Industry news

September 21, 2012: Futures group Offers Risk Guidelines; In Calls Ior Market Reform, Multiple Voices; U.S. Seeks to Boost Laundering Net

The FOA releases new technical guidelines for mitigating damage from errant electronic trading events; three major exchanges step up and agree to test out the new rules.  Political and professional events add traction and area-of-effect to calls for various kinds of financial reform.  US regulators want to enlist financial firms and others to join in the fight to ferret out and stop money laundering.

First Read

Top futures exchanges agree to algo testing rules
Tim Cave – Financial News
Three of Europe’s leading derivatives exchanges have agreed to new standards for “stress testing” trading algorithms in a move that could pave the way for new revenue streams in the future. NYSE Liffe, CME Group and the IntercontinentalExchange have signed up to new guidelines issued by the Futures and Options Association, under which they will provide data sets to their members to help “replicate a live trading environment and test algorithms”.
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New Trading Technologies blog is live
Elise Fleischaker – Trading Technologies
Today marks the debut of Trading Technologies’ official corporate blog, Trade Talk. On behalf of my colleagues, I’m excited to have another way to communicate with our global community of customers, partners, employees and others who have taken an interest in TT. All of our product managers will write for Trade Talk. They are the folks who lead the evolution of our product line on a day-to-day basis. They know our software and the markets we serve inside and out, and they’ll provide our readers with interesting content and commentary regarding a broad swath of topics. We think you’ll enjoy hearing from them.
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International Securities Exchange and MEB Options Announce Partnership to Introduce Spread Crawler
The International Securities Exchange (ISE) today announced that it has partnered with MEB Options to introduce Spread Crawler, a new tool that provides powerful insight through Instant Messaging (IM) into the entire universe of real-time actionable spread orders. This unique product aggregates streaming spread book data from all options exchanges and transmits individual, user-defined spread orders to subscribers via IM.
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FOW Awards for Asia Winners Unveiled
Congratulations to all the winners of the FOW Awards for Asia, which was unveiled this week at a Gala dinner in Singapore.
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Exclusive: ABN AMRO to shut grain desk on CBOT trading floor
Reuters via Yahoo! News
CHICAGO – Brokerage ABN AMRO will close its pit trading grains desk on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade on November 1, the team’s five members said on Thursday, in one of the clearest signs that the iconic ‘open outcry‘ style of trading is drawing to a close.
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NYSE exec urges rethink on rules that spurred high-frequency traders
Bloomberg News
U.S. regulators and securities professionals should re-examine rules implemented in 2007 that transformed stock trading in the U.S., according to a NYSE Euronext executive.
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Father of High-Speed Trading: It Has ‘Huge’ Benefits
CNBC
In the debate over high-frequency trading, the benefits shouldn’t be overlooked, Thomas Peterffy, considered the father of high-frequency trading, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Wednesday.
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Colocation: The Root of All High-Frequency Trading Evil?
Wall Street Journal Blogs
Trading firms, from Wall Street banks to high-frequency hedge funds and market makers, spend millions each year to place their trading models right on exchange servers. It’s a big revenue generator for both traders and the exchanges, but is it right?
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Beware the costs and psychology of QE3
Gillian Tett – FT.com
Earlier this month, America’s Duke University asked the chief financial officers of 887 large companies how they might respond to falling interest rates. The results were noteworthy for economists, political pundits and investors alike. Some 91 per cent of firms said a one per cent fall in interest rates would have no impact on their business plans, while 84 per cent professed indifference towards even a two per cent fall.
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Behind the Scenes, Some Lawmakers Lobby to Change the Volcker Rule
BEN PROTESS – NYTimes.com
As regulators put the finishing touches on new rules for Wall Street, they remain entangled in a partisan fight over the overhaul. In public letters and closed-door meetings, more than 100 lawmakers have lobbied the Federal Reserve and other authorities over the Volcker Rule, records show.
jlne.ws/SatTue

