Financial markets Archives - The Industry Spread

Nasdaq to Add U.S. Equity Market Data on Microsoft Excel

June 7, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, BLX, BTC, Equity Market, Equity Market Data, financial literacy, Financial markets, markets, Microsoft Excel, NASDAQ

Nasdaq is working with Microsoft to expand the use of real-time U.S. equity market data by individual investors through Excel, Bing, MSN, and other platforms, where they can leverage real-time U.S. stock equity market data from Nasdaq Last Sale to inform research and trade ideas while improving financial literacy.

Microsoft Excel, which is used by more than 1.2 billion people, will now empower its users to track the latest stock prices, trading volume and more, without ever leaving Excel to search outside sources.

The exchange group will provide data from its Nasdaq Last Sale service, which is designed to encourage universal distribution of real-time trade data to the public with dynamic stock tickers, portfolio trackers and time/price graph products for public use.

Rob Howard, Senior Director at Microsoft, commented:
“At Microsoft, our mission is to enable every person to achieve more. Pulling real-time and historical U.S. equity data from Nasdaq right into Excel helps users track personal investments better and make informed decisions faster.”
Oliver Albers, SVP and Head of Strategic Partnerships for Nasdaq’s Global Information Services, said:
“Expanding the reach of real-time market data through our collaboration with Microsoft is a significant step towards bringing important market information to Main Street. Microsoft’s focus on empowering individuals aligns with our mission to make financial markets more accessible to all.”

Nasdaq has recently announced the launch of a new solution designed to simplify capital markets stakeholder engagement for investor relations (IR) professionals using Nasdaq IR Insight, which is trusted by 3,000 public companies listed on all major exchanges.

The operator listed BTC and ETH indices on its platform in February provided by the Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and the Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX), which aggregate real-time information based on the most liquid ends of their markets.

Pico Expands Private, Proprietary Low-Latency Network Across Major Data Centers

June 6, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: APAC, Capital Markets, Corvil Analytics, EMEA, Financial markets, financial services, ICE, Pico, trading platform

The firm is a service provider and a licensed market data vendor of record, sourcing raw market data directly from a venue’s lowest-latency and highest-bandwidth handoffs. Currently covering 35
data centers, Pico plans to add 16 more globally dispersed data centers in the next 14 months.

Pico, a leading infrastructure, connectivity, cloud technology, data and analytics services provider has launched its global connectivity ring, thus promoting the expansion of its private, proprietary network to the major financial data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The network, which goes by the name of PicoNet, provides low-latency connectivity to hundreds of liquidity sources, information providers and counterparties, delivering market data and point-to-point connectivity between all of the key financial data centers worldwide through its diverse subsea networks, cable landing stations, and terrestrial network POPs, including NY4, LD4, and TY3 (delivering EMEA, the Americas, and APAC regional meshes).

Roland Hamann, Managing Director at Pico, commented:

“Our state-of-the-art global ring is the first of its kind to combine carrier-grade connectivity with the cost-effective scale and resiliency our clients require. Now, every client has direct access to
global markets including our high-quality market data sets.”

Pico has deployed network performance monitoring and analytics via Corvil Analytics to provide industry-leading transparency and operational metrics.

The firm’s global connectivity network gives Tier 1 banks, broker-dealers, assets managers, hedge funds, proprietary, and electronic trading firms the ability to pass data between major financial centers and execute trades in microseconds to gain a competitive edge in FX and all other asset classes as the platform extends across 35 data centers covering over 200 exchanges and trading venues worldwide.

Pico’s outsourced solution, which leverages its expansive network, exchange, and market data connectivity services, includes offering a single-hop solution where clients can connect trading servers through a collapsed architecture via a single co-located Pico switch, receiving market data and sending orders at the lowest possible latency. This solution is currently available at data centers in Basildon (ICE) in the UK, Frankfurt (Eurex/Xetra) and CH1 (ICE) in Chicago, accessible in about 380 nanoseconds.

21 Charges Filed by FMA Act Against Man Who Convinced Members of the Public to ‘Invest’ with Him

June 6, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: Financial markets, FMA, foreign exchange, funds, invest, investigation, investment, Markets Authority

The Financial Markets Authority has charged a man with offences under the Crimes Act and the FMA Act at the Manukau District Court.

