Securities Industry News articles from August 2003

Securities Industry News archives from August 2003

SuperMontage Rx Seeking greater liquidity, Nasdaq considers outbound model.
August 4, 2003... With SuperMontage a far cry from the great liquidity aggregator it was meant to be, Nasdaq is now favoring an outbound model that would link its closed trading system to competitors. "To fulfill the ultimate goal of SuperMontage, we need to...

FIX Deal Furthers Futures Automation.(FIX Protocol Ltd. and the Futures Industry Association sign agreement)
August 4, 2003... The statement of understanding signed last Thursday between FIX Protocol Ltd. and the Futures Industry Association will likely boost automated trading in the United States by FIX-enabling the futures and options market. Under the...

Boston Exchange Submits Plans for Its Box Platform.(Boston Stock Exchange )
August 4, 2003... The Boston Stock Exchange (BSE) has submitted to regulators its delegation and allocation plans for the Boston Options Exchange, or BOX, bringing the proposed derivatives platform one step closer to becoming the sixth U.S. options market. ...

Matching Matchup : FMC hire highlights crowded, still-evolving sector.(Financial Models Co.)
August 4, 2003... Financial Models Co.'s recent filling of the newly created position of North American head of marketing for its flagship FMCNet product has helped position Canada's largest post-trade communication services provider as an alternative to Omgeo...

DTCC: Improved Breakpoints in 2004.(Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. sets deadline of early 2004 to enhance two of its primary mutual fund services )
August 4, 2003... The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has set itself a deadline of early 2004 to enhance two of its primary mutual fund services to help make discounts on mutual funds with sales loads-called "breakpoints"-more apparent and available to...

FSA: Emphasis Growing On Ops Risk Management But More Progress Needed.(Financial Services Authority)
August 4, 2003... Late last month, the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority published the results of a survey of 22 firms that are developing operational risk (OR) frameworks. In the following excerpts from the survey, which took place over the last year, the FSA...

Court Backs CBOT Members in Suit.(Illinois Appellate Court rules that the Chicago Board of Trade's proposed restructuring as a for-profit business must first pass "entire fairness" test)
August 4, 2003... Where does the value of an exchange reside, if not in the volume it handles? Who provides the volume, if not the members of the exchange? Who should benefit from the for-profit business if not those who make that business possible? The...

Creditex Expands to ADRs With Swapbook Launch.(American Depositary Receipt )
August 4, 2003... Creditex, a credit derivatives price discovery platform, has expanded into the growing American Depositary Receipt arena through the launch last week of ADR Swapbook. A trading platform that financial institutions can use to convert ADRs...

WestLB Taps ASP Service.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Houston-based WestLB Asset Management, the fixed-income investment management arm of WestLB, has licensed Princeton Financial Systems' software hosting service for PAM for Securities and PAM for Mutual Funds. The firm, which hopes to...

Europeans, Routing Networks Mount OMS Campaign.(Sell-side order management system (OMS) vendor strategy is changing)
August 4, 2003... Lookout SunGard and NYFIX, the Europeans-and others-are coming. Heavy downward stress on global IT costs caused by declining equities trading revenue are greatly shifting the competitive sands of sell-side order management system (OMS)...

Euroclear, Clearstream Automate Daytime Link.(Euroclear and Clearstream International will replace their current manual daytime link with electronic one)
August 4, 2003... Falling in line with industry calls for interoperability of post-trade processing platforms, rivals Euroclear and Clearstream International will replace their current manual daytime link with an electronic one beginning in June 2004. As an...

Guzman Embraces Testing Suite for Trading System.(Guzman & Co. licenses Aegis Software's Exchange Simulator)
August 4, 2003... Miami-based institutional brokerage Guzman & Co. has licensed Aegis Software's Exchange Simulator, an automated test environment that allows users to test their internal order management system against simulations of popular FIX- and CMS-based...