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Knight Moves Sadoff From Technology Post Two Months After Loss
Bloomberg
Steven Sadoff, who oversaw operations and technology at the Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm, was moved to a role building Knight’s clearing, prime brokerage and futures businesses. The company consolidated oversight of its finances and operations under a single executive, naming Chief Financial Officer Steven Bisgay to the added post of chief operating officer.
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Rethinking Bob Rubin From Goldman Sachs Star to Crisis Scapegoat
William D. Cohan – Bloomberg
Rubin’s knack for spreading wisdom and tranquility has been the defining trait of his professional life. Whether economies across Asia are contaminating each other like kids on a school bus or the Mexican government rises one morning and decides to devalue the peso, Rubin’s hooded eyes and perpetually mussed gray hair give him the air of an ancient Galapagos tortoise. Whatever nastiness politics or the global economy may throw at him, he abides.
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NASSIM TALEB: Former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin Represents Everything That’s Bad In America
Business Insider
In the piece, he interviews Nassim Taleb, who has some choice words for Rubin, President Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary and former Citigroup executive.
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27% Of Financial Services Practitioners More Optimistic For UK Prospects Than Three Months Ago – CISI Survey
There has been a downturn in confidence in the UK economy, a CISI survey shows. Of more than 320 respondents, 27% said they were more optimistic for the country’s prospects than three months ago. There was increased pessimism among 28% while 45% felt unchanged about the economic outlook.
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CME Group to Host Fifth Annual Global Financial Leadership Conference
CME Group will host the fifth annual Global Financial Leadership Conference (GFLC) Nov. 12-14, 2012, at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort in Naples, Florida. The GFLC is an exclusive event that brings together decision-makers from the world’s leading financial institutions to discuss emerging geopolitical trends, debate critical economic issues and provide perspectives on future developments in the financial marketplace.
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NYSE Euronext launches its second Exchange Forum
Next week sees the return of the Exchange Forum in Oporto for the second year. Organised by NYSE Euronext, the forum will take place at Palácio da Bolsa on 28th and 29th September 2012 and will be opened by the Portuguese Secretary of State for Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Innovation, Carlos Oliveira .
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Father of financial futures to speak at OU
OUDaily.com
An economist named “the father of financial futures” by Time Magazine in 2007 will discuss his most recent publication on financial derivatives at a dinner and lecture at OU next month. Richard Sandor uses personal experience in the global markets to illustrate the power of financial innovation in “Good Derivatives: A story of Financial and Environmental Innovation,” according to an OU press release.
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JLN Interest Rates

Libor-Like Manipulation Possible in Other Benchmarks, Iosco Says
Bloomberg
The same lack of oversight that enabled traders to manipulate the London interbank offered rate plagues other benchmarks around the globe, according to a group of international securities regulators.
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**CN: The “risk of manipulation will be greater where participants in the process have both incentive and opportunity to submit inaccurate data or apply a methodology inaccurately,” the authors write in the paper. “Furthermore, where judgment is required in determining the data to be submitted, the problem is particularly acute.”

Fed’s Fisher Decries Bond-Buying Plan
WSJ.com
A veteran central banker attacked Wednesday the Federal Reserve‘s decision to provide new monetary policy stimulus, while blasting Congress for its own set of failures. In a speech in New York, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher argued, as he has in a series of media interviews over recent days, that the Fed’s decision to launch opened-ended mortgage bond buying, in a bid to speed up growth, was a mistake.
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**CN: Fisher currently doesn’t have a voting role on the monetary-policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Europe Banks Fail To Cut As Draghi Loans Defer Deleverage
Bloomberg
European banks pledged last year to cut more than $1.2 trillion of assets to help them weather the sovereign-debt crisis. Since then they’ve grown only fatter.
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MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
International Organization of Securities Commissions
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MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Elise Fleischaker; Adam Sheldon; Richard Sandor

