Industry news

September 19, 2013: CME Group ex-CEO named chairman of U.S. options clearinghouse; Derivatives reform faces national interests; ASX Directors Resign After SEC Action Against Hedge Fund

Options clearinghouse OCC names Craig Donohue, formerly of CME Group, as its new chairman. The head of the UK’s primary regulator plans to caution other countries that national interest may trump global regulatory cooperation in some cases. Directors at Australian exchange ASX resign after their hedge fund agreed to settle claims of improper trading.

First Read

Hurry Up and Wait…Now Hurry Up!
John Lothian News

In less than two weeks, the CFTC will require compliance with its final rules regarding swap execution facilities (SEFs), and there is concern among industry participants that the budding SEF world is not ready. We believe these concerns are real enough and the risks great enough to warrant a two-month extension to allow SEFs and their customers time to complete registration process, digest the thousands of pages of SEF applications, and complete additional system checks.

Rules surrounding SEFs, given life by the Dodd-Frank Act, were among the first to be proposed by the commission in December 2010. Yet it would be nearly 2 1/2 years before the final rules final rules became effective in August 2013. After being told to “hurry up and wait” from late 2010 until last month, SEFs are now being told to hurry up again.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Why can’t we just flip the switch and go?

First, there is simply too much information to digest in such a short time. The commission only began accepting applications last month and, as of this week, has only granted temporary registration to seven of the 18 applications it has received. Each application is filled with hundreds of pages of rule books and addenda, additional disclosures and exhibits that must be sorted, vetted and compared to other platforms. Can SEF customers really perform adequate due diligence on multiple platforms in this amount of time?

Second, while the final rules are similar to the proposed rules in most respects, there are a few notable changes. The most famous is Footnote 88, which is viewed by many as a game-changer. Under this provision (which was not even in the actual text of the rule, but rather buried in the footnotes), any platform offering aggregation to multiple participants (a “many-to-many” platform), must register as a SEF even if the platform has no intention of offering swaps subject to the trade execution requirement in Dodd-Frank. This eleventh-hour change has been a shock not only to some niche platforms such as FX-only SEFs, but also to some foreign platforms who deal with U.S. persons.

Potentially worst of all, though, is that the technology, specifically that surrounding pre-trade credit checks, may not be fully operational. Technology glitches seem to be all the rage these days, and while no single cause stands out as the reason behind them, many have been related to the implementation of new systems.

From debates regarding margin requirements, the encouragement of “futurized” swaps in energy and interest rate markets, and a forced migration to electronic execution, the would-be SEFs have felt as though they have been behind the 8-ball since the beginning of the rulemaking process. The last thing they need right now is a technology meltdown.

In the grand scheme of things, a 60-day delay is meaningless compared to the potential fallout from a premature rollout. We would hope that the October 2 deadline is not about talking points, securing a legacy by a certain date, or some other politically-motivated reason. The overriding concern must be for the safety of customers and providers, and the overall integrity of the market. After being told to hurry up, wait, and hurry up again, how about we wait just a bit longer?

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Jon likes to comment; John suddenly on an airplane again
JM
I had so much fun writing comments last week that I cleverly faked a meeting invitation for John in New York, so he’s on another flight today and I’ve got comment duty again. I’m pretty sure that when he gets to the meeting and nobody knows who he is, he’ll laugh and laugh at my funny little joke. Meanwhile, here are today’s stories.

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CME Applies to Create Commodities Swap Execution Facility
Matthew Leising – Bloomberg
CME Group Inc., the owner of the world’s largest futures market, applied to create a new kind of venue known as a swap execution facility that will initially focus on trading commodities derivatives.
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***JM: Sometimes, news doesn’t have to be surprising.

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There is Nothing New Under the Sun, Warehouse Games Edition
Streetwise Professor
I am working on a project about the economics of commodity trading firms. One of the interesting questions is what physical assets commodity trading firms own. In my research on this question, in an attempt to get some historical context, I turned to the excellent Federal Trade Commission Report on the Grain Trade, a five volume study released in the early-20s. (There is reputedly a sixth volume on manipulation which I and others-Jerry Markham, for one-have feverishly searched for without luck.) This is truly an excellent piece of work.
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***JM: I’m captivated by how little is actually fresh in the world, which presumably includes people noticing that nearly all of human history is rapidly and comprehensively repeating itself. That gives me a little self-referential, infinite-mirrors moment, after which I concentrate on how good ice cream is, and how some things are probably best left un-thought-about.

