Our roundup includes news from the DTCC, Cboe, EuroCCP, EDI, AWS Data Exchange, Four Twenty Seven & Adroit Trading Technologies.
Morgan Stanley to Eliminate 1,500 Staff Positions
Investment bank Morgan Stanley is laying off approximately 1,500 people, which represents two percent of its global workforce, and the layoffs will impact the technology and operations departments, according to multiple media reports this week.
Overall, the cost of the layoffs to the firm will range from $150 million to $200 million, according to the reports.
Beyond technology and operations, the elimination of staff positions will encompass managing directors and other executives serving in sales, trading and research operations, according to reports. The layoffs constitute a key aspect of an efficiency push for the bottom line in 2019.
“We aren’t commenting on these reports,” a Morgan Stanley spokesperson tells FTF News when contacted for more details.
DTCC Adds to MF Info Xchange
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), a post-trade market infrastructure services and systems provider for the financial services industry, reports that its MF Info Xchange service, meant to “standardize communications for the mutual fund industry, has been enhanced with new efficiencies and capabilities, including integrating the offering with other DTCC mutual fund services.”
MF Info Xchange “centralizes the delivery and receipt of time-critical notifications and alerts, information that has typically been exchanged manually via fax, email or phone,“ the DTCC says in a statement. “MF Info Xchange has successfully delivered hundreds of notifications to more than 76,000 email recipients.
Currently, the service has 134 signed clients, per the DTCC.
Cboe Global Markets Buys EuroCCP
Cboe Global Markets, Inc., an exchange holding company, reports that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire EuroCCP, a pan-European equities clearinghouse.
The transaction will bring together “two companies that have long championed competition, open access and clearing interoperability in Europe,” according to Cboe’s statement. “Additionally, Cboe’s ownership of EuroCCP is expected to provide opportunity to pursue the development of equity derivatives trading and clearing capabilities in the region, subject to regulatory approvals.”
EuroCCP currently clears trades for 39 trading venues, which represent close to 95 percent of Europe’s equity landscape, making it the most connected equity central counterparty (CCP) in the region, per the statement, and EuroCCP clears on average between four to five million trade sides daily, totaling €30 to €40 billion in value.
EuroCCP is headquartered in Amsterdam and regulated by De Nederlandsche Bank and by Autoriteit Financiële Markten, while EuroCCP is equally owned by Cboe Europe, Euronext, Nasdaq, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and the DTCC.
The transaction, which Cboe plans to fund with cash on hand, is expected to close in the first half of 2020, pending the receipt of required regulatory clearances and the arrangement of a supporting liquidity facility at the EuroCCP clearing entity level.
The official statement also notes that PJT Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to EuroCCP, Allen & Overy acted as exclusive legal counsel to EuroCCP and Greentarget acted as communications strategy advisor to EuroCCP on the transaction. Cboe’s legal counsel on the transaction was Macfarlanes LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.
EDI’s Data Available via AWS Data Exchange
Exchange Data International (EDI), a corporate actions, pricing and reference data vendor, reports its Worldwide Corporate Actions (WCA) data and Security Reference Data (SRF) services can be purchased via the AWS Data Exchange, a service catering to Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers of cloud-based third-party data.
The new avenue provides access to EDI’s reference and corporate actions data via the cloud, which helps end-users identify events that impact their investment strategy for global equities, according to the official statement.
“We are pleased to be part of the launch of AWS Data Exchange … Customers will be able to purchase EDI products without leaving the cloud,” says Jonathan Bloch, CEO of EDI, in a prepared statement.
Customers can pre-pay for EDI packages based on monthly usage per user or with a 12-month contract at a discounted fee, officials say. The purchases will appear on their regular AWS bill as part of their normal AWS billing cycle.
The U.K.-based EDI has staff in Canada, India, Morocco, South Africa and the United States.
Four Twenty Seven Report Focuses On Climate Risks
Four Twenty Seven, a Moody’s affiliate that publishes climate data for financial markets, has unveiled a report outlining an approach to performing scenario analysis for physical climate risks for financial stakeholders.
“Scenario analysis is often approached from the perspective of transition risk, where policy developments and greenhouse gas emission targets are the key determinants of the magnitude of risk in the next 10 to 30 years,” the report observes.
“However, physical climate impacts over the coming decades are largely locked in. Just like a rapidly moving vehicle does not stop immediately when brakes are applied, our atmosphere will continue to warm for many decades even if we stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow,” according to Four Twenty Seven.
“The oceans will continue to rise, heat waves will become more severe and droughts will intensify. For example, the most water stressed areas are anticipated to experience reductions in dry season rainfall equivalent to the two decades surrounding the American dust bowl,” company officials say.
The report “explains percentile-based analysis, which groups the outputs of climate models based on their severity to explore the range of outcomes in the next several decades,” according to the Moody’s affiliate.
Four Twenty Seven’s offerings facilitate the integration of climate science into business and policy decisions, officials say. In July 2019, the company received a majority investment from Moody’s Corp.
Adroit Taps Finastra for New Head of Sales
Bob Kubala
Adroit Trading Technologies has hired industry veteran Bob Kubala as head of sales and marketing to drive growth at the vendor of multiple-asset front office order and execution management solutions, officials say.
Most recently, Kubala was at Finastra for the past four years, overseeing sales and account management for the treasury, capital markets and investment management segment, officials say. Before Finastra, Kubala was at FactSet where he was vice president for sales for 14 years.
Adroit has developed the Alta order/execution management system (O/EMS) for over-the-counter (OTC) transactions such as swaps, and fixed income and foreign exchange (FX) trades, officials say. The system is “built specifically for the buy side,” and is gaining traction with among investment managers, Kubala says in a prepared statement.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to continue our mission to bring the OTC market into the 21st century by providing the technology to lower transaction costs and increase trading efficiency for the buy side,” says Anil Jaglan, founder at Adroit, in a prepared statement.
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