Industry news
Date: Mar 15, 2013
March 15, 2013: Electronic Trading Curbs Have Helped Canadian Market; Swell In Buyside Clearing, Surge Seen In June; Energy Derivatives Overhaul Spurs Nasdaq’s Germany Expansion
TMX Group’s chief says that their controls on electronic trading have created benefits for the market, and he thinks the rest of the world should pay attention. Swaps traders have routed half a trillion dollars worth of swaps through clearinghouses since Monday’s start of the new regulatory regime. An upcoming overhaul of energy trading rules in Europe could set Nasdaq and EEX back to back and counting off paces.
First Read
Greetings from the FIA Conference at Boca Raton – Day Three and Recap
Chuck Mackie – Maven Wave Partners
Day 3 of FIA Boca is in the books and the conference has come to a close. In an unexpected twist, I wound up being pressed in to duty as a panelist, my first ever such appearance for the FIA, but more on that later. First on the docket today was the Washington Outlook panel featuring Terry Duffy from the CME, Scott O’Malia from the CFTC, Allison Parent from Barclays, Jimmy Ryan from Elmendorf/Ryan and Ben White from Politico.
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Gary Gensler’s Tango in Boca?
Jacob Bunge and Katy Burne – Deal Journal – WSJ
Gary Gensler has for four years overseen a revolution atop the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as its oversight expanded into swaps markets and the agency handled fallout from a rash of scandals and the odd financial crisis. The spinning took on a rather different form this week as he challenged brokers and exchange executives to match his steps on the dance floor.
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From Our Man In Boca, Tom Groenfeldt: How To Launch A New Exchange – FIA Panelists Tell [Almost] All
MondoVisione
If you thought the Emerging Exchanges session at Futures Industry Association (FIA) in Boca Raton was going to be about the new Cambodian rice futures and options, you’d have been disappointed to find that the newest emergent was NASDAQ OMX NLX with Charlotte Crosswell, CEO, operating out of that distant, exotic and occasionally dangerous jungle — London. It will offer UK and European listed interest derivatives.
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CFTC’s Gensler defends swaps vs futures margin disparity
Peter Madigan – Risk magazine
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler has defended the advantage handed to futures markets by the agency’s margin rules, claiming the higher minimum applied to over-the-counter swaps is based on years of established practice – and said that forthcoming rules for new swap execution facilities (Sefs) will not address the disparity.
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Derivatives industry takes reality check
Philip Stafford and Neil Munshi in Boca Raton – FT.com
Derivatives markets have enjoyed a boom period for the past 30 years but futures exchanges, broker-dealers and institutional investors face a new worry – growth. The globalisation of financial markets, with corporations and investors seeking to offset their risks with hedges such as swaps or interest rate futures, has been a boon for both over-the-counter derivatives and their listed counterparts.
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Futures Sector Divided Over Insurance Fund
JACOB BUNGE – WSJ.com
The U.S. futures industry remains divided over the merits of following stock traders by creating its own insurance fund to protect clients in the event of a broker collapsing.
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London Stock Exchange Group launches second annual Charity Trading Day
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will today donate a day’s worth of equity trading fees from London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and Turquoise – expected to be in excess of £500,000 – to charity.
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Singapore warns on clearing houses
Jeremy Grant in Singapore – FT.com
Asian regulators may be hampered in their ability to check for systemic risks emerging in the financial system because of a proliferation of clearing houses and other market infrastructures across the region, Singapore’s finance minister has warned.
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Drones Over Wall Street
DAVID WEIDNER – WSJ.com
Who or what is above the law? Most of us agree that no person or institution should be. Not a church, not an elected official. Not the military. Not a corporation. But in an alarming admission last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder suggested there were exceptions. In a congressional hearing, Mr. Holder offered that some people and institutions were above the law and hinted that financial institutions had been granted a tacit immunity from prosecution.
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The Things Bankers Say, the London Whale Edition
By DEALBOOK – NY Times
Another Wall Street investigation. Another trove of e-mails, instant messages and telephone conversations capturing executives, bankers and traders discussing their compromising positions.
