Industry news

July 1, 2013: CME Pulls Plan to Update Wash Trade Rule Amid CFTC Criticism; Banks charged with blocking CDS market; South Korea launches third stock market

CME Group updates its wash trade regulation, prompting a great deal of noise from the CFTC and a subsequent retraction of the change by the exchange. The EU charges large investment banks with colluding to block smaller players from setting up operations to trade credit-default swaps. South Korea’s third stock exchange opens its doors today.

First Read

Relationships Are the Foundation of the Futures Industry
Pat Kenny – CQG

As “the most interesting man in the world,” I would like to congratulate the Chicago Black Hawks on their Stanley Cup victory and extend a big thank you to last week’s guest editor David Setters. I want to apologize in advance as my writing skills come nowhere near Dave’s.

As senior vice president of client relations for CQG Inc., I have come to know that the futures industry is all about relationships, not only who you know but also how you can help each other. Although we are a global industry, I think we can all agree that the world is often a small place; I’ve experienced this first hand as through my extensive travels I often encounter several familiar faces from Chicago i.e. FIA Singapore’s Bill Herder

When I began my career in 1980 with Geldermann & Co., there were four partners who taught me about the importance of building relationships. These men taught me not only about the business but also about life. As mentors, who I looked up to with respect and admired their accomplishments, they taught me to work hard to achieve success in the industry and to never burn a bridge.

CQG has been a successful company for 33 years not only because of their quality products but also because founder Tim Mathers understands the significance of building strong relationships. Another great example of success found through relationship building would be our own John Lothian thanks to his friend Tom Cashman. Mr. Cashman was a mentor to many young men on the trading floor including my own brother-in-law Glenn Solheim.

I just returned from London having attended the IDX conference: what a great week of networking, attending informative panels and building client relationships! (Not just going into pubs.) I was privileged to be able to spend some time with FIA’s chief, Walt Lukken. For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to get to know him, he is a man you can’t help but respect and admire and has much to offer to the futures industry. Great job, Walt, on your new endeavors in bringing together FIA and FOA.

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Beckett’s Battle, Revisited
Last year we shared the story of Beckett Ryba, the son of Mildred Ryba of the CME Group. We asked for your help raising funds for the “Run for Gus,” a 5K run/1 mile walk that supports the oncology and neurosurgery clinics at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. We’d like to share an update from Mildred on Beckett’s progress and encourage you once again to do anything you can to help support this worthy cause.

Young Associates Board’s (YAB) 11th annual Run for Gus 5K Run/1 Mile Walk, to benefit Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, is on July 25 this year, and Beckett is this year’s featured champion. To visit their fundraising page, please go to http://jlne.ws/10pDodm

Beckett’s Battle Facebook page is facebook.com/BeckettsBattle, and you can read the whole story here on the JLN blog: jlne.ws/14fp5Zw.

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Transition from Swaps to Futures changing the global energy markets trading landscape
Press Release
Before the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted, the choice for energy market traders was between swaps and futures, two separate, distinct markets, but due to new regulatory requirements, trading is increasingly occurring in listed-futures instruments, a dramatic structural shift forcing market participants to change longstanding practices. According to TABB Group, some firms that have been accustomed to an OTC-trading environment now will face a new set of challenges, while others, seeing opportunity, are quickly expanding their presence in the futures and lookalike, swap-futures markets.
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Troels Philip Jensen to lead Orc’s global expansion as Chief Operating Officer
Orc, a leading provider of technology and services for the global financial industry, today announced that Troels Philip Jensen has been appointed Chief Operating Officer to support Orc’s global strategic objectives and growth. He succeeds Matteo Carcano who is leaving the company in August 2013.
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DAX’s Creator Recalls ‘Quantum Leap’ on 25th Anniversary
Bloomberg
Before Artur Fischer oversaw the development of Germany ’s benchmark DAX Index , which began operations 25 years ago today, he says investors had little insight into the performance of the nation’s shares.
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Defining the Curve: Fidessa US Sell-side Newsletter, Summer 2013
Commentary from Dan Smalley; interview with Justin Llewellyn-Jones; industry insights; and more.
jlne.ws/19NTFiw