Companies, Organizations and Groups

Trading Technologies International

Miscellaneous

Upcoming Events

Statistics

28,658,913 pages viewed, 7,115 articles, 147,766 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Futures group offers risk guidelines
Philip Stafford – FT.com
Europe’s derivatives brokers, investors and exchanges have developed new guidelines to mitigate risks from electronic trading as the industry struggles to comply with toughened regulatory requirements. The Futures and Options Association, a trade body representing more than 100 participants in the derivatives industry, on Tuesday published technical guidelines to more effectively manage trading risks such as errant algorithms.
jlne.ws/NGpyhH

In Calls for Market Reform, Multiple Voices
NATHANIEL POPPER – NYTimes.com
The call for market reform, once confined to the industry fringes, is growing louder. A number of events in Washington this week put the spotlight on high-frequency trading, the proliferation of new exchanges and other concerns about the structure of the market.
jlne.ws/NGpyhJ

U.S. Seeks to Boost Laundering Net
JEFFREY SPARSHOTT – WSJ.com
U.S. regulators are proposing to enlist companies across the financial sector—and possibly beyond—as a front-line defense against money laundering. A sweeping proposal by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCen, could require financial institutions to collect and verify information on all customer accounts.
jlne.ws/NGpvT6

EU’s Almunia: Banks to Be Held Accountable in Rate Probe
Dow Jones
The European Union is pressing forward with an investigation of several banks that have allegedly manipulated several benchmark lending rates, said Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s commissioner for competition.
jlne.ws/NGpw9q

Ex-Insider Calls High-Frequency Trading ‘Cheating’
CNBC
High-frequency trading – particularly the practice of “queue-jumping” -amounts to little more than cheating, former Wall Street insider Haim Bodek said Thursday in a CNBC exclusive television interview.
jlne.ws/NGpyy2

High-Frequency Trading: It’s Worse Than You Thought
CNBC via Yahoo! Finance
Industry pros-who reported out-of-control computer algorithms and an emphasis on speed over safety-actually wish high frequency trading was more regulated, a new study says.
jlne.ws/NGpw9r

Exchanges Catch Heat Over High-Speed Trading
WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers, traders and market experts called for tighter controls of stock exchanges and high-speed trading firms Thursday, with some saying their pursuit of profits is complicating markets that already baffle most investors and have proved vulnerable to blowups.
http://jlne.ws/UmK317

Top futures exchanges agree to algo testing rules
MarketWatch
Three of Europe’s leading derivatives exchanges have agreed to new standards for “stress testing” trading algorithms in a move that could pave the way for new revenue streams in the future.
http://jlne.ws/PDDUxp

Key Barclays Officer Left For New Bank
DAVID ENRICH And MAX COLCHESTER – WSJ.com
An interest-rate-fixing scandal this summer felled a number of Barclays PLC executives. But a top Barclays compliance official, who was notified in 2008 about problems brewing within the bank, is now in a similar senior position at another major bank.
jlne.ws/NGpyy6

EU in talks over Spanish rescue plan
Peter Spiegel in Brussels and Miles Johnson in Madrid – FT.com
EU authorities are working behind the scenes to pave the way for a new Spanish rescue programme and unlimited bond buying by the European Central Bank, by helping Madrid craft an economic reform programme that will be unveiled next week.
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Investors in failed Peregrine to get first payout Oct. 8
Reuters
A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the first payout to former customers of failed futures brokerage Peregrine Financial Group, according to the lawyer for the firm’s bankruptcy trustee.
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SEC Said to Scrutinize Private Equity on Share of Payout
Bloomberg
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to determine whether some private-equity firms are taking more profits from investments than they should under agreements with fund clients, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The SEC, pursuing a review of the industry begun after passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, is examining how buyout funds ensure that payouts follow the sequence set out in partnership documents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Regulators are looking for deviations from the distribution process, or waterfall, which usually calls for clients to receive some gains on investments before the fund manager.

