Industry news
Date: Dec 14, 2012
December 14, 2012: UK clears LSE bid for LCH.Clearnet; China may open crude futures to foreign investors; Nasdaq’s NLX hires compliance director
UK antitrust regulators give a green light to the London Stock Exchange’s bid to take a controlling interest in clearing house LCH.Clearnet. China is nearing approval for a Shanghai-based crude oil futures contract that could be accessed by offshore traders without a local subsidiary. Nasdaq’s new European trading platform NLX hires a compliance director. In today’s First Read section, check out the launch of our weekly “New Kids on the Block” feature, where we profile startup and upstart ventures in the financial industry; this week’s installment features Atrium Trading.
First Read
New Kids On The Block: Atrium Trading
BY Christine Nielsen, John Lothian News
In the financial market, the trick is to find where a profit can be made, even when it appears there is no business to be found.
According to Larry Arnowitz, president of the newly formed Atrium Trading, while volumes are down on some products such as futures, there are other asset classes where volumes are increasing. There is also a pocket of the population that before Atrium came along, wasn’t being served. That is the higher-end active retail trader.
“We feel that people invest their money in mutual funds via investment advisors, trade their stocks and options through an online firm, and if they trade futures or FX they have a third account somewhere else,” Arnowitz says. “We are giving them the opportunity to combine all these asset classes into one account, cross margin, and trade from one platform.”
jlne.ws/UKFZHf
**** “New Kids on the Block” is a new JLN feature that profiles up-and-coming people and companies in the financial industry. Follow the link for more details about the company, and an in-depth look at their aspirations for the future.
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Newedge restructuring
Jim Kharouf, John Lothian News
On Thursday, Newedge announced a major overhaul of its business, which will reduce staff and focus on core profitable businesses in execution and clearing. Sources close to the firm said that an estimated 16 percent of employees worldwide will be cut. The firm is also looking at all of its offices to determine which may be consolidated or closed.
jlne.ws/QYl3AN
***** Hard decisions are being made all over the industry.
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Battle is joined in IRS futures
William Mitting – FOW
The path of attempts to launch futurised versions of over-the-counter interest rate swaps is littered with contracts that have failed to live up to the hype. In 2001, Liffe launched a series of SwapNote contracts, aiming to replicate the economic exposure of interest rate swap products in a futures contract. The Board of Trade launched an interest rate product in 2005. After an encouraging start, both contracts have failed to provide a real alternative to the over-the-counter the market.
jlne.ws/UKFXiE
***** There can be plenty recipes for success here.
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Deal Makers Peering Into the Unknown
WILLIAM ALDEN – NYTimes.com
The investors, chief executives and economists at DealBook’s inaugural conference on Wednesday spoke candidly about their concerns in an uncertain environment. They warned of risks, like the fiscal impasse in Washington and the debt crisis in Europe, and identified opportunities. There was even a reference to Justin Bieber, when Paul Krugman admitted he had never heard the pop star’s music.
jlne.ws/UKFXiI
***** A reader wrote yesterday he “I have never believed in the Maya prediction: If they had been good in forecasting, they would have survived.”
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New Restoring Customer Confidence Video
The fourth video in our Restoring Customer Confidence series deals with third-party custodians. Each week we will post a new idea answering the question – how do you restore customer confidence and bring traders back?
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| Restoring Customer Confidence | More ideas» |
Third-Party Custodians: Here, Hold On To This Futures customers are still wondering just how their money can stay protected in the case of a default by their broker. While some solutions are still in the concept stage, others are available right now. Horizon Cash Management’s Michael Markowitz explains the third-party custodian model, whereby customers set up and manage excess margin at a bank outside the brokerage firm. Third-party custodial arrangements are available now and could be one way to restore customer confidence. In this video, a simple animation and interview with Markowitz help explain the third-party custodian model. This video is sponsored by: +++++ About the Restoring Customer Confidence video series The Restoring Customer Confidence video series answers that question by exploring potential solutions using expert interviews and simple animations. John Lothian News interviewed more than a dozen professionals in the industry to get their ideas and solutions. As these ideas become practice, or as new concepts are adopted by the industry, we will continue to add them to the site. Visit the video series page on MarketsWiki.tv over the next several weeks for new ideas and solutions. |
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FT Person of the Year: Mario Draghi
Lionel Barber and Michael Steen – FT.com
On the eve of the 2012 Olympic Games, Mario Draghi found himself in the august setting of Lancaster House in the heart of London’s royal district. He was a panellist at an official event intended to drum up foreign investment to the UK, but the president of the European Central Bank had weightier matters on his mind.