He has been charged with:

16 charges of obtaining by deception under Section 240 of the Crimes Act 1961
3 charges of dishonestly using a document under Section 228 of the Crimes Act 1961
2 charges of obstruction of the FMA’s powers under Section 61 (1) (b) of the Financial Markets Authority Act 2011.

The maximum penalty for the Crimes Act charges is 7 years imprisonment. The maximum penalty for obstruction of the FMA’s powers is a fine of $300,000.

The FMA alleges the man contacted people and convinced them to ‘invest’ by transferring money into bank accounts he controlled. After incorporating a company, he further cold-called other investors to promote a foreign exchange investment service which did not exist.

He obtained just under $100,000 from the people he contacted. Neither he, nor his company was authorised or licensed by the FMA, but he held out he would invest funds on their behalf.

Karen Chang, FMA Head of Enforcement said, “The FMA will take enforcement action where it sees conduct at the perimeter of financial markets that harms investors or could damage the reputation of New Zealand’s financial markets.”

“Investors should always check if the person or company they are dealing with is licensed by the FMA, which provides basic protections.” Ms. Chang said. More information for investors on how to protect themselves from scams can be found here.

The man also obstructed the exercise of the FMA’s powers during the investigation, by giving false evidence in purported compliance with a notice issued to him under section 25 of the Financial Markets Authority Act 2011.

A first hearing is scheduled for 12 June 2019.

DTCC Outlines Path to Reduce Trade Failures, Increase Security and Efficiency of Markets

April 24, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: Automating delivery, DTCC, DTCC ALERT platform, Efficiency of Markets, Financial markets, Global Custodian Direct, Increase Security, Reduce Trade Failures

DTCC Outlines Path to Reduce Trade Failures, Increase Security and Efficiency of Markets

Automating delivery of standing settlement instructions (SSIs) is the clear direction as ALERT’s GC Direct points to the destination, now with over 1 million SSIs managed by custodians and prime brokers

New York/London/Hong Kong/Singapore/Sydney, April 17, 2019 ‒ The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced the release of a new paper addressing issues of trade failures in the institutional post-trade marketplace where greater technology adoption could help with growing problems in an era of cost pressures, heightened regulatory requirements, and increasing cyber security focus.

Standing Settlement Instructions (SSIs) represent a significant proportion of trade failures, as missing or incomplete SSIs create one of the biggest pain points for firms. The significant number of manual touch points relating to SSIs during the settlement process sees trade data handled by many disparate systems from matching engines to counterparties and settlement organizations, while flowing across an array of market infrastructure facilitators.

The white paper, A Roadmap to Automation: How an SSI Utility Benefits All Participants, looks at the structural transformation underway in the capital markets and the need for industry consensus to ensure SSIs become fully automated.

From the efficiency perspective alone, a global failure rate of just 2 percent is estimated to result in costs and losses up to $3 billion. Beyond cost savings, automation can help address security concerns as sometimes communication still occurs via email instead of through secure networks. In fact, it is estimated that roughly half of institutional participants are sending critical SSI information manually rather than on a secure platform which is inefficient and introduces cyber security risk.

Matthew Stauffer, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Trade Processing at DTCC
“Settlement processes are now attracting more attention as regulators require shorter and more certain settlement with the potential of penalties for noncompliance,” said Matthew Stauffer, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Trade Processing at DTCC. “Removing manual touch points in the settlement process will have a tremendously positive impact in efficiency and security.”

The move from manual to automated SSI processes, and ultimately to custodian-managed SSIs, is underway with more than 3,600 firms already leveraging DTCC’s ALERT platform. Using ALERT’s Global Custodian Direct (GC Direct) workflow, custodians and prime brokers can administer settlement instructions for their buyside clients with industry standard compliant messaging. GC Direct has just passed the milestone of more than 1 million SSIs now managed by custodians and prime brokers, where early adopters are reporting a reduction in fails of 40-50 percent.

