London interbank offered rate.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQl

Wasendorf Receiver Seeks Claims Deadline, Sale of Guns
Andrew Harris on August 28, 2012 – Businessweek
Russell Wasendorf Sr.’s court- appointed receiver asked a federal judge to set a Dec. 17 deadline to file claims against the Peregrine Financial Group Inc. founder and other businesses he controlled.
http://jlne.ws/PrSx5C

French Banks Prepare to Pull Out of Greece
LIZ ALDERMAN – NYTimes.com
France’s biggest banks are preparing to pull out of Greece in the coming weeks, the latest large international business to abandon the country as it grapples with a debilitating recession and nagging questions about its future in the euro zone.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmYz

German and Italian Leaders at Odds Over Euro Plans
MELISSA EDDY and JACK EWING – NYTimes.com
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on Wednesday praised the progress that Italy’s prime minister, Mario Monti, has made in revamping his country’s economy. But she also indicated there were limits to how much financial risk Germany was willing to bear in helping out its euro zone allies.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmYA

Regulatory

Wall Street Granted Another Brief Reprieve
BEN PROTESS – NYTimes.com
Wall Street received a brief but important reprieve on Monday, as federal regulators quietly postponed another set of new rules.
http://jlne.ws/Pr14G4

SEC: Unleash the crowdfunders
CNN Money
FORTUNE — After some delay, the Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rules that could help unleash the burgeoning crowdfunding movement.
http://jlne.ws/PPPneS

Hidden opportunity in the DFA external business conduct rules
Daniel Parker – FOW
The Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) final rules require extensive systematic changes to pre-trade swap documentation and the adoption of comprehensive external business conduct processes – as early as October 14, 2012.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQs

SEC Proposes Rules to Implement JOBS Act Provision About General Solicitation and Advertising in Securities Offerings
The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rules to eliminate the prohibition against general solicitation and general advertising in certain securities offerings.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQu

Opening Statement At The SEC Open Meeting By Chairman Mary L. Schapiro
Good morning. This is an open meeting of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 29, 2012.
http://jlne.ws/PPPkQv

Opening Remarks Regarding The Proposal Of Rules Eliminating The Prohibition Against General Solicitation And General Advertising In Rule 506 And Rule 144A Offerings, SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter
http://jlne.ws/PPPnf6

Joint Statement Of Dissent By CFTC Commissioners Jill Sommers And Scott O’Malia – Clearing Exemption For Swaps Between Certain Affiliated Entities
We respectfully dissent from the notice of proposed rulemaking to exempt swaps between certain affiliated entities from the clearing requirement. While we wholly support a clearing exemption for swaps between affiliated entities within a corporate group, we cannot support the proposal before the Commission today because in certain instances it imposes an unnecessary requirement for variation margin on corporate entities that engage in inter-affiliate trades.
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvn

Statement At SEC Open Meeting: Proposed Rules To Eliminate The Prohibition Against General Solicitation And General Advertising In Rule 506 And Rule 144A Offerings By Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvo

ESMA Announces A Vacancy For A Policy Officer For CRAs
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6K

SEC Announces Advisory Committee Meeting In San Francisco to Discuss Small Business Issues
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvr

SEC Announces Agenda For Market Technology Roundtable
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6L

Increasing The Vulnerability Of Investors By Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission, SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.C., August 29, 2012
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvs

Statement At Open Meeting To Propose Rule Amendments Eliminating The Prohibition Against General Solicitation And General Advertising In Rule 506 And Rule 144A Offerings By SEC Commissioner Troy A. Paredes
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6S

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority’s First Year – Oversight Of Market Conduct Report
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvx

AMF publishes 2011 report on credit rating agencies
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6T

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

The AX Trading Network Conducts Its First After Hours Cross
AX Trading announced today that it had conducted its first after hours cross on The AX Trading Network (“The AX”). According to Bloomberg trade advertising service, AX Trading crossed 210,000 shares of SPN at 4:20 p.m. yesterday August 28, 2012.
http://jlne.ws/PPPnvA

CBOE/CFE/ONE Move to Equinix NY4 – August Update
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6V

[CBOE] September 2012 Fee Changes
http://jlne.ws/PPPnLV

New York Stock Exchange to Suspend the American Depositary Shares of Elster Group SE.
http://jlne.ws/PPPnLX

SIX Swiss Exchange: No Breach Of Listing Rules By Dufry Ltd.
http://jlne.ws/PPPl6Z

NZX Confirms FMA Grant Of Fonterra Shareholders’ Market Registration
http://jlne.ws/PPPnLZ

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Hedge-Fund Managers Prepare For JOBS Act – WSJ.com
SUZANNE VRANICA, JULIET CHUNG and JESSICA HOLZER
“Invest in hedge funds: because you are worth it.”
“Alternative investments are it.”
“It’s not your father’s hedge fund.”
Those are just a few hypothetical slogans that could appear on a billboard near you as a result of a planned relaxation of a ban on hedge-fund advertising.
http://jlne.ws/RY8k22

Paulson’s Gold Fund Faced 22% Losses in July
CNBC
One nugget that may have been lost in the clamor of hedge-fund John Paulson’s conference call with Bank of America employees and clients yesterday: The fund that represents his core thesis right now has struggled mightily so far this year.
http://jlne.ws/PPPlnh

The Most Spectacular Hedge Fund Implosions Of All Time
Business Insider
This week, everyone’s talking about John Paulson. The hedge fund manager, known for making a killing off of the housing bubble, was asked to face investors on a call with Bank of America prompted by his fund’s consistent dismal performance. At least, that’s what it seemed like. Citigroup severed a $410 million relationship with Paulson just last week. The Street is beginning to worry.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2q

Stamford upset over hedge fund headquarters
New York Post
Ray Dalio, founder of $130 billion asset manager Bridgewater Associates, is not making friends in his company’s new hometown of Stamford, Conn. Residents and officials of the coastal city are up in arms after early development of a piece of an 80-acre plot of land — now Bridgewater’s proposed waterfront home — resulted in the surprise demolition of part of a historic 14-acre boat yard.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2t

JIM ROGERS: For The First Time In My Life, I’m Thinking Of Investing In Russia
Business Insider
After 18 long years of negotiations, Russia has finally joined the World Trade Organization, marking a major stride forward in the nation’s continued effort to grow its presence in international affairs and on the global economic stage.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2u

HedgeServ Provides Form PF Compliance Solution To Fund Managers
HedgeServ, an independent global fund administrator, has added a Form PF enterprise reporting solution to its service offering.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2v

Banks & Brokers

Barclays hit by fraud probe over Mideast investors
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Scandal-hit Barclays bank says it’s facing yet another investigation — this one relating to the billions it raised from Middle Eastern investors back in 2008.
http://jlne.ws/PPPlnx

Barclays retail boss Jenkins gets CEO task
Reuters via Yahoo! News
LONDON – Britain’s Barclays has picked softly spoken retail boss Antony Jenkins as its new chief executive to fill the shoes left by Bob Diamond, the colorful American investment banker who resigned after a rate-rigging scandal.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2A

Citigroup agrees to pay $590M in shareholder suit
AP
Citigroup has agreed to pay $590 million to settle legal claims by shareholders that its executives misled them about the bank’s growing problems before the financial crisis.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2D

Citi Media Statement On Citigroup Common Stock Class Action Suit
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2E

Scotiabank Agrees to Buy ING Unit for C$3.13 Billion
Bloomberg
ING Groep NV ’s $3.16 billion sale of its Canadian online bank to Bank of Nova Scotia may put the largest Dutch financial-services company closer to repaying state aid from its 2008 bailout.
http://jlne.ws/PPPo2H

Should Big Banks Be Broken Up? Yes — or Maybe
Knowledge at Wharton
The future of the financial industry sounded more like its past when CNBC aired an interview with former Citigroup chairman Sanford “Sandy” Weill last month. Weill indicated that mega-institutions like Citigroup should be broken up, and he advocated a return to the days when traditional banks and investment firms were strictly separated.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoiU

Profits elude Nomura-owned Instinet in Europe
Tim Cave – MarketWatch
The European arm of Instinet, the Nomura-owned agency broker, has now failed to turn a profit in the region for over two years, its latest accounts show. Instinet Europe Ltd. reported a pretax, break-even position for the 15 months ended March 31, 2012, according to accounts filed with Companies House at the end of last week. The results mirror those reported by the company during 2010.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoiW

JPMorgan’s “London Whale” spooks mutual fund managers
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Mutual fund managers sold JPMorgan Chase shares after the London Whale fiasco, and by one measure had the lowest weighting of the stock in their portfolios in at least seven years, analysts at Bernstein Research said on Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/PPPlDU

BofA lags in modifying loans under settlement
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Bank of America Corp is lagging other banks in meeting its requirements to reduce customers’ mortgage balances under a $25 billion foreclosure settlement with the U.S. government, according to a report released on Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoj2

U.S. Bank accused of failing to maintain more than 170 foreclosed properties
CNNMoney
U.S. Bank is the country’s fifth-largest commercial bank, with 3,000 branches in 25 states. It’s also “one of the largest slumlords in the City of Los Angeles,” according to the L.A. city attorney’s office.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoj4

Prospera Financial Named 2012 Broker-Dealer of the Year
GlobeNewswire via Yahoo! Finance
DALLAS, Texas — via PRWEB – Prospera Financial Services, Inc. was named last week as Investment Advisor magazine’s 2012 Broker-Dealer of the Year in Division I, representing firms with up to 199 producing advisors.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoj6

Clearing & Settlement

FIA And ISDA Publish Cleared Derivatives Addendum
The Futures Industry Association (FIA) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) today announced the publication of the FIA-ISDA Cleared Derivatives Addendum, a template that can be used by U.S. futures commission merchants (FCMs) and their customers to document their relationship with respect to cleared over-the-counter (OTC) swaps.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoj8

Indexes & Products

Xetra/FWB: Travel24 Plans Bond Issue In Entry Standard – Subscription Period Until 14 September 2012
The travel company Travel24.com AG is issuing a corporate bond in Deutsche Börse’s Entry Standard. The bond can be subscribed from today (ISIN: DE000A1PGRG2).
http://jlne.ws/PPPlUm

EDHEC-Risk Institute Research Highlights The Risk Of New Forms Of Equity Indices Underperforming Cap-Weighted Indices
In a new research paper published in the prestigious Journal of Portfolio Management, entitled “Diversifying the Diversifiers and Tracking the Tracking Error: Outperforming Cap-Weighted Indices with Limited Risk of Underperformance,” EDHEC-Risk Institute warns of the risk of new forms of alternative-weighted equity indices seriously underperforming traditional cap-weighted indices.
http://jlne.ws/PPPlUp

FTSE Moves To Actual Free Float In Float-Weighted Indices
From March 2013 onwards, all FTSE’s float-weighted indices will use actual free float percentages to calculate their weightings. This will reflect the actual stock available in the market more accurately and reduce turnover caused when a security moves from one free float band to another as the result of corporate actions or other structural change.
http://jlne.ws/PPPojb

Technology

FFastFill Announces Full Adherence to Newly Revised CFTC Risk Management Regulation
FFastFill plc, the leading provider of Software as a Service to the global derivatives community, announced today that its award-winning Orbit Risk platform is fully conformant with the newly revised CFTC Regulation 1.73, which stipulates certain risk management obligations for both futures commission merchants (FCMs) and non-FCMs. The new rule is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2012.
http://jlne.ws/PPPlUu

Chi-X Global Deploys CorvilNet In Australia, Canada And Japan – Corvil Solution Provides Network Visibility, Market Data Health And Transaction Analysis
http://jlne.ws/PPPlUw

Dion Global Solutions Partners With b-next In ANZ – Dion To Bring b-next’s Trade Surveillance Products To Australia & New Zealand
http://jlne.ws/PPPozs

Enforcement

SEC Charges Florida Brokers For Defrauding Brazilian Public Pension Funds In Markup Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two former brokers in Miami with fraud for overcharging customers approximately $36 million by using hidden markup fees on structured notes transactions.
http://jlne.ws/PPPozz

CFTC Charges California Resident Marc Perlman And His Company, Iglobal Strategic Management, LLC, With Solicitation Fraud And Misappropriation In Commodity Pool Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charging
http://jlne.ws/PPPozC

CFTC Charges Texas Resident Jonathan Hansen And His Company, J. Hansen Investments, LLC, With Commodity Pool Fraud, Misappropriation, And Commingling Of Funds
http://jlne.ws/PPPmaN