jlne.ws/UKFZXO
**** Our end of the year awards are tax forms.
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Interview with Mario Draghi
Lionel Barber and Michael Steen in Frankfurt – FT.com
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, spoke to Lionel Barber, Financial Times editor, and Michael Steen, Frankfurt bureau chief, in Frankfurt on December 11 2012. The following is an edited transcript of the interview.
jlne.ws/UKFZXR
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MGEX Announces Hard Red Spring Wheat Webinar, December 20, 2012 at 2:30 p.m
MGEX, a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), will co-host a webinar with the North Dakota Wheat Commission (NDWC) on December 20, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. This webinar will discuss the many aspects of Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW). Joe Victor, MGEX Business Development Specialist will discuss MGEX history, products offered, the specifics on hedging and investing, and the world supply and demand of HRSW. Jim Peterson of NDWC will focus on the quality of the 2012 HRSW crop, provide an overview of a typical HRSW export market and present demand, and explain what the NDWC offers.
jlne.ws/UKFXz5
***** Hard Red Spring is not the theme of a movie.
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Fixed income exits set to soar as capital costs bite
Tim Cave – Financial News
Less than half of investment banks are committed to running global fixed income businesses as regulatory and commercial pressures build, according to new research, fuelling fears of a liquidity drought in the secondary bond markets.
jlne.ws/UKG0ed
***** Fixed income becoming unfixed.
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Who ate the market volatility?
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
For an uncertain world – one with fiscal cliffs, eurozone recession and regime change at the Federal Reserve – it sure is quiet out there. Volatility in financial markets is now trading more like we are in the pre-crisis world of 2006, rather than one in which most of the crucial questions are left unanswered.
jlne.ws/UKFXzb
***** Who moved my cheese vol?
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Bank bill tops $13bn as year of shame draws to close
Richard Partington – Financial News
The largest banks in the US and Europe have paid more than $13bn to settle regulatory investigations and redress customers this year, demonstrating just how strongly financial regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have been cracking down in 2012.
jlne.ws/UKG0eo
**** Is it a record setting year?
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Wall Street and Washington Seek Consensus
Clarke Camper – Inside the Beltway
Private conversations among Wall Street CEOs and key Washington policymakers reveal a growing, behind-the-scenes consensus on the major issues expected to drive future economic growth, reports POLITICO.
jlne.ws/UKG0uK
**** Whatever is the answer, I disagree. Isn’t disagreeing in vogue?
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Wall Street Jobs Move to Smaller Cities
DAN FITZPATRICK – WSJ.com
The U.S. securities industry is booming—just not on Wall Street. Smaller cities around the nation have emerged as unlikely hives of financial-services hiring, thanks to lower wages, municipal-tax incentives and the misfortunes of older hubs that are home to companies ravaged by the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
jlne.ws/UKFXPD
***** There is a cow town called Chicago full of Wall Street jobs, but there are less of them at Newedge.
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When Education and the Markets Intersect
Trade Talk
In and of themselves, schools, students and markets often fall short of transforming talent into marketable skills. While each is invaluable, one without the others will typically fail to produce success.
jlne.ws/UKFXPF
***** Trading Technologies blog, Trade Talk, is really chatty.
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Britain’s Queen Quizzes Central Bank on Financial Crisis
CNBC
During a visit to the Bank of England on Thursday, the Queen was overheard asking whether a “lax” attitude to financial regulation had contributed to the financial crisis.
jlne.ws/UKFXPI
***** Lax Luther?
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Ten financial jobs off the beaten track
Financial News
Want to escape the City? Emerging markets are still in hiring mode, with some attractive jobs in exotic locations. Here is our pick of the positions in far-flung places.
jlne.ws/UKG0Lj
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Data open doors to financial innovation
Richard Waters in San Francisco – FT.com
The exposed brick walls, open work benches and large flat screens in the San Francisco office of Sasha Orloff’s start-up make it feel like any other trendy young Californian internet company. But Mr Orloff is not tinkering with the photo-sharing apps or other consumer trivia that litter the start-up landscape: his company, LendUp, has just joined the payday loans business.
jlne.ws/UKG0Lo
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MarketsWiki.tv
CME Group’s Sean Tully Introduces Deliverable Interest Rate Swap Futures
MarketsWiki.tv
Sean Tully is the managing director of interest rate futures products for CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange. He recently led the development and implementation of CME’s Deliverable Interest Rate Swap Futures, a new type of derivatives product that aims to offer interest rate swap exposure, combined with the liquidity, transparency and margin efficiency of a futures contract.
Tully is a 20-year veteran of the financial sector who, prior to joining CME Group in August 2011, led the fixed income trading group at German banking firm WestLB and, prior to that, spent over ten years as a derivatives trader with Citibank and Greenwich Capital. Tully spoke with John Lothian News Editor-at-Large Doug Ashburn about the new interest rate swap futures contracts, which launched on December 3, 2012.
JLN Interest Rates
Obama, Boehner to meet on fiscal cliff
By Tom Cohen, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Facing a looming deadline to avoid the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner will meet Thursday afternoon at the White House, a Republican aide told CNN. The face-to-face 5 p.m. ET meeting will be the first since Sunday between the president and Boehner, the lead Republican negotiator, in a bid to reach a deal to prevent the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff set to take effect in less than three weeks.
jlne.ws/QXqYpB
UBS Faces $1 Billion Fine Over Libor
By DAVID ENRICH And JEAN EAGLESHAM, The Wall Street Journal
UBS AG is in the final stages of negotiating a settlement with U.S. and British authorities in which the giant Swiss bank is likely to pay more than $1 billion to resolve allegations that it attempted to manipulate benchmark interest rates, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
UBS and the authorities are currently on track to announce the settlement early next week, these people said. They cautioned that the discussions are still in progress and that the parties previously have been near deals in the past, only to see them unravel.
jlne.ws/UEbAww
ECB shield helps Italy and Spain meet debt funding goal
By Francesca Landini, Reuters
The European Central Bank’s potent bond-buying scheme allowed Italy and Spain to complete their challenging 2012 debt funding requirements through successful auctions on Thursday.
jlne.ws/SWWaF9
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Lead Stories
UK clears LSE bid for LCH.Clearnet
Philip Stafford – FT.com
The London Stock Exchange’s planned purchase of a controlling stake in LCH.Clearnet, the transatlantic clearing house, has overcome a key hurdle after UK antitrust regulators approved the deal. The Office of Fair Trading on Friday concluded a five-month investigation into the LSE’s proposal to buy up to a 60 per cent stake in LCH by saying there was little realistic prospect of the deal harming customers.
jlne.ws/UKFY6a
China may open crude futures to foreign investors
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
A plan to launch a crude futures contract in China that would allow foreign investors to trade in commodities markets without a local subsidiary for the first time is gaining momentum and may get the nod early next year, officials and executives said.
jlne.ws/UKFY6g
Nasdaq’s NLX hires compliance director
Tom Osborn – Financial News
Nasdaq OMX has hired a top regulatory adviser from Europe’s largest futures market lobby group for its new London-based derivatives platform, which is targeting a launch in the first quarter of 2013.
jlne.ws/UKFYmG
Singapore’s SGX eyes iron ore futures as US tightens OTC rules -sources
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
The Singapore Exchange plans to introduce an iron ore futures contract next month in a bid to retain and attract more U.S. clients faced with tougher rules in trading over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, industry sources said on Thursday.
jlne.ws/UKFYmA
Nasdaq Cancels Some Premarket Trades
KAITLYN KIERNAN AND MATT JARZEMSKY – WSJ.com
Some premarket transactions in nine big-name stocks were canceled Thursday morning, in the latest example of the trading glitches that have plagued markets this year. Transactions for shares from companies including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. were voided, according to a trader notice from Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. Nasdaq was the only exchange to cancel transactions.
jlne.ws/UKG11X
Italy Tobin Tax to Levy All Equity, Derivatives Trading in Milan
Dow Jones
Italy’s proposed financial transactions tax would impose a 0.12% levy on all equity trades from March 2013, according to a proposed amendment made Thursday to the 2013 Budget Law.
jlne.ws/UKG121
Greece gets new EU aid, declares “Grexit” era dead
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
The euro zone agreed on Thursday to provide nearly 50 billion euros (39 billion pounds) in long-delayed aid to Athens, prompting its Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to declare an end to talk of a Greek exit from the single currency.
jlne.ws/UKFYD8
SEC Draws Fire Over Executive Trading Plans
JEAN EAGLESHAM AND ROB BARRY – WSJ.com
In 2007, a top securities regulator warned that executives could be abusing preset plans to buy and sell their companies’ stock “to facilitate trading based on inside information.”
We’re looking at this—hard, Linda Chatman Thomsen, then-enforcement chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission, told a conference of corporate lawyers.
jlne.ws/UKFYDc
AHEAD OF THE TAPE: Bernanke Taylors Fed’s Approach to Easing
SPENCER JAKAB – WSJ.com
Mr. Chairman, call from a Mr. Taylor on line two. The Federal Reserve’s move to target the unemployment rate as a threshold for ending its extraordinary stimulus got the lion’s share of the attention on Wednesday. But the central bank’s statement had an important caveat: that the “core personal consumption expenditure deflator” should stray no more than half a percentage point above the Fed’s unofficial target.
jlne.ws/UKG1in
Regulatory
CFTC Needs 6-Month Delay in Overseas Rules, Chilton Says
Silla Brush – Bloomberg
The main U.S. derivatives regulator came under pressure to limit the cross-border impact of new swaps rules and delay them for six months from overseas regulators as well as Democratic and Republican members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
jlne.ws/UbWpdf
CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight Issues Time-Limited No-Action Relief from the Post-Allocation Swap Timing Requirement of § 45.3(e)(ii)(A) of the Commission’s Regulations
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (Division) today issued a letter providing relief from the post-allocation swap timing requirement of § 45.3(e)(ii)(A).
jlne.ws/UKG4dX
ASIC selects First Derivatives for new Australian market surveillance solution
First Derivatives has been awarded the tender to deliver the new ASIC multi-market surveillance system for an initial 4 year term using it’s Delta Stream solution, incorporating an advanced surveillance framework.
jlne.ws/UKG4e7
Canadian Securities Regulators publish discussion paper on Mutual Fund fees
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) today published for comment CSA Discussion Paper 81-407 Mutual Fund Fees, which examines the mutual fund fee structure in Canada and identifies potential investor protection issues arising from that structure. The Discussion Paper sets out various topics for discussion in order to evaluate the appropriate structure for Canada.
jlne.ws/UKG4ut
BBB and FINRA Foundation Launch Smart Investing Website to Help Stop Investment Scams—12/13/12
Better Business Bureau and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation today launched a new consumer website, BBB Smart Investing, which is designed to help investors make smarter investing decisions while avoiding fraud, risky investments and unlicensed brokers.
jlne.ws/UKG4uz
Statement On ICI & Chamber Of Commerce V. CFTC: CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler
jlne.ws/UKG4uG
Testimony Before The US House Of Representatives Committee On Agriculture Subcommittee On General Farm Commodities And Risk Management By CFTC Commissioner Jill E. Sommers
jlne.ws/UKG4L1
Testimony Before The US House Committee On Agriculture General Farm Commodities And Risk Management Subcommittee, Washington, DC By CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton
jlne.ws/UKG4L8
ISDA/IIF/AFME letter To BCBS-IOSCO On Margin Requirements For Non-Centrally-Cleared Derivatives
jlne.ws/UKG25P
[Canada] AMF adjusts its annual and other fees
jlne.ws/UKG51x
ASIC releases key FOFA guidance
jlne.ws/SWLNRQ
Exchanges & Trading Facilities
NASDAQ OMX Names Borje E. Ekholm Chairman
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), the inventor of the electronic exchange and the world’s largest exchange company, today announced that its Board of Directors has selected Börje E. Ekholm as Chairman. Ekholm has served as Interim Chairman of NASDAQ OMX since May 25, 2012, following the retirement from the board of Chairman H. Furlong Baldwin.
jlne.ws/UKG51L
Bolsa Electronica de Chile Now Powered by NASDAQ OMX
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. and Bolsa Electronica de Chile today launched NASDAQ OMX’s X-stream trading platform providing BEC with world-class trading technology and strengthening their ongoing strategic alliance for product development and global visibility.
jlne.ws/TYDBAx
Cleartrade Exchange in the Removing Uncertainty 4th Capital Link Global Derivatives Forum, NYC 17th December, 2012
Richard Baker, Chief Executive of the Cleartrade Exchange, along with top industry professionals will be discussing changes to the futures and swaps regulatory landscape and the impact they are having on trading around the world at the forthcoming 4th Capital Link Global Derivatives Forum in New York City on 17th of December, 2012.
jlne.ws/UKG2mm
Program Trading Averaged 30.0 Percent of NYSE Volume during Dec. 3-7
jlne.ws/UKG5i6
CBOE Holdings Announces Date Of Fourth-Quarter 2012 Earnings Release And Conference Call
jlne.ws/TS0F1c
[CBOE] Trading Permit Sliding Scale Programs
jlne.ws/UKG2ms
Exercise Of Ibovespa Options Generates BRL 7.06 Billion Financial Volume On BM&FBOVESPA
jlne.ws/UKG2mC
Boerse Berlin Ceases Trading Of First Quotation Board Securities
All instruments affected by the delisting were traded on the secondary market in Berlin. In order to be traded on the secondary market, securities need to be admitted to a trading venue that is recognised by the Berlin Stock Exchange – their so called home market.
jlne.ws/UKG2CT
Simon Power – Independent Director Of NZX Limited
jlne.ws/UKG5yx
EO2 lists on NYSE Alternext
jlne.ws/TgLRdG
Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Electronic Bond Trading Tipped to Rise in 2013 – Reports
Katy Burne
Corporate bond traders’ phone lines won’t be ringing off the hook in 2013. Banks and others predict an increase in electronic fixed-income trading next year as investors look beyond traditional phone-based trading with dealers, according to new research released Thursday.
jlne.ws/UKG5yA
Man Group faces further writedowns over GLG deal – FT
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
LONDON – Hedge fund firm Man Group is weighing significant writedowns next year relating to its 2010 acquisition of GLG Partners, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
jlne.ws/UKG5yE
Legg Mason To Acquire Fund-of-Hedge-Funds Firm Fauchier
Dow Jones
Legg Mason Inc. agreed to acquire BNP Paribas SA’s Fauchier Partners, the latest deal in the fast-shrinking fund-of-hedge-funds industry.
jlne.ws/UKG2D5
Falcone’s Harbinger Group Falls Most on Record After Sale
Bloomberg
Harbinger Group Inc., the holding company run by Philip Falcone , fell the most on record after his hedge fund sold shares in the company at a discount.
jlne.ws/UKG2Tm
Fidelity Lowers Minimums and Fees on Index Funds
Morningstar via Yahoo! Finance
Blackstone drafts an alternative open-end fund, and eight former Regions Morgan Keegan mutual fund directors are charged by the SEC for failing to comply with federal securities law.
jlne.ws/UKG2Tu
Citigroup’s Carsten Stendevad to Be CEO of Danish Pension Fund ATP -Reuters
Dow Jones
Carsten Stendevad, who was head of the Financial Strategy Group at Citigroup Inc., was named chief executive of Danish pension fund ATP, Reuters reported Thursday.
jlne.ws/UKG2Ty
Pimco says French bonds not attractive given risks
The Wall Street Journal
French bond yields don’t adequately compensate investors for the economic challenges plaguing the country but short-dated Italian and Spanish bonds appear attractive, a portfolio manager at Pacific Investment Management Co said.
jlne.ws/UKG39V
Statement By IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde On Greece
jlne.ws/UKG5Pc
Banks & Brokers
Deutsche Bank’s Fitschen Won’t Step Down amid Investigation – Report
Dow Jones
Deutsche Bank AG co-Chief Executive Juergen Fitschen sees no reason to step down amid an investigaton into possible carbon-emissions-certificate tax evasion at the bank, he tells German daily Bild Zeitung Friday.
jlne.ws/UKG3a1
Deutsche Bank warns of big hit to profit
The Wall Street Journal
Deutsche Bank grappling with a series of legal problems on both sides of the Atlantic, warned that restructuring costs would result in a substantial hit to the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings and could tip it into a loss for the last three months of the year.
jlne.ws/UKG5Pj
Newedge’s Plans Highlight Futures Slowdown
Jacob Bunge – Dow Jones
Newedge on Thursday outlined plans that could see one of the world’s largest derivatives brokers split in two and trim jobs to deal with a slowdown in trading and a raft of new industry regulations. The move highlights the tough market facing players in the once-booming listed derivatives sector, with exchanges focused on cutting costs and finding alternative revenue sources after the rapid growth in trading seen in recent years ground to a halt.
jlne.ws/UKFXiz
JPM Uses Counter-Terrorism Tools to Monitor Staff
CNBC
JPMorgan Chase has turned to technology used for countering terrorism to spot fraud risk among its own employees.
jlne.ws/UKG3qr
UBS Said to Face Fines of More Than $1 Billion in Libor Probes
Bloomberg
UBS AG , Switzerland ’s biggest bank, may be fined more than $1 billion by U.S. and U.K. regulators for trying to rig global interest rates , more than double the amount levied against Barclays Plc, according to a person familiar with the probe.
jlne.ws/UKG65N
Should Goldman Sachs Stop Underwriting Debt?
CNBC
The CEO of Goldman Sachs says investors in bonds will suffer losses when rates go up. So why is his firm making millions selling them?
jlne.ws/UKG3qz
Osborne – RBS break-up would be very complex, think twice
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
LONDON – Chancellor George Osborne said on Thursday he would think twice before deciding to break up the Royal Bank of Scotland given the problems that would pose.
jlne.ws/UKG6ma
Exclusive: Barclays loses three top technology bankers – sources
Reuters via Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – Barclays Plc has lost three of its top technology investment bankers in New York this week to a rival, according to people familiar with the matter. Michael Carter, Michal Katz and Erik-Jaap Molenaar have left Barclays to join another investment bank as a team, with Carter and Katz taking on roles as co-heads of technology, the people said.
jlne.ws/UKG6mc
Barclays may cut up to 2,000 investment banking jobs: WSJ
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Barclays Plc plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in its investment bank as part of a broad restructuring of the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the British bank’s plans.
jlne.ws/UKG3GV
Barclays Vindicated as Blown Chavez Call Redeemed: Andes Credit
Bloomberg
When Barclays Plc recommended investors buy Venezuelan bonds on the bet President Hugo Chavez would lose his re-election bid in October, the bank said his cancer battle could drive him out of office even if he won.
jlne.ws/UKG6mk
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Named Institutional Investor’s “Top Global Research Firm of 2012″
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
For the second straight year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch was named Institutional Investor’s “Top Global Research Firm of 2012.” This was achieved by BofA Merrill Lynch Global Re
jlne.ws/UKG6mn
Banks Abstain From Europe’s Bond Rush Amid Central Bank Largesse
Bloomberg
Financial institutions issued 120 billion euros of senior unsecured bonds this year, down from 122 billion euros in 2011 and on track for the least since the euro began, Societe Generale SA data show.
jlne.ws/UKG6CG
Judge Approves Lehman Settlement With Citigroup
PATRICK FITZGERALD – WSJ.com
A federal judge Wednesday approved a settlement between the trustee unwinding Lehman Brothers Inc. and Citigroup Inc. over more than $1 billion that Lehman deposited at the bank the week it filed for bankruptcy protection.
jlne.ws/UKG3Xt
Clearing & Settlement
CME Group Clearing Advisory: NYMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members (LO) Effective Friday, December 14, 2012
jlne.ws/UKG3XD
Indexes & Products
BrokerTec and MTS launch RepoFunds Rate daily repo index
BrokerTec, ICAP’s global electronic fixed income trading platform, and MTS, a fixed income electronic trading venue that is majority-owned by London Stock Exchange Group, have launched the RepoFunds Rate daily repo index for eurozone sovereign bonds.
jlne.ws/UKG6Tf
ProShares Launches First True Merger Arbitrage ETF
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
ProShares, a premier provider of alternative exchange traded funds , today announced the launch of the ProShares Merger ETF , the first ETF based on a true merger arbitrage strategy.
jlne.ws/UKG6Ti
DTCC Releases Historical Data on the DTCC GCF Repo Index
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation announced today that it has released historical data on the DTCC GCF Repo Index.The data, which covers the time period between January 2005 and November 2012, is now available online
jlne.ws/UKG9OO
ShortDAX x3 and LevDAX x3 Indices to underlie two exchange-traded products for the first time
jlne.ws/UKG9OS
EURO STOXX 50 Daily Leverage 3 And Daily Short 3 Indices Licensed To Boost – Indices To Underlie Two Exchange-Traded Products For The First Time
jlne.ws/UKG79N
STOXX Launches Global Emerging Markets Exposed Index
jlne.ws/UKG9OZ
S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes In Canadian Indices – A Deletion From S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
jlne.ws/UKG79S
Unscheduled free float adjustment in TecDAX
jlne.ws/UKGa5i
Astro Malaysia And Felda Global Ventures Replace AirAsia And Malaysia Marine And Heavy Engineering In The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI December Semi-Annual Review
jlne.ws/UKG7qf
SGX: No Change To STI After Quarterly Review – Three New IPOs Gained Entry To FTSE ST Small Cap Index
jlne.ws/UKGa5n
Thai Bourse Announces SET Indices Semi-Annual Review
jlne.ws/UKGa5q
Thai Futures Bourse Promotes Its SET50 Futures Monthly Contracts By Reducing Exchange Fees
jlne.ws/UKGa5u
Technology
OptionsCity Software expands Algo Store and developer community around Freeway
OptionsCity Software, a leading provider of end-to-end electronic trading solutions, today announced the expansion of Algo Store, the firm’s online marketplace for traders and developers to create, purchase, and download trading algorithms available at algostore.optionscity.com.
jlne.ws/12nIzd3
SpryWare Boosts Performance with latest DMS Release
SpryWare, a premier provider of Ultra Low Latency feed handlers and direct market data technology, today announced the latest performance assessment of their Direct Market Server, DMS, its flagship Ticker Plant software technology. Combining software optimizations to their feed handler suite and utilizing the newest hardware on the market they were able to produce an impressive mean latency of 6.08 microseconds.