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The Bearded Man
TINA GAUDOIN – WSJ.com
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke—who became a totem of hope, or at least the last bastion against the threat of another Great Depression—was bearded. The villain of the piece, Bernie Madoff, was not; appearing at all times clean-shaven and bespoke-suited. Suddenly looking less like a successful banker and more like a man who was up to a challenge on the mean streets wasn’t only preferable, it was practically mandatory. In the space of a few short weeks, beards became symbols of empathy and humility, a rejection of the overt pursuit of the capitalist ideal.
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Lead Stories
Electronic Trading Curbs Have Helped Canadian Market – TMX CEO
Jacob Bunge – Dow Jones
Canada’s efforts to curb some automated trading practices have delivered benefits and could serve as a model for other countries rethinking the form of their financial markets, according to the chief executive of Canada’s main exchange group. Canadian regulators over the past year have tamped down on off-exchange trading in shares and quieted the market noise generated by high-speed electronic traders, improving markets for all investors, said TMX Group Inc. (X.T) CEO Tom Kloet.
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Swell In Buyside Clearing, Surge Seen In June
Katy Burne – Dow Jones
Major users of derivatives called swaps have routed more than $500 billion of the trades through clearinghouses since Monday, when U.S. rules required scores of hedge funds and other active funds to clear.
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Energy Derivatives Overhaul Spurs Nasdaq’s Germany Expansion
Rachel Morison – Bloomberg
The biggest-ever overhaul of European energy derivatives rules is poised to pit Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) against the European Energy Exchange AG in Germany as the share of power handled by bourses increases.
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Call for UK proprietary trading crackdown
Brooke Masters, Chief Regulation Correspondent – FT.com
A crackdown on UK banks from trading on their own account has been urged by a commission of MPs and peers set up to make recommendations to improve UK financial services in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
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JPMorgan Report Piles Pressure on Dimon in Too-Big Debate
Dawn Kopecki, Clea Benson & Hugh Son – Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s efforts to hide trading losses, outlined in a Senate report yesterday, will likely ignite debate over whether the largest U.S. bank is too big to manage and ratchet up pressure on Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon to surrender his role as chairman.
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Remember lessons of 2007 in rush for junk
Gillian Tett – FT.com
Five years ago, the phrase “maturity transformation” made investors shudder. Little wonder. Back in the credit bubble, short-term money was used to fund a mountain of long-term assets, such as mortgages, via the commercial paper market and repo world. But when the 2007 crisis hit, that short-term capital fled – and the maturity mismatch was revealed, creating a liquidity crunch.
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Regulatory
CFTC at Odds Over Swaps Deadline for Foreign Banks
Jamila Trindle – Dow Jones Newswires
Commodity Futures Trading Commission members disagree over whether to give foreign banks more time on swaps rules after the agency’s July deadline.
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Testimony Of CFTC’s Chairman Gary Gensler Before The U.S. House Committee On Agriculture, Washington, DC
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Remarks By Richard G. Ketchum, FINRA’s Chairman And Chief Executive Officer – Consumer Federation Of America Consumer Assembly
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ISDA Publishes Paper Examining Non-Cleared OTC Derivatives And Their Importance To The Global Economy
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ASIC consults on trade repository regime
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Canadian Securities Regulators Propose Framework for Shareholder Rights Plans
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[Canada] Consultation Pertaining to Defensive Tactics in response toTake-Over-Bids – AMF Proposes Alternative Approach to Regulation of DefensiveTactics
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SIFMA Acting President & CEO Kennneth E. Bentsen, Jr. Testimony Before The US House Agriculture Commitee On Title VII Of The Dodd-Frank Act
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DTCC Testifies In Support Of Legislation To Ensure Continued Transparency Into The OTC Derivatives Market – Indemnification Provisions Could Impede Regulators’ Ability to Monitor Systemic Risk
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities
CBOE Wins in ISE Patent Suit
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced today that the federal court in Chicago ended the trial on the International Securities Exchange’s (ISE) patent suit. ISE had sued CBOE for alleged infringement of ISE’s patent relating to an “automated exchange.” By its action, ISE now concedes that CBOE does not infringe ISE’s patent, based on several recent decisions in CBOE’s favor.
