Industry news

November 26, 2012: Chi-X Australia Seeks New CEO as Fowler Will Step Down; CFTC approves CME swap data repository; Timing is crucial for Nasdaq OMX derivatives venture

Chi-X Australia says that CEO Peter Fowler will cease to act in that role in early 2013, but will remain on the board of directors for the venue. CME Group receives CFTC approval to proceed with its derivatives data warehouse project. Nasdaq OMX moves aggressively to open its new interest-rate futures trading platform in order to take advantage of new European clearing regulations.

First Read

@JohnLothian has Options Skills
Last week I celebrated my 4th anniversary and did not even realize it until I received an email about it. It turns out that November 18, 2008 was the day I signed up for Twitter.

Here we are 4 years later and I have nearly 3500 Twitter followers have tweeted almost 9000 times. I have incorporated Twitter into my daily life and tweeting a story I come across is the first thing I do, unless I have to gasp or laugh first.

Twitter was the delivery mechanism John Lothian News used to break the Peregrine Financial Group shutdown and near suicide story in July. It is a delivery mechanism for all of our original content, as well as significant news stories in each one of the market sectors our newsletters follow.

LinkedIn Endorsements

Since LinkedIn offered a new function, endorsing people for specific skills they list on their profile, I have been blessed with a number of people endorsing me for my various skills. What is most interesting to me though is that the number one skill I have been endorsed for is “options,” not futures, or trading, or electronic trading, commodities, or even managed futures. Options is what I am best at, according to the number of endorsements I have received to date.

I guess I should have listed “Pot Stirring” as a skill too.

~@JohnLothian

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NFA and CME hire AlphaMetrix to track FCM segregated accounts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AlphaMetrix360, LLC (“AlphaMetrix360”) announced today that it has been selected to provide electronic data aggregation services for both the CME Group Inc. (“CME”) and National Futures Association (“NFA”). As futures industry self-regulatory organizations, the initiative will allow CME and NFA to build a system to collect balances for all bank depositories holding customer segregated, secured amount and sequestered funds on behalf of futures commission merchants (“FCM”) on a daily basis. NFA and CME will perform an automated daily comparison of the balances reported by the bank depositories to the balances reported by the FCMs to identify any discrepancies.
jlne.ws/SkW9ux

**** This is a big deal. Finding the tool to check balances in your backyard rather than having to build something new.

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Top Culprit in the Financial Crisis: Human Nature
LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS – Barrons.com
Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, who wrote This Time Is Different, say coming up with regulations to ward off financial disasters is a lot easier than getting people to keep them in place as years pass.
jlne.ws/SkW6Pf

**** We are all indicted on this one.

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Venues for Bonds Fight for Traders
BY KIRSTEN GRIND – WSJ.com
If you build it, they might not come. At least four Wall Street firms—BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS AG and Morgan Stanley—have launched or plan to roll out electronic bond-trading networks. Their goal is to woo mutual-fund firms and other institutional clients looking for better, faster bond trades.
jlne.ws/SkW9ul

**** Where have I seen this before?

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NYSE Euronext looks to monetise space
Philip Stafford – FT.com
NYSE Euronext, the transatlantic exchanges operator, is looking to boost the return from its data centre near London by exploring allowing rival data centres and investment groups to operate spare capacity.
jlne.ws/SkW9uo

**** Maximize your investment.

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Fidessa and Thomson Reuters extend buy-side liquidity access
Fidessa group is collaborating with Thomson Reuters to provide buy-side traders with access to new sources of block liquidity via the Autex service. Buy-side firms looking to locate liquidity can now do so directly from their Fidessa Buy-side platform.
jlne.ws/XVgdID

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Quick View: BATS’ pricing gamble
Philip Stafford – FT.com
Earlier this week BATS Global Markets changed its pricing for its two main platforms in Europe – BATS Europe and Chi-X Europe, the region’s largest pan-European share trading venue.
jlne.ws/SkW9us

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Peter Fowler to step down from Chi-X Australia CEO position in 2013
Chi-X Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of alternative trading venue operator Chi-X Global Holdings LLC, today announced that Peter Fowler will step down as CEO in early 2013. He will, however, continue in his role as a director on the board of Chi-X Australia.
jlne.ws/SkW6Po

