Futures commission merchants (FCMs) offering sell-side clearing have been making “significant progress in automating” post-trade reconciliation since 2021 and want to apply technology rather than staff members to recs problems, according to the fourth quarter edition of the “Acuiti Sell-Side Clearing Management Insight Report.” However, firms have “some way to go to fully optimize the… Read More >>
SEC Revamps Clearing for Security-Based Swaps
It looks like there will be new rules of the road for conflicts of interest at registered clearing agencies servicing securities-based swaps. The SEC has adopted rules intended to reform boards of directors or equivalent governing bodies for these clearing agencies. However, critics of the recently approved rules — which date back to the Dodd-Frank Act… Read More >>
‘Like Upgrading an Aircraft Midflight’: Q&A
(Correspondent clearing provider RQD* Clearing (RQD) recently announced that it is broadening its partnership with broker-dealer TradingBlock to cover clearing and execution for the firm’s active and retail trading lines. In addition, RQD and TradingBlock are collaborating on TradingBlock’s forthcoming retail trading platform. TradingBlock, whose clients include proprietary traders and small hedge funds, was among… Read More >>
Clearing Is Broken: Q&A with RQD*’s CEO
(Consolidation across the clearing sector has resulted in less competition, fewer options for securities firms, and a broken system, says Michael Sanocki, CEO of RQD* Clearing, a new correspondent clearing provider. Thus RQD’s mission is to reach out to firms that are “sorely underserved” and “ripe for disruption.” RQD, which officially launched last month, offers… Read More >>
New CFTC Chairman Faces Long To-Do List
Heath P. Tarbert, the Acting Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has won Senate confirmation to be the next chairman of the CFTC, and will face regulatory concerns ranging from finishing Dodd-Frank reforms to the emergence of instruments based on crypto-currencies during his term, slated to last until April 2024. Following the… Read More >>
CHX to Get NYSE Pillar via ICE Acquisition
The Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) will become part of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the acquisition will pave the way for the CHX’s usage of the NYSE Pillar trading technology, officials say. The merger is slated to close during the second quarter of 2018, officials say. ICE… 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 >>
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 >>
Cinnober Spins Off Clearing Unit to Target the Sell Side
Swedish post-trade technology provider Cinnober is spinning off its real-time, clearing business into a dedicated separate subsidiary to provide client clearing for large international banks. It is currently looking to build a management team and hire a CEO to take it to the next stage. Cinnober provides technology for trading and clearing venues across the… Read More >>
Five Clearinghouses Pass CFTC’s Stress Test
Key clearinghouses for derivatives markets have “ample resources to withstand extremely stressful market scenarios,” according to CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad, who was commenting upon the results of the regulator’s supervisory stress test of CME Clearing; ICE Clear Credit, ICE Clear Europe and ICE Clear U.S., all part of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE); and LCH Clearnet…. Read More >>