Regulatory

Senate JPMorgan Probe Said to Seek Tougher Volcker Rule
Bloomberg
A U.S. Senate panel probing the multibillion-dollar trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to unveil its findings at a hearing this year to press regulators to tighten the Volcker rule, according to three people briefed on the matter.
jlne.ws/NGpw9w

Whistleblower tips trickle in to U.S. futures regulator
Alexandra Alper – Reuters
The U.S. futures regulator received 46 whistleblower tips in the eight months ending in August – just a fraction of the volume of tips flowing into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a Republican senator’s staff told Reuters.
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Seven Years Of Smoke And Mirrors In $1 Million Hedge Fund Scam
Forbes
US Attorney Preet Bharara dismisses this case as mere “smoke and mirrors,” but veteran Wall Street reform advocate Bill Singer says the chicanery worked
jlne.ws/NGpyOz

Divided Senate panel approves Obama pick for antitrust enforcer
Reuters via Yahoo! News
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to send to the full Senate William Baer’s nomination as the Justice Department’s top antitrust enforcer, even though a senior senator urged a “no” vote.
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[NFA] Registration Information for Swap FCMs, IBs, CPOs and CTAs
On September 20, 2012, NFA hosted a webinar to help these new swap FCMs, IBs, CPOs and CTAs understand the registration process. During the 60-minute webinar, NFA staff provided an in-depth discussion of the registration process for these new swap intermediaries, outlined the regulatory requirements and answered participants’ questions. Follow the link to view the archived webinar and presentation slides.
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SEC To Hold Annual Government-Business Forum On Small Business Capital Formation
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FOA Publishes Guidance On Systems And Controls For Electronic Trading Environments
Press Release
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Working To Achieve The American Dream – Remarks To The Hispanic Bar Association Of The District Of Columbia By SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar
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SEC Slide Presentation: Update From The Division Of Corporation Finance, 2012 AICPA National Conference On Banks & Savings Institutions
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Remarks At Third SAIS Global Conference On Women In The Boardroom By SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter
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Richard G. Ketchum, FINRA Chairman And Chief Executive Officer, Security Traders Association Annual Conference
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European Parliament: Financial Watchdogs Under Economic And Monetary Affairs Committee Spotlight
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities

CME’s new swap future uses Goldman Sachs patent
Matt Cameron, Duncan Wood – Risk magazine
CME Group’s planned new swap futures product is based on a patent owned by and licensed from Goldman Sachs – a deal some market participants see as an attempt by the investment bank to hedge its bets, as over-the-counter products face a tougher regulatory regime.
jlne.ws/NGpz5d

MGEX Announces New Incentive Programs For Leased Memberships
MGEX, a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), today announced new incentive programs for individuals who lease their membership (a Delegate Member). These include a membership application fee waiver and a special liquidity provider permit (LPP) program.
jlne.ws/NGpz5f

NASDAQ OMX Appoints New Head of European Listing
NASDAQ OMX today announced that Mr. Adam Kostyal has been appointed Senior Vice President of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Client Group and head of European listing.
jlne.ws/NGpwq6

Facebook’s IPO Legal Battle Kicks Off in Federal Court
CNBC
While Facebook, its board, its IPO underwriters, and Nasdaq may be eager to forget about the social network’s much-maligned May debut, the group was reminded today that disgruntled investors will not let the issue die anytime soon.
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Plus disposes of derivatives arm
Finextra
Plus Markets has agreed to sell its derivatives exchange to Pipeline Capital, a new company set up by former staffer Clive Connors.
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Vienna Stock Exchange Welcomes First Trading Member From Ireland
As of today, Virtu Financial Ireland Limited is the first trading firm from Ireland to join as direct trading member the cash market of the Vienna Stock Exchange. With Virtu Financial Ireland Limited, Vienna Stock Exchange welcomes a second international trading member within just a few days – despite the currently adverse global environment for capital markets.
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Program Trading Averaged 29.2 Percent of NYSE Volume during Sept. 10-14
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Trulia Inc. Lists Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange
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[SIX] Investigation against Weatherford International Ltd. [pdf]
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TMX Top 20 Largest Consolidated Short Position Report – September 15, 2012
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OM Financial Limited Accredited As An NZX Advising Firm
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

