Securities Industry News articles from April 2004

Securities Industry News archives from April 2004

U.K. Voting Process Must Go Electronic.
April 5, 2004... When U.K. law was changed in the 1980s to allow building societies-Britain's mutually owned savings-and-loan associations-to convert into quoted companies, the hurdles were set so high that 75 percent of members had to vote in favor of such a...

OTC Derivatives Trading Automation at a Turning Point.
April 5, 2004... Financial Insights has been examining desk-level risk systems for more than half a decade. Recently, we shifted our focus slightly with a pair of reports ("Desk-Level Risk Systems as OTC Derivatives Trading Solutions" and "Creating Archipelagos...

Madoff Shifts FIX Efforts.(Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities)
April 5, 2004... After nearly 10 years of using a proprietary FIX engine, New York-based broker-dealer Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC is migrating its FIX processing to Cameron Systems' FIX engine. Liz Weintraub, head of information technology...

No New Revelation$' for Clearstream.
April 5, 2004... International depository Clearstream has finally put to rest a long-running saga about alleged money laundering activities that has dogged it since the publication of a book co-authored by ex-staffer Ernest Backes. The French court...

Direct Access Extends Reach.
April 5, 2004... Direct access technology is continuing to creep into new areas, nipping at the heels of more established players such as trade allocation specialist Omgeo Oasys and trade facilitator Lava Trading. In mid-March, R.F. Lafferty, a...

CME Rips Another Potential Overseas Rival.(Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.)
April 5, 2004... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is once again raising doubts about a cross-Atlantic clearing arrangement, only this time it's concerning U.K.-French clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet. The CME, which previously tried to slow Eurex's efforts to...

Not Quite Settled: Specialists wrap up SEC case, but their future remains up in the air.(Securities and Exchange Commission )
April 5, 2004... Five of the New York Stock Exchange specialist firms last week settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for trading violations, but the agreement hardly lifts the cloud of uncertainty about the future of the auction system on the...

Hard Questions For Soft Dollars.
April 5, 2004... The controversy over soft dollars moved onto the public stage last week, as major industry players stated their very different cases before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. The March 31 hearing, part of a series...

Feuding Over Futures.(Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc.)
April 5, 2004... The rivalry between the futures exchanges escalated last week, as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) sued the Chicago Board Options Exchange over the volatility index contract (VIX), the first listing on its newly launched CBOE Futures...

Track Wins Fee Case.(Track Data Corp.)
April 5, 2004... Track Data Securities has won an NASD arbitration case against Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., regarding fees the Track ECN charged for trades executed on Nasdaq's SuperSoes. A number of Nasdaq market participants have been reluctant to pay such...

On The Record.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 5, 2004... "During my first few days at the Commission, I could see that we needed to adopt a more proactive and anticipatory approach to our work-an ideology that would drive each staff person to look around corners and over hills in anticipation of...

Cautionary Tale: Oversight of trading system at the heart of Bank of America's fund woes.
April 12, 2004... The first indictment in the scandal that sparked the mutual fund trading imbroglio was filed last week against a broker in Bank of America's asset management arm, which played the primary role in enabling the questionable transactions. However,...

Directed Brokerage: Is the End at Hand?
April 12, 2004... The mutual fund scandals may be about to claim another victim: directed brokerage. A broad coalition of groups has lined up in favor of a ban on the longstanding practice, in which fund companies direct trading commissions toward brokers that...

Cusip Pricing Questioned.(Securities prices and ISO)
April 12, 2004... The battle over the Cusip Service Bureau's pricing policies for securities identification numbers has escalated all the way to the prestigious International Standards Organization. The group, which puts its imprimatur on a variety of...

Clear English a Value-Add.
April 12, 2004... In March, as part of the investigations into mutual fund industry practices, the Senate Banking Committee heard from various scholars concerning the use of simplified language in fund documents. The need to move away from the legal and archaic...

For Mutual Funds, What Disclosure?
April 12, 2004... Approximately six months ago, an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sparked the greatest crisis in the history of the U.S. mutual funds industry. Not only were mutual funds allowing select investors to unlawfully...

Microsoft Swift Package Final.
April 12, 2004... Last week, Microsoft announced the full availability of the BizTalk Accelerator for Swift after some delays. The product, which runs on the BizTalk server, is billed as a way to cut costs and speed implementation times for Swift integration for...

Coming of Age: Virtual tape gets big push from big name: EMC.
April 12, 2004... It looks like tape storage to your computer system but costs twice as much and can't be put in a box and stored away, or shipped somewhere overnight. But virtual tape -otherwise known as disk libraries-has finally hit the big time, with a new...

