Securities Industry News articles from December 2003

Securities Industry News archives from December 2003

Taking Aim at Listed Mart: Awaiting regulatory reforms, Instinet rolls out new block-trading platform.
December 8, 2003... Instinet, a vocal proponent of increased competition in listed-stock trading, is rolling out CBX, a block-trading platform with a unique feature allowing institutional clients to expose the same order to multiple marketplaces. With CBX...

European Regulators Take Lower Profile with Funds.
December 8, 2003... The burgeoning investigation into mutual fund corruption by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has thus far spawned nothing more than ripples across the Atlantic, and only time will tell...

A Premium on STP, Pressure on Vendors.
December 8, 2003... Regardless of which entities end up being required to meet the proposed 4 p.m. (EST) deadline for receipt of mutual fund orders to thwart late trading, rulemaking in reaction to trading violations in recent months should serve to nudge the...

Buy-Side Execs Want More E-Bond Access.
December 8, 2003... Buy-side executives are calling upon sell-side dealers to offer fee-based electronic trading of bonds, in which institutions would have more transparent or direct access to other buy-side firms' and issuers' inventories. Ryan Sheftel, SVP...

Archipelago: Tech Contrarian.
December 8, 2003... At a time when other Wall Street firms are replacing expensive proprietary servers with cheap Wintel or Linux boxes, Archipelago is bucking the trend. Although Archipelago Holdings-the parent of the electronic ArcaEx exchange-initially...

Eurex Answers Criticism From Rival Exchanges On U.S. Market Plans.
December 8, 2003... Swiss-German powerhouse Eurex has met a few more obstacles than it expected in its bid to enter the U.S. derivatives arena. Industry participants have objected to the contract market application of Eurex U.S., officially known as the U.S....

SEC Set to Tackle Long-Overdue Filings.
December 8, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission has put on its to-do list two important filings that have been languishing on its shelves for years, according to sources close to regulators. "Chairman Donaldson wants to clear up the backlog that has...

Buy-Side Wants 15-Minute Prices on Illiquid Bonds.
December 8, 2003... Dealer "trepidation" over plans by the NASD to publish delayed prices for illiquid, higher yielding corporate bonds over the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (Trace), should not forestall such reporting because it would herald greater...

Hopes Dashed for Common Clearing in New York.
December 8, 2003... While a common clearing link in the Windy City between the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange is now under way, such hopes appear to have fallen to the wayside in New York. The New York Board of Trade (Nybot) is moving...

Capco Expands into Basel II Arena Via Buy of Dresdner Technology.
December 8, 2003... Consultancy Capco has entered the cottage industry of "Basel II-compliant" vendors through the acquisition of the intellectual property of Dresdner Bank's Ortos (Operational Risk Tool Suite) package that is sold on a licensed and ASP basis....

Asset Control Unveils Lite Version of Data-Cleanser.
December 8, 2003... Data management software vendor Asset Control has introduced a condensed version of data cleaning package ACPlus, known as ACSmartFeed, designed to provide reference data management and distribution for a single data feed, rather than multiple...

Merrill Lynch Taps Thomson.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Merrill Lynch has become the first large broker-dealer to use the new FIX-based Autex Network from Thomson Financial for international indications of interest (IOIs). Thomson released a new global order routing network last year to replace...

Oslo Exchange, Norway Depository in Merger Talks.
December 8, 2003... In the Nordic region's latest wave of change, the Oslo Bors and Norwegian central depository VPS officially confirmed that they have resumed merger discussions-a step that, if taken, would make Norway the latest European market to assume the...

Germany's Depository First to Achieve Cross-Border Payments Interoperability.
December 8, 2003... Clearstream Banking Frankfurt has laid claim to being Europe's first depository to solve the problem of cross-border payments to settle securities transactions. Such a step could promote further interoperability among central banks and...

J.P. Morgan Transforms Data Delivery Via Caplin.
December 8, 2003... As part of a revamp of its Web site data delivery, J.P. Morgan is relying on technology from Caplin Systems to integrate real-time data on its Morgan Markets research portal for the investment bank. The firm also plans to continue to expand...

XML-Based Standard for Payments on the Way.
December 8, 2003... The International Standards Team (IST) Harmonization Group has moved a step closer to the development of an XML-based industry standard for payment messaging that could be used globally for corporate and banking payments regardless of size or...

Eurex Touts TT Software.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Swiss-German derivatives giant Eurex has entered into a customer-friendly pact with independent software vendor (ISV) Trading Technologies International (TT) to provide low-cost access to its Eurex U.S. subsidiary, which is awaiting regulatory...

Putnam Takes Vision Further as Arca Heads for IPO.
December 8, 2003... Gerald Putnam, the stockbroker who hopped from one brokerage to another before embracing the technology revolution, is taking his ArcaEx exchange public-the latest achievement of a solid business strategy. Archipelago Holdings, the parent...