JIM CHANOS: Investing Based On Hedge Fund Filings Is Dangerous
Business Insider
Every quarter, hedge funds of a certain size have to file a 13F regulatory form with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
jlne.ws/NGpCht

Numerix Academic Partnership Program Welcomes University of California Berkeley
Numerix (www.numerix.com), the leading provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, today announced that UC Berkeley has joined the Numerix Academic Partner Program.
jlne.ws/NGpChu

Berkshire Hathaway Continues To Gain Ground As A Solid Investment Bet On The Accelerating Economic Recovery
Forbes
Conglomerates have long been unpopular, if not totally ignored, on Wall Street, mainly because they have been market drags. But one conglomerate that still commands respect is Berkshire Hathaway, which stands distinct and distinguished among its peers, largely due to Warren Buffett’s mind and money in the company.
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BNY Mellon Wins aiCIO Industry Innovation Award for Asset Management Servicing
BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, announced that it has won an Industry Innovation Award for ‘Custody-Asset Management Servicing’ from aiCIO magazine.
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About Half of Small-Business Owners Had Cash Crunch in Past Year – Survey
Dow Jones
About half of U.S. small-business owners last month indicated they experienced a sudden cash crunch in the past year, despite slightly better business conditions, according to a survey released by Citigroup Inc..
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Citigroup Warns Irish Investors to Plan for Losses: Euro Credit
Bloomberg
As Irish bonds extend their rally, the gains for investors may be disguising a different story.
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Jim Rogers’ Newfound Love For Russia And The Gradual Improvement In Its Image Among Investors
Forbes
I wanted to highlight a story I saw the other day because I think that it nicely encapsulates the (slow!) improvement in Western perceptions of Russia’s economy.
jlne.ws/NGpzSN

Cheap Loans Could Spell Long-Term Headaches
STEPHEN J. LUBBEN – NYTimes.com
The debt issued today is the stuff of tomorrow’s bankruptcy cases. That’s something that all the corporations rushing to take advantage of low rates should take into consideration, but probably won’t.
jlne.ws/NGpzSO

Banks & Brokers

Pawlenty to Lead Financial Services Roundtable – Washington Wire
WSJ
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who touted his middle-class roots in his campaign for president last year, has been picked to lead a key Wall Street lobbying group.
jlne.ws/NGpzSP

JPMorgan may have broken U.S. power market rules: watchdog
Reuters via Yahoo! News
U.S. power market regulators challenged a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co on Thursday to show that it did not violate federal regulations by submitting misleading information and omitting facts in dealings with the regulator and California’s electricity grid operator.
jlne.ws/NGpzSS

Deutsche Bank to start job cuts in Germany: paper
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Thousands of jobs may go at Deutsche Bank AG in Germany, with a first round of losses at its base in Frankfurt and its Postbank unit in Bonn, a German newspaper reported on Friday.
jlne.ws/NGpA97

Jefferies Reports Third Quarter 2012 Financial Results
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
Jefferies Group, Inc. today announced financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended August 31, 2012. Net revenues of $739 million, versus $509 million
Net earnings to common shareholders of $70 million, versus $68 million ($73 million on a non-GAAP basis after excluding certain items [1] versus $23 million on a non-GAAP basis after excluding certain items [2])
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Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein spoke at The Canadian Club of Toronto on 19 September 2012.
Lloyd Blankfein’s conversation with Gordon Nixon, President and CEO of Royal Bank of Canada, is available via podcast and webcast on The Canadian Club’s website.
jlne.ws/NGpCOl

