Industry news
Date: Dec 20, 2012
December 20, 2012: IntercontinentalExchange to Acquire NYSE Owner for $8.2 Billion; CFTC agrees more delays to reforms; Getco maps out post-Knight crusade
ICE and NYSE Euronext have agreed to a merger deal. The CFTC is distributing delays and no-action letters to freshly-regulated dealers as industry participants struggle to gain compliance with new regulations. Getco outlines its future after its intended acquisition of Knight is completed. In First Read today, John Lothian and Jim Kharouf discuss the new ICE-NYSE deal and what it might mean for the future of the industry. Also, if you missed it yesterday, take a look at the Allan Schoenberg video interview, as he explains how CME Group increasingly utilizes social media as a content distribution platform to discuss market issues with customers, partners and other stakeholders.
First Read
Chasing Moby-Dick
By John Lothian & Jim Kharouf
As we head toward the end of a rather difficult year for most exchanges, we also appear to be headed toward the next round of consolidation in the industry. IntercontinentalExchange has pulled off the once unthinkable – It has bought NYSE Euronext.
The deal, valued at $8.2 billion, is a blockbuster the industry hasn’t seen in a few years (LME-Hong Kong Exchanges notwithstanding), and it could launch the next round of consolidation in the industry. The futures and options markets have undergone dramatic and somewhat predictable changes in the past decade. The move from member-owned to publicly-owned exchanges opened the industry to flurry of M&A activity in the US and Europe. NYSE and Euronext. CME and the Chicago Board of Trade, and then New York Mercantile Exchange and most recently Kansas City’s bourse. ICE’s bought up London’s International Petroleum Exchange and then the New York Board of Trade, plus a little noticed but well-positioned Winnipeg Commodity Exchange. Nasdaq took on OMX, Nordpool and a PHLX. We’re likely missing a few, but you get the picture.
A Goliath merger between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse got the KO punch from regulators, as did the ICE-NASDAQ tag-team to buy up NYSE Euronext about a year ago. And now this.
So here we are. Capt. Ahab Sprecher finally bagged his whale, while NYSE’s Duncan Niederauer cut costs and cut a deal. Depending on how you look at it, it was now or battle some tough headwinds in 2013 and potentially beyond that. 2011 was a tough year but not too bad by volume standards – NYSE Euronext volume, the fourth ranked exchange, was up 6 percent, while ICE was up 15.9 percent, with a number 12 ranking by volume, according to FIA data. The ICE-NYSE exchange now jumps past Deutsche Boerse to stand in as the third largest exchange group in the world.
Maybe NYSE Euronext felt it had to move. In the first half of 2012, the latest figures from FIA, NYSE volumes were down 5.2 percent while ICE hummed along with a 30.2 percent gain. ICE Futures Europe continued to grow its volumes, up 48.8 percent. ICE Clear US cleared $438 billion in CDS in September, with open interest of $823 billion, while ICE Clear Europe cleared $326 billion in CDS in September, with open interest of $735 billion. It’s still a drop in the bucket compared to what LCH.Clearnet handles in OTC swaps, but that illustrates just how big a pie there is to chase. LCH handled $36 trillion of interest rate swaps in September, according to FIA, up 43 percent.
Listed derivatives synergies aside, the question is whether the ICE and NYSE tie up would give them an advantage in the OTC clearing space – the next big thing for the industry – as some suggest. With the futurization of swaps – meaning converting OTC swaps into cleared and settled futures contracts which avoids some laborious and expensive regulation by the CFTC, an ICE deal may make some sense. It would grant it another clearinghouse with New York Portfolio Clearing, which has an interesting value proposition for the marketplace.
And for the kicker about Sprecher and the whale. ICE is the whale by market cap – with ICE valued at $9.33 billion, and NYSE Euronext at $5.84 billion. Sail (or sale) on Capt. Sprecher, sail on.
