Financial services firms are gearing up for the reporting requirements of the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR), and the DTCC is partnering with EquiLend, Trax, IHS Markit and Pirum to improve its global trade reporting capabilities before the SFTR rules take effect by the end of next year. Even though SFTR originated with the European… Read More >>
New SmartStream Team to Investigate AI for Ops
SmartStream Creates ‘Innovations Team’ SmartStream Technologies, which characterizes itself as a financial transaction lifecycle management provider, reports that its new “innovations team” is “working with financial institutions to optimise workflows, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and blockchain technologies, in the areas of reconciliations, cash management and fees and expense management.” The new… Read More >>
CME Group to Buy NEX Group for $5.5 Billion
Derivatives exchange operator CME Group Inc. is set to acquire NEX Group plc for an estimated $5.5 billion and, if all goes well, the combined provider of transaction processing across futures, cash and over-the-counter (OTC) instruments will be able to offer many post-trade capabilities beyond clearing services. The CME Group encompasses: CME Clearing; the Chicago… Read More >>
New Collateral Management Strategies Require New Building Blocks
Post-crisis regulation and competitive market conditions have forever changed the collateral management process for securities trading firms. The push to develop new collateral optimization strategies has often uncovered major problems within a firm’s own systems and processes. Most firms have had to move quickly to revamp their internal systems and craft new collateral management operations… Read More >>
Squawker’s Equity Finance Platform Tackles Manual Processes
London-based vendor Squawker’s Equity Finance platform has completed its launch phase and has been deployed at six of the top 10 global investment banks in large part because the platform provides an alternative for investment banks that usually book trades via manual processes and over-the-counter (OTC) against interdealer brokers, officials say. Three more major banks… Read More >>
Tullett Prebon to Buy Creditex Voice Brokerage
The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is selling the hybrid, U.S. voice-broking business operations of Creditex to London-based interdealer broker Tullett Prebon, which recently agreed to acquire similar businesses from competitor ICAP. Officials at ICE say they will retain the electronically traded markets and systems, post-trade connectivity platforms and intellectual property… Read More >>
Credit Suisse to Leverage FIS Utility
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse will be outsourcing its post-trade futures and cleared over-the-counter derivatives operations and technology to banking and payments technology vendor FIS in order to leverage the cost savings of a utility model, bank officials say. The Derivatives Utility from FIS targets market participants “including futures commission merchants (FCMs)” that want cost-efficient… Read More >>
ESMA Fines DTCC for Trade Repository Shortcomings
Post-trade infrastructure services provider DTCC has been fined nearly $73,000 by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for alleged failures to properly offer “direct and immediate access to derivatives trading data” for nine months in 2014. The regulator’s fine of €64,000 (equivalent to 72,907.15 given a 1 EUR = 1.13917 USD rate) is the… Read More >>
Blockchain Is Old News for European Markets
Blockchain may be creating the most buzz in financial services circles today but it has been quietly making a noise in Europe for the past 20 years. London-based consultancy Z/Yen created one of the first prototypes — a decentralized electronic ledger — for a client who wanted a shared database to provide an indelible and… Read More >>
CFTC Targets the Op Risk of High-Speed Trading
The CFTC last week unanimously proposed new rules to cut risks related to high-speed trading via the algorithms used by designated contract markets (DCMs). Some analysts say the rules will give the regulator more tools to deal with this key aspect of derivatives trading. However, others caution that the regulator should not put forth rules… Read More >>
