The CFTC has a nearly full slate of commissioners with the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote late yesterday to promote J. Christopher Giancarlo from acting chairman to chairman, and to confirm Brian D. Quintenz, a Republican, and Rostin Behnam, a Democrat, as new commissioners. Quintenz will join the CFTC from Saeculum Capital Management, “where he is… Read More >>
Trump Team Challenges SIFI Designation for Non-banks
The Trump Team is signaling that it is taking on aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and a key one, the “systemically important financial institution (SIFI)” designation stemming from Dodd-Frank is under review, according to a recent presidential memorandum to the secretary of the Treasury Department. The Trump team overseeing… Read More >>
SEC Blesses T+2 with Rule Change
The push for a shorter settlement cycle got a quiet boost from the SEC late last month when the regulator formally proposed a rule amendment urging the settlement cycle for most securities transactions change from three business days after the trade date (T+3) to two business days after the trade date (T+2). A key group… Read More >>
CFTC, Industry Groups Push for Policing of Algo Traffic
Key industry groups are weighing in on the CFTC’s proposed rule governing automated trading, urging separate rule-making phases and pre-trade risk controls on all orders in a bid to prevent electronic trading markets that suffer from systems gone wild. In their letter to the CFTC, the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the FIA Principal Traders Group… Read More >>
Britain’s Vote to Leave Sinks Global Markets
The United Kingdom has voted 52 percent to 48 percent to exit the European Union bloc of nations, according to tabulations from the BBC, and the “Brexit” referendum outcome is roiling markets and driving down the value of the British pound sterling. In fact, the swift market reactions in Asia may cause the Bank of… Read More >>
Brexit Roundup: A Leave Vote is Bad for the U.S.
(Editor’s note: As the U.K. votes today on whether or not to stay with the E.U., FTF News decided to pull together some predictions and reactions from this side of the pond. All of the quoted material is available online for further investigation.) SIFMA Roundtable Predicts U.K. to Stay In a statement dated June 14,… Read More >>
LCH Launches a Spider for Swaps Portfolio Margining
LCH Spider to Help with OTC and Listed Derivatives Clearinghouse LCH has launched its “LCH Spider” service, described as a portfolio margining tool for over-the-counter (OTC) and listed interest rate derivatives, for members and clients using LCH’s SwapClear and Listed Rates offerings, officials say. “LCH Spider is a fully automated service that analyses member and… Read More >>
SEC Pushing for Consolidated Audit Trail
The SEC voted late last month to move ahead with the final phase of the consolidated audit trail (CAT) project, part of a proposed national market system (NMS) plan to “create a single, comprehensive database that would enable regulators to efficiently track all trading activity in the U.S. equity and options market,” officials say. The… Read More >>
Steering Committee Sets Date for T+2 Changeover
U.S. markets now have a September 2017 date to work toward for the move from the current settlement cycle of trade date plus three days (T+3) to a two-day cycle (T+2) because of a recommendation from the T+2 Industry Steering Committee (T+2 ISC), which is guiding the transition. At the same time, officials at the… Read More >>
Japanese Exchanges to Work with IBM Japan on Blockchain Project
Officials of the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and IBM Japan recently announced that they are jointly developing proof of concept (PoC) tests for the Blockchain distributed ledger technology. This effort marks another major project for the financial services industry, which has been rapidly exploring how Blockchain can be applied to a variety of securities operations…. Read More >>