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CFTC Enters Uncharted Waters With Corzine Lawsuit
Forbes
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued former MF Global Holdings CEO Jon Corzine yesterday for failing to adequately supervise the company’s handling of customer accounts in 2011.
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Jon Corzine’s Disgrace At MF Global: Worth Reminding Ourselves Why It All Happened
Tim Worstall – Forbes
Felix Salmon gives us the potted story: my aim is to try and explain the background to what happened. No, not to excuse anyone, just to set the scene for what then transpired.
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Voice is still the killer app
Simon Jones – FOW
As algorithms reacted to ‘news’ from the Associated Press’s Twitter handle announcing that President Obama had been injured in a bombing attack at the White House on April 23, 2013, the markets suffered a brief, yet steep, drop. … The incident was a dramatic reminder of a very uncomfortable fact: “dumb” algos can only handle things as they are programmed and can do incredible damage in a short period of time due to their lack of human common sense.
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***PK: Don’t believe everything you hear, really!

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Wielding Derivatives as a Tool for Deceit
FLOYD NORRIS – NYTimes.com
Derivatives are not always “financial weapons of mass destruction,” as Warren Buffett famously called them. But they are often weapons of mass deception.
jlne.ws/19NTFiz

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On Monday: There’s money to be made through forensic accounting
John Authers – FT.com
The words “forensic accounting” conjure up images of detectives on the hunt for corporate malfeasance. By such means were frauds like Enron hunted down. But it is also a way to hunt down something much more prosaic: market inefficiency. And if harnessed correctly, it could prove to be a way to make money.
jlne.ws/19NTFiA

***PK: Always digging for something, how about we all just do business legit.

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HFTs are no longer just about the need for speed
Andrew Chart – Financial News
While the polarised debate surrounding high-frequency trading continues apace, the world’s HFTs are getting on with their daily business and are quietly being forced to adapt and evolve.
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74 Minutes With Sallie Krawcheck
New York Magazine
People say to me, ‘Has being a woman helped or hindered your career?’ And the answer is yes,” says Sallie Krawcheck, formerly one the highest- ranking women on Wall Street, over coffee at the Harvard Club one recent morning.
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***PK: Having 3 daughters and a wife has kept my career!!

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MarketsWiki

MarketsWiki Page of the Day
Jon S. Corzine
jlne.ws/aRxUP5

MarketsWiki Recent Updates

People

Patrick Fay; Barry Cheung; William Barkshire; Jon S. Corzine

Companies, Organizations and Groups

Tokyo Grain Exchange; Rosenthal Collins Group LLC; Futures for Kids

Products

Russell Global Index

Miscellaneous

Independent software vendor; Upcoming Events

Statistics

41,247,422 pages viewed, 7,555 articles, 161,422 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

CME Pulls Plan to Update Wash Trade Rule Amid CFTC Criticism
Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
CME Group Inc. (CME), the owner of the world’s largest derivatives market, withdrew an updated rule interpretation that bars traders from engaging in transactions with themselves amid criticism from a Commodity Futures Trading Commission official. The Chicago-based exchange operator told traders in a notice on its website today that it won’t implement the system on July 1, following discussions with the CFTC’s division of market oversight
jlne.ws/19NTFyU

Banks charged with blocking CDS market
Alex Barker in Brussels – FT.com
Brussels charged the world’s biggest investment banks on Monday with colluding to restrict vital market information so rivals could not set up competing derivatives trading platforms.
jlne.ws/19NTEer

South Korea launches third stock market
Simon Mundy in Seoul – FT.com
South Korea on Monday launched a third stock market, designed for small companies, as the new government seeks to boost innovation in response to flagging economic growth.
jlne.ws/19NTFz4

Corzine Defense to Misuse of Customer Cash Is Off Point for CFTC
MATTHEW LEISING AND TIFFANY KARY – Bloomberg
As chief executive of bankrupt futures brokerage MF Global Holdings, Jon Corzine said he never ordered any misuse of customer funds to help his firm stay afloat as it dealt with margin calls on bad bets. For the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which said Thursday that Corzine, the former New Jersey governor and senator, “bears responsibility for MF Global’s unlawful acts,” that defense is irrelevant.
jlne.ws/19NTEeu