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Equiduct to take on Nasdaq OMX markets
Michelle Price – Financial News
Equiduct, the retail exchange platform owned by market-making firms Knight Capital and Citadel, has begun trading Nordic stocks, bringing it into direct competition with Nasdaq OMX‘s European markets which have already begun to feel the sting of increased competition.
jlne.ws/SkW9uB

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Turning over a new leaf on responsible investing
Hugh Wheelan – Financial News
If you work for a fund manager, and you don’t know how your firm handles environmental, social and governance matters in its investment strategies, then chances are you will by the time the next mandate from one of Europe’s big pension schemes rolls around. And if you don’t, you may find you lose the business.
jlne.ws/SkW9KT

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Stuck between a rock and a hard place on regulation
William Hutchings – Financial News
Shareholders are in danger of getting squeezed between a pair of political and regulatory objectives, the first intended to encourage better stewardship, the second to stop insider trading. Corporate governance specialists say this is a global phenomenon, with the tension having an impact as far afield as Taiwan (see below).
jlne.ws/SkW9KX

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The shortcomings of Foresight
Stuart Baden Powell – FT.com
As high-frequency trading has grown in recent years, so has the industry of academic work devoted to its study. In this increasingly-politicised world, research that supports a particular point of view has regularly been offered. The scientific rigour of these pieces on both algorithmic trading and HFT is the single most important concern.
jlne.ws/SkW6Pt

**** This writer’s name caught my Scout-Leader-eye.

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The shocks that could stun credit dealers
Tim Cave – Financial News
Nowhere is the tug of war between long-established and advanced methods of execution more apparent than in credit trading.
jlne.ws/SkW75H

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Banned on Wall St.: Facebook, Twitter and Gmail
MICHAEL KAPLAN – NYTimes.com
For young Wall Street employees who live their lives through social media, working at a big bank can feel as if the plug has been pulled. Most financial firms ban Facebook, Twitter and Gmail, and block most music and video streaming sites.
jlne.ws/SkW9L7

**** That is what mobile devices are for.

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Survey finds lots of unused vacation time
Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times
As an information technology supervisor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Dennis Crowley had so much work to do last year that he finished 2011 without using nearly five days of paid vacation.
jlne.ws/SkW75L

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JLN Options

Mini derivative contracts ban stumps markets
Business Standard
The move by the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ) to ban mini equity derivative contracts has stumped exchange officials and brokers, who say they have been deprived of a potential winner. By discontinuing the product, the regulator, while denying small traders an opportunity to bet on the key indices, Nifty and Sensex, at a cheaper cost, has also increased the risk of their participation in the regular futures contracts, says analysts.
jlne.ws/RUhlpK

VIX Could Be in a Multi-Year Low Period: Detrick (video)
Yahoo Finance
Based on the moribund price action in the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) someone forgot to tell options traders to be “afraid” during the most recent pullback. Despite a 5% drop in stocks since the announcement of QE3 the VIX never exceeded 20. Compared to moves over 25 earlier this year and over 45 in summer of 2011 it seems like traders are positively catatonic.
jlne.ws/RUnl1R

High-Yield Bond ETF Implied Volatility Skyrockets
John Spence, ETF Trends
Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index, has remained quiet despite the market’s recent choppiness on fiscal cliff fears and Europe’s debt crisis flaring up again. However, popular high-yield bond ETFs are telling a different story.
jlne.ws/10n8GQe

JLN Interest Rates

Is the CFTC’s Cross-Border Swaps Proposal Over-Reaching, Inviting Regulatory Arbitrage, or Just Right?
CFA Institute, Beth Kaiser
After the 2008 financial crisis, the G-20 sought to eliminate the causes of the meltdown, which among other things meant reining in OTC derivatives. In September 2009, G-20 leaders agreed in Pittsburgh that all standardized OTC derivatives contracts should be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, cleared through central counterparties, and reported to trade repositories by year-end 2012 at the latest. They also stated that non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements.
jlne.ws/10cNltI

CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Addressing Timeline for Swap Dealer Compliance with Swap Data Reporting Rules
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today jointly issued a letter providing swap dealers with time-limited no-action relief from certain requirements of the CFTC’s swap data reporting rules, which are set forth at Part 43, Part 45 and Part 46 of the CFTC’s regulations.
jlne.ws/SaFIB1

Will your debt funds benefit from CDS?
GARP
Last week, the capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), allowed mutual funds (MFs) to participate in the credit default swap (CDS) market. This comes a year after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) opened up the CDS market in India for corporate bonds. CDS became known during the 2008 crisis.
jlne.ws/QYYGvK

MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Mathew Martoma
jlne.ws/SkW75N

MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Dennis Gartman; Donald R. Wilson, Jr.; Kelly Loeffler; Richard Schaeffer; Anthony Saliba; Jon Najarian; Kelly Birt; John C. Williams; Steven A. Cohen

Companies, Organizations and Groups

Rolfe & Nolan Plc; Optiver; Shanghai Futures Exchange; ION Trading Ireland Ltd.; Tradeweb; Coherence Capital Partners; Nodal Exchange

Products

EURO STOXX 50 Index futures and options

Miscellaneous

Fiscal cliff; Organized Trading Facility

Statistics

31,173,037 pages viewed, 7,234 articles, 150,314 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

Chi-X Australia Seeks New CEO as Fowler Will Step Down in 2013
Bloomberg
Chi-X Australia Pty., Australia’s sole stock-exchange competitor to ASX Ltd., said its Chief Executive Officer Peter Fowler will step down in early 2013 and will remain as a director on the board.
jlne.ws/SkW75V

CFTC approves CME swap data repository
Katy Burne – Dow Jones Newswires
CME Group yesterday said it received approval from a federal regulator to launch a data warehouse for certain derivatives, days after the Chicago exchange and clearinghouse operator filed a lawsuit against the same regulator.
jlne.ws/SkW75R

Timing is crucial for Nasdaq OMX derivatives venture
Michelle Price – Financial News
Nasdaq OMX, the equity and derivatives exchange, is racing to launch a new interest rate futures platform, NLX, by the first quarter of next year to take advantage of regulatory-driven change in Europe’s clearing landscape.
jlne.ws/SkWa1o

Knight Weighs Sale of Market-Making Unit
JENNY STRASBURG – WSJ.com
Knight Capital Group Inc. is in talks about possibly selling the company’s biggest and most profitable business, according to people briefed on the discussions.
jlne.ws/SkW75W

HK moves to make foreign listings easier
Paul J Davies in Hong Kong – FT.com
The Hong Kong stock market and regulators are working on rule changes to make foreign company listings on the city’s stock market simpler to do and easier for investors to understand.
jlne.ws/SkW75Z

UK could break with Europe and US over banks’ accounting rules
Mike Foster and William Hutchings – Financial News
The UK’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards is to examine giving banks a separate accounting regime, out of concern that current accounting standards overstate the value of many assets on their balance sheets.
jlne.ws/SkW7md

Euro Ministers Take Third Swing at Clearing Greek Payment
Patrick Donahue – Bloomberg
Euro-area finance ministers try for the third time this month to clear an aid payment to Greece and forge a blueprint to keep the country a solvent member of the currency bloc. Finance chiefs from the 17-member single currency return to Brussels today, less than a week after an all-night meeting failed to yield agreement and days after a European Union summit broke up without a proposed seven-year budget.
jlne.ws/SkWa1s

Barclays Quits LME Floor to Trade Metals on Screen
By Maria Kolesnikova, Agnieszka Troszkiewicz and Howard Mustoe – Bloomberg
Barclays Plc (BARC) withdrew today from floor trading on the London Metal Exchange, the world’s biggest metals bourse, as the bank reviews its businesses to cut costs.
jlne.ws/SkWa1v

Regulatory

Banks face more regulation over scandals
Brooke Masters in London – FT.com
Several high-profile scandals for banks, ranging from JPMorgan ’s hefty trading loss to UBS ’s rogue trader, have sparked a new regulatory drive to force lenders to spend more time and probably hold more capital guarding against such operational risks.
jlne.ws/SkW7mj