Single Canadian Regulator: All-Too-Familiar Territory.
April 12, 2004... In what seems like the continuation of an endless debate, Canada's federal government and the government of its largest province are touting the need to scrap the country's system of provincial securities commissions in favor of a single,...

Market Data Standard Gets Specific.(Market Data Definition Language )
April 12, 2004... In a response to industry demands, the Financial Information Services Division (FISD) of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is adopting a strategy to give firm targets and a timeline on the MDDL spec's development from...

SunGard Names Trading Head.(SunGard Trading Systems/Brass named Jim Leman as president)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Jim Leman, a pioneer in electronic trading connectivity, longtime member of FIX Protocol Ltd. and former head of FIX connectivity at Salomon Smith Barney, has been named president of SunGard Trading Systems/Brass. Leman takes over for Tom...

Making the Most Out of Warehousing.
April 12, 2004... Firms enjoy new options, business opportunities in aggregating data Everyone agrees that in the age of knowledge, data is king-and queen. But inconsistent data stored in disparate silos has quickly become a wild card in managing operational...

The Message Is the Medium for Info Transport.(data management )
April 12, 2004... One of the major issues in data management is the sheer volume of information required to execute and process trades. As trade-related data becomes more complex, the messages that carry that information will have to accommodate additional...

SocGen Eyes New Galaxy' for Data Control.(Societe Generale)
April 12, 2004... Societe Generale's corporate and investment banking (SG CIB) arm is in the final stages of a three-year project called Galaxy, which is creating a single integrated framework for reference data, pricing and corporate actions. Equities,...

More Choices for Savings Means More Tech Demands for Funds: As Europen.
April 12, 2004... The growing trend in Europe of governments and employers giving working people more choice in where their pension money is invested is upping the technological requirements for pension funds and the investment managers they deal with. The...

Omgeo Greets TradeWeb.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... The acquisition of online bond trading platform TradeWeb by Thomson Financial, announced last week, is certain to have a profound impact on how the electronic fixed-income trading environment evolves. One venture that looks to gain from the...

OMHex Transfers Finnish Custody to SEB.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... OMHex, the umbrella organization for the combined Swedish and Finnish markets, has tapped SEB Merchant Banking to take over custody operations now handled by OMHex's Finnish subsidiary, HBO, a move that may presage the creation of a pan-Nordic...

On The Record.(New York Stock Exchange CEO John Thain)
April 12, 2004... "Seven is already too few." -New York Stock Exchange CEO John Thain, indicating that consolidation among Big Board specialists has gone far enough "We appreciate that the largest financial services providers want more coordinated...

NYSE Sticks to Hybrid Plan.(New York Stock Exchange Inc.)
April 19, 2004... CEO John Thain will reiterate his plan to turn the New York Stock Exchange into the world's largest hybrid market when he testifies at the Securities and Exchange Commission's first hearing on Regulation NMS on Wednesday. The NYSE chief...

Auto-Ex for CHX: Chicago exchange prepares for Reg NMS with new system.(Chicago Stock Exchange Inc.)
April 19, 2004... The Chicago Stock Exchange is planning to boost its auto-execution services by this summer, in part as an answer to Regulation NMS, which is likely to force floor exchanges to modernize, CHX CEO David Herron said. "We'll have our new...

Ambitious Agenda for Funds.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 19, 2004... It's going to be a long, hot summer at the Securities and Exchange Commission. On April 13, by a vote of 5-0, the SEC adopted an enhanced disclosure rule requiring mutual funds to spell out their market timing policies in their...

Sun Never Sets on SIN.(Securities Industry News)
April 19, 2004... When Richard Thornburgh became the first chairman of the Securities Industry Association to speak in China last week, it highlighted a couple of trends. The most obvious is the enormous potential of the Chinese economy, and the importance of...

Brokers Push for Technology Innovation.
April 19, 2004... For the past several years, seemingly every IT project has been correlated to straight-through processing or another efficiency-related theme. Now, brokers see in the improving economy a chance to deploy new technology in an innovative manner...

Late to ATS Regulation, U.K. Sees Slow Start Under New Regime.(alternative trading systems )
April 19, 2004... The U.K. Financial Services Authority justified introducing a new regulatory regime for alternative trading systems (ATS) by saying it would bring in extra business. The rules took effect at the start of April, but in London investment houses...

New Fixed-Income Era Coming into View: Markets on the verge of attaining long-discussed real-time pricing.
April 19, 2004... After months of discussion and preparation, the corporate and municipal bond markets are on the cusp of major new steps in their evolutions to real-time price reporting. Significant issues remain unresolved, to be sure, principally how to...

Transparency: Not Just for Corporate Bonds Anymore.
April 19, 2004... When it comes to fixed-income price transparency, corporate bonds have grabbed most of the headlines. This is especially true now that the National Association of Securities Dealers is contemplating extending its Trade Reporting and Compliance...