Croatia joins EU: “Important step for the Croatian and German financial markets”
High-ranking financial market representatives presented the Croatian financial market at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange this morning, coinciding with today’s accession of the Republic of Croatia to the EU. Josip Spoljaric, Consul General, Dr Boris Vujcic, Governor of the Croatian National Bank, and Ivana Gazic, CEO of the Zagreb Stock Exchange, symbolically rung in the start of trading.
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Where Are the Libor Cases Against U.S. Banks?
Bloomberg
It would look awfully strange if the U.S. government wound up targeting only foreign banks as part of its investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate. It’s too soon to say if that will be the end result. But time is marching quickly.
jlne.ws/19NTEeA

Meet Janet Yellen, The Diminutive But Powerful Woman Who Has Wall Street Worried
Business Insider
Janet Yellen is in the running to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve, and that has many bankers and Wall Street titans worried.
jlne.ws/19NTFPu

This Time Is Different: Gold’s Plunge Doesn’t Lure Retail Buyers
CLEMENTINE WALLOP and BIMAN MUKHERJI – WSJ.com
When gold prices tumbled in the spring, the world’s biggest buyers took advantage of the lower prices to snap up coins, bars and jewelry. In the current selloff, consumers in China and India are holding back.
jlne.ws/19NTEeB

UK financial services shed 10,000 jobs in three months
Brian Groom, Business and Employment Editor – FT.com
The financial services sector is thought to have shed 10,000 jobs in the three months to June despite strong growth in business volumes, the CBI employers’ group and PwC have reported.
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The EU will regret terminating a banking union
Wolfgang Münchau – FT.com
The EU has effectively buried the idea of a banking union. It is a decision that will have profound economic consequences for the eurozone. It kills the last chance of a resolution that could have ended the depression in the eurozone periphery. In the brave new world of the EU’s resolution regime, all risks will be shared between various categories of bank creditors, which are mostly domestic institutions, and the banks’ home states.
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Regulatory

CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight Issues Time-Limited No-Action Relief Permitting Part 45 and Part 46 Reporting Counterparties to Mask Legal Entity Identifiers, Other Enumerated Identifiers and Other Identifying Terms, and Permitting Part 20 Reporting Entities to Mask Identifying Information, in certain Enumerated Jurisdictions
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CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight Issues Time-Limited No-Action Relief from Portfolio Reconciliation Requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) announced the issuance of a no-action letter relating to the portfolio reconciliation requirements imposed on swap dealers (“SDs”) and major swap participants (“MSPs”) pursuant to Commission regulation § 23.502.
jlne.ws/19NTEuV

EDHEC Welcomes IOSCO’s ETF Principles, Calls On Regulators And Industry To Adopt High Standards Of Transparency
EDHEC-Risk Institute welcomes the Principles for the Regulation of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) released by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on 24 June 2013, which are broadly consistent with EDHEC-Risk Institute’s research on ETFs[1] and recommendation[2], but deplores the timidity of the organisation’s proposals on index transparency and calls on regulators and index providers to adopt standards on par with those recently defined for European Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS).
jlne.ws/19NTFPG

FCA reminds banks of their obligations when cancelling Continuous Payment Authorities
Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said today.
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities

TSE: Trading Overview in June 2013
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Osaka Securities Exchange: Trading Overview in June 2013 & First Half of 2013 (January to June)
Total derivatives trading volume for the first half of 2013 was 196,285,567 units, which recorded its highest on a half-year basis. Trading volume of Night Session in June 2013 was 11,125,352 units, which is the third highest. Trading volume ratio of Night Session to Day Session in June 2013 was 48.6%. Total trading value of ETFs market was 1,972.2 billion yen, which achieved the record-high for the sixth consecutive month.
jlne.ws/19NTEv3