French Banks Would Have Until Jul 2015 to Comply with Volcker Rule-Report
Dow Jones
French banks will have until July 2015 to transfer their “speculative” investment banking activities in a separate unit if proposed legislation is enforced, French daily Le Figaro reports Friday without citing sources.
jlne.ws/SkW7mm

EU delays Mifid discussions until 2013
Philip Stafford – FT.com
Political negotiations to overhaul Europe’s markets are set to be pushed into 2013 after Cyprus, which holds the rotating EU presidency, dropped plans to discuss them at meetings in December.
jlne.ws/SkWa1C

Revenge of the nerds as banks see risk, compliance hiring boom
Reuters via Yahoo! News
SINGAPORE – Tough regulations aimed at banks have jolted demand for compliance, risk and legal officers, creating one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal job market for the financial industry.
jlne.ws/SkW7mr

CFTC to Hold 2012 Research Conference to Discuss Key Issues in Derivatives Markets
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Office of the Chief Economist will host the 2012 Research Conference on Friday, November 30 to focus on key issues in the derivatives markets. In addition, the conference will address issues relating to high frequency trading, swaps, and commodity markets.
jlne.ws/SkW7CI

BaFin – Federal Financial Supervisory Authority: New Rules For High-Frequency Trading
Electronic trading has become significantly more important in recent years. This trend is being driven by rapid enhancements to information technology and growing competition between financial centres.
jlne.ws/SkWahY

UK’s Financial Services Authority Publishes Proposals To Strengthen Capital Standards For SIPP Operators
jlne.ws/SkWahZ

FESE Response To The European Commission Consultation On The Recommendations Of The High-Level Expert Group On Reforming The Structure Of The EU Banking Sector
jlne.ws/SkWai2

Speech By FESE Secretary General Judith Hardt To The Boerse Stuttgart MiFID Kongress – Regulatorisches Symposium
jlne.ws/SkWai4

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority Welcomes The Introduction Of The Unsolicited Offers Regulations From 1 December 2012
jlne.ws/SkWai5

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

CME Group Announces Launch of CME Repository Service SDR to Ease Reporting and Compliance for Market Participants
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced today the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has provisionally approved CME Repository Service as a swap data repository (SDR) for credit default swaps, interest rate swaps, commodities and foreign exchange asset classes. CME Group will waive all reporting fees for its Repository service through September 30, 2013, including back-loaded trades.
jlne.ws/SkWaia

London Stock Exchange Hosts Lebanon Capital Markets Day
London Stock Exchange today held its first Lebanon Capital Markets Day at its London headquarters in Paternoster Square. The event was held in conjunction with Banque du Liban and BNY Mellon and featured participation from seven of Lebanon’s leading companies as well as London-based and international investors.
jlne.ws/SkW7D0

TMX Sees Dodd-Frank Pushing Debt to Exchanges
Bloomberg
TMX Group Ltd. , owner of Canada’s equity and derivatives exchanges, will expand its offerings of fixed-income products as regulations drive trading to public markets, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kloet said.
jlne.ws/SkWayp

TMX Group CEO Tom Kloet To Participate In The Capital Markets Institute Speaker Series On Monday, November 26, 2012
jlne.ws/SkWayq

EEX: Power Day Futures Successfully Launched
jlne.ws/SkWayt

GMSL Becomes First Trading Agent For The EEX Gas Market – GMSL Offers Comprehensive Dispatching Services Across The European Gas Markets
jlne.ws/SkW7Tf

Ireland Requires Soul-Searching On Attitude Towards Equity Market – Irish Stock Exchange Chief Executive
jlne.ws/SkWayw

Program Trading Averaged 30.3 Percent of NYSE Volume during Nov. 12-16
jlne.ws/SkW7Ti

TOM MTF Statistics Week 47, 2012
jlne.ws/SkW7Tm

Deirdre Somers, CEO, Irish Stock Exchange, Speech From Todays Published Accounts Awards
jlne.ws/SkWayz

NYSE MKT TO DELIST SECURITIES OF SENESCO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
jlne.ws/SkWayA

CHX INFORMATION MEMORANDA 2012-11: ISG and FINRA Extend Effective Date for Certain Electronic Blue Sheet (“EBS”) Data Elements
jlne.ws/SkW7Tt