CalPERS Deals Aid STP Effort.(California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is working with Charles River Development and SeeBeyond on straight-through-processing scheme)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is working with Charles River Development and SeeBeyond as part of a plan to implement a straight-through-processing environment at the fund, according to a CalPERS spokesman. ...

Nasdaq Beefs Up Sales Force.(hires five sales executives)
August 4, 2003... Nasdaq has hired five sales executives-four from the Island ECN and later Instinet-to strengthen relations with buy-side and sell-side customers in a bid to beef up its 17-percent volume market share. The five sales directors are reporting...

Ex-Instinet Crossing Execs Start Business at Burlington.(Burlington Capital Markets launches crossing system called Blox (Burlington's Large Order Cross) )(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Burlington Capital Markets, an agency-based institutional brokerage firm, has launched a crossing system called Blox (Burlington's Large Order Cross), which was designed by two former Instinet crossing executives. James Ross, who formerly...

ESocGen Division Installs Asset Control's ACPlus.(Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking's )
August 4, 2003... Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking's (SG CIB) recently completed implementation of Asset Control's data management software package, ACPlus, as the first phase of an extensive revamping of its equity derivatives IT...

Equilend Taps Radianz As Network Provider.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Radianz's global financial extranet, RadianzNet, has joined WorldCom as Equilend's network provider, officials of both firms confirmed last week. "RadianzNet enables Equilend to provide an efficient and cost-effective means of connecting...

Scottish Widows Nabs DST's Front-Office Suite.(Scottish Widows Investment Partnership goes live with DST International's post-trade HiCompliance module)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has gone live with DST International's post-trade HiCompliance module in the first phase of its implementation of the vendor's front-office package, HiInvest. HiCompliance provides position...

First Options of Chicago Picks HyperFeed for Data.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... First Options of Chicago, an options clearing firm owned by Goldman Sachs, has tapped HyperFeed to provide a datafeed and ticker plant technology to cache the data at the firm, said Tom Wojciechowski, SVP of the Americas at HyperFeed. ...

twist: burgeoning rival for swift?(Competitive threat to Swift's foreign exchange messages has surfaced from Twist )
August 4, 2003... During the past year, Swift, the banking and securities industry messaging utility, has solidified its position in the messaging space with the successful transition of its Category 5 message types from the text-centric ISO 7775 standard to the...

New ISO 15022 Working Group eyes data.(ISO XML Working Group 11 will begin to replace its predecessor, ISO XML Working Group 10, in third quarter)
August 4, 2003... With the ISO XML Working Group 11 slated to begin replacing its predecessor, the ISO XML Working Group 10, in the third quarter, the group's focus will be on market data, reference data and corporate actions, according to executives involved...

XBRL Mandate Moves Beyond Accounting.
August 4, 2003... The accounting scandals of the past year and growing demands from regulators for transparency are expected to help light a fire under XBRL, the extensible business reporting language, increasing the likelihood that the XML-based standard will...

ISITC-IOA Europe Extends Committee to Vendors.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... ISITC-IOA Europe has expanded membership of its executive committee to include vendors. Nigel Solkhon, IBM's global segment leader for asset management, and Gert Raeves, product manager of Heliograph, were elected to the committee in May, and...

XBRL International Unveils New Group Appointments.
August 4, 2003... In an expansion of the organization, XBRL International recently announced a number of new appointments. Michelle Horowitz of PR Newswire has been appointed chair of the XBRL-U.S. adoption committee, replacing Paul Penler of Ernst & Young,...

Jasdec to Test New DVP System.(Delivery-vs.-payment system)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Japan's central depository, Jasdec, will begin testing its delivery-vs.-payment system, NETD, in November, with a launch date set for May 2004. Jasdec will run bilateral tests with each participant and market-wide tests involving all...

India Makes Preparations for One-Day Settlement Cycle.
August 4, 2003... Having successfully shortened its settlement cycle from three days to two days in April, India is now making plans to move to one-day settlement next year. Supporting the effort will be the creation of a real-time gross settlement system...