TFX: Trading Volume in June 2013
The trading volume of Three-month Euroyen futures in June was 451,102 (5.1% MoM / + 13.1% YoY) and its average daily volume was 22,555. The total trading volume of Exchange FX Margin contracts (Click 365) in June was 5,879,893 ( + 5.8% MoM / + 6.7% YoY) and its average daily trading volume was 293,997 . The total trading volume of Exchange Equity Index Margin contracts (Click kabu 365) in June was 436,113 ( 55.4% MoM / + 194.6% YoY) and its average daily trading volume was 21,807 . Combined trading volume for all TFX products was 6,767,108 ( 3.5% MoM / + 11.8% YoY) and its average daily trading volume was 338,359 .
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LME consults on changes to warehouse policy to cut queues
The London Metal Exchange (LME) has today launched a consultation on a proposal designed to cut warehouse queues, and encourages responses from all interested parties. The proposal presented to the market today suggests a way to both cut existing queues and prevent new queues from forming.
jlne.ws/19NTEv7

GETCO and Knight Capital Group Combine NYSE Designated Market Maker Units
GETCO Holding Company LLC and Knight Capital Group Inc., which earlier this week announced shareholder approval of the merger that will form KCG Holdings, Inc., today announced the combination of each firm’s Designated Market Maker units. Effective July 2, 2013, the listed securities of the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE MKT DMM units of Knight and GETCO will trade through one broker-dealer, Knight Capital Americas LLC.
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BGC Announces Close of Sale of its Platform for the Fully Electronic Trading of Benchmark, on-the-Run U.S. Treasuries to NASDAQ OMX
BGC Partners, Inc., today announced that it closed the sale of its benchmark on-the-run, 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, 10-, and 30-year fully electronic trading platform for U.S. Treasury Notes and Bonds to NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. for $750 million in cash upon closing, plus an earn-out of up to $484 million of NASDAQ OMX common stock to be paid ratably over 15 years.
jlne.ws/19NTEv9

NYSE Euronext is the Leader in Global Capital Raising during the First Half of 2013
During the first half of 2013, NYSE Euronext markets in the U.S. and Europe raised $28.5 billion in total global proceeds in 72 initial public offerings and exceeded the combined proceeds raised on the next four world markets.
jlne.ws/19NTG69

Amendment To MIAX Options Fee Schedule Beginning July 1, 2013
jlne.ws/19NTHqz

NYSE Euronext Remains Dedicated to Veteran Affairs and Advocacy
jlne.ws/19NTG6e

Borsa Italiana Welcomes Italia Independent On AIM Italia
jlne.ws/19NTHqC

Direct Edge Trading Notice #13-29: EdgeRisk Ports Now Available
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TOM MTF Statistics Week 26, 2013
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Norway’s opposition mulls oil fund split
Richard Milne in Oslo – FT.com
The likely winner of Norway’s looming elections is floating the idea of splitting the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund in two, as the $720bn oil fund grapples with the challenges of growing ever bigger. Such a move would be the most radical change to the oil fund since it was set up more than two decades ago to manage Norway’s oil and gas revenues.
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Ex-UBS Trader’s MST Turns to Wealthy Investors for Hedge Fund
Bloomberg
MST Capital Pty, run by Sydney-based former UBS AG trader Gerard Satur, raised A$10 million from wealthy investors for a global macro strategy that will start today.
jlne.ws/19NTHqL

Hedge Funds Cut Gold Bets as Goldman Lowers Outlook: Commodities
Bloomberg
Hedge funds cut wagers on a gold rally to a five-year low as a record quarterly drop drove prices below $1,200 an ounce for the first time since 2010 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast more declines.
jlne.ws/19NTGmA

Corn Leads Grain Plunge as U.S. Acreage Tops Estimates
Jeff Wilson & Tony C. Dreibus – Bloomberg
Corn futures tumbled to a 32-month low, while soybeans and wheat fell to the cheapest in a year, after the government said U.S. farmers will plant more grain than forecast and the largest oilseed crop ever.
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Bear market in gold pummels Einhorn’s Greenlight fund
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Investors in David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Management’s offshore gold fund were down 11.8 percent in June, bringing their year-to-date losses in the fund to 20 percent, two sources close to the matter said on Sunday.
jlne.ws/19NTHqN

Lazard veterans target European restructurings
Harriet Agnew – Financial News
Two former Lazard managing directors are setting up an investment firm focusing on special situations and restructurings in Europe, according to a person familiar with the situation.
jlne.ws/19NTGmF

