The SWIFT financial messaging and services cooperative is exploring how it might facilitate interoperability among the distributed ledgers used to underpin the tokenized asset market, and London-based blockchain upstart vendor SETL has joined the effort. “SWIFT plans a series of experiments in Q1 2022 leveraging its trusted role as a central platform to explore the… Read More >>
ISITC’s Back Even Stronger in 2022: Q&A
(Kristin Hochstein is the new chair of ISITC for the 2022-23 term, and she foresees the industry standards trade group in the new year as not simply what it was before the pandemic but “even stronger and with a new lens.” Hochstein takes over from Lisa Iagatta, who finished her three-year term as chair at… Read More >>
Get Ready for the FTF Awards 2022
Get your nominations ready for the highly competitive FTF News Technology Innovation Awards 2022 — now in its 12th year — presented by Financial Technologies Forum and the FTF News service. Since 2011, FTF has celebrated and recognized the professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, industry bodies, regulators, and other industry participants that have made… Read More >>
FactSet Buys CUSIP Global Services for $1.9 Billion
FactSet announced late last month that it is acquiring CUSIP Global Services (CGS) — a provider of identifiers for securities — from S&P Global for $1.925 billion in order to grow its data management offerings, and raise company and brand awareness in security issuance, settlement, back-office operations, and trading. “A CUSIP number is a unique… Read More >>
Should the SEC & CFTC Create a Crypto Bureau?
Two of the major overseers of financial markets — the SEC and the CFTC — appear to be in a bureaucratic tug-of-war when it comes to the regulatory oversight of emerging digital assets, and former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is proposing that the agencies work together to co-create a crypto bureau. In addition, an… Read More >>
FNZ Sells GBST But Will Buy Back Syn Suite
FNZ officials report that they have found a complicated, partial exit from their complicated acquisition of GBST, which was ultimately vetoed by a U.K. regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Known as a wealth management platform provider, FNZ has just announced that it has sold GBST to Anchorage Capital Partners, a global private equity… Read More >>
Senate Makes Behnam the New CFTC Chairman
Lost in the tsunami of federal government budget battle news is the welcome development that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has a new, official chairman — Rostin “Russ” Behnam, and that the stage has been set for a full roster of commissioners. On Dec. 16, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to approve Rostin Behnam… Read More >>
ICE & RIMES Weave ETF Data Into Key Products
Integration Opens Access to Equity & Fixed Income Data Exchanges and technology company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of NYSE, reports that it has integrated exchange-traded funds (ETF) data managed by RIMES into key offerings such as ICE ETF Hub, ICE Portfolio Analytics, and ICE FI Select offerings, officials say. The enhancement will enable clients to… Read More >>
House Passes Bill to Fix ‘Tough’ LIBOR Contracts
Bill Would Ease the Way to SOFR In a rare act of bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation intended to ease the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) transition for “markets, investors, and consumers” with what’s known as “tough legacy contracts” — incumbent agreements that will end without a designated reference rate. The… Read More >>
Crypto to Face New Rules in 2022: Regulators
Heavy-hitter federal regulators say new rules are coming for cryptocurrencies, the new, mostly unregulated financial sector that competes with traditional banks without offering deposit insurance, the banks’ most important protection. And cryptography has been beset by high-profile scandals that have cost some would-be crypto millionaires their entire fortunes. As well, at a time of worsening… Read More >>