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Allan Schoenberg on the Evolution of CME Group’s Social Media Strategy
MarketsWiki.tv
Allan Schoenberg, Executive Director of Corporate Communications at CME Group, highlights new social media initiatives and describes how their social media strategy has evolved since they first created a Facebook page five years ago. In this conversation with JLN Publisher John Lothian, he explains how CME Group increasingly utilizes social media as a content distribution platform to discuss market issues with customers, partners and other stakeholders.
Schoenberg cites relationships with BM&FBOVESPA, MexDer, Dubai Mercantile Exchange and exchange partners in Asia that help CME Group distribute regional, language specific content to unique international audiences. Specifically, CME Group has used Weibo.com (a Chinese language micro-blogging site) and Youku (a Chinese language video sharing site) to initiate discussions with potential financial market participants in China.
Schoenberg contrasts Twitter’s broad appeal with StockTwit’s ability to focus conversations on specific topics and products. He also discusses how CME Group has leveraged their historical exchange photos and research images to create image based stories on Pinterest over the last year.
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New Restoring Customer Confidence Video
The fifth video in our Restoring Customer Confidence series deals with broker ratings. 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» |
Ratings: How Does Your Broker Rate? If you knew the financial health of your futures broker, would that help you decide which firm to work with? James Gellert, President and CEO of Rapid Ratings, says futures broker ratings could make for more informed retail and professional investors. Gellert explains how ratings of public brokers and voluntary ratings of private brokers would provide transparency for the FCM community and its customers. Rapid Ratings uses dozens of financial ratios, based on audited financial reports, to provide a score for each firm. In this video, a simple animation and interview with Gellert help explain broker ratings. 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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Morgan Stanley to Take Strategic Equity Stake in Eris Exchange
Morgan Stanley and Eris Exchange announced today that Morgan Stanley plans to make a strategic equity investment in Eris, a U.S. futures exchange that offers Interest Rate Swap Futures. Morgan Stanley also plans to participate on the exchange as a provider of liquidity and clearing services. Financial details were not disclosed.
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Of options, exchanges and change
Phil Rosenthal – Chicago Tribune
The hall outside CBOE Chairman and Chief Executive William Brodsky’s office is lined with his personal collection of photos and other artwork of various trading exchanges around the world. “This is very special because it’s capturing almost 400 years of exchanges, when they were cathedrals of commerce that had personalities,” Brodsky, 68, told a visitor Tuesday in his office, a pragmatic seventh-floor perch with a less-than-stately view of Chicago’s huge, empty, onetime main post office.
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Quick View: ICE’s zest for Liffe
Philip Stafford – FT.com
If at first you don’t succeed….. Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of IntercontinentalExchange, is back on the acquisition trail, just months after his bid for the London Metal Exchange failed. Now the relentless dealmaker wants to buy NYSE Euronext, owner of the famous New York Stock Exchange.
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High Frequency Trading: Must Separate Fact From Fiction Says NYSE COO Leibowitz
Breakout
As 2012 peters out, trading activity is slow and market volatility low. Yet this state of relative calm hasn’t quieted the anxious chatter about hyper-fast trading by automated systems aimed at capturing tiny price blips in stocks, over fractions of a second. This is the industry landscape facing Larry Leibowitz, chief operating officer of NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYX), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange and other trading venues.
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KEN LANGONE: High Frequency Trading Has No Effect On Long-Term Investors
Business Insider
During the hour-long guest appearance, Langone went head to head with Seth Merrin, the founder of trading network Liquidnet, over the issue of high frequency trading.
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The SEC Gets Its Groove Back
Forbes
It won’t likely come as big news to Elisse Walter, the new interim head of the Securities and Exchange Commission who is replacing Mary Schapiro, that the securities industry will be significantly transformed in 2013. For Walter, it’s going to be a continuing baptism by fire.
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A Conscience Isn’t Nonsense – Statement Of CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton On UBS Settlement
Every so often, folks wonder if some in the financial sector believe that having a business conscience is nonsense. Financial sector violations are hurtling toward us like a spaceship moving through the stars. All too often, penalties have been a simple cost of doing business. That needs to change.
