In other news, MarketAxess hires from State Street, Goldman Sachs now fully owns its PRC subsidiary, and Interactive Brokers bows to crypto.
FINRA Gives tZero ATS the Green Light
The tZero ATS, an alternative trading system/broker-dealer subsidiary of blockchain technology vendor tZero, reports that it has achieved what it says is a milestone development — the approval to offer settlement and clearing services for securities transactions for itself and its broker-dealer affiliates, officials say.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) self-regulatory organization recently approved tZero ATS for the settlement and clearing of securities transactions.
Initially, user-directed settlement will come via a partnership “with a custodian and, later, in conjunction and in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s statement that outlined how broker-dealers can engage with digital asset securities, including maintaining custody of these assets and settling on-chain without a clearing firm or a custodian,” tZero officials say.
“The clearing and custody model will support the current and future private digital securities that trade on the tZero ATS, which are uncertificated securities with focused blockchain functionality to increase transparency. It will also support NMS [the National Market System in the U.S.] securities, which are public securities that trade on national exchanges,” according to a statement from tZero.
The new clearing and settlement support is key to “the evolution of its product offering and drive to expand the role of blockchain technology in securities transactions in a compliant manner,” according to tZero officials, who say that they expect “subject to regulatory approval, to implement parallel clearing, settlement, and custodial solutions to support digital asset securities.”
The broker-dealer subsidiaries of the tZero ATS “will now be able to onboard, independently and rapidly, additional private securities in its current and future pipeline … and seamlessly transfer cash and securities to and from another platform to enhance the user experience for the securities trading platform,” according to the statement.
During the fourth quarter of 2021 and into the first quarter of next year, “tZero’s broker-dealer subsidiaries plan to onboard at least four additional private securities, including Curzio Research’s Curzio Equity Owners security, MarketSpace Capital’s the Spot @ Myra Park security, American Films’ common equity, and XY Labs’ Class A common stock, and, subject to regulatory approval, launch its unified trading experience.”
MarketAxess Taps State Street for New Head of ETF Solutions
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. reports the appointment of Kathryn Sweeney as the head of index and ETF solutions.
The company characterizes itself as an operator of an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities and a provider of market data and post-trade services for the fixed-income markets.
Kathryn Sweeney
Sweeney will be responsible for the “development and execution of the MarketAxess index and ETF business strategy. She will lead business and product development efforts by working with industry partners to leverage MarketAxess’ proprietary market data and trading insights to create a suite of indices and portfolio construction solutions,” according to a statement.
She joins from State Street Global Advisors, where she was a senior managing director and head of the institutional client group for North America, MarketAxess says in its statement, which also notes that, before SSGA, she spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs.
At MarketAxess, she reports to industry veteran Chris Concannon. — L.Ch
Goldman Sachs Granted Full Ownership of JV in China
Goldman Sachs has “received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to take full ownership of Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Company Limited (GSGH),” according to an email sent to all Goldman Sachs employees, “whereby we will acquire the remaining equity interest in GSGH we do not currently own. This marks the start of a new chapter for our China business following a successful 17-year joint venture.”
The email notes that “full ownership of GSGH will enable us to position our firm for long-term growth and success in this market under one wholly-owned entity, to be renamed Goldman Sachs (China) Securities Company Limited.” — L.Ch
Interactive Brokers Launches Cryptocurrency Trading for RIAs
Interactive Brokers Group, a brokerage firm, reports that it has launched cryptocurrency trading for registered investment advisors in the United States, “enabling these RIAs to trade and custody Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) via Paxos Trust Company on behalf of clients.”
RIAs will “benefit from the ability to manage their client’s positions in cryptocurrency in addition to stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs from all over the world from a single screen, and all shown on one platform with customizable reports,” the firm says in a statement.
“Allocating a small percentage of assets to cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has steadily become more commonplace, and advisors may wish to recommend cryptocurrency to their clients,” Steve Sanders, executive vice president of marketing and product development at Interactive Brokers, says in the statement. — L.Ch
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