About DTCC

With 45 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade market infrastructure provider for the global financial services industry. From operating facilities, data centers and offices in 16 countries, DTCC, through its subsidiaries, automates, centralizes and standardizes the processing of financial transactions, mitigating risk, increasing transparency and driving efficiency for thousands of broker/dealers, custodian banks and asset managers. Industry owned and governed, the firm simplifies the complexities of clearing, settlement, asset servicing, data management and information services across asset classes, bringing increased security and soundness to financial markets. In 2017, DTCC’s subsidiaries processed securities transactions valued at more than U.S. $1.61 quadrillion. Its depository provides custody and asset servicing for securities issues from 131 countries and territories valued at U.S. $57.4 trillion. DTCC’s Global Trade Repository service maintains approximately 40 million open OTC positions per week and processes over one billion messages per month through its group of licensed trade repositories. To learn more, please visit us at www.dtcc.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Regulators Sign an Agreement With the Financial Conduct Authority

April 21, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: BCSC, business, Canadian capital markets, Capital Markets, FCA, Financial Conduct Authority, Financial markets, Financial Sector, Financial services firms, regulators

Montreal – The securities regulatory authorities in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Québec and Saskatchewan (participating jurisdictions) today announced a co-operation agreement with the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The agreement extends the work of the CSA Regulatory Sandbox Initiative and the FCA Innovate project. These innovation functions provide a controlled environment for businesses to develop and test innovative solutions that promote efficiency and consumer choices in the financial sector.

Louis Morisset, Chair of the CSA
“This co-operation agreement with the FCA is in addition to agreements we have reached with other regulatory organizations,” said Louis Morisset, CSA Chair and President and CEO of Québec’s Autorité des marchés financiers. “Since FinTech businesses are not constrained by national borders, it is in our best interest to share views and exchange information in connection with their activities so we can evaluate market trends and adapt our regulatory framework appropriately.”

CSA members have also signed agreements with the Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the French Autorité des marchés financiers. Co-operation agreements are subject to the domestic laws and regulations of each authority and do not modify or supersede any applicable laws or regulatory requirements in force in, or applicable to, any such authority’s respective jurisdiction.

The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, co-ordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.

The Financial Conduct Authority is the conduct regulator for 56,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and the prudential regulator for over 18,000 of those firms.

Liquidity in Swiss Shares Peaks on SIX

April 20, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: CHF, Financial markets, Innovation, intraday activity, liquidity, market impact, Monthly Execution Report, SIX, Swiss Shares Peaks, Swiss Stock Exchange, SwissAtMid

Liquidity in Swiss Shares Peaks on SIX. Record day results in record week: over CHF 1 billion traded in SwissAtMid, the leading non-displayed pool of the Swiss stock exchange.

Liquidity in the non-displayed pool of SIX for Swiss equities, SwissAtMid, has reached new heights: in the week from 8 to 12 April 2019, the Swiss stock exchange has recorded a trading volume of over CHF 1 billion. Over half of its participants were active in the pool, executing 34’566 trades in 138 shares, with an average trade size of CHF 31’010.

SwissAtMid delivers many benefits for trading participants, such as reduced information leakage, minimized market impact and price improvement by trading at the midpoint.

The leading liquidity pool for non-displayed trading in Swiss shares

These figures further establish SwissAtMid as the leading pool for non-displayed trading in Swiss shares. Since its launch in Q4 2016, SwissAtMid has grown exponentially and provided exceptional value provided to firms that are searching for improved execution quality in Swiss listed equities.

In 2018, CHF 14 bn were traded in the pool, and clients achieved an average price improvement of 4bps that translates to savings of CHF 4.2 million. Today, SwissAtMid is by far the largest liquidity pool among non-displayed and periodic auction venues in Swiss equities, and its further growth is not subject to cap restrictions.

A key factor in reaching the record of CHF 1 billion traded in a single week has been the listing of Alcon on the Swiss stock exchange on 9 April 2019: it not only helped SwissAtMid to a record day, but also caused a rise of trading volumes, market share and the SMI®.

Christian Reuss, Head Sales Securities & Exchanges, SIX

Focused on client needs

Christian Reuss, Head Sales Securities & Exchanges, SIX, comments the new record: “At the Swiss stock exchange, we understand the value of non-displayed trading to our clients. We concentrate our efforts to accommodate market needs, further developing our non-displayed pool SwissAtMid.”

