Inter-dealer broker Cantor Fitzgerald has plans to launch a Bitcoin financing business in an effort to help investors leverage their Bitcoin. “The firm will launch with $2 billion in initial financing and will continue to substantially grow the operation,” according to the initial announcement. “To launch the effort, Cantor Fitzgerald will partner with select Bitcoin… Read More >>
FINRA Explores Remote Inspections via Pilot Program
Nearly one-quarter or 22 percent of FINRA member firms have volunteered to participate in a pilot program that would allow them to complete their inspection obligations “without an on-site visit” from a FINRA official, according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers. FINRA notes that 741 firms are participating in the initial pilot, and… Read More >>
Gresham CEO Provides an Update on the Merger
(Gresham Technologies has merged with Alveo, a market data integration and analytics solutions provider, via a transaction led by Alveo’s majority owner private equity firm STG Partners. Before the merger, STG Partners and Alliance Bidco took Gresham Technologies plc private in April via a transaction that valued Gresham at approximately £146.7 million ($190.7 million). The… Read More >>
FIA Updates Best Practices for Credit Risk Mitigation
Post-trade controls, monitoring, and data collection are essential to mitigate the risk involved in the automation of exchange-traded futures, options, and centrally cleared derivatives. With the help of updated best practices, these controls can work well in conjunction with pre-trade controls to prevent credit events or unintended transactions. So says the Futures Industry Association (FIA)… Read More >>
Franklin Templeton to Deploy BlackRock’s Aladdin
Asset manager Franklin Templeton will be deploying the Aladdin platform from BlackRock to unify its investment management IT infrastructures across public market asset classes, officials say. The Aladdin portfolio management software offers investment firms “a way to view and manage daily investments,” according to BlackRock. “Aladdin is a comprehensive technology solution that supports the entire… Read More >>
FINRA Warns of Post-CrowdStrike Secondary Attacks
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) officials have issued a warning that the global disruption caused by the CrowdStrike Outage could be followed by secondary attacks. “In connection to the widespread disruption, member firms should be aware they may experience secondary attacks from cyber criminals seeking to leverage this incident to carry out social engineering and… Read More >>
SEC Launches Interagency Effort to Bolster Enforcement
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement has launched the Interagency Securities Council (ISC) to better coordinate enforcement among federal, state, and local agencies, SEC officials say. The ISC will involve representatives from “more than 100 departments and agencies, including federal agencies, state offices of attorneys general and state police, and local police departments… Read More >>
T+1 Glitches Emerge Between U.S. & E.U. Settlement
At a recent European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) public hearing on T+1 settlement, market participants expressed confidence that misalignments caused by North America’s transition will be resolved once the European Union (E.U.) adopts a shortened settlement cycle. While North America’s transition to T+1 was largely uneventful, hailed as a success by many, including DTCC… Read More >>
Cboe Clear Europe & ABN Amro Test CBDC as Collateral
Cboe Clear Europe, a pan-European clearinghouse, and ABN Amro Clearing Bank N.V., report that they have been testing the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as collateral, essentially exploring the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT). In particular, they have been “testing the viability of the solution for margin calls outside the opening… Read More >>
Google Cloud’s Quant Collaboration Has Lessons for Ops
We at FTF and FTF News focus much of our attention on post-trade operations. But every once in a while we take a look at some of the breakthroughs happening in the front office. Such advances ripple through to the middle- and back-office Ops teams. A case in point is the quantitative trading firm Hudson… Read More >>