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ISE Statement on Patent Infringement Case
ISE strongly believes in the merits of its case that CBOE copied and continues to infringe ISE’s patented trading technology, and ISE plans to immediately file an appeal to the Federal Circuit to reverse these rulings. ISE will have no further comment at this time.
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CME Group Announces Open Interest in NYMEX Brent (BZ) Crude Oil Futures Surpasses 50,000 Contracts
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced it reached a record in open interest for its NYMEX Brent (BZ) crude oil futures contract yesterday, March 13, 2013.
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Pan-European Intraday Target Model Confines Exchanges’ Development Capacity – Exchange Council Backs Flexibility Products
Performing power markets need flexibility: This is the result of discussions amongst the members of the Exchange Council of the European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT at its latest meeting. Concerning this matter, the Exchange Council deliberated on the tender for the pan-European Intraday system and supported the development of new flexible products.
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CME cuts heating oil margins 9%
Chicago Tribune
CME Group, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade, lowered maintenance margins for heating oil futures for speculators to $3,900 per contract from $4,300.
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ICE Unveils Credit Index Futures – Analyst Blog
Zacks
Earlier this week, IntercontinentalExchange Inc. ( ICE ) announced its intention to launch four credit index futures (CDX), which will be based on the Markit CDX and Markit iTraxx indices. While the release is scheduled for May this year, it is subject to the review of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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CBOE Power Shutdown
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Transaction Fees and Marketing Fee for Mini-Options Contracts
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Requests for Reports/Data
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Program Trading Averaged 24.8 Percent of NYSE Volume during Mar. 4-8
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ADEX Monthly Statistical Bulletin – February 2013
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
Hedge-Fund Liquidations Jumped in 2012 on European Crisis
Bloomberg
Hedge-fund liquidations rose to a three-year high in 2012 as the European debt crisis and concerns about global economic growth hurt performance for the $2.3 trillion industry, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc.
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Fidelity’s ETF Fee Spurs a Backlash
KIRSTEN GRIND – WSJ.com
Some financial advisers said they would stop using Fidelity Investments’ trading platform to buy certain exchange-traded funds because of high fees that kick in when investors sell.
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Credit Suisse Unit to Stop New Hedge-Fund Investments
JULIET CHUNG – WSJ.com
Credit Suisse Group AG is winding down a unit that invests in hedge funds and other investment managers, marking the latest maneuver by a big bank in response to stricter rules on the way it manages capital and risks.
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Hedge Fund Heaven: Gundlach, Ackman and Einhorn to Speak at Sohn Conference
TheStreet.com
NEW YORK — The hedge fund industry’s most prestigious conference has its most star-studded cast yet. The Ira Sohn Conference, whose proceeds go toward treating pediatric cancer and related childhood diseases, is home to some of the hedge fund world’s brightest stars, and this year is no different.
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Riskier Debt Still Beckons After Losses
CAROL DEAN And BEN EDWARDS – WSJ.com
The nationalization of Dutch lender SNS Reaal NV, which wiped out investors’ holdings of junior debt, made it clear how heavy losses can be from holding subordinated bonds. But investors still have an appetite for the riskier asset class.
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Schroders’ Richard Buxton resigns
David Oakley, Investment Correspondent – FT.com
Richard Buxton, the head of UK equity at Schroders, has resigned after a career spanning more than 11-years at Britain’s biggest fund manager.
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Hedge-fund row
New York Post
Highland Capital, the $20 billion Texas hedge-fund giant, fears a former top executive is plotting to steal clients, intensifying an already bitter legal battle. Patrick Daugherty, who resigned as the firm’s head of private-equity and distressed investing in 2011, said last week he is planning to partner with another former Highland exec to launch his own investment firm.
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Five Market Lessons We Still Haven’t Learned
Forbes
The stock market is an ever evolving game. At least that is what you would think as the years roll out new technology and ideas into the market that apparently change everything.
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5 ways Warren Buffett invests that you don’t
Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch
Most investors give themselves about as much chance at emulating Warren Buffett as scoring a goal with the moves of soccer great David Beckham. Bend it like Beckham? Not likely. Bend it like Buffett? Go for it. Buffett even tells you how.