The primary focus of SIX – the operator of the Swiss stock exchange – is to deliver Exchange Services with exceptional quality and reliability. In addition, SIX is driving the competitiveness of its customers in Swiss and international financial markets through innovation.

Our website provides more information on SwissAtMid. Detailed figures are provided in the Monthly Execution Report, while our online dashboard allows you to monitor intraday activity.

FXOpen Posted Financial Loss for FY 2018, Reports 75% Drop in Turnover

April 12, 2019 by Karthik Subramanian Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Brokers, ECN/STP, ESMA, Financial markets, Financial Reports, Forex, Fx broker, FX trading, FxOpen, trading platform

FXOpen

True ECN/STP retail forex broker, FXOpen has published its financial results for the fiscal year ending on 31st Dec 2018. The group has posted a significant drop in revenue and overall loss in the year weighed down by strict ESMA regulations and challenging market condition.

For the full year period ending on Dec 31st 2018, the broker posted a turnover of £351,481 which is a massive drop of over 70 per cent drop from the previous year, which had a turnover of £1.39 million.

Breaking down the revenue, the broker generated a turnover of £162,381 from the EC Commission which is slightly lower from £213,371 in 2017. The non-EC Commission revenue for 2018 came in at £189,100, which is 83.9 per cent down from the £1.17 million achieved in the previous year.

One positive factor in the report was the lower cost of sales in 2018, coming in at £137,941 compared to £439,803 in 2017. The gross profit came down by over 77.5 per cent year-on-year to reach £213,540 from £949,310 in 2017.

Overall, the weak operational performance resulted in the company posting a loss of £347,992 in 2018, which is in contrast to £391,545 in profit achieved in the previous year.

The report mentions:

“The results for the year and the financial position at the year end represent tough market conditions. During the course of 2018, the company maintained its client base in European and non-European market.

“Turnover decreased substantially in mid-2018 and in total, as compared to 2017, reflecting the new margin rules applicable to the retail clients, introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The board is focused on expanding its client base, professional and retail.”

FXOpen is an FCA regulated FX broker, launched its services in 2005 and was formed by a group of traders. It is the first FX broker to offer micro accounts and swap free sharia-compliant accounts.

RBNZ appoints Head of Financial Markets and Head of Economics / Chief Economist

April 11, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Central Bank Annoucements Tagged: Australia, chief economist, economics, Financial markets, Forecasting team, New Zealand, RBNZ, reserve bank, Reserve Bank of Australia, Vanessa Rayner, Yuong Ha

The Reserve Bank today announced two appointments to senior management roles, Head of Financial Markets and Head of Economics / Chief Economist.

Vanessa Rayner has been appointed as Head of Financial Markets. Since joining the Bank in 2016, Ms Rayner has been an Adviser and Manager in the Financial Stability Group, including time leading the review into banks’ culture and conduct. Before this, Ms Rayner spent more than 10 years at the Reserve Bank of Australia, including management roles in the Economics, Financial Markets and Financial Stability Groups. Ms Rayner’s appointment will take effect from 6 May.

Yuong Ha has been appointed as the new Head of Economics and Chief Economist. Since joining the Bank in 1997, Mr Ha has held a number of roles across the Bank, including time in the Economics Department as Manager of the

Assistant Governor and General Manager Economics, Financial Markets and Banking, Christian Hawkesby

Modelling team and Manager of the Forecasting team. Over the past two years, Yuong has been in the Financial Markets Department, most recently as acting Head of Department. Mr Ha’s appointment will take effect from 29 April.

Assistant Governor and General Manager Economics, Financial Markets and Banking, Christian Hawkesby said the appointments follow a competitive external search process. “Both Vanessa and Yuong have broad central banking backgrounds, clear leadership capabilities and experience, and the ability to connect and collaborate both internally and externally,” Mr Hawkesby said.