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Banks in need of cultural shift to restore integrity
Anish Puaar in Dubai – Financial News
The financial industry desperately needs a cultural shift to rebuild trust and relationships with society if it wants to prevent further fines and litigation.
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***JM: Cultural shift as in, “Actually try to follow the rules,” yes. Also, please see above, “There is Nothing New Under the Sun”…

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MarketsWiki Invites You!
Sarah Rudolph – JLN
We’re having a MarketsWiki party and invite you to join us on Friday, Sept. 20, in an all-day bout of wikiing. If you would like to update your company’s MW page, add in a new page for a new hire, or add information about the people, products, exchanges and issues involving the financial markets, please join us either from the comfort of your own chair or sofa, or here, live and in person at our offices at 141 W. Jackson, Suite 1602.

For those in Chicago who would like to join us at JJLCO headquarters, we will begin at noon and you can stay as long as you like. We will provide lunch to give you the energy to edit. Feel free to bring a laptop if you have one – we have a few we can provide as well.

Don’t know how to Wiki? Don’t sweat it – we’ll show you how along with all the proper wiki etiquette so you can show off to your friends and colleagues at the weekend cookout.

Everyone who contributes on that day will get a special mention in the John Lothian Newsletter the following Monday, and will be eligible to win a $50 gift card. And who doesn’t want $50?

So come join us online, or face-to-face for a day of fun and help update the best source of information on the industry – MarketsWiki.com

If you are interested, please RSVP to: SarahRudolph@johnlothian.com

What: Friday Wiki Party
When: September 20, 2013; Noon CST

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Threatening Letters Sent to 140 MF Global Vendors
BEN PROTESS – NYTimes.com
When MF Global collapsed in 2011, Lorie Meg Karlin’s brokerage company nearly disappeared along with it. The company, Managed Capital Advisory Group, cleared trades through MF Global and was owed more than $100,000 in commissions from the firm. Ms. Karlin, a widow who runs Managed Capital from her Westchester County home overlooking a horse farm, figured that MF Global was unlikely to pay her. But she did not anticipate that MF Global’s brokerage unit might threaten to sue her company two years later.
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***JM: “A spokesman for Mr. Giddens described the letters as routine” … If one made a habit of punching strangers as one walked down the street, one could also describe that as “a routine practice,” and just as many people would relax and understand.

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JPMorgan Set to Pay More Than $900 Million in Fines
JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and BEN PROTESS – NYTimes.com
JPMorgan Chase is expected to pay more than $900 million in fines to government authorities in Washington and London and make a rare admission of wrongdoing on Thursday, a pact that will settle a range of investigations over a multibillion trading blunder the bank suffered last year, according to people briefed on the matter.
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***JM: I’ve been holding off on featuring settlement stories until the actual announcement (probably) today, but I’m fascinated that in four days’ time, the guess has gone up $200 million. “Oh, so you’d settle for $700 million, eh? Well… maybe that number’s too low, then.”

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Joseph E. Granville, Stock Market Predictor, Dies at 90
CHRISTOPHER DREW – NYTimes.com
In early 1981, for instance, the Dow Jones industrial average dived 2.4 percent, on what was then the heaviest trading day in history, after Mr. Granville urged his newsletter followers to “sell everything and go short.” It rebounded in the following weeks before tumbling 23 percent over the next 15 months.
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***JM: Hm. He was extremely successful, gotta give him that. Not at predicting markets, mind you — nobody does that well — but he was very good at running a prediction business.

