Securities Industry News articles from August 2006

Securities Industry News archives from August 2006

SEC Clarification on Soft Dollars Said to Level Playing Field: Independent research more on par with bulge-bracket firms.(Securities and Exchange Commissions)
August 7, 2006... The Securities and Exchange CommissionOs recent move to clarify what services can be paid for by so-called soft-dollar commissions will put independent research firms on a more level playing field with their bulge-bracket counterparts. And that...

Private Equity Showing Its Muscle; IPO in the Works: Silver Lake, Warburg Accelerate Buyout Pace.(Silver Lake Partners, Warburg Pincus)
August 7, 2006... A year ago this Friday, Silver Lake Partners and six other private equity investment firms took SunGard Data Systems, a $4 billion-in-revenue software and processing conglomerate, private. At $11 billion, it was the second-largest leveraged...

Private Equity Showing Its Muscle; IPO in the Works - ADP Plans to Divest.(initial public offerings)(Automatic Data Processing)(Company overview)
August 7, 2006... Less than two years ago, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) launched a bold effort to remake its brokerage services, acquiring two bank-owned clearing firms and devising an entirely new approach to outsourcing in that business. Now the group is...

More Bells Are Ringing: The Equity Markets Refragment.(Chicago Board Options Exchange )
August 7, 2006... On July 28 the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) said it plans to open a new stock exchange early next year, portending yet more competitive upheaval in the U.S. equity market structure. But this kind of thing hardly raises eyebrows...

A Risk Category Comes of Age: Operational hazards, newly defined, get the full management treatment.
August 7, 2006... Operational risk management has come a long way in a few years. At the start of the decade, financial industry executives were hard-pressed to precisely define a concept that seemed far more vague than the largely familiar and quantifiable...

Buy Side Catches Up to Op Risk, and Vice Versa.(operational risk )
August 7, 2006... On the sell side, experienced in handling market risk and getting ever-more effective at managing credit risk, operational risk was tacked on without too much fuss. Brokerages have been buying systems, establishing processes, building disaster...

For Moodys KMV, Focus on Credit Pays Off.(Company overview)
August 7, 2006... To Andrew Huddart, president of Moody's KMV, the company has a secret sauce. It is the largest default database ever assembled,O a storehouse of credit-default data from the 1970s forward. That's one of the key competitive differentiators of...

Citi ABS Data Online.(asset-backed securities )(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Citigroup is using a section of its corporate Web site to provide detailed data and descriptions of asset-backed securities (ABS) it has issued. CFO Sallie Krawcheck described it as part of the companyOs efforts at Ocontinually improving our...

S&P Unit Allies With IDC.(Standard & PoorOs)(Interactive Data Corp.)(Brief article)
August 7, 2006... Capital IQ, a division of Standard & PoorOs, has entered into a revenue-sharing partnership with Bedford, Mass.-based Interactive Data Corp. (IDC), which is supplying real-time quotes, news and market overviews for the Capital IQ Web-based...

MarketAxess Interdealer Program Underway.
August 7, 2006... MarketAxess revealed last week that it began operation of its DealerAxess interdealer trading system in June. Seventeen dealers are currently trading U.S. high-grade corporate bonds anonymously and electronically among themselves. During the...

Preventing the Next Operational Crisis.
August 7, 2006... The world of a financial institution chief operating officer has never been more challenging. Product volumes and new and innovative product introductions are increasing. Regulatory requirements continue to pile on. Mergers and acquisitions...

Bermuda Fund Administrator First to Open in Dubai.
August 7, 2006... Apex Fund Services last month opened an office in Dubai after becoming the first hedge fund administrator to gain approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to operate in the fledgling Dubai International Financial Center...

AML, KYC Software, Private Equity Add Up to Start-up.(anti-money-laundering (AML) systems company)(know-your-customer (KYC) software)(Fortent)(Interview)
August 7, 2006... The financial industry has a new source of risk and compliance systems. Fortent, based in New York, opened June 28, backed by Warburg Pincus, a prominent private equity investor with a strong track record in the tech sector. Also in the Warburg...

Anger Management, Enhanced for the CCO: Software pioneer Nice Systems adapts voice analysis technology for securities industry.(Company overview)
August 7, 2006... At a time of uneven service quality, customers are increasingly losing their cool in interactions with financial services providers, telecom companies and others with extensive call-center operations. But that potential corporate liability is...

U.S. a Step Closer To Eliminating Paper Stock Certificates: Direct registration affects.
August 21, 2006... The U.S. is taking a cue from some foreign markets to cut back on paper stock certificates in circulation. Effective Jan. 1, companies listing for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stock Market, American Stock Exchange and...

Portfolio Margining, Equities on CBOE Agenda: Regulation, overall market growth lengthen to-do list.(Chicago Board Options Exchange )
August 21, 2006... July was what has become a typical month for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). It executed more than a third of options contracts in July, a total of 53 million, for a year-over-year increase of 48 percent. That's just an inkling of...

NYSE Says Bond System Is Ready For Oct. Launch.(NYSE Group Inc to launch corporate fixed-income trading platform Newyork Stock Exchange Bonds)
August 21, 2006... NYSE Group says it is prepared to launch its new corporate fixed-income trading platform, NYSE Bonds, before the end of October, provided the Securities and Exchange Commission approves rule changes that the parent of the New York Stock...

As Hedge Funds Mature, They Look to Upgrade Operations.
August 21, 2006... A federal appeals court gave hedge funds a reprieve of sorts when it overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission's registration rule in June. Whether hedge funds can kick back and relax is another matter. The alternative investments...

Get To Know MMORPG.(Financial Services Technology Consortium )
August 21, 2006... Financial services firms will miss out on a massive marketing opportunity if they fail to grasp the significance of massive multiplayer online role-playing games, a sign of the times being abbreviated as MMORPGs. It's a global phenomenon that...

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS.(joined its international desk in New York as head )(Brief article)
August 21, 2006... Agency brokerage Instinet said that Glenn Lesko has joined its international desk in New York as head of U.S.-based international sales and trading. Lesko reports to Michael Plunkett, president of Instinet North America, and will work closely...

Settlement Isn't the Only Timing' Risk.
August 21, 2006... The principle "time equals risk" is well established in the financial services industry. We'd like to take this opportunity to reflect upon this axiom from two different perspectives. First, it is an acknowledged fact that the longer the time...

Mantas Sells to I-flex, Consolidating Oracle Relationships: Acquirer, owned by database giant, eyes complementary compliance strategies.
August 21, 2006... In the latest of a series of transactions altering the market for anti-money-laundering (AML) technology, global banking software house I-flex Solutions has agreed to acquire Herndon, Va.-based Mantas, a pioneer and leading supplier of AML and...

Next Financial Launching Unified Managed Account.
August 21, 2006... Correspondent broker-dealer Next Financial is launching a unified managed account (UMA) that offers a broader range of investment styles than its direct competitors in catering to independent financial advisers, according to the company. ...

Mellon Centralizing Data on Eagle Pace.(Mellon Financial Corp to centralize corporate actions and pricing information on Eagle Investment Systems)
August 21, 2006... As part of a broader restructuring of its data management services, Mellon Financial Corp. will centralize its reference, corporate actions and pricing information in a single repository on the Pace platform of Mellon subsidiary Eagle...

Analysis: Turf Wars Over Hedge Funds: With the SEC reeling from its court defeat, other regulatory players get into the act.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
August 21, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission, on the defensive since its rule requiring the registration of hedge funds was struck down in June by a federal appeals court, appears to be ceding some of its ground in the hedge fund space to other parts...

PHLX Unit Inks Software Development Deal.(RTS Realtime Systems Group)(Philadelphia Stock Exchange)
August 21, 2006... The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's (PHLX) Philadelphia Board of Trade (PBOT) subsidiary has reached an agreement with Frankfurt-based independent software provider RTS Realtime Systems Group to develop a streaming quote software interface as...

Amex Market Structure Moves Ahead.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
August 21, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission has published the rules for the American Stock Exchange's Auction and Electronic Market Integration (AEMI) platform, which is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter to bring the exchange up to speed...

Belzberg Gets Hybrid Capability via Acquisition.
August 21, 2006... Toronto-based trading technology developer and agency brokerage Belzberg Technologies and its subsidiary, Electronic Brokerage Systems, said they have agreed to acquire the business and assets of Nandra Group, an independent direct-access...

Analysis: NYSE Shows It's Serious About SHO Enforcement.(New York Stock Exchange)
August 21, 2006... The New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) recently imposed fines on four large securities firms for lax compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's short-selling rules sent a strong message to broker-dealers and their customers to pick...

Russia Removes a Last Barrier to Foreign Investment.(International Monetary Fund)
August 21, 2006... Russia removed the last remaining obstacle to foreign investment last month--a requirement to keep a portion of investment funds in a special reserve account. The change brings Russia into line with International Monetary Fund (IMF)...

Russian Exchanges Expect To Launch New Boards This Fall.(Interbank Currency Exchange)(Brief article)
August 21, 2006... Russia's two leading stock exchanges--the Russian Trading System (RTS) and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (Micex)--plan to launch new boards this fall aimed at small and medium-size enterprises. The goal is to tempt Russian firms to...