Florida Man Sentenced To 78 Months In Prison For Wire Fraud In Massive Internet-Based Ponzi Scheme – Venture Raised More Than $120 Million From
http://jlne.ws/PPPozH

B.C. Securities Commission’s Criminal Investigations Team and Saanich Police arrest two men in Greater Victoria area
http://jlne.ws/PPPmaS

Environmental & Energy

Australia EU Link Makes Carbon-Market Theory Real, Marcu Says
Bloomberg
The proposed linking of the European Union and Australian greenhouse-gas-reduction programs will demonstrate to policy makers across the world that carbon markets can help address climate change, said Andrei Marcu.
http://jlne.ws/SUkA1d

Op/Ed: Europe’s flawed carbon market
Financial Times
The EU and Australia claim the decision to link their carbon markets is a significant step towards the creation of a global trading system to cut emissions. In principle, this is correct: a market-based system to mitigate climate change will only succeed if it is truly international in scope, allowing companies to compete on equal terms. In reality, however, this deal may be little more than a matter of political convenience.
http://jlne.ws/OxWCI6

Can Europe save the carbon market?
Climate Spectator
The announcement by Minister for Climate Change Greg Combet to drop the $15 floor price and reduce the use of international carbon credits known as CERs (Certified Emission Reduction) still leaves Australia in pretty much the same place – a weak and highly uncertain carbon price. However the potential carbon price upside is far greater under these new arrangements.
http://jlne.ws/Pwv1c3

Asia-Pacific

Thai Bourse Launches New Trading Engine SET CONNECT On Sept 3
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) announces that the bourse has completely developed its new securities trading system, called SET CONNECT, which is ready to be deployed on September 3. With greater capacity than the current system and high efficiency comparable to global leading stock exchanges, SET CONNECT is able to support its domestic and international new financial product launches and upgrade the Thai capital market to meet international standards, while enabling global connectivity.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmaY

Opportunities with the Opening of China’s Futures Market
PRWeb via Yahoo! News
On August 20th 2012, SMK, a financial research institute in China, released the latest China’s Financial Market Investment Report. The report stated that: “China will introduce a slew of financial opening policies. Foreign capital will be able to enter China directly, and it will provide a huge opportunity for the U.S. and European financial institutions.”
http://jlne.ws/PPPmb1

Thai Bourse Announces Overwhelming Success Of Thailand Focus 2012
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), together with Phatra Securities pcl and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, announce the overwhelming success of “Thailand Focus 2012 – Positioning Thailand for the Next Growth Phase,” during August 29-31, reinforcing the attractiveness of the Thai capital market and economy to investors from around the globe and boosting the visibility of Thai listed companies to foreign fund managers.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoQ3

Indochina’s Stock Exchanges First Join Hands To Show Strength In Thailand Focus 2012
Thailand Focus 2012 has successfully gathered capital markets in Indochina to present insights for foreign investors for the first time, with CEOs of stock exchanges in Cambodia, Hanoi, Hochiminh, Laos and Thailand participating and meeting nine foreign funds interested in discussions with the exchanges and Indochina companies in one-on-one meetings.
http://jlne.ws/PPPoQa

Hong Kong’s Securities And Futures Commission: Court Dismisses Appeal By Unlicensed Securities Advisor
http://jlne.ws/PPPmb5

HKFE Announces Revised Margins For Futures Contracts
http://jlne.ws/PPPmrm

Osaka Securities Exchange: Disciplinary Action On Transaction Participant: Livestar Securities Co., Ltd.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmrp

Frontier Markets

Rift in Myanmar over draft investment law
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Protectionist clauses introduced by Myanmar’s parliament to a long-awaited foreign investment law have sparked concern the legislation will scare off foreign companies and benefit the crony capitalists who have long dominated its economy. Two sources with direct knowledge of the law say President Thein Sein wants to make it attractive to foreign investors and his office has been working behind the scenes to convince lawmakers to ease restrictions introduced by parliament, which could approve the draft this week.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmrt

Nasdaq Dubai taps COO Ali as new CEO
Market Watch
Bourse operator Nasdaq Dubai on Wednesday named Hamed Ali as acting chief executive officer, following the departure of the exchange’s previous top official Jeff Singer. Mr. Ali earlier this month joined Nasdaq as chief operating officer. He already worked for the stockmarket operator from 2006 to 2008.
http://jlne.ws/PPPmru