J.P. Morgan Chase Wins Yet Another Aussie Client.(Shell Australia)
August 4, 2003... The shakeout in the Australian custody arena continued last week with J.P. Morgan Chase nabbing yet another mandate-the master custody business for Shell Australia's $A600 million ($400 million) superannuation fund-from Commonwealth Bank of...

Cyber-Defense Set for Revamp.(Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center)
August 11, 2003... The industry's info-sharing, cyber-defense unit, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS/ISAC), has embarked on a major overhaul to better guard the financial sector against computer hacking and other attacks. ...

Nasdaq Seeks Deal to Get Trades Back.
August 11, 2003... Nasdaq, which has seen its profits evaporate along with its market share, is seeking the Securities and Exchange Commission's permission to offer financial incentives to lure back market participants. "This is all about the sharing of tape...

Settlement Spat: Market players rip ESCB-CESR processing plan.(European System of Central Banks and Committee of European Securities Regulators set new standards for clearance and settlement practices)
August 11, 2003... In trying to resolve an ongoing debate over whether financial intermediaries should be regulated the same way as settlement infrastructure providers offering identical services, the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Committee of...

Technology Key Factor In Rush to Provide SMAs.(separately managed accounts)
August 11, 2003... The technology thoroughly maligned after it failed to show much measurable return-on-investment for financial firms is making a comeback and is set to buoy the hottest of post-bubble sectors for the industry. Client relationship management...

Content Management: Taming the Info Flood.
August 11, 2003... It used to be that computers stored neatly categorized information, such as names and addresses, in nice searchable records. Everything else went into filing cabinets. But all the stuff in the filing cabinets is starting to creep into the...

ArcaEx's Putnam, Instinet's Nicoll Answer NYSE.(Archipelago Holdings CEO Jerry Putnam)(Instinet CEO Ed Nicoll )
August 11, 2003... New York Stock Exchange President and co-COO Robert Britz recently took a swipe at the "new breed" of markets and its irreverence for the trade-through rule that mandates sending orders to the venue with the best price. Britz, in an...

Roach Motel' Repeal May Boost Rivals.(Robert Greifeld, new president and chief executive of Nasdaq)
August 11, 2003... When Napoleon had to promote a general from the ranks of his Grande Armee, the one question he always asked was, "Yes, but is he lucky?" Robert Greifeld, who took over as Nasdaq's president and CEO on May 12, may just possess that special...

Buy Side Remains a Challenge for STP.(straight-through-processing)
August 11, 2003... Anecdotal evidence that buy-side firms are lagging in adopting some straight-through-processing initiatives, including central matching, surfaced once again last week at a breakfast presentation of industry experts sponsored by the Securities...

ISDA Survey: FpML Usage Continuing to Increase.(financial products markup language)
August 11, 2003... Interest in the financial products markup language (FpML) is on the rise, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's annual operations benchmarking survey. Sixty-seven percent of the 64 respondents in this year's...

New Law Could Promote Outsourcing in Germany.(securities law)
August 11, 2003... Amendments to Germany's new securities law-which could go into effect as early as January-might open up new outsourcing opportunities for custodian banks and other securities service providers, say industry experts. The new Investment Act,...

AIM Group to Hone in on Breakpoints.
August 11, 2003... AIM Investments is assembling a formal work group to improve the disclosure of breakpoints-or discounts on mutual funds with sales loads. The group will address each of the recommendations made in July by an industry-regulatory task force,...

Unilever Taps Euroclear for European CP Program.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... International depository Euroclear said last week that Unilever has become the first corporate issuer to take advantage of same-day issuance and settlement services for European commercial paper (ECP) within subsidiary Euroclear France to offer...

Johannesburg Wraps Merger.(Johannesburg completes merger of equities and fixed-income depositories under umbrella of Strate,)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Johannesburg has now completed the merger of its equities and fixed-income depositories under the umbrella of Strate, South Africa's equities depository, following approval by the country's securities regulator. The deal, approved by...