Cyprus Stock Exchange Monthly Bulletin – October 2012
jlne.ws/SkWayG

Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

High speed traders jolt U.S. grain trade
Dairy Herd
The U.S. grain industry says high speed computerized traders are disrupting their markets, but grain exchanges and regulators have no quick fix for the concerns, according to grain industry officials and traders.
jlne.ws/SkWaOV

Ex-Nomura quants found two trading start-ups
Tim Cave – Financial News
A team of highly respected proprietary traders have left Japanese bank Nomura and set up two companies that sources say may engage in high-frequency trading.
jlne.ws/SkWaOX

BlackRock eyes infrastructure debt market
David Oakley and Patrick Jenkins – FT.com
BlackRock, the world’s biggest manager of money, is to launch its first foray into the global infrastructure debt market as it seeks to fill the void left by banks that are no longer prepared to invest in big government projects.
jlne.ws/SkWaP3

BlackRock Sees Asian Demand in Illiquid Hedge-Fund Assets
Bei Hu – Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, said there is rising demand from Asia-Pacific investors for less liquid hedge-fund investments as European and U.S. financial institutions clean up their balance sheets.
jlne.ws/Unyvhx

Market for locked hedge funds opens
Ajay Makan – FT.com
Brokers such as Tullett Prebon are launching platforms to let investors trade hedge fund investments in order to circumvent often lengthy lock-up periods. The schemes allow investors either to sell hedge funds stakes directly, or to sell the returns from their hedge fund investments through derivative contracts.
jlne.ws/SkWaP4

Argentina playing last cards in court battle with bondholders
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Argentina will make a last-ditch attempt this week to stall a U.S. court ruling that has shaken the nation’s strategy to put a 2002 debt crisis behind it and fueled fears of a fresh default.
jlne.ws/SkW89P

NY judge to Argentina: The court will be obeyed
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
Argentina has finally run out of wiggle room in a billion-dollar showdown over foreign debts unpaid since the country’s world-record default a decade ago, and the stakes couldn’t be higher for President Cristina Fernandez.
jlne.ws/SkW89S

Pensions hold fire on matching assets
Mark Cobley – Financial News
The market for liability-driven investment, strategies that invest pension funds’ money so that it matches their expected payments, is in flux as 2012 draws to a close.
jlne.ws/SkWaP6

Will It Be Another Bad Year for Hedge Funds?
Bloomberg
Joseph Weisenthal, deputy editor at Business Insider, talks with Bloomberg’s Stephanie Ruhle and Pimm Fox about the outlook for the hedge fund market. They speak on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.”
jlne.ws/SkWaPa

Case casts doubt on sovereign bond restructurings
Matthew Attwood – Financial News
A case due to be heard in the English Court of Appeal next year could have implications for the ability of sovereign and other bond issuers to restructure their debt.
jlne.ws/SkW89V

Brent Poised to Oust WTI as Most-Traded Oil Futures
Bloomberg
For the first year since the futures were created, Brent crude is poised to overtake West Texas Intermediate oil as the world’s most-traded commodity.
jlne.ws/SkW8a1

Mid-market firms grow hoarse shouting above the crowd
Dan Dunkley – Financial News
Competition is hotting up in the lower-mid sector of the buyout market as smaller firms bemoan a lack of good quality assets and say that the big boys are encroaching on their turf.
jlne.ws/SkWb5s

Elbrus Capital holds first close on maiden fund
Kiel Porter – Financial News
Elbrus Capital, a Russian buyout firm spun out of alternative asset manager Renaissance Group in 2009, has held a first close on its maiden independent vehicle after a year on the road.
jlne.ws/SkW8qi

The math of God: Market predictor Tom DeMark has some big names among the faithful
Anthony Effinger and and Katherine Burton – The Washington Post
Past the two Bentleys in the driveway and beyond the pool and mini water park, the home theater and a sports bar hung with enough memorabilia to equip a basketball team, Tom DeMark has his office — a dark, wood-paneled lair with six computer screens.
jlne.ws/SkWb5u

Porr AG plans bond in Entry Standard
jlne.ws/SkWb5x

Boerse Stuttgart Bondm Segment For Medium-Sized Enterprises – Ekosem-Agrar Issues Second Bond In Bondm Segment
jlne.ws/SkW8qm

Banks & Brokers

Knight CEO Said to See Business as Usual Amid Unit Sale Report
Stephanie Ruhle and Nina Mehta – Bloomberg
Thomas Joyce, moving to reassure Knight Capital Group Inc. (KCG) employees after a report that it might get offers for its biggest unit, told them capital levels are strong and no deal will be done unless it makes sense for the company, according to a person briefed on the matter.
jlne.ws/SkW8qn

Swiss Regulator Finma Tightens Control Measures On UBS
FOX Business
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority Finma Monday said it will appoint an independent third party to ensure corrective measures are successfully implemented by UBS AG following its trading losses in London, and imposed an acquisition ban on the Investment Bank.
jlne.ws/SkWb5D

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley Sued Over Overseas Shipholding
Bloomberg
Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. and HSBC Securities Inc. were among underwriters sued in Manhattan by an investor in a $300 million debt offering by Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. over claims they signed off on misleading financial documents for the offering.
jlne.ws/SkWb5G

London calling as Latin America’s largest bank moves wholesale HQ
LSophie Baker and Sarah Krouse – Financial News
Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco is set to establish a centralised wholesale banking operation in London as it looks to expand its business with international clients, citing the city’s strategic and geographic benefits for the move.
jlne.ws/SkW8qs

Citigroup to Shut Almost Half of Greek Branches Amid Crisis
Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. , the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said it will shutter almost half of its branches in Greece as European lawmakers continue a three-year struggle to fix the country’s economy.
jlne.ws/SkW8qx

Investment banking awards 2012: the full list of winners
Financial News
It has been another tough year for the investment banking industry. There have been – as has become almost mandatory in recent years – huge furores over bonuses, far-reaching scandals about business practices, parliamentary inquiries and the very public oustings of chief executives.
jlne.ws/SkWblZ

Deutsche Bank seeks older women to change culture, improve reputation
Reuters via Yahoo! News
FRANKFURT – Deutsche Bank is on the lookout for mature, tech-savvy women who it thinks will be better team players to help change its corporate culture and rebuild its reputation in the wake of the financial crisis.
jlne.ws/SkW8GR

Deutsche Bank chief criticised for skipping Libor hearing
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
BERLIN – German politicians accused Deutsche Bank’s co-CEO Anshu Jain of “chickening out” after the bank decided to send his chief compliance officer in his place to a parliamentary hearing on Libor manipulation next week.
jlne.ws/SkW8GU

AnaCap Eyes Royal Bank of Scotland Branches – Financial Times
Dow Jones
Royal Bank of Scotland PLC has attracted interest from a second private equity group looking at a potential bid for hundreds of its branches that were put back up for sale after the collapse of a deal with Santander, reports the Financial Times Friday, citing people close to the situation.
jlne.ws/SkW8H0

Bank Indonesia to Issue Rules Mitigating Contagion Risks
Dow Jones
Foreign banks operating in Indonesia will be required to set aside funds at Bank Indonesia to help mitigate contagion should their parent company be hit by a crisis in the financial system, the central bank said Friday.
jlne.ws/SkW8H3

Neonet’s Partnership With Hammer Partners Shows How Independent Research Firms Can Focus On Core Business By Outsourcing Their Execution
jlne.ws/SkW8Xi

Clearing & Settlement

Euroclear’s Collateral Highway Opens Further With Korea Securities Depository Agreement
Euroclear Bank is pleased to announce that it will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) tomorrow with the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) to usher in the wider use of Euroclear Bank-eligible securities as collateral by international counterparties when securing collateralised transactions with local Korean investment counterparties.
jlne.ws/SkW8Xl

Indexes & Products

Tokyo Commodity Exchange And Nikkei Launch New Leveraged And Inverse Indices
jlne.ws/SkWbm3

Technology

MillenniumIT Goes Live At Oslo Børs
MillenniumIT, a leading technology solutions provider and part of London Stock Exchange Group announced today that Oslo Børs, the Norwegian stock exchange has gone live with the automated trading system (ATS), Millennium Exchange.
jlne.ws/SkW8Xm

BME Launches It-Solutions Designed To Increase Efficiency In The Financial Management Of Public Administrations
BME, through its innovation subsidiary, BME Innova and in association with TAvA, one of Spain’s main specialists in Treasury systems, fulfills its commitment to helping public administrations increase their efficiency.
jlne.ws/SkW8Xn

NASDAQ OMX Nordic Launches Connectivity Point In Equinix’s Frankfurt Data Center
jlne.ws/SkWbm8

Enforcement

FSA fines UBS £29.7 million for significant failings in not preventing large scale unauthorised trading
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined UBS AG (UBS) £29.7 million (discounted from £42.4 million for early settlement) for systems and controls failings that allowed an employee to cause substantial losses totalling US$2.3 billion as a result of unauthorised trading. The trader, Kweku Adoboli, has been convicted of two counts of fraud by abuse of position and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
jlne.ws/SkWbm9

CFTC Charges North Carolina Resident Michael Anthony Jenkins and his Company, Harbor Light Asset Management, LLC, with Solicitation Fraud, Misappropriation, and Embezzlement in Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a federal civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, charging Michael Anthony Jenkins of Raleigh, N.C., and his company, Harbor Light Asset Management, LLC (HLAM), with operating a Ponzi scheme for the purpose of trading E-mini S&P 500 futures contracts (E-mini futures).
jlne.ws/SkW8Xq

Cantor Fitzgerald Fined Over Customer-Fund Lapse
BY JAMILA TRINDLE AND KATY BURNE – Dow Jones
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. was fined by a federal regulator for transferring money out of customer accounts, triggering a temporary shortfall for customers only a few months after a giant customer-funds hole emerged at MF Global Holdings Ltd.
jlne.ws/Qv9Et0

SAC Fund Manager Faces Choice of Trial or Deal
Bloomberg
Former SAC Capital Advisors LP fund manager Mathew Martoma’s arrest came six years after he set upon a path that has led him to a choice: one between a trial that may land him in prison for decades, or a deal to implicate others, possibly including SAC founder Steven A. Cohen.
jlne.ws/SkWbme

Expert sees a gathering storm for top fund manager
Associated Press
The arrest of a former hedge fund portfolio manager in what prosecutors are calling one of the most lucrative insider trading schemes ever indicates that prosecutors may be setting their sights higher — toward a wealthy business leader the suspect’s firm was connected to, an expert says.
jlne.ws/SkWbCt

SAC Insider Case Rides Finra Referral to Cohen’s Backyard
Bloomberg
The biggest insider case ever, an alleged $276 million fraud that has led prosecutors to the inner-circle of SAC Capital Advisors LP’s Steven Cohen, stemmed in part from a referral from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulator.
jlne.ws/SkWbCu

FMA revokes banking licence of Alizee Bank AG
The Austrian Financial Market Authority FMA issued an administrative decision to Alizee Bank AG revoking as of 21 November 2012 the bank’s licence to conduct banking transactions.
jlne.ws/SkWbCx

Environmental & Energy

Doha: the world holds its breath before climate change summit
Telegraph
Here we go again. This weekend, as in every year for the past 18, thousands of negotiators, lobbyists, activists, journalists and assorted hangers-on are converging on a cavernous conference centre to haggle over one of the most complex, frustrating and urgent tasks of our times – the prevention of catastrophic climate change.
jlne.ws/TnWTje

**RKB — Kyoto extension considered to be a key measure of the forum’s success and yet may again be relegated to minor headlines. From this piece: The delegates’ first task will be to ensure the survival of the Kyoto Protocol, with countries that agree to be bound by it signing up to new reduction targets. This is of enormous symbolic significance to developing countries; the negotiations are likely to collapse without it. But its practical impact is far smaller. Only Europe, Australia, Switzerland and Norway are likely to sign up: the really big polluting countries – China, the United States and India – are unaffected.

Resuscitation hopes dim for expiring Kyoto climate treaty
Reuters
Fifteen years ago, fears about man-made climate change were enough to bind most of the industrialized world into a treaty that was flawed but at least seemed to cement the principle that greenhouse gases must be cut.
jlne.ws/Snv1tk

Factbox: What is the Kyoto Protocol?
Reuters
Nearly 200 countries will meet in Doha, Qatar, next week to work for a new climate deal to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet, raising sea levels and disrupting weather patterns.
jlne.ws/UJPaud

Asia-Pacific

In Japan, Some Companies Thrive Despite Yen’s Rise
CHESTER DAWSON – WSJ.com
A 34% rise in the yen against the dollar over the past five years has delivered a blow to Japan’s famed export machine, hastening a wave of offshoring that has contributed to the onset of once unfathomable Japanese trade deficits. Yet a hardy contingent of export-dependent companies have managed not only to survive, but thrive amid currency chaos often blamed for corporate Japan’s woes.
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Dalian Commodity Exchange And Korea Exchange Sign MOU
Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) and Korea Exchange (KRX) signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Dalian on November 22. This is another significant progress in building strategic partnership with global exchanges after DCE signed MOUs with Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) and The Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc (Nasdaq OMX).
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Osaka Securities Exchange: SPAN Parameter Updated – Dec. 03, 2012 To Dec. 07, 2012
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China Exchanges Services Company Limited – China Securities Index Co, Ltd Index Service Agreement Signing Ceremony And News Conference
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Gui Minjie: Building A Better Blue Chip Market To Serve The Real Economy – Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Study And Implementation Of Essence Of Report To The 18th CPC National Congress
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Hong Kong’s Securities And Futures Commission Proposes To Enhance Regulation Of Non-Corporate Listed Entities
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Shenzhen Stock Exchange Publicly Condemn Wanfu Biotechnology For Its False Statement
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Shenzhen Stock Exchange Component EW Index, SME-CHINEXT 100 EW Index And CNINFO-CEI GDP Index Are Launched Today
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Thai Bourse’s CSRI Awards CSRI Recognition 2012 For Listed Firms
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Press Conference By Ikko Nakatsuka, Japan’s Minister For Financial Services
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Frontier Markets

Mini derivative contracts ban stumps markets
Business Standard
The move by the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ) to ban mini equity derivative contracts has stumped exchange officials and brokers, who say they have been deprived of a potential winner. By discontinuing the product, the regulator, while denying small traders an opportunity to bet on the key indices, Nifty and Sensex, at a cheaper cost, has also increased the risk of their participation in the regular futures contracts, says analysts.
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FMC in Talks With Ministry for Lifting Ban on Guar Futures
INDOlink
New Delhi: Commodity markets regulator FMC said it is in a consultation process with the Commerce Ministry on the issue of lifting ban on guar futures.
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Myanmar’s opening is no gold rush for US firms slowed by sanctions and corruption concerns
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
YANGON, Myanmar – Signs of a boom abound in Myanmar. Flights to Yangon are full, hotel rooms booked solid. Foreign bars are packed with well-fed Westerners in khakis and jeans, 21st century prospectors drawn to this golden frontier.
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Basel Bond Sale Backfires as Investors Balk: South Africa Credit
Bloomberg
FirstRand Ltd. ’s plan to sell South Africa ’s first dollar bonds that meet new global capital rules backfired as investors balked even with yields above those of developing market financial-services companies.
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Still follow the BRICS road?
Emerging Money
A recent article in Foreign Policy Magazine asked whether or not the BRICS nations are the future of the global economy. While the article acknowledges that they do in fact “matter” the implication for emerging market investors today is, as always, to properly set future expectations for returns from investments in these other emerging markets in the future.
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The Egyptian Exchange Continues Its Efforts To Attract More Listed Companies
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Dubai Financial Market: Market Holiday – UAE National Day, December 2 And 3
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MCX-COMDEX Weekly Market Report – November 16, 2012 To November 22, 2012
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Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Trading Report
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Miscellaneous

Sacked colleague of UBS rogue trader Adoboli opens betting site
Reuters via Yahoo! News
LONDON – A former senior trader at UBS, sacked for failing to prevent colleague Kweku Adoboli from perpetrating the biggest fraud in British history, has set up a gambling website. In a decision likely to be seized upon by critics who say traders have often made casino-style bets, John Hughes started his gambling firm even though his website said his old job had “removed all sense of optimism from his character”.
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