200 New Jobs Are Coming to Belfast Options Technology, a provider of cloud-enabled managed services, plans to “create 200 new jobs in Belfast over the next three years” as it expands its operations, officials say. The company is headquartered in Belfast City Centre’s Linen Loft building. The company added “100 new team members” over the… Read More >>
CME & DTCC Ready Cross-Margining Offering & Other News
SEC & CFTC Approve Joint Effort for Treasuries & Futures The SEC and CFTC have approved a new cross-margining arrangement between CME Group and the DTCC that will “permit eligible clearing members of CME and the Government Securities Division (GSD) of DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC) to cross-margin an expanded suite of products,”… Read More >>
FBI, FINRA Alert Firms About Email Cyberattacks
A recent alert from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns financial services firms using Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliances, even those with “up-to-date security patches,” that they “remain at risk for continued computer network compromise from threat actors exploiting a zero-day vulnerability.” The FBI’s alert also referred to “suspected PRC Cyber Actors,”… Read More >>
Exchanges & FINRA Told to Revamp NMS & Other News
SEC: Current NMS Has Too Many Conflicts of Interest Citing conflicts of interest in the current national market system (NMS), the SEC is ordering equity exchanges such as the Nasdaq Stock Market and New York Stock Exchange, and FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers, to revamp and improve the governance of market data… Read More >>
ESG Data Will Be Normalized for Investing: Q&A
(Paul Fahey, head of investment data science, asset servicing, Americas, Northern Trust, took questions from FTF News about the concerns that operations staff have about the environmental, social, and governance [ESG] data and factors that they are likely to encounter as part of their support for the investment process. In his post at Northern Trust,… Read More >>
SS&C Buys MFA Business from Iress & Other News
Acquisition to Help SS&C’s Transfer Agent Business Iress, a trading software and services provider, is selling its managed funds administration (MFA) business to SS&C Technologies, which will use the acquisition to strengthen its position as a transfer agent in Australia, officials say. Iress is based in Melbourne, Australia. “The MFA business [from Iress] is… Read More >>
Firms Want More ESG Data: Report
“More than nine in 10 executives plan to increase ESG data spend, but data linkage and managing multiple vendor feeds dilute value,” according to a recent survey by market data and news giant Bloomberg and market research firm Adox Research. Adox provides “advice and marketing for banks, asset managers, custodians, and tech providers.” “ESG,” as… Read More >>
ISDA Docs Expert Launches Online Course & Other News
Course Targets Firms that Use ISDA Master Agreements Edyta Knizewska, a derivatives documentation expert, reports that she is offering an online course about “understanding and negotiating ISDA Master Agreements.” The master agreements “govern over-the-counter derivatives transactions,” and Knizewska, a legal consultant, negotiator and derivatives lawyer wants to offer her experience through her ISDA Lab course…. Read More >>
Is Tokenized Gold the New Collateral?
(Anoushka Rayner, head of growth — commodities, at Paxos, maker of a regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, wants financial services firms to think about how their dormant assets like gold could become collateral alternatives to the U.S. dollar. Paxos officials say that their system, which offers “multilateral payment netting and simultaneous settlement for the… Read More >>
T+1 Will Overhaul Securities Lending: Report
A new report from Citi — “Securities Services Evolution 2023” — argues that the move to shorter, T+1 settlement will leave no one in securities operations untouched. However, the report strongly argues that securities lending is in for a rollercoaster ride as securities firms move to T+1. Firms and other market participants will need to… Read More >>