Canadian OTC Mart Goes Live.(Canadian Trading and Quotation System)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... The Canadian Trading and Quotation System (CNQ), a new Canadian over-the-counter market, has began operations using EFA Software's Horizon trading platform, now part of Australian technology vendor Computershare, officials said last week. ...

Lava Deal-Making Continues With Charles River Link-Up.(Charles River Development has partnered with Lava Trading)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Charles River Development has partnered with Lava Trading to incorporate Lava's direct-access trading capabilities into the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS). The announcement follows a similar deal Lava struck...

GIS Inks Deal With CorrectNet For Web-Based Reporting.(Global Investment Systems)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Global Investment Systems (GIS), a fund accounting and shareholder recordkeeping software house, has inked a deal with CorrectNet, a data consolidation and Web publishing service, to allow users of GIS' MFact and MShare systems the ability to...

Commission Promotes Counsel Shillman to Associate Director.(Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S.)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission has promoted counsel David Shillman to the position of associate director of the division of market regulation, where he shares responsibility for the office of market supervision with Elizabeth King. ...

William Blair Chooses ADP's ProVisor System.(Chicago's William Blair & Co. recently expanded its relationship with Automatic Data Processing)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Chicago's William Blair & Co. recently expanded its relationship with Automatic Data Processing to implement ADP's broker desktop productivity tool, ProVisor, which is integrated with ADP's BPS back office. ProVisor is a browser-based...

2003 Second-Quarter Statistical Report.
August 11, 2003... The following is Securities Industry News' 2003 Second-Quarter Statistical Report, showcasing the quarterly rises and falls in volume for automated trading platforms, depositories and clearing corporations, exchanges and correspondent clearing...

Townsend Analytics Focuses on OMS Development.(order management systems)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... While Townsend Analytics has traditionally serviced its customers by providing direct access to market liquidity, many of its newer initiatives are targeted toward order management systems, specifically "making Townsend's [OMS] middleware...

Misys Seeking Order Routers.(Misys Securities Trading Systems)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Order management system (OMS) provider Misys is seeking buy-side order routing partners to aid in breaking into the United States, according to Gareth Bevan, director of business strategy at Misys Securities Trading Systems. While Misys already...

Legacy Costs.(Nasdaq's international operations are discussed)
August 11, 2003... At the height of the tech bubble, then-Nasdaq chief Frank Zarb mapped out a strategy to turn the once-modest NASD electronic billboard into an independent, for-profit exchange with global ambitions. Four years later, Nasdaq is not independent...

More Than Just a Database.(efficient storage management software, product features)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... A good ECM system will have the following features, said Bruce Silver of Bruce Silver Associates, a content and process management advisory firm. Consistency across content types and sources. All items relating to a particular topic can be...

In Blackout, BCP Focus Pays Off.(business-continuity planning)
August 18, 2003... The post-9/11 emphasis on business-continuity planning paid off last week, as trading firms and critical IT providers reported most systems operational and functioning at press time on Friday, in the wake of the worst blackout in U.S. history....

As the Worm Turns: MSBlast threat highlights virus protection needs.
August 18, 2003... With the MSBlast worm hitting systems last week, security experts said the time between when Microsoft reports a vulnerability and the first attacks occur had shortened dramatically over the last couple of years-which means virus protection is...

Lawsuit Rings Open-Source Bells But Linux Plans Remain.
August 18, 2003... Last year, NYFIX started hosting a FIX trading platform in-house in its data centers. And the company had a choice of using the Solaris or the Linux operating system. Eventually, it came down to money. "We would have spent five times as...

Nasdaq Answers Cincy Challenge by Sharing All.(Nasdaq competes with Cincinnati Stock Exchange by introducing Market Participant Operating Revenue service)
August 18, 2003... Nasdaq wants to share revenue with its market participants, a bold new strategy that underscores the urgency in answering fierce competition for trade reporting from the once-obscure Cincinnati Stock Exchange (CSE). "We are going to share...