Goldman Sachs’s Pope Said to Be Leaving Leveraged Loans Post
Bloomberg
Michael Pope, a managing director in loan sales at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , is leaving the firm, according to two people familiar with the matter.
jlne.ws/Pt8KsI

Senior Nomura Bankers Sandeep Singh and Dirk Simmons Leave Bank
Wall Street Journal Blogs
Two senior bankers in Nomura Holdings Inc.’s technology, media and telecommunications and industrials teams have left the firm, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Japanese bank embarks on its latest round of job cuts.
jlne.ws/NGpCOt

Merrill Lynch raising minimum fee on equity trades for clients
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management is raising the minimum fee it charges retail clients for equity trades, to $75 from $50, an increase the company says will put it more in line with rates charged by its peers.
jlne.ws/NGpCOv

Saxo Bank Opens Office in Warsaw
Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, today announced the opening of its newest branch in Warsaw.
jlne.ws/NGpA9o

Banker Breakups May Help Spur U.K. Divorce Law Changes
Bloomberg
Wealthy Britons going through a divorce may benefit from a review of U.K. court standards that some lawyers argue promote unfairly generous rulings in favor of less well-off spouses.
An inquiry announced last week by the Law Commission, an advisory body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, is the first step toward reversing a trend that’s made Britain the “divorce capital of the world,” said Louise Spitz, an attorney with Manches LLP in London. The commission may submit a draft statute to Parliament next year.

Clearing & Settlement

CFTC Approves Application of DTCC Data Repository, LLC for Provisional Registration as a Swap Data Repository
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on September 19, 2012, approved the application of DTCC Data Repository, LLC for provisional registration as a swap data repository pursuant to section 21 of the Commodity Exchange Act and section 49.3(b) of the Commission’s regulations.
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CME Group Clearing Advisory: SFTP Connectivity Conversion Deadline-March 1, 2013
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Indexes & Products

WisdomTree Debuts First China Dividend ex-Financials ETF
Zacks
Although worries over the Chinese market are building, it is hard to completely forget about the world’s second largest economy, and a clear engine of growth for the global economic picture.
jlne.ws/NGpD4U

Enforcement

UBS risk limits “didn’t matter”: ex-trader’s lawyer
Reuters via Yahoo! News
A culture existed at UBS where traders felt they could ignore risk limits as long as they were making money for the Swiss bank, the lawyer for accused “rogue trader” Kweku Adoboli told a London court on Thursday.
jlne.ws/NGpApV

SEC Freezes Assets of Insider Trader in Burger King Stock
The Securities and Exchange Commission today obtained an emergency court order to freeze the assets of a stockbroker who used nonpublic information from a customer and engaged in insider trading ahead of Burger King’s announcement that it was being acquired by a New York private equity firm.
jlne.ws/NGpAG8

Two Hedge Fund Managers Sentenced In New York To Three Year Prison Terms For Defrauding Investors Of Nearly $1 Million
jlne.ws/NGpAG9

SEC Charges Three In North Carolina With Insider Trading – Early Cooperator Receives Lesser Penalty
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former member of the board of directors at a North Carolina-based insurance company with illegally tipping inside information about an impending merger.
jlne.ws/NGpAGa

Fraud charges filed against Ore. hedge fund
KGW NewsChannel 8 Portland
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against an Oregon man accused of running a Ponzi scheme that raised more than $37 million. The SEC alleges that Yusaf Jawed of Grifphon Asset Management in Lake Oswego falsely boasted of double-digit returns to lure more than 100 people to invest their money in hedge funds he managed.
jlne.ws/NGpD54

UK’s Financial Services Authority Fines Pi Financial Limited L58,300 For Unsuitable Sales Of High Risk Products
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Pi Financial Limited (Pi) L58,300 for advising its clients to invest in high risk products which were clearly unsuitable.
jlne.ws/NGpDlj

DFSA Sanctions Credit Europe Bank (Dubai) Limited and its Former Head of Treasury
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced today that it has accepted Enforceable Undertakings (EU) from Credit Europe Bank (Dubai) Limited (CEBD) and its former Head of Treasury. The EUs result from a DFSA investigation into trading conducted by the former Head of Treasury, on behalf of CEBD. CEBD is a firm authorised to conduct financial services in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
jlne.ws/NGpAGd

Environmental & Energy

Top emitter China agrees to work with EU to cut carbon
Reuters
China, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, has struck a deal to work with the European Union to cut greenhouse gases through projects including the development of Chinese emissions trading schemes, the European Commission said on Thursday.
jlne.ws/S8cEFn

**RKB – The starting point: The European Union will contribute 25 million euros ($33 million) and technical assistance over a four-year period to three carbon-reduction projects.

EU to work with China on carbon cutting projects
Business Green
The EU yesterday signed a financing deal with China to help the world’s largest emitter of CO2 work on ways to transition to a low-carbon economy, including the introduction of carbon trading systems.
jlne.ws/RGTZko

EU, China leaders avoid protectionism after trade rows
Reuters
European Union and Chinese leaders agreed on Thursday to avoid trade protectionist measures following months of increasing tensions between the global partners with China undertaking to continue to invest in European debt.
jlne.ws/VitBRO

Asia-Pacific

Foreigners Boost Holdings of Japan Debt
KOSAKU NARIOKA – WSJ.com
Foreign investors bolstered their ownership of Japanese government debt to the highest level on record last quarter, capping an incongruous trend that has seen buyers flock to Japan despite paltry bond yields and the country’s mounting debt burden.
jlne.ws/NGpAGf

TSE Announces “Looking at Companies Through Patent Value”
For the second round of “theme issues”, we have chosen the theme of patent value to introduce companies. High technology serves as a source of Japanese companies’ competitiveness. In particular, Japanese companies account for at least 20% of all international patent applications in the world and produce innovative and attractive products using patented technology as leverage. How valuable is a company’s patent? We will look at companies from the perspective of “patent value”.
jlne.ws/NGpAGn

TSE: Capital Market Seminar “The Evolving Japanese Capital Markets”
Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. will co-sponsor the Capital Market Seminar “The Evolving Japanese Capital Markets” which is co-hosted by The World Bank and Japan Securities Dealers Association. The Seminar will examine the current changes in the global capital markets with keynote speeches and panel discussions by distinguished speakers. To attend the conference, please register from the URL below.
jlne.ws/NGpDls

KEB, CITIC Market Dollar Debt as Sales Fall Amid Slowing Economy
Bloomberg
Korea Exchange Bank and CITIC Bank International Ltd. are marketing dollar-denominated bonds as sales slow amid signs of weakening economic growth in Asia . New versions of the region’s bond risk indexes began trading today.
jlne.ws/NGpAWF

Hong Kong’s Securities And Futures Commission: Court Of Appeal Upholds Du Jun’s Insider Dealing Convictions
jlne.ws/NGpDlv

Frontier Markets

Philippines to Draw Up Shariah-Compliant Stocks List
Bloomberg
The exchange is holding consultations and workshops with the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines , government agencies and the Asian Development Bank on standards for Shariah-compliant stocks, Leo Quinitio, head of the bourse’s capital-markets development division, said in an interview.
jlne.ws/NGpDlw

MCX Weekly Market Report September 14, 2012 – September 20, 2012
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Miscellaneous

Romney controversy points to power of viral video
BETH FOUHY – AP
After this, politicians everywhere should surely get the message. Mitt Romney’s secretly recorded remarks at a Florida fundraiser – and the uproar that has followed – reinforce a key reality of the digital media era: the power of viral video to disrupt and potentially alter a high-stakes political contest.
jlne.ws/NGpBda