XML a Key Cog in the U.K.'s Compliance Automation Effort.(Interview)
April 19, 2004... Two key securities industry trends-automating the task of compliance and migrating toward the extensible markup language (XML)-have converged at the U.K.'s primary financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority. The FSA late last month...

Inet, Brut in Discussions?(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Instinet Group is in talks with SunGard Data Systems about a possible merger between their respective ECNs, Inet and Brut, according to an industry source. The two companies declined to comment about a merger that would create a true ECN...

SIA, DTCC Codify Guidelines for Closes.(Securities Industry Association)(Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.)
April 19, 2004... The Securities Industry Association and Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. recently issued guidelines on tackling operational issues during "an unexpected" market close that largely codify existing practice. The information outlined in last...

On The Record.(financial services)
April 19, 2004... "There is a great opportunity for China to build a truly best of breed' capital market structure. By incorporating the lessons learned-both positive and negative-from experiences in established markets like London, New York and Hong Kong,...

ECSDA Tries to Harmonize.(European Central Securities Depositories Association )
April 19, 2004... The European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), a trade group of 19 depository systems, has taken the first concrete steps to eliminate two interrelated barriers to efficient clearing and settlement in Europe by April 2005:...

Euroclear Issues New Challenge With Belgian Service.
April 19, 2004... Euroclear Bank's decision to launch a book-entry settlement service for cash trades executed on Euronext Brussels has added ammunition to the international depository's battle with local agent banks over control of the European cross-border...

China's Pension Law Opens Opportunities.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MoLSS) is implementing new legislation effective May 1 that will open the door for pension providers to service a new type of pension fund called the enterprise annuity (EA). According to...

The Street Has Its Say: Trade-through rule takes center stage at hearing as industry leaders debate Reg NMS.
April 26, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission last week held its first hearing on Regulation NMS, with 45 market participants presenting widely different views that fall short of endorsing the broadest set of reforms since Congress' 1975 mandate for a...

Data Battle Brewing.(market data )
April 26, 2004... While the trade-through rule reform is, not surprisingly, stealing the show, another Regulation NMS proposal involving a new market data revenue sharing formula has generated much industry debate as well. The interest is easy to understand,...

Clearinghouses: Futures Now.
April 26, 2004... While much of the recent fanfare in the futures industry has centered on the cross-Atlantic offering of a dazzling array of new products, the focus is turning to the industry's clearinghouses and how they can provide their members with greater...

Oversight or Oversight?(compensation package : Richard Grasso)
April 26, 2004... Some time soon, we all will find out whether Eliot Spitzer intends to pursue a suit to recoup some of the almost $140 million in compensation paid to former Big Board Chairman Richard Grasso. We may also find out whether Mr. Grasso will counter...

As EU Beckons, Poland Looks To Build a New Stock Market.
April 26, 2004... Of the 10 Eastern European countries set to join the European Union on May 1, Poland has, by far, the largest stock market. Currently valued at around $40 billion, it is almost twice the size of its nearest competitor, the Czech Republic. Among...

Canadian Platform Pushes STP.(CanDeal)
April 26, 2004... Canadian fixed-income trading platform CanDeal has stepped up to the plate in promoting Canadian securities regulators' recent calls for shorter post-trade communications through a new link with CIBC Mellon, one of Canada's largest custodian...

Seeing the Light.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Nasdaq embraces FIX but retains legacy connectivity Trading connectivity at Nasdaq is continuing to move on two disparate tracks, as the stock market has expanded its pool of customers following its introduction of FIX connectivity last...

Germany Woos Foreigners; Issues Remain.(securities and tax regulations )
April 26, 2004... New German securities and tax regulations that allow non-German investment funds such as mutual funds and hedge funds easier access to the local market are coming with extra administrative burdens. Germany's recently adopted Investment Act...

Opinions Diverge on Commission's Reg NMS Proposal.(NASDAQ Market System)
April 26, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed Regulation NMS has attracted a great number of comments-too many to be heard at the first open hearing on the issue held last Wednesday in New York. The all-day hearing could not permit either...

CME's Market Data Conundrum: FIX or FISDMessage?(Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
April 26, 2004... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is planning to move from its proprietary application programming interface (API) for market data to an open standard. Initial indications were that a FIX interface would be used based on the CME's implicit...

Sweden and Finland's Depositories to Merge.(APK)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... In a prelude to the possible creation of a pan-Nordic depository, OMHex has agreed to merge its Finnish central securities depository, APK, with Swedish depository VPC. OMHex and the four principal owners of VPC-ForeningsSparbanken, Nordea...