Prebon Yamane Turns to Eastern Europe for OMS Upgrade.
August 18, 2003... Is this what they mean by "globalization?" The coding of London-based Prebon Yamane's new Java-based order management system for its New Jersey and Toronto offices is being done in Riga, Latvia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Moscow; and St....

Big Board's Changes Should Further Extend To Demutualization.(Benn Steil commends New York Stock Exchange for progress on governance issues)
August 18, 2003... In testimony late last month before the New York Stock Exchange's Special Committee on Governance of the NYSE, Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-founder of the consultancy Efficient...

Why Hasn't the SEC Turned Down Nasdaq?
August 18, 2003... Many have wondered why hasn't the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq's exchange application yet. Another way to look at the issue may be, "Why hasn't the SEC turned down the application yet?" Nasdaq submitted its Form 1...

ISO Group Focuses on Biometrics, Encryption.(International Organization for Standardization)
August 18, 2003... The International Organization for Standardization's (ISO's) technical committee on computer security for financial services has created a working group focused on the security and management of biometric data, as standards remain diffuse for...

Brut ECN Lowers Its Fees Amid Lingering Price War.(electronic communications networks)
August 18, 2003... The Brut ECN, which recently lowered its operating costs by moving its internalized trade reporting to the Cincinnati Stock Exchange (CSE), is now lowering execution costs for its customers. Brut's initiative highlights the continued lack...

Data Group Proposes New Counterparty, Fund ID Code.
August 18, 2003... The Reference Data User Group, a trade group of securities middle- and back-office executives, has made its second foray into the data management arena in urging network messaging provider Swift to complement its BIC identification numbers for...

S&P Taps Biltoo for New European Director's Role.
August 18, 2003... Ratings and data provider Standard & Poor's will announce today that it has tapped Krishna Biltoo for the newly created role of European managing director for securities services as part of an expansion on the Continent. Biltoo, a former...

BondHub Aims Funds at Growth.
August 18, 2003... BondHub intends to use its recently completed round of Series C preferred stock financing to build a larger sales force and add equity-linked CDs and agencies to its original product set, and develop other technology under a .Net intitiative,...

MTS Expands to Israel With New EuroMTS Unit.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... MTS will be expanding its reach beyond Europe and Japan next year to the Middle East through the creation of MTS Israel as a division of EuroMTS, the company's electronic trading system for benchmark European government bonds. The Israeli...

Omiris Reduces Network Costs Via FIX Protocol.
August 18, 2003... Order routing and trade execution network Omiris Networks said it has slashed its network costs by about 96 percent and sped up the time it takes for its two dozen broker-dealer users to send messages by switching from standard...

CME Set to Develop Global Weather Futures and Options.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Met Office and its joint venture company, Weather Xchange Ltd. (weatherXchange), are planning to develop global weather futures and options contracts. CME, the largest U.S. futures exchange, was...

Vermeg Nabs First SwiftReady Corporate actions Label.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... Securities and fund management software provider Vermeg became the first vendor to be accredited with the new SwiftReady label for corporate actions for its Megacor solution. Swift introduced the category earlier this year as the industry...

T. Rowe Price Enlists Capco's Help on STP Initiative.
August 18, 2003... T. Rowe Price has enlisted Capco to help the buy-side firm streamline trading operations as it puts together a 2004 straight-through-processing (STP) business plan, according to a source close to the situation. The source, who described...

Canada's Banking Regulator Urges STP Adoption.
August 18, 2003... Canada's banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, has thrown its hat into the straight-through-processing ring, urging chief executives to adopt STP initiatives. "OSFI appreciates that many federally...

City Networks Wins Fortis Clearing Biz.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... City Networks has nabbed its first derivatives clearing client, Fortis Clearing, to use its reconciliation product, officials at the software provider said last week. The Insight software product was launched a little over two years ago as...