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Banks & Brokers
Goldman Ranked No. 1 in Commodities in 2012, JPMorgan Second
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ranked No.1 in commodities revenue in 2012, according to analytics company Coalition. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had the second-biggest revenues from commodities and Morgan Stanley came third, London-based Coalition said in a report e-mailed today.
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E*Trade takeover hopes fade after Citadel bails
CNN Money
E*Trade shares sank Thursday after the online brokerage said one of its biggest investors was bailing. Chicago based hedge fund Citadel plans to sell more than 27 million E*Trade shares in a sale set to close next week.
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Fed orders Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to submit new capital plans
Denver Post
The Federal Reserve on Thursday dealt a blow to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., citing weaknesses in their capital planning that require “immediate attention,” which could affect their plans to return capital to shareholders.
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Morgan Stanley gets green light on deal for wealth management unit
The Wall Street Journal
Morgan Stanley may buy the rest of its wealth management joint venture from Citigroup as soon as next month, now that it has been given a green light from the Federal Reserve on its capital plan, according to a person familiar with the firm’s plans.
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JPMorgan slashes stock buyback plan
Reuters via Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase & Co’s stock buyback plan that was conditionally approved by the Federal Reserve on Thursday calls for spending half as much as was allowed before the bank lost $6.2 billion in the “London Whale” derivatives trades.
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Citigroup Gets Approval for Corbat’s $1.2 Billion Buyback
Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. , the third-biggest U.S. bank, received regulatory approval to repurchase $1.2 billion of stock as Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat avoided a misstep that helped bring down his predecessor.
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The Pay Quandary for Banks
DOMINIC ELLIOTT – NYTimes.com
Andrea Orcel’s signing-on package shows the scale of the pay pickle facing banks. UBS paid $26 million to woo its investment bank head from Bank of America Merrill Lynch last year, making a mockery of so-called retention packages created to stop employees from jumping ship.
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Morgan Stanley Can Be Sued by Hong Leong Over Misselling
Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley can be sued by Singapore ’s Hong Leong Finance Ltd. in a New York court over claims it deceptively sold instruments designed to fail.
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BNY Mellon Announces New Senior Investment Services Leadership Roles
BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, has announced a number of new senior management appointments as the company enhances its presence and capabilities in the Investment Services space around the world.
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A Look Back At Bear Stearns, Five Years After Its Shotgun Marriage To JPMorgan
Forbes
Five years ago this week, Bear Stearns was sold to JPMorgan Chase at a fire-sale price, after the overnight financing keeping the investment bank afloat dried up.
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Goldman Sachs Statement on Proposed Capital Actions
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Clearing & Settlement
European Clearers Announce Merger Plan
Dow Jones
Europe’s two largest cash equities clearinghouses on Thursday announced plans to merge and draw in a new U.S. partner in an effort to compete in a market struggling with share trading volumes at a 10-year low.
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Traders Concerned Over SEC’s Clearing Plan for CDS
Katy Burne – Dow Jones Newswires
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) and traders in the credit-default swap market are questioning proposed U.S. rules that would inflate the costs of clearing the trades. A Securities and Exchange Commission proposal issued Friday could double the amount of margin on customers clearing CDS contracts, according to people familiar with the situation.
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LME Clear Selects Citi, Bank Of America Merrill Lynch And J.P. Morgan To Support Self-Clearing Platform
The London Metal Exchange (LME) has selected Citi, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan as key providers of financial infrastructure to LME Clear, its self-clearing platform.
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Johannesburg Stock Exchange: New Rules Launched For New Derivatives Market Default Fund
Safcom – the clearing house for the JSE’s derivatives market – today announced the promulgation of the rules enabling the establishment of a default fund intended to add another layer of investor protection in the exchange traded derivative market.
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CME Group Clearing Advisory: NYMEX Options Expiration Operational Procedures for the Trading Floor and Clearing Members (WCO, LO) Effective Friday, March 15, 2013
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Indexes & Products
Deutsche Bank to Temporarily Suspend New Issuances of Twenty-Six Exchange Traded Notes
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
Deutsche Bank today announced that due to the postponement of the publication of its 2012 Annual Report and Form 20-F, it will temporarily suspend further issuances of twenty-six Exchange Traded Notes , effective after the close of trading on March 29, 2013.