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Liquidnet’s Top Five Predictions for the Global Equity Markets in 2013
As Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, celebrates its 10 year anniversary in Europe and five year anniversary in the Asia Pacific region, Liquidnet provides their top five predictions for the markets globally in 2013.
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It’s all about London in 2013!
FOW
After a year dominated by delays to regulatory reform the fruits of the regulators’ labour will begin to blossom in 2013. European regulation in the form of Mifid II and Emir will meet the G20 requirements for central clearing and transparency, which is fuelling the futurisation of swaps. At the same time they aim to boost competition. Whether Mifid II will do to derivatives what Mifid I did to equities remains to be seen but exchanges are taking no chances.
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JLN Options
Brokers Face Off Against Exchanges at Today’s Senate Hearing
Peter Chapman, Traders Magazine
Representatives from two exchanges and two broker-dealers will likely air their differences today during a hearing hosted by the Senate Banking Committee.
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Derivatives traders optimistic for 2013, according to Risk.net poll
Risk.net
The majority of respondents to a Risk.net poll expect to make more money from derivatives trading next year, despite the onset of new regulations in 2013 and continuing problems in the eurozone.
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**Nice to know that “things can’t get much worse than 2012.” — SR
‘Un-Volatility’ Funds Hit Fresh Lifetime Highs
Brendan Conway, Barron’s
There’s an incredibly wide array of, well, exchange-traded stuff out there. For instance: There are two unusually complex investments that are up 200% year-to-date, and can be expected to keep rising higher barring a market selloff, or a product malfunction.
jlne.ws/12ybHhK
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Lead Stories
IntercontinentalExchange to Acquire NYSE Owner for $8.2 Billion
By Nina Mehta and Jeffrey McCracken – Bloomberg
IntercontinentalExchange Inc., the 12-year-old energy and commodity futures bourse, agreed to acquire NYSE Euronext for cash and stock worth $8.2 billion, moving to take control of the world’s biggest equities market.
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IntercontinentalExchange and NYSE Euronext Enter Clearing Services Agreement; ICE Clear Europe to Clear NYSE Liffe’s Derivatives Markets
Press Release
IntercontinentalExchange, a leading operator of global markets and clearing houses, and NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX), the preeminent global equity, equity options and fixed income derivatives market operator, today announced that, their wholly owned subsidiaries, ICE Clear Europe Limited and LIFFE Administration and Management have entered into a clearing services agreement pursuant to which ICE Clear Europe will provide clearing services to the London market of NYSE Liffe (“NYSE Liffe”).
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CFTC agrees more delays to reforms
Gregory Meyer in New York – FT.com
A wave of new delays to financial reforms has been approved by the US derivatives regulator as Wall Street scrambles to meet a year-end deadline for compliance. Since the start of the month the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued 21 letters postponing enforcement of new rules for dealers as the $639tn off-exchange derivatives market is regulated for the first time.
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Getco maps out post-Knight crusade
The Wall Street Journal
The head of Getco yesterday outlined plans for the company to evolve into a new type of global trading firm following its planned takeover of Knight Capital.
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MF Global judge wary of letting customers depose Corzine
Reuters
A bankruptcy judge responded on Wednesday with skepticism to a request by former MF Global customers to depose the collapsed brokerage’s former chief Jon Corzine.
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Contrarians look to rule roost in 2013
Robin Wigglesworth – FT.com
China’s growth is still so strong, despite a slowdown, that it is effectively creating an economy the size of Greece’s annual output every three months. But investors would have been much better off putting their money in the Athens stock market this year.
jlne.ws/RFXxdt
France wants to split banks’ trading, lending ops
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
France’s government proposed a bill Wednesday that would split banks’ risky trading activities from their more traditional lending operations as part of a Europe-wide effort to shore up a fragile industry that contributed to the continent’s financial crisis.
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Added blow for UBS in Italy derivatives trial verdict
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
An Italian court on Wednesday found Deutsche Bank, Depfa Bank, JP Morgan and UBS guilty of fraud for mis-selling derivatives to Milan in a case that could set a precedent for hundreds of local governments.
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Libor Scandal Just Took A Nasty Turn, Collusion Findings Should Make Banks Very Nervous
Forbes
The worst case scenario around findings in the global Libor investigation may become a reality for banks.
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DealBook: Leniency Denied, UBS Unit Admits Guilt in Rate Case
New York Times
UBS scrambled until the last minute to avoid having its subsidiary plead guilty to fraud.
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Swiss lack appetite for Barclays-style backlash against UBS
Reuters via Yahoo! News
ZURICH – Unlike the outrage that hit Barclays after the British bank was fined for rigging a benchmark interest rate, reaction in Switzerland to UBS’s 1.4 billion franc penalty for the same offence has been muted.
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Image Remake Suffers Hit at Deutsche Bank
LAURA STEVENS AND DAVID CRAWFORD – WSJ.com
FRANKFURT—Just six months after Deutsche Bank AG installed new leadership promising a cultural revolution, a growing scandal over management’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering in a criminal investigation of the bank’s trading is undermining efforts to rehabilitate its battered public image.
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Regulatory
NFA enhances monitoring of FCMs, amends forex capital requirements
At its November 15 meeting, National Futures Association’s (NFA) Board of Directors approved two measures that will further enhance customer protection safeguards. The first measure will enable NFA to make better use of technology in order to better monitor futures commission merchant (FCM) segregation compliance. Secondly, NFA’s Board approved rule amendments to increase the capital requirement for FCMs acting as counterparties in off-exchange foreign currency (forex) transactions with eligible contract participants (ECP).
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Statement Of Support By CFTC Commissioner Scott D. O’Malia For Bringing And Settling Charges Against UBS AG And UBS Securities Japan, Co., Ltd.
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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks At The UBS Press Conference
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Member Obligations Under NFA Bylaw 1101 and Compliance Rule 2-36(d) with Respect to CPOs/CTAs Exempt from Registration Prior to December 31, 2012
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Guidance on Obligations Under NFA Bylaw 1101 for Commodity Pool Operator Members Advising Pools that are Registered Investment Companies
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Three new commissioners appointed to the British Columbia Securities Commission
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ESMA Consults On Guidelines For CCPs’ Interoperability Arrangements
jlne.ws/RFXzBU
ESMA Issues Statement On Forbearance Practices
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a Public Statement on the
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ESMA Publishes Supervisory Briefings In The Area Of MiFID
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ESMA Publishes An Updated Q&A On Prospectus
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[Canada] Integrity in Public Contracts Act – AMF announces first phase of authorizations
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ASIC consults on changes to scheme property arrangements
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ASIC reviews money market funds sector
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities
NYSE Euronext is the Global Leader in IPO Proceeds Raised for Second Consecutive Year
NYSE Euronext (NYX), for the second consecutive year, raised more proceeds from Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) than any other global exchange group in 2012 with $36 billion in total global proceeds raised from 117 IPOs and listed the majority of U.S. technology IPOs. In the U.S., the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NYSE MKT combined led the market with 79 IPOs and 16 transfers. In Europe, NYSE Euronext welcomed 25 new listings, with approximately E2.7 billion ($3.5 billion) in proceeds raised.
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MIAX Fee Schedule
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Top 20 Largest Consolidated Short Position Report – December 15, 2012
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Election Of Members To The Sanction Commission Of SIX Swiss Exchange
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Warsaw Stock Exchange And Gazeta Gieldy Parkiet Sign Memorandum Of Understanding For The Capital Market
The objective of the memorandum of understanding is co-operation of both entities in the area of enhancing the quality of knowledge and information of capital market participants, in particular investors, and improving access to information about the Polish capital market by means of state-of-the-art communication technologies.