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Lead Stories

CME Group ex-CEO named chairman of U.S. options clearinghouse
Tom Polansek – Reuters
The clearinghouse for all U.S. stock options on Wednesday named Craig Donohue, former chief executive officer for CME Group Inc, as its new executive chairman.
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Derivatives reform faces national interests
Philip Stafford – FT.com
The UK’s chief financial regulator will on Thursday warn his US counterpart that the success of new rules aimed at safeguarding the world’s derivatives markets could be undermined by a focus on national interests.
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ASX Directors Resign After SEC Action Against Hedge Fund
Adam Haigh & Joe Schneider – Bloomberg
Shane Finemore and Russell Aboud resigned from their positions on the board of ASX Ltd. after their hedge fund, Manikay Partners LLC, agreed to settle claims of improperly buying shares of companies they had bet against.
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In Surprise, Fed Decides to Maintain Pace of Stimulus
BINYAMIN APPELBAUM – NYTimes.com
It turns out that the Federal Reserve is not quite ready to let go of its extra efforts to help the economy grow. All summer, Federal Reserve officials said flattering things about the economy’s performance: how strong it looked, how well it was recovering, how eager they were to step back and watch it walk on its own.
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At-a-Glance: Reactions to Fed’s Inaction
David Cottle – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Market analysts probably haven’t been caught off guard to this extent since July 2012 when European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi looked the world straight in the eye and promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the then-tottering euro.
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CFTC Could Spear ‘Whale’ With New Manipulation Tool
Jamila Trindle and Julie Steinberg – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Hooking J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s “London Whale” would be a high-profile catch for regulators, who are buoyed by new, expanded powers to go after market manipulation. The CFTC, which previously had to prove traders intended to manipulate the market, now must only show traders acted recklessly. The lower bar is setting up a clash between the agency and J.P. Morgan, which is balking at any CFTC settlement that would require it to admit to manipulation, according to a person familiar with the talks.
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Troika on Cyprus: Doing What it Should, and in Trouble Anyway
Matina Stevis – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Remember Cyprus? Where it all almost fell apart last spring. Well, today it got its first review from the troika of experts –the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund- and it contains some good news.
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Wall Street-funded report defends banks’ role in physical commodities
Reuters
A report funded by Wall Street’s largest lobby group laid out the most public justification yet of banks’ role in physical commodity markets, a lucrative business now under threat from mounting political and regulatory pressure.
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Former Barclays staff sign DoJ probe deal
Caroline Binham in London and Kara Scannell in New York – FT.com
Two former employees of Barclays have signed deals with the US Department of Justice as part of its probe into alleged Libor manipulation, underlining the thrust of the worldwide investigation that is expected to yield more criminal charges against individuals over the next month.
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Argentine bondage
FT.com
Buenos Aires’ dispute with a group of hedge funds holding out for full payment on defaulted Argentine bonds highlights what is proving to be one of the most wasteful debt restructurings in history. It also demonstrates the need for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM). Instead, the world has got an unedifying suit judged already by two New York courts and possibly by the US Supreme Court too.
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NSEL investors file complaint to EOW
Business Standard
Seeking legal recourse against the default of the National Spot Exchange Ltd, the Financial Technologies promoted spot commodity trading platform facing currently Rs 5,500 crore payment crisis, around 58 investors and 17 brokers / members have jointed filed a criminal complaint with the economic offence wing (EOW) of Mumbai police.
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FMC action after Mayaram report
Business Standard
The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) is waiting for the final report from the economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram. The regulator is likely to issue a show cause notice to Financial Technologies, which is a promoter of crisis-ridden National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) questioning its status as a fit person to run the exchange.
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Regulatory