CFTC Staff Provides Further Brexit-Related Market Certainty

April 9, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: Brexit, CFTC, CFTC Staff, DCR, derivatives markets, DMO, DSIO, EU, Financial markets, Market Certainty, market participants, Risk, trade, UK

Washington, DC — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Divisions of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO), Market Oversight (DMO), and Clearing and Risk (DCR), today announced they will grant no-action relief to provide greater Market Certainty to the global marketplace in connection with the anticipated withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) from the European Union (EU) with or without a ratified withdrawal agreement (Brexit).

“At a time of heightened market uncertainty caused by Brexit, this Commission has worked over the past several weeks to bring clarity to participants in global derivatives markets by a series of separate actions and statements with its regulatory counterparts in other jurisdictions,” said CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo. “Today Commission staff takes another important step to bring certainty to the global derivatives markets.”

DSIO, DMO, and DCR are providing regulatory certainty by issuing two joint staff letters. The first letter ensures that existing regulatory relief provided by DSIO, DMO, and DCR pursuant to certain staff letters affecting EU entities continues to be available for UK entities following Brexit. In the second letter, DSIO and DMO provide time-limited no-action relief to ensure the continued availability, following Brexit, of substituted compliance and regulatory relief under certain existing CFTC comparability determinations and exemption orders originally issued by the CFTC for EU entities, while CFTC staff undertakes an analysis of UK law in order to make appropriate recommendations of comparability or exemption to the CFTC.

CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo

The staff positions and time-limited relief in each of the letters will become effective if and when the UK withdraws from the EU. As of the date of this release, it is anticipated that such withdrawal may occur on April 12, 2019.

These measures show that the CFTC is committed to taking measures to ensure that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, in whatever form it takes, will not create regulatory uncertainty regarding derivatives market activity between the UK and United States. These measures will help support financial stability and the sound functioning of global financial markets. They also will give confidence to market participants about their ability to trade and manage risk through these markets.

The World Federation of Exchanges Responds to IOSCO’s GEMC Sustainable Finance Consultation

April 8, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Regulatory Annoucements Tagged: ESG, Financial markets, GEMC, IOSCO, Sustainability Working Group, Sustainable Finance Consultation, sustainable financial, SWG, WFE

The has engaged on the topic of sustainability since the inception of its Sustainability Working Group (SWG) in 2014. Since that time, the group has produced a number of market-leading research reports on the topic of sustainable finance including the annual WFE sustainability survey (WFE Annual Sustainability Survey 2016; WFE Annual Sustainability Survey 2017; WFE Annual Sustainability Survey 2018); the WFE’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Guidance in 2015 and 2018; and finally, the WFE’s five Sustainability Principles, which were launched in October 2018. These principles constituted a formal declaration by the WFE and its membership to take on a leadership role in promoting the sustainable finance agenda.

The key highlights of today’s WFE response are as follows:

The WFE encourages IOSCO to ensure that its final recommendations are clearly linked to the remit of securities regulators in protecting investors – ensuring that markets are fair, efficient and transparent, and reducing systemic risk – and that this link is clearly articulated. This will avoid suggestions of regulatory over-reach.
The WFE is supportive of the role that regulation can play in enhancing the availability of material, investor-relevant, decision-useful information, and the quality of sustainable finance products, but cautions against a wholesale rush to regulation. For example, moving too rapidly to a mandatory reporting approach may result in poor-quality reporting that simply increases costs for issuers and does not meet investor objectives. In some markets, the focus should instead be on market education and capacity building.
The WFE agrees that ESG-specific disclosure and reporting requirements should be a key part of global regulatory standards, but recommends that rather than creating bespoke disclosures, regulators should encourage the use of existing widely-accepted, globally-used standards and metrics. This also applies to the definition and taxonomy of sustainable instruments, where the WFE advises that IOSCO steers members to pre-existing standards and frameworks, rather than encouraging them to create their own.

Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, WFE said: “Sustainability is one of the WFE’s business strategy pillars for 2019, and has formed a key part of our mandate since 2014, therefore we are delighted to see the issue move up the agenda for standard-setting bodies such as IOSCO. Only by acknowledging the relevance and importance of ESG issues for financial markets and financial market regulators, and then working in partnership to tackle those issues, can we hope to move towards a truly sustainable financial future.”

You can read the full response here.