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Money Funds Brace for Flood
KIRSTEN GRIND AND DAN FITZPATRICK – WSJ.com
BlackRock Inc. and Federated Investors Inc. might bolt the door to shield their funds from a torrent of money that is expected to flood out of U.S. banks when a federal guarantee lapses on roughly $1.7 trillion in bank deposits.
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Morningstar Manager of the Year Nominees for 2012
Morningstar
Every January, Morningstar recognizes mutual fund managers (domestic-stock, foreign-stock, and fixed income) who delivered exemplary performance in the prior year and also have fantastic long-term records. For 2012, we’re introducing two new Manager of the Year awards for the growing Alternatives and Allocation categories. You can learn more about the nominees in the articles below.
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ADM, Graincorp CEOs Square Off Over Bid
CAROLINE HENSHAW AND IAN BERRY – WSJ.com
Two of the most powerful women in the male-dominated global commodity industry are squaring off in the battle to feed China. Archer Daniels Midland Co. Chief Executive Patricia Woertz wants to take the U.S. agribusiness giant to the heart of Asia, but she has twice been spurned in her efforts to acquire Australia’s GrainCorp Ltd.—one of the few remaining entry points following a flurry of deal-making in the sector.
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Towers Watson makes leap to fund manager status
William Hutchings – Financial News
One of the world’s largest investment consultancies, Towers Watson, is set to become a fund manager with the acquisition of a multi-manager, a move that will expose the company to close scrutiny over its investment performance and raise questions of conflict of interest.
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Ex-Superfund executive launches computer hedge fund
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
A former executive at computer trading firm Superfund is betting that blending man and machine will help his new quantitative hedge fund buck a trend that has seen many rivals run up big losses this year.
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Debt Investors Turn the Page on Russia
ALEXANDER KOLYANDR AND JESSICA MEAD – WSJ.com
Russia’s 1998 debt default left thousands of investors nursing huge losses and sealed off most of the country’s bond markets from the outside world. Now, money managers are about to get a chance to re-enter a market that offers high returns but also political and financial risks.
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Commodity trader hedge funds outsmart standalone rivals
Dairy Herd
Hedge funds owned by commodity giants including Cargill and Louis Dreyfus have outwitted their standalone rivals in a year of market volatility that has disrupted traditional models for oil and metals trading.
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Paulson funds nixed
New York Post
Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson has gotten another dose of bad news. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is recommending that its financial advisers pull client money out of Paulson’s Advantage and Advantage Plus funds, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday.
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Banks & Brokers
Knight Capital’s Trading Disaster Ends In Merger With Getco, Joyce Named Chairman
Forbes
Four months after a trading disaster cost it hundreds of millions Knight Capital has landed in the arms of fellow market-maker Getco.
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Newedge Further Strengthens Global Metals Capabilities
Newedge, a global leader in multi-asset brokerage, execution and clearing, announced today further senior appointments to its global Metals business in London, New York and Hong Kong: London – Peter Barrowcliff has been promoted to the role of Global Head of Metals; New York – Brian Flaherty has joined Newedge as the firm’s US Head of Metals; Hong Kong – Wendy Law and Alan Burr have been promoted to the positions of Co-Head of APAC Metals
(via email)
A different kind of Libor fallout
Giles Turner, Fareed Sahloul and Richard Partington – Financial News
UBS has joined Barclays in occupying an unenviable place on the list of banks to have been fined for rate rigging. But while the Swiss firm’s penalty dwarfs the one handed out to its UK peer in the summer, UBS may be spared the same reputational fallout.
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Citigroup not looking to fill chief operating officer’s spot: WSJ
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Citigroup Inc’s chief executive, Michael Corbat, is not looking to fill the positions of president and chief operating officer, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Citigroup Takes Equity Stake In iSwap
ICAP, the world’s leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade risk and information services, announces that Citigroup has taken an equity stake in iSwap Limited. i-Swap is the market leading trading platform for interest rate swaps.