SEC Proposes Rules for Pay Ratio Disclosure
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted 3-2 to propose a new rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio of the compensation of its chief executive officer (CEO) to the median compensation of its employees.
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A Guide to the SEC’s CEO Pay Rule
Andrew Ackerman – MoneyBeat – WSJ
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday proposed rules that would require public companies to disclose the pay gap between chief executives and their employees. Here’s a primer on how the rule works, why it’s controversial and how it compares to other current disclosures some companies make.
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SEC Approves Registration Rules for Municipal Advisors
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted unanimously to adopt rules establishing a permanent registration regime for municipal advisors as required by the Dodd-Frank Act.
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Britain to keep up pressure on Libor reform
Reuters
New rules governing how market benchmarks like Libor are set will be reviewed and tightened if necessary to restore trust after rigging scandals, a UK financial regulator said.
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Five key takeaways from the EC’s draft rules on benchmarks
Anna Irrera – Financial News
The European Commission today adopted a draft regulation on financial benchmarks, aimed at establishing a new framework for key rates, which have recently been plagued by rigging scandals.
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US law firm hires top prosecutor from UK financial watchdog
Caroline Binham, Legal Correspondent – FT.com
The most senior prosecutor within the UK’s financial watchdog will join a US law firm early next year, underlining the demand for hiring former regulators among big law firms and financial services groups on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Speech By Martin Wheatley, Chief Executive, The FCA, At The International Swaps And Derivatives Association (ISDA) Conference, London
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Statement By SEC Chair Mary Jo White At The SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.C.
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Statement At Open Meeting – Adoption Of Rules Regarding Municipal Advisor Registration By SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein, SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.C.
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Dissenting Statement Of SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher Concerning The Proposal Of Rules To Implement The Section 953(B) Pay Ratio Disclosure Provision Of The Dodd-Frank Act
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Providing Context for Executive Compensation Decisions By SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.
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Enhancing Oversight Of Municipal Advisors To Prevent Further Abuses In The Municipal Finance Market And Protect Investors By SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.C.
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Adoption of Rules Regarding Municipal Advisor Registration – Statement By SEC Commission Daniel M. Gallagher at SEC Open Meeting, Washington, D.C.
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SIFMA Comments On SEC Municipal Advisor Rules
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Exchanges & Trading Facilities

TABB Group’s Options LiquidityMatrix for August 2013
The Options LiquidityMatrix is a monthly analysis of options market activity published by TABB Group with analysis and statistics from Hanweck Associates. The report includes options trading volumes and statistics on execution metrics for each US listed options exchange and the industry, using data sourced from the OCC and Premium Hosted Database (PhD),a joint offering from Hanweck Associates and the International Securities Exchange (ISE).
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Vix challenged by new volatility index
Yakob Peterseil – Risk.net
For 20 years, Chicago-based CBOE has marketed the Vix as the only volatility measure investors need. Across town, a tiny upstart is challenging this. Will its new index win over the world’s biggest banks?
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CME Group Files an Application to Be Registered as a Swap Execution Facility
Press Release
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced today that it has filed an application to be registered as a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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Instituto BME To Launch The 6th Edition Of Its Advanced Investor Relations Course
Instituto BME, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles’ (BME) educational centre, will start the sixth edition of its Advanced Investor Relations Course on 8 November, in Madrid. The Investor Relations discipline is becoming a prime area within organisations because it critically contributes to the correct formation of expectations about the market value of a listed company.
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Mexico’s Volaris Celebrates Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange
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Hellenic Exchanges S.A.: Provision Of Clearing Services To The Romanian Derivatives Market
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TMX: Top 20 Largest Consolidated Short Position Report – September 15, 2013
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Australia’s Next Capital Plans $285 Million Fundraising
Gillian Tan – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Australian private equity firm Next Capital plans to seek around 300 million Australian dollars (US$285 million) for its third fund, one of its founders said.
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U.S. CEOs less optimistic about economy – survey
Reuters
U.S. chief executives were less optimistic about the economy in the third quarter, with fewer expecting to increase sales or boost capital spending than in the preceding three months, a survey by the Business Roundtable showed.
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Bunge, Cargill, Dreyfus and ADM face new challenges
Gregory Meyer in New York – FT.com
The people in charge of feeding the world are changing. Last week Cargill named the ninth chief executive in its 148-year history, a move that followed new CEO appointments at rivals Bunge and Louis Dreyfus Commodities in June. The leadership changes come as the “ABCD” companies that dominate global agricultural flows – Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus plus Archer Daniels Midland – face a new set of challenges.
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Hedge funds turn to in-house talent spotters
Harriet Agnew – Financial News
Hedge funds are on the hunt for talent spotters. The stream of skillful traders that flowed out of investment banks as they closed prop desks in response to new regulations – most notably the Volcker Rule in the US – is starting to dry up.
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Europe’s repo market boosted by rising investor confidence
Ralph Atkins in London – FT.com
Rising investor confidence in the eurozone and the reduced reliance from banks on European Central Bank assistance have helped revive Europe’s “repo” market, which provides loans secured against assets such as government bonds.
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Red Kite hedge fund spins out private equity
Giles Turner – Financial News
Red Kite, one of the world’s largest metals hedge funds and founded by Tory donor Michael Farmer, has spun out its private equity unit in New York.
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Buyout firms consider putting eggs in different baskets
Alec Macfarlane – Financial News
Diversification away from straightforward buyouts has historically been a strategy dominated by the largest US private equity firms as a means of growing their businesses.
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Allston Appoints Nancy Laethem Stern As General Counsel, Jay Biondo As Chief Compliance Officer
Chicago-based Allston Holdings LLC, parent of one of the nation’s leading proprietary electronic trading firms, today announced that Nancy Laethem Stern has joined the firm as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and that Jay A. Biondo has joined as Chief Compliance Officer.
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Federal Reserve Board And Federal Open Market Committee Release Economic Projections From The September 17-18 FOMC Meeting
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Banks & Brokers

