TNS Adds to Global Connectivity Footprint Transaction Network Services (TNS) has acquired BornTec’s managed hosting and co-location business, which will add to TNS’ global connectivity footprint and bolster previous TNS acquisitions, officials say. The latest acquisition was completed on March 21, 2023. The BornTec co-location acquisition adds to TNS’s global deployment of Layer 1 ultra-low… Read More >>
T. Rowe Price & Others to Test Public Blockchains
While the hype surrounding blockchain technology cooled long ago, the hope remains that it will yield trading technology breakthroughs. With that hope in mind, T. Rowe Price Associates, WisdomTree, Wellington Management, and Cumberland are “an initial cohort” of financial services firms participating in a test of public blockchain infrastructure. They will explore the benefits of… Read More >>
Derivatives Firms Take Ransomware More Seriously: Q&A
(Editor’s note: In late January, ION Cleared Derivatives, part of the ION Group, reported “a cybersecurity event,” which was a ransomware attack that set off a crisis for the global processing of cleared derivative instruments. The attack got the attention of the CFTC and the Futures Industry Association (FIA) as company officials worked to resolve… Read More >>
SWIFT Optimistic After Applying Blockchain to Corporate Actions
Six major financial services firms and the SWIFT financial messaging cooperative report that late last month they pilot-tested a blockchain-based solution that streamlines the communication of “significant corporate events to investors” by getting rid of multiple data problems. In an announcement and a report, SWIFT provided details about this latest collaborative experiment with six securities… Read More >>
Pershing X to Use Snowflake’s Data Cloud & Other News
Pershing X is Expanding Its Services The Pershing X technology provider and business unit of BNY Mellon reports that it hopes to bring new analytics and data management to clients via a collaboration with Snowflake, a data cloud provider. Pershing X is “expanding its stand-alone data service offerings to wealth management firms” via the Snowflake… Read More >>
NFA Adopts Rule Governing Digital Asset Commodities
The National Futures Association (NFA), a self-regulatory organization, is focusing its regulatory authority on digital asset commodity activities by adopting rules that set “anti-fraud, just and equitable principles of trade, and supervision requirements” for members and associates of the NFA. The scope of the newly adopted NFA Compliance Rule 2-51 “is currently limited to Bitcoin… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Settles Sanctions Violations Case for $97.8M
Wells Fargo Bank has settled a self-reported case of sanctions violations with two U.S. agencies — the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Federal Reserve — and will pay a total of $97.8 million to resolve violations of economic sanctions against Iran, Syria, and Sudan. The settlement with… Read More >>
UBS Completes Repo Trade via Blockchain & Other News
Banks Use Broadridge DLR Platform UBS and an unnamed Asian bank have “executed the first cross-border intraday repo transaction on Broadridge’s blockchain-enabled Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform,” according to operations, systems, and services provider Broadridge Financial Solutions. The intraday trade “marks the launch of the next phase in the rollout of Broadridge’s DLR platform …… Read More >>
The SEC Wants Electronic Filing for All Forms
Late last month, the SEC put forward amendments intended to “modernize its information collection and analysis methods by, among other things, proposing that a number of filings be submitted to the Commission electronically on EDGAR [the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval] system using structured data where appropriate,” according to the regulator’s announcement. Many in… Read More >>
CFTC Charges Binance Founder With Evading U.S. Law
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reports it has “filed a civil enforcement action charging [Binance founder] Changpeng Zhao [CZ] and three entities that operate the Binance platform with numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.” The CFTC complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of… Read More >>