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Central Banks Fighting Bubbles in Nordics Get Regulatory Relief
Bloomberg
As central bankers in Sweden and Norway look for ways to fight consumer debt bubbles without losing sight of their inflation mandates, the latest regulatory onslaught is helping ease their dilemma.
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Statement From The Non-Executive Directors Of The Bank Of England – Mark Carney Salary
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BofA’s Moynihan Said to Kill Proposal to Cut Payouts for Brokers
Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan blocked a proposal to cut the main component of most brokers’ pay for 2013, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
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Morgan Stanley Case Leaves Facebook With Similar Legal Challenge
Bloomberg
Facebook Inc. , the world’s largest social-networking company, could be exposed to legal challenges surrounding its initial public offering similar to those faced by Morgan Stanley , according to legal experts.
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Julius Baer Brings Forward Realignment of Management Structure
Business Wire
Julius Baer, the leading Swiss private banking group, will bring forward the realignment of its management structure announced in August 2012 in the context of the acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business outside the United States from Bank of America.
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Clearing & Settlement
LCH considers LSE’s reduced offer
Philip Stafford in London – FT.com
LCH.Clearnet is considering a reduced offer from the London Stock Exchange Group for the transatlantic clearing house, as the two groups discuss how to meet higher capital requirements for clearing houses.
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Domestic And International Banks To Work With ASX On OTC Derivatives Clearing
ASX announces that seven domestic and international banks in Australia have signed non-binding commitments to help develop ASX’s new OTC Interest Rate Derivatives Clearing Service. The first phase of ASX’s OTC clearing solution will be delivered by mid-2013.
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DTCC’S Global Trade Repository Opens Data Center In Singapore – Move Will Promote OTC Derivatives Reporting And Ensure Seamless Access To Data For Regulators Worldwide
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Indexes & Products
First Exchange-Traded Products Based On NASDAQ OMX Commodity Indexes Are Introduced – Product Launches Represent BOOST ETP-NASDAQ OMX Collaboration
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db X-trackers launches full replication equity index ETFs on Xetra
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Change in Component Issues of OSE 300 Stock Price Index, OSE 250 Adjusted Stock Price Average
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Nikkei-TOCOM Commodity Index To Be Renamed In February 2013
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Russell Eurozone Index Reflected A 20.1% YTD 2012 Gain As Of 12/17 As Russell Investments Predicts Continued
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Technology
Livevol Launches Next Generation Trading Platform – Livevol X
Livevol, Inc., the leading provider of equity options technologies and services, announced the launch of Livevol X, its next generation, all-in-one trading platform that will be the new standard in trading technology.
jlne.ws/TyINd5
SunGard’s Valdi Adds Hosted Access to Pan-European Trading Platform Equiduct
SunGard has extended its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based Valdi offering to provide its customers with access to Equiduct, the pan-European trading platform focused on offering retail participants access to best execution.
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INTERACTIVE DATA EXPANDS GLOBAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT TEAM FOR FUTURESOURCE
Interactive Data Corporation, a leading provider of market data solutions to the global commodities and energy industry, today announced appointments to a new regional product management team that will support the global expansion of its FutureSource market data and analytics platform business.
(via email)
iTB To Offer Direct Connectivity to BGC’s eSpeed Platform, Enhancing Its Growing Fixed Income Trading Network
iTB Holdings, Inc., a leading software provider for institutional fixed income traders, today announced it has signed an agreement with leading global brokerage company BGC, enabling it to connect directly to BGC’s proprietary US government bond trading platform, eSpeed. The expansion of iTBconnect’s network will offer its institutional clients greater access to the US treasuries marketplace.
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MAN Group Live On SWIFT’s Global ETC Messaging Solution – Successfully Confirm Trades With Morgan Stanley Via Salerio
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Enforcement
SEC Charges Advisory Firms and Portfolio Managers for Roles in Collapse of Midwest-Based Closed-End Mutual Fund
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two investment advisory firms and two portfolio managers responsible for managing a Midwest-based closed-end mutual fund for their roles in the failure to adequately inform investors about the fund’s risky derivative strategies that contributed to its collapse during the financial crisis.