Nasdaq Slashes Prices on ViewSuite Data Products.
August 18, 2003... Nasdaq has reduced and simplified pricing for its ViewSuite data products, slashing the prices for its premium TotalView product from $150 per month to $70 for professionals and $14 for nonprofessionals. Pending Securities and Exchange...

Processing Systems Overcome Challenges.
August 18, 2003... Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and some of Wall Street's largest players appeared to have fared relatively well in processing their securities transactions through last week's blackout, even as trading in some markets was affected. ...

MDDL Version 2.2 Upgrade Slated for October.
August 18, 2003... The Financial Information Services Division of the Software & Information Industry Association, which oversees the development of the market data definition language (MDDL), said its update to MDDL Version 2.2 is slated to be ready by October....

Tri-State Tech Spending: Bottoming Out?(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... Trading technology budgets of New York-New Jersey-Connecticut sell-side firms are expected to be flat-to-down for the rest of this year and into next year, at about $5.3 billion to the middle of 2004, according to Stephen Kimsey, lead...

ArcaEx Price Tag to Be Set.(Brief Article)
August 18, 2003... Industry participants could get a good idea of how much the ArcaEx exchange is worth as early as this week, if no new bidder emerges to top TSX Group's offer for CNBC's 4.85-percent stake in Archipelago Holdings. TSX group is the parent of...

OTC Mart Set To Play Backup.(Nasdaq was ready to back up the New York Stock Exchange during the recent blackout)
August 25, 2003... While there was fortunately no need for it, Nasdaq was ready to back up the New York Stock Exchange during the recent blackout-which would have been the first test of a contingency plan put in place after Sept. 11. Following the terrorist...

Playing the Field: London Stock Exchange examines clearing options.(London Stock Exchange makes noise about exiting clearing relationship with London Clearing House, since latter has agreed to merge with France's Clearnet)
August 25, 2003... While the London Stock Exchange has been making noises about exiting its clearing relationship with the London Clearing House, now that the LCH has agreed to merge with France's Clearnet, no one appears to be taking those threats seriously. ...

Answers Remain Elusive As U.K. Focuses on AML.
August 25, 2003... The U.K. Financial Services Authority last week gave the industry until the end of January to respond to proposed guidelines aimed at clamping down on the still rampant problem of money laundering and its close kin, identity fraud. Currently,...

CTO: Viruses Limit Freedom.
August 25, 2003... The latest crop of computer worms and viruses means firms increasingly need to limit the some of the freedoms their employees used to have at work, said Josh Levine, CTO of E-Trade, in an interview with Securities Industry News last week. ...

Mark Twain Weighs In On the Wall Street Research Settlement.
August 25, 2003... Benn Steil, the Andre Meyer senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote the following for Securities Industry News. Over the past year, our government has made great efforts to ensure...

MetLife's Rebalancing Hinges on IT.(New England Securities Corp. )
August 25, 2003... Most analysts are calling into question the assertion this month by MetLife that software alone could have contributed to the million-dollar rebalancing blunder at the insurance firm's broker-dealer subsidiary, New England Securities Corp....

State Street Continues Media Blitz on GSS Clients.
August 25, 2003... How often will State Street trumpet its success in migrating clients from Deutsche Bank's Global Securities Services (GSS) operations? It appears that three times is a charm with the Boston-based bank, which took over the global custody...

CanDeal Platform Offers Post-Trade Communications.
August 25, 2003... Canadian online debt trading platform CanDeal has entered the Canadian post-trade electronic communications arena with its release of a real-time electronic trade allocation and trade matching service. While the initial goal of the new...

Under Pressure, ITG Unveils Direct-Access Products.
August 25, 2003... ITG is launching two key products in its client-site trading unit, which is facing increasing competition and pricing pressure from other direct-access trading providers. The firm is rolling out Triton, the next-generation version of its...

ITG Picks Savvis for IP Network.(Brief Article)
August 25, 2003... ITG has selected Savvis Communications to provide an IP-based global private network to connect its offices worldwide. ITG will initially use the network to provide a new offering called Global Delivery System (GDS), which allows a global...