Lloyd Blankfein Surprised and Elated to Join Dow
David Benoit – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Lloyd Blankfein has had his fair share of surprises as CEO of Goldman Sachs. There was the time he woke up to his firm being called a “blood-sucking vampire squid” and the other time his firm was accused of treating clients like “Muppets,” plus a whole lot of regulatory and political pressure over the past few years.
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CEO Blankfein says commodities trading is ‘core’ to Goldman
Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein made his most public commitment to the bank’s commodity trading business on Wednesday, even as regulators consider measures that may push Wall Street out of physical markets.
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James Gorman on Pay: I’m a ‘Rationalist’
Julie Steinberg – MoneyBeat – WSJ
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman got a chance to explain his stance on compensation today.
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Jefferies’ Results Reflect the Hazards of Fixed Income
ANTONY CURRIE – NYTimes.com
The Jefferies Group shows that fixed income isn’t necessarily for everyone. The revenue that the investment bank generated from trading bonds, currencies and commodities slumped 85 percent, to just $33 million, in the three months to September. That’s a far bigger drop than its larger rivals across Wall Street are expecting. As a relative newcomer, Jefferies appears to be struggling with volatility. The same may prove true for others that are downsizing their fixed-income businesses.
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Drews departs Barclays’ wealth business
Sarah Krouse – Financial News
Stefanie Drews, head of key clients and family offices at Barclays’ wealth and investment management division, has left the firm, Financial News has learnt.
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Clearing & Settlement

Target2-Securities may lead to increased costs, warns survey from SIX Securities Services
Post-trade services provider SIX Securities Services today releases data from a survey conducted at the SIBOS conference at Dubai, UAE. The survey acts as a barometer to current attitudes to Target2-Securities (T2S) amongst major European financial institutions.
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The essential plumbing of equity trades (part II)
Tim Cave and Anish Puaar – Financial News
In the second part of FN’s guided tour of the path of an equities trade, we look at the journey through the middle and back office from clearing to settlement.
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Indexes & Products

Emerging-Market ETFs Surge After Fed Holds Off Tapering
Chris Dieterich – MoneyBeat – WSJ
The floodgates are open for the markets’ largest emerging-market stock ETFs after the Fed opts to keep its monthly bond-buying stimulus intact.
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[OSE] Change of Component Issues for RN Prime Index
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Technology

[Video] Misys CEO Explains Global Back Office
WatersTechnology
Earlier this week, Misys launched Global Back Office (GBO), its new, full-service product aimed at bringing modernization to back-office processes. GBO, Syed explains, is designed to intergrate with any system, including third-party vendors outside of Misys and internal, proprietary builds, and maintains a single data repository at its core.
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NYSE Technologies and First Derivatives Collaborate on New Suite of ‘As a Service’ Trading Solutions
NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of NYSE Euronext (NYX) today announced that it will be working with First Derivatives, a leading provider of software and consulting services to the capital markets industry, to create a new suite of historical data ‘as a service’ solutions. Combining NYSE Technologies’ historical and real-time data expertise covering cash, options, futures and corporate actions with First Derivatives’ products and market expertise, the Tick as a Service offering will build into a suite of innovative market services for clients to gain efficient access to large data stores for analytical back testing and compliance.
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Enforcement