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Technology
First Derivatives plc: Launch of Swap Execution Facility initiative and appointment of James Sanders as Chief Compliance Officer
First Derivatives plc, a leading provider of software and consulting services to the capital markets industry,announces the launch of its Swap Execution Facility (SEF) initiative and the appointment of James Sanders as Chief Compliance Officer to oversee the Company’s registration as a SEF.
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Enforcement
Federal Court Orders Colorado Man Nicholas Trimble and His Two Companies, Capstone FX Quantitative Analysis, Inc. and Beekeepers Fund Capital Management, LLC, to Pay More than $3.5 Million in Foreign Currency Fraud Action
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it obtained federal court orders for more than $3.5 million in restitution and civil monetary penalties against Nicholas Trimble and his companies, Capstone FX Quantitative Analysis, Inc. (Capstone) and Beekeepers Fund Capital Management, LLC (Beekeepers), all of Denver, Colo., resolving the CFTC’s November 7, 2011, Complaint charging Trimble and the two companies with commodity pool and managed account fraud (see CFTC Press Release 6136-11, November 9, 2011).
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CFTC Sues Michael Alcocer and His Company, InovaTrade, Inc., for Foreign Currency Fraud and Misappropriation
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Michael Alcocer and his company InovaTrade, Inc. (InovaTrade).
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CFTC Revokes Registration Of Growth Capital Management LLC
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Fund Officer Jailed In $1 Million Embezzlement
Hartford Courant
A financial officer at a Westport hedge fund was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison Thursday for withdrawing $1 million from the fund over six years to pay personal expenses.
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ASIC cancels the licence of Addwealth Financial Services
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New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority: Three Directors Sentenced In Capital + Merchant Finance Case
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Environmental & Energy
Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change
Bloomberg
President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways.
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EU Carbon Fix in Energy Report Survives Rejection Attempt
Bloomberg
The European Parliament upheld by a margin of three votes a non-binding recommendation for regulators to tackle oversupply of carbon permits in the world’s biggest market.
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Japan to Compile Climate Change Action Plan With Emission Target
Bloomberg
Japan plans to compile an action program to tackle climate change with a new greenhouse gas emissions target.
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Asia-Pacific
China’s planned crude futures contract may see overseas players – source
Platts
The Shanghai Futures Exchange has proposed to the State Council, China’s cabinet, to allow overseas investors to trade its long-awaited crude oil futures contract, a source close to the matter told Platts Wednesday.
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HKMEx Welcomes Industrial Securities And Yuanta Futures As New Members – Additions Further Promote Cross-Strait Commodities Trading
The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx), China’s global marketplace, today welcomes the China-backed Industrial Securities (Hong Kong) Futures Ltd and Taiwan-backed Yuanta Futures (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd as its latest broking members – further strengthening HKMEx’s Greater China reach and enhancing the development of cross-strait futures trading.
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Thai Bourse Lists KTAM SET Energy ETF Tracker On March 19
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KRX To Allow US Treasuries As Margin Instruments For Derivatives Market
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Frontier Markets
Fortune favours the brave in Iraq
Roula Khalaf in Baghdad – FT.com
Iraq might be unsafe and treacherous, its infrastructure rotting and many of its politicians corrupted. But for an adventurous young man like Karam Saridar, the parlous state of the country a decade after the US-led invasion is the opportunity of a lifetime.
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Analysts give mixed reviews on joint futures trading
Shahid Shah – thenews.com.pk
All the three stock exchanges will have to work hard for the success of joint futures trading in Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 30-index, analysts said on Wednesday.
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Cyprus fights doubts over Russian money
Kerin Hope in Nicosia – FT.com
In the seven years since she arrived in Cyprus as a penniless, unskilled immigrant from the former Soviet Union, Galia has carved out a lucrative niche in the island’s sprawling financial services sector. Galia, who does not want her full name to be used, is the director of a Russian-owned company and, with the help of a local bank official, she helps a Russian government official bank money in Cyprus.
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MCX Weekly Market Report March 08, 2013 – March 14, 2013
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