Custody heads launch Asia advisory firm
Sophie Baker – Financial News
Two former product heads of securities services at JP Morgan and Standard Chartered have teamed up to launch an advisory firm for financial services companies looking to expand into Asia.
jlne.ws/19NTHqO

Second-Quarter Investment Strategies Prove Vulnerable
TOM LAURICELLA – WSJ.com
As the second half of 2013 gets under way, investors have been tossed out of the frying pan and into the fire. Front and center in the second quarter were the risks investors had taken by piling into strategies predicated on the Federal Reserve pumping an open-ended stream of money into the financial markets.
jlne.ws/19NTGmK

Fuld’s tiny stock is penny from heaven
RODDY BOYD – NYPOST.com
Former Lehman Brothers chief executive Dick Fuld isn’t spending his golden years playing shuffleboard and watching reruns of all the shows he missed during his decades atop the Wall Street bank before its epic 2008 collapse. What he is doing should raise some eyebrows, however.
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BNY Mellon launches Form PF reporting solution
BNY Mellon has developed a reporting solution that enables its affected alternative investment clients to prepare and file Form PF, as required by recent rules introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
jlne.ws/19NTGCY

Relational’s Funds Said to Gain Up to 33% on HP, Timken
Bloomberg
Relational Investors LLC’s two activist asset-management funds gained about 25 percent and 33 percent in their fiscal year as campaigns at Hewlett-Packard Co. and Timken Co. rewarded shareholders, a person with knowledge of the performance said.
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ESMA Approves Spread Research As A Credit Rating Agency
jlne.ws/19NTGD3

CFTC Commitments Of Traders Reports Update
jlne.ws/19NTHHf

Banks & Brokers

Barclays’ threat on lending under fire
Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London – FT.com
Antony Jenkins, Barclays chief executive, has come under fire for threatening to curb lending to businesses to meet more stringent capital requirements imposed by UK regulators. Robert Jenkins – a former member of the Financial Policy Committee, the UK’s new stability regulator – criticised the warning as either “hubris, reflex or plain stupidity” in a letter published by the Financial Times.
jlne.ws/19NTGD6

Citigroup Sells Uruguay Unit to Itau as Corbat Retreats
Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. lender by assets, agreed to sell its retail banking operations in Uruguay to Itau Unibanco Holding SA as Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat scales back in some countries.
jlne.ws/19NTGD8

Morgan Stanley Completes Purchase of Brokerage Venture
Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley completed its purchase of a brokerage joint venture with Citigroup Inc., capping a four-year effort to more than double the size of its wealth-management division.
jlne.ws/19NTHHk

UBS commits to home market with Zurich HQ revamp
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
UBS will spend more than 100 million Swiss francs on a facelift of its Zurich headquarters, hoping to turn the building into a buzzing retail area on one of Europe’s most exclusive shopping streets.
jlne.ws/19NTGDb

Barclays Plans to Move 4,000 Investment-Bank Jobs to Save Money
Bloomberg
Barclays Plc plans to move 4,000 more jobs overseas and to lower cost locations by 2015 to save as much as 250 million pounds, said Eric Bommensath, co-chief executive officer of corporate and investment banking.
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RBS to decide on branch sale plan in July: sources
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Matt Scuffham LONDON – Royal Bank of Scotland will make a decision on how to offload hundreds of branches it has been ordered to sell by European regulators in the next month, industry sources told Reuters on Friday.
jlne.ws/19NTGTv

Deutsche Bank lawsuit ends in $10-million settlement to L.A.
Los Angeles Times
The bank’s settlement with Los Angeles is a fraction of what city lawyers called for when taking Deutsche Bank to court, alleging the German bank’s properties had fallen into disrepair.
jlne.ws/19NTHXG

Slice of ABN Thrives in Netherlands
DAVID ENRICH and MAARTEN VAN TARTWIJK – WSJ.com
The ghosts of ABN Amro Group NV are still haunting Europe’s banking industry. But in the Netherlands, a remnant of the Dutch lender is enjoying a surprising resurrection under the aegis of the Dutch government.
jlne.ws/19NTGTy

Mind the gap: US M&A leaves Europe trailing
Matt Turner – Financial News
The gulf between mergers and acquisitions deal volumes targeting the US and Europe now stands at the highest in 15 years, according to Financial News analysis of Dealogic data, as a twin-speed M&A market develops.
jlne.ws/19NTHXH

Clearing & Settlement

CME Clearing – Performance Bond Requirements: New Agricultural Product- Effective Friday, June 28, 2013
jlne.ws/19NTGTC

CME Clearing – Performance Bond Requirements – Equity Index, FX, Interest Rates, Metals, and Energy Outrights; Interest Rates and Energy Intra-Commodity Spread Charges – Effective Tuesday, July 2, 2013
jlne.ws/19NTHXM

CMEGroup – Holiday Clearing Schedule-Thursday, July 4, 2013
jlne.ws/19NTGTG

CME Clearing – Performance Bond Requirements – New Energy Products – Effective Friday, June 28, 2013
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CMEGroup – Review of Collateral Haircuts Advisory
jlne.ws/19NTGTK

Indexes & Products

Deutsche Börse celebrates 25 years of DAX
“Deutsche Börse is proud of our DAX’s success as a blue-chip index over the last 25 years. Even in turbulent times the DAX stood as an independent, objective and neutral benchmark. We will pay attention to it in the future as well,” said Reto Francioni, CEO of Deutsche Börse.
jlne.ws/19NTIea

ICAP appoints Global Head of Indices
ICAP plc today announces the appointment of Jan de Smedt to ICAP as Global Head of Indices. Based in London and reporting to Kevin Taylor, Head of ICAP Information Services, de Smedt’s role is to develop and expand the index business within Information Services. His focus will be on increasing the number of ICAP indices linked to Exchange Traded Products, mutual funds and derivative products as well as growing the calculation services and data sales business worldwide.
jlne.ws/19NTHa4

Revised MICEX10 Index Constituent List Comes Into Force
The amendments introduced into the MICEX10 Index after its quarterly review, include the following:
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S&P Dow Jones Indices Announces Changes To The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices – A Deletion From The S&P/TSX Composite Index
jlne.ws/19NTHaa

NASDAQ Closing Cross Calculates U.S. Russell Indexes For The Tenth Consecutive Year For Russell’s Annual Reconstitution
jlne.ws/19NTIej

Technology

Olivetree Financial Group Selects Sungard To Deliver Securities Lending Data And Analytics To Clients
Olivetree Financial Group, a leader in evidence-based finance, has selected SunGard’s Astec Analytics to provide the users of its OTAS platform with faster, more comprehensive securities lending data. This improvement helps align the short interest indicator with other key market metrics that OTAS monitors.
jlne.ws/19NTIek

Enforcement

Cohen Declines to Testify in SAC Insider Case
BEN PROTESS and PETER LATTMAN – NYTimes.com
Steven A. Cohen has declined to testify before a grand jury, raising the stakes in the government’s long-running insider trading investigation into his giant hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors. Rather than subject Mr. Cohen to wide-ranging questions from prosecutors in a grand jury setting, his lawyers have informed the government that he would assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination, according to two people briefed on the matter.
jlne.ws/19NTHaf

Brothers Nabbed in Bungled U.K. Bank Probe Sue For $457 Million
Bloomberg
It’s a Wednesday night in London, and Vincent Tchenguiz, the biggest owner of residential real estate units in the U.K., is getting wound up about the criminal case that paralyzed his business and threatened to land him in prison.
jlne.ws/19NTIuB

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority Releases Investigations And Enforcement Report 2013
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Tribunal upholds FCA ban and significant fine on insurance broker
jlne.ws/19NTIuI

BT to refund customers after review of fees disclosed and charged
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Convicted hedge fund manager losing $2M
WTNH-TV New Haven
Federal prosecutors want to make sure a former hedge fund manager convicted of fraud and other charges does not receive a $2 million tax refund.
jlne.ws/19NTIuO