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CFTC Settles Charges against Virginia Resident Alexander Giap for Engaging in Two Fraudulent Commodity Futures Trading …
CFTC.gov
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced that it obtained a federal court order requiring defendant Alexander Giap of Falls Church, Va., to pay $456,743 in restitution to defrauded customers and a $250,000 civil monetary penalty for violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act
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Ex-Porsche Officials Charged With Market Manipulation
New York Times
German prosecutors said Wendelin Wiedeking, who was chief executive, and Holger Haerter, who was chief financial officer, made misleading statements in connection with a failed takeover of Volkswagen.
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ASIC warns consumers about Prestige Private Wealth
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AMP Horizons improves compliance measures following ASIC concerns
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Environmental & Energy
Paying for It
Elizabeth Kolbert – The New Yorker
Not long ago, the Congressional Research Service reported that, over the next decade, a relatively modest carbon tax could cut the projected federal deficit in half. Such a tax would be imposed not just on gasoline but on all fossil fuels—from the coal used to generate electricity to the diesel used to run tractors—so it would affect the price of nearly everything, including food and manufactured goods.
jlne.ws/12AgWxl
Welcome to Saudi Albany?
The New York Times Magazine
The people who run U.S. Steel have not had much reason to celebrate in a long time. Once the icon of American manufacturing, the company became shorthand for the country’s industrial decline. For decades, it ignored innovation and was undercut by cheaper Asian producers and outflanked by U.S. start-ups.
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2012: The best of times and the worst of times for the green economy
Business Green
As someone who knew a thing or two about festive stories once wrote, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. The full quote from the start of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities is actually even more apposite for BusinessGreen readers: “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.”
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Asia-Pacific
Hong Kong probes UBS over Hibor
Rahul Jacob in Hong Kong – FT.com
Hong Kong is probing possible misconduct by UBS regarding the Chinese territory’s Interbank Offered Rate, as the global investigation into interbank lending rate manipulation expands.
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Chinese Companies Head For the Exit
NEIL GOUGH – NYTimes.com
HONG KONG–Fed up with slumping share prices, prickly regulators or aggressive short sellers, an increasing number of Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges are heading for the exits.
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Analysis: Spectre of capital flight slows China FX reform drive
Reuters via Yahoo! News
SHANGHAI – Long-time China watchers probably felt a sense of deja vu when HSBC’s chief China economist, Qu Hongbin, predicted last month that the yuan would be convertible within five years.
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SGX reports 2Q FY2013 results on 22 January
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Thai Futures Exchange Announces TFEX Best Awards 2012
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SGX Enhances Certainty And Clarity For Participants Through Rule Changes
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HKEx Publishes Market Statistics 2012
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Thai Bourse Market Report For November
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Shenzhen Stock Exchange Low Volatility, High Beta Series Indices Launched
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Tokyo Stock Exchange: Winners Of FY2012 Listed Company Awards
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Frontier Markets
JPMorgan to shut Malaysia retail banking operations
Reuters via Yahoo! News
KUALA LUMPUR – JPMorgan is closing its retail banking operations in Malaysia as part of a global strategy to focus that business in the home market, a bank spokesman said on Wednesday. The move will not impact the bank’s overall business or strategy in the Southeast Asian nation as it made up a small portion of its total operations, Chris Cockerill said.
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Dubai Bank Buys BNP Egypt
WSJ
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank by assets, will buy the Egyptian assets of France’s BNP Paribas in a deal valued at about $500 million.
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FTSE Publishes New Research Paper – Emerging Markets: Crossing The Rubicon
The surging growth of many emerging markets is changing the structure of the global economy. The trend is accelerating such that the term ‘emerging’ will increasingly cease to apply to many countries and a shift in categorization will be required.
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Securities Commission Malaysia And Bursa Invite Comments On Proposed Best Practice Guide On Independent Advice Letters
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