CME Clearing Europe (CMECE), the London-based derivative clearinghouse, was granted registration as a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) by the CFTC, making it the seventh such foreign organization to receive the designation and the 16th overall. As both an authorized central counterparty clearinghouse (CCP) under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) regime and a registered DCO,… Read More >>
Regulatory Limbo Likely as Trump Repeals Dodd-Frank
(In this second installment of a two-part series, FTF News asked the head of a New York-based financial services regulatory consulting company, Mary Kopczynski, CEO of 8of9, and her staff about the new Trump administration and its plans to dismantle the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. Answers from her and her team are in the Q&A… Read More >>
Broker Deploys Torstone’s Back-Office System in Four Months
U.K. Firm Wants Cost-Effective, Scalable Back Office Liberum, a pan-European investment bank, signed a multi-year deal with Torstone Technology in July to deploy the vendor’s Inferno back-office system and went live earlier this month with the new system, achieving a four-month implementation, according to Liberum and vendor officials. An employee-owned firm, Liberum offers pan-European equity… Read More >>
New Rules Mean New Ops Model for Initial Margining
(New rules for initial margining for non-centrally cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives went into effect September 1 when a new margin framework took hold via the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Regulators around the world have been to implement changes for firms trading in these instruments. Chris… Read More >>
Droit to Grow Operations With $16M Cash Injection
Droit Financial Technologies, an over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading systems vendor, is expanding operations to foster the acceptance of its real-time, decision-making engine for point-of-execution compliance. This is possible because of a $16 million, Series A minority investment via Goldman Sachs, Pivot Investment Partners and Wells Fargo. A principal trading firm, DRW, also participated in the… Read More >>
Russell Investments to Use SS&C for IBOR Push
Asset manager Russell Investments will be using proprietary, integrated systems from SS&C Technologies as the middle office core for an investment book of record (IBOR) that will help the firm’s portfolio managers trading in global markets. The firm, which has $244 billion in assets under management, is expanding its IT support for investment accounting, performance… Read More >>
Blockchain Project Tests Post-Trade Ops for Swaps
Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan with the help of Axoni and other vendors have been successfully testing since June post-trade processes based on blockchain/distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts that support over-the-counter (OTC) equity swaps. “Industry collaboration is key in driving blockchain innovation and Barclays is keen to remain at the forefront of this,”… Read More >>
LSE, Deutsche Börse Juggle Options to Save Merger
It is unclear whether the London Stock Exchange’s plans to sell its French clearing unit — LCH SA — will appease the E.U. regulators who have launched an extensive probe into its €24 billion ($26.9 million) merger with Deutsche Börse. However, there will be plenty of interest especially from Euronext, which is a well-known opponent… Read More >>
OpenGamma Gets $13.3M to Push Risk Analytics Standards
A vendor offering open source risk analytics for derivatives, OpenGamma reports that it has raised $13.3 million in total from venture capital firm Accel, ICAP’s Euclid Opportunities investment arm, and Cristóbal Conde, the former president and CEO of SunGard, all in a bid to accelerate plans to become the maker of benchmark industry-standard risk analytics…. Read More >>
MiFID II Group Grows, Readies IT Roadmap
The Project Sentinel collaboration of banks to mutualize MiFID II costs completes the first round of assessments of potential technology partners, the initiative has seen an increase in consortium numbers from the original four to seven banks to eight to 10 in the current phase. “At this stage, our sleeves are rolled up and the… Read More >>