Environmental & Energy

World’s Highest Carbon Price Bedevils Australia’s New Leader
Bloomberg
Kevin Rudd, sworn in yesterday for his second stint as Australia’s prime minister, may seek to amend his predecessor’s flagship clean-energy policy that’s left the nation with the world’s highest carbon price, analysts say.
jlne.ws/12wyCLN

Business ticks carbon trading option
The Age
A significant section of business prefers an emissions trading scheme to a fixed carbon tax to cut Australia’s greenhouse gases, a survey has found, as federal cabinet considers on Monday an earlier move to carbon trading.
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Ship owners will have to count CO2 emissions under EU plan
Reuters
Owners of large ships using EU ports will have to measure and report annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from January 2018 under proposals the European Commission published on Friday.
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Asia-Pacific

Michael Lin Appointed President Of Taiwan Stock Exchange
Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) today announced the appointment of Michael Lin as President. He succeeds Samuel Hsu.
jlne.ws/19NTIuP

Strong Demand for Exposure to Chinese Capital Markets Continues but Investors Remain Frustrated by Roadblocks to Direct Investment, Says TABB Group
Investors remain fascinated with exposure to China but still face significant roadblocks and limited opportunities to invest directly in its capital markets, the biggest obstacle to foreign investor participation being regulatory obstacles limiting foreign direct investment, says TABB Group in new research. However, recent economic weakness and stagnant returns are pressuring Chinese regulators to reduce barriers to outside investment.
(via email)

Breaching the Great Wall: The Challenges of Investing in China
Andy Nybo – TABB Forum
China’s economy may be on the downturn, but demand for exposure to its potential continues to grow. The biggest obstacle for foreign access – and, for that matter, the growth of China’s capital markets – remains regulation.
jlne.ws/19NTK5P

Frontier Markets

Kuwait plans $5bn investment for the UK
Patrick Jenkins and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London – FT.com
The Kuwait Investment Authority is seeking to invest as much as $5bn directly over the next three to five years in infrastructure assets mostly in the UK, echoing a similar move by Qatar, as sovereign wealth funds look for ways to boost returns amid low interest rates.
jlne.ws/19NTIuT

Angola Delays Stock Markets Plans to 2016, Futures Follow
Bloomberg
Angola pushed back plans for the start of stock-exchange trading by a year to 2016, with a futures and commodities market in Africa’s second-biggest oil producer set to begin a year later.
jlne.ws/19NTK5R

The Iraq Stock Exchange Upgrades to NASDAQ OMX’s X-Stream Technology
The NASDAQ OMX Group has entered an agreement with the Iraq Stock Exchange to upgrade its current trading platform.
jlne.ws/19NTIL8

Nigerian Stock Exchange Weekly Report For The Week Ended 28th June, 2013
jlne.ws/19NTK5V

Qatar Exchange Organizes Seminars on Bonds Trading
As part of its ongoing campaign to promote awareness among investors, Qatar Exchange organized an educational seminar in the Four Seasons Hotel on bonds trading and the importance of such investments tools as one of the products offered for trading on the stock exchange along with stocks. The free of charge seminar, which was held on Wednesday was presented in English and targeted foreign investors.
jlne.ws/19NTILa

Africa’s Richest Man Vies With China in Nigeria Tomatoes
Bloomberg
Shittu Ibrahim ekes out a living for his two wives and 11 children by selling tomatoes he grows to passersby along a highway that runs through the Kadawa Valley near Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria. With no way to find new customers, about two-thirds of his crop rots.
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Malawi Stock Exchange Weekly Report – Week Ending 28 June 2013
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Miscellaneous

A brand new reason US companies aren’t spending their cash hoard
Quartz via Yahoo! Finance
For an economy to grow, companies, the thinking generally goes, need to spend their money and make investments that will generate jobs. The data show that this isn’t happening in the US; in fact, companies seem to be pulling back even further. Politicians blame the opposing party’s policies, Wall Street blames persistent financial uncertainty. But there may be a completely different reason US companies aren’t spending.
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Jefferson County Files to End Bankruptcy, Adjust Debt
Bloomberg
Jefferson County, Alabama, filed a plan to end the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy later this year by imposing more than $1 billion in principal reduction on investors who hold defaulted sewer-related debt.
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