(via email)
Markit EDM connects with Morningstar’s Solvency II codes
Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, today announced that its Markit Enterprise Data Management (EDM) platform, recently acquired from Cadis Software, is now fully compatible with Morningstar’s Complementary Identification Codes (CIC).
jlne.ws/UKGalQ
Enforcement
SEC to Seek New Trial for Bents
KIRSTEN GRIND – WSJ.com
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to ask a federal judge for a new trial against mutual-fund managers Bruce Bent Sr. and his son, Bruce Bent II, according to a court filing. In November, a seven-member jury cleared the Bents, who managed the $62 billion Reserve Primary money-market fund, on fraud claims after a four-week civil trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
jlne.ws/UKG7GQ
CFTC Charges Calif. Company Arista LLC and Calif. Residents Abdul Sultan Walji and Reniero Francisco with Fraud in Operating $9.5 Million Commodity Pool
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Arista LLC, a registered Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) with its principal place of business in Newport Coast, Calif., and its principals Abdul Sultan Walji (a/k/a Abdul Sultan Valji) and Reniero Francisco, both California residents.
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Investment banker sentenced for insider dealing
In a case brought by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Thomas Ammann, an investment banker and former FSA Approved Person, has today been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 2 years and 8 months imprisonment for two counts of insider dealing and two counts of encouraging insider dealing. But for an early guilty plea the sentence would have been one of 4 years.
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[ASIC] Former North Adelaide adviser pleads guilty to dishonesty charges
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Environmental & Energy
ICE Recognised for Leading Role in Emissions Markets for Third Consecutive Year
IntercontinentalExchange, a leading operator of global markets and clearing houses, has been recognised as the “Best Exchange – EU Emissions Trading Scheme” in the carbon emissions market for the third time by Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance Magazine in its 13th Carbon Finance Annual Market Survey.
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China and US hold the key to a new global climate deal
Guardian
China and the US are to be the clear focus of the next year of climate change negotiations, following a hard-fought climate conference that ended in Doha on Saturday night.
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**RKB – As for the U.S.: Paul Bledsoe, former Clinton White House adviser and a close observer of the talks, said: “I don’t think it is likely that you could get something that looks like a treaty passed by the Senate. It doesn’t matter if you call it something else – if it looks like a treaty and smells like a treaty, they won’t have it.” And while the world waits on these two giants, developments in the developing world. Case in point in the next article.
Vietnam can see great opportunities from carbon market
VietnamNet Bridge
The carbon market is seen as the major tool reducing CO2 emissions, one of the four kinds of gas that cause greenhouse effects. The market has been supported by the four main mechanisms stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol – the clean development mechanism (CDM), the joint implementation (JI) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
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Jack Ehnes Of CalSTRS To Chair FTSE Environmental Markets Committee
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Asia-Pacific
Asia brokers in balancing act to bypass stalled HFT debate
Reuters
Brokers in Asia are trying to balance traditional investors and the new force of high-frequency traders to keep profits growing amid a pullback in overall trading volumes, seeking to move past a stalled debate on trading models.
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China Considers Easing Rule on RQFII Investment in Bonds
Stephanie Tong – Bloomberg
China may relax or abolish a rule that requires Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors to keep most of their funds in bonds, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, a move that may boost demand for stocks.
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Standard Bank to sell China’s ICBC 60% of 2 UK trading units: WSJ
Reuters via Yahoo! News
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Standard Bank may sell 60 percent of its UK commodities and foreign exchange trading businesses to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China for at least $600 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Japan fines U.S. fund Tiger Asia, citing market manipulation
Reuters via Yahoo! News
TOKYO – Japan’s securities watchdog said on Thursday it fined Tiger Asia Partners 67.71 million yen, saying the U.S. hedge fund manipulated the market through its deals in shares of Yahoo Japan Corp. The move comes a day after the fund settled insider trading charges in the United States.
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Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Xu Ming: Perfect Integrity System To Ensure 5 Innovations
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Japan’s Securities And Exchange Surveillance Commission: Recommendation For Administrative Monetary Penalty Payment Order For Market Manipulation Of The Shares Of Yahoo Japan Corporation
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Frontier Markets
MCX-COMDEX Weekly Market Report December 07, 2012 – December 13, 2012
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Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Report -14th December, 2012
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