U.S. names alleged co-conspirators in insider case of SAC’s Steinberg
Reuters
Two months ahead a scheduled criminal trial against Michael Steinberg, a trader at Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP, federal prosecutors have named 15 other alleged co-conspirators related to his insider trading case.
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CFTC Orders FXDirectDealer, LLC to Pay $2.74 Million for Supervision Failures Relating to Trading Platform
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges that, from at least December 10, 2009, until June 2011, FXDirectDealer, LLC (FXDD), a CFTC-registered Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer and Futures Commission Merchant headquartered in New York, New York, violated its supervision obligations by employing a trading system that gave FXDD pricing advantages over and harmed thousands of its retail customers.
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SEC Goes After Founder Of Formerly $5 Billion Hedge Fund
Nathan Vardi – Forbes
The Securities & Exchange Commission charged a founder of New York hedge fund firm Vicis Capital that once managed as much as $5 billion, alleging the 44-year-old money manager breached his fiduciary duty by orchestrating conflicted transactions through the hedge fund that benefited him.
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SEC Charges Indiana-Based Company and Executives for Defrauding Investors in Renewable Fuel Production Scheme
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a company in Evansville, Ind., and several executives and suppliers for posing to investors as a legitimate biodiesel production business while concealing the extensive illegal activity that accounted for 99 percent of its revenues.
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Former Banker Pleads Guilty in Olympus Accounting Case
ASSOCIATED PRESS – NYTimes.com
A former bank vice president pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a fraud charge, admitting he helped former executives of Olympus carry out a fraud involving several hundred million dollars that deceived investors into thinking the company was stronger financially than it was.
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FCA unearths evidence of firms undermining RDR
Vivek Ahuja – Financial News
The Financial Conduct Authority is mulling enforcement action against two firms for potentially breaching inducement rules under the retail distribution review that came into force at the start of this year.
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Environmental & Energy

EEX to Launch Trade Registration Service for Italian and Swiss Power Futures
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Bloomberg Editorial: Bipartisan Pettiness on Climate Change
Bloomberg
House Republicans will hold their first hearing on climate change in more than two years this week. Sadly, its focus is unlikely to be sensible strategies that are sorely needed to reduce the U.S.’s greenhouse-gas emissions, such as setting a price on carbon, but rather how existing efforts to protect the climate are too expensive.
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Repeat Carbon Market Delays Hinder Planning, Steelmakers Say
Bloomberg
A series of delays in the European Union carbon market, the world’s largest by traded volume, is hampering business planning, according to a lobby group in Brussels representing steelmakers.
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Obama Energy Officials Defend Climate Plan to Republicans
Bloomberg
Obama administration officials defended efforts to curb greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change as they faced questions from Republican Lawmakers about the costs of those policies.
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Asia-Pacific

U.S. judge orders UBS unit in Japan to pay $100 million over Libor
Reuters
A Japanese investment banking unit of UBS AG was ordered on Wednesday to pay a $100 million criminal fine after pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with its role in the manipulation of the benchmark interest rate Libor.
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Goldman, HSBC spat over Huishan IPO highlights Chinese squeeze on banks
Reuters
A recent shouting match between senior bankers involved in Hong Kong’s second-largest IPO so far this year illustrates the competitive squeeze on banks from Chinese companies offering incentives ahead of lucrative initial public offerings.
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Thai Bourse Matches Financial Opportunities For SMEs
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Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission Commences Disciplinary Proceedings Against Chairman Of Pearl Oriental Oil Limited And Others For Alleged Breach Of Takeovers Code
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Frontier Markets

India to stop futures trade in metals, energy on Saturdays
Reuters via Yahoo! Finance
MUMBAI – India, the world’s biggest buyer of bullion, will stop futures trading in precious, base metals and energy futures on Saturdays with immediate effect
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Kenya aims to host Africa’s first yuan clearing house
Reuters via Yahoo! News
By Duncan Miriri NAIROBI – Kenya wants to host a clearing house for China’s yuan currency – a bold African first that would deepen the continent’s ties with Beijing, already a big investor from The Cape to Cairo.
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Brazil revives old tax code in latest setback for companies
Reuters
The Brazilian government revived corporate tax rules that were phased out about six years ago, the latest attempt by President Dilma Rousseff’s administration to tighten oversight on large companies.
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