Regulatory change and the importance of data and analytics impacting trading venues, investors, dealers, and those that support them will continue to be main themes this year, according to a new report by Greenwich Associates, “Top Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2018 — The Year of Digital is Upon Us.” Greenwich Associates provides market… Read More >>
South Korea May Ban Bitcoin Trading as CFTC Gives Wary Approval
While U.S. and European regulators are mulling over what to do with bitcoin, the South Korean government, which is home to the world’s third largest cryptocurrency market, is planning to crack down on crypto currency trading. At a press conference, Park Sang-ki, justice minister for South Korea, said, “There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies… Read More >>
Integral Readies Market Data Support for Crypto Currency Pairs
Integral Also Launches iOS App Foreign exchange (FX) technology vendor Integral is now offering market data support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin via its trading platform, the Open Currency Exchange (OCX), officials say. The expanded market data coverage will include the top pairings of: BTC/USD; ETH/USD; BCH/USD; and LTC/USD. Over the coming weeks,… Read More >>
CFTC Wary of Futures Markets’ Embrace of Bitcoin-based Instruments
Bitcoins, the digital “crypto” currency that in 2017 became one of the world’s fastest growing assets, reaching a high of more than $11,000, an increase of more than 900 percent for the calendar year, may still have its detractors, who compare its sudden popularity to Dutch Tulip Mania in the 17th century, or to the… Read More >>
Deutsche Börse Taps UniCredit Bank for Next CEO
New Deutsche Börse CEO to Serve for Three Years The next CEO for the Deutsche Börse will be Theodor Weimer from UniCredit Bank who will serve for three years, starting Jan. 1, 2018, according to the supervisory board of the exchanges and clearing company. The 57-year-old Weimer “will take over from CEO Carsten Kengeter who… Read More >>
CFTC’s Giancarlo Sounds the Alarm on E.U. Overreach
There are so many moving parts to the Brexit negotiations between the U.K. and the E.U., but the European Commission’s wish to tighten its grip on non-European clearinghouses has rankled U.S. regulators. In an opinion piece titled “An EU Plan to Invade U.S. Markets,” published in The Wall Street Journal by J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman… Read More >>
Cargill Fined $10M for Alleged Swaps Trading Violations
The CFTC reports that it has simultaneously filed and settled charges against Cargill, alleging that the Minnesota-based agricultural, commodity, and financial services giant sent swaps counterparties and a swaps data repository (SDR) “inaccurate marks” that obscured “up to ninety percent of Cargill’s mark-up.” The settlement order means that Cargill, Inc. will pay a $10 Million… Read More >>
CFTC Penalizes Morgan Stanley for Large Trader Omissions
The CFTC has ordered Morgan Stanley and Co. to pay a $350,000 penalty for omitting futures and options data from its required part 17 large trader reports. Morgan Stanley’s omissions spanned a 10-year period, from 2007 to 2017, and affected “thousands of line items of information,” according to the CFTC’s order, which simultaneously filed and… Read More >>
CFTC Strikes Swaps Equivalency Accord with E.C.
In a step toward the nirvana of harmonization, the CFTC and European Commission (E.C.) moved forward with an agreement to accept the legitimacy of each other’s rules on swap margin agreements and to allow swap trading venues under their jurisdictions to follow their home region’s rules. The two-part agreement covers the comparability of trading platforms… Read More >>
Clearinghouses Pass CFTC Liquidity Stress Tests
The CFTC’s recent settlement liquidity stress test analysis of three well-known clearinghouses — CME Clearing, ICE Clear U.S., and LCH, Ltd. — finds that all three could “meet their settlement obligations on time,” despite simulated defaults by clearing members. The CFTC analysis, which follows its initial supervisory stress test of clearinghouses that was published in… Read More >>