Jefferies: Staff Up, IT Costs Down.
December 8, 2003... Jefferies & Co., which spends 75 percent of its technology dollars externally, has cut the amount of money spent on its traditional business lines by pursuing strategies such as negotiating down rates with vendors, says the New York City-based...

Fidelity Mulls Single-Dealer Links for Fixed Income.
December 8, 2003... Fidelity Investments is "exploring" setting up FIX-compliant, single-dealer pipelines to exchange information and trade bonds with dealers, according to Curt Hollingsworth, head trader at Fidelity. The firm also recently signed a contract...

SunGard Purchases Fame Information Services.
December 8, 2003... SunGard Market Data Services, a subsidiary of SunGard Data Systems, late last week confirmed it will enter the reference data management arena through the acquisition of Fame Information Services for an undisclosed amount. Fame has been...

FXall Volumes Prompt Spending.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Multi-bank forex platform FXall has decided to invest in a systems upgrade due to record trade volume and significant spikes on its platform driven by increased use by asset managers. FXall says the new investment will enable the platform to...

Cantor Fitzgerald Implements Roberts Group's Fits.
December 8, 2003... Cantor Fitzgerald has rolled out The Roberts Group's Financial Information Tracking System (Fits) globally, to replace systems previously managed at a local level using in-house tools. Fits is a system for inventory and entitlement tracking...

O'Conor Steps Down From FPL Committee.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Citing his workload at Merrill Lynch, Mike O'Conor, a longtime member of FIX Protocol Ltd., is stepping down as co-chairman of the FPL Americas Global Steering Committee. O'Conor assumed that position less than a year ago, following the...

SEC Plans Major Data Reforms.(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)
December 15, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission is planning a series of major reforms in the market data arena, including changing the formula used to allocate market data revenue to exchanges and proposing governance reform to change the way market...

Nasdaq UTP members want same halt rules.
December 15, 2003... Members of the unlisted trading privileges (UTP) operating committee last week agreed on the need for uniform trading halt rules across the fragmented Nasdaq marketplace to avoid a repeat of the Corinthian Colleges debacle, a source close to...

Call and Response: Buy-side beefs spur NYSE to seek LiquidityQuote changes.
December 15, 2003... Responding to buy-side criticism of its institutional products, the New York Stock Exchange last Friday filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission created to attract more block-sized limit orders to the exchange's display...

GSTPA Legacy Lives On Through FPL, ISITC-IOA.
December 15, 2003... Despite its bankruptcy claim more than a year ago, the Global Straight-Through-Processing Association has proven to have a long after-life. Last week, the GSTPA was effectively shut down for good even as it will continue to live on through FIX...

ISDA: Automation of OTC Derivatives Mart In the Offing by 2006.
December 15, 2003... In a report issued last week, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association-the trade group for privately negotiated derivatives transactions-unveiled a timeline for the automation of the over-the-counter derivatives market. ...

How Ops Can Help Avoid an Oops.
December 15, 2003... Tracy Lowery Whille, director of fixed-income compliance at Lehman Brothers, has created an inventory of suspect transactions typically red-flagged by compliance officers that merit a second look from ops personnel as well, since ops staff are...

Stormy Outlook for Bond Markups' Safe Harbors.
December 15, 2003... Now that regulators are shining the light of transparency like never before on corporate and municipal bond trading, traders are wondering what is the safe harbor for markups, which has traditionally been 5 percent but is being increasingly...

Nasdaq Seeks Volume by Lowering SuperMontage Fees.
December 15, 2003... In the latest example of the lack of pricing power in the execution business, Nasdaq has announced that it will lower trading costs on SuperMontage beginning in 2004 in a bid to drum up volume. The tiered pricing structure differentiates...

Players Seek Greater Fed Role in Guvvie Fails.
December 15, 2003... Industry experts last week called upon the Federal Reserve to expand its securities lending program to act as a backstop for the government repo and financing market; that would avoid another round of settlement failures in the benchmark...

DTCC Rebrands Corporate Actions Hub.(Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.)
December 15, 2003... The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) continues to advance its automated corporate messaging service, with a re-branding initiative and an early-adopter trial set for early next year. Formerly known as the Global Corporate Actions...

FIF Protests Lack of BSE Notice.
December 15, 2003... The Financial Information Forum is drafting a letter to the NASD securities information processor (SIP) and the Boston Stock Exchange protesting the lack of notice provided for the exchange's rollout of trading in Nasdaq stocks. Nasdaq put...

Australia Paves Way for Consolidated Clearinghouse.
December 15, 2003... The Australian government has cleared the way for the Australian Stock Exchange to consolidate its equities and derivatives clearinghouses into a single regulatory regime and unit, called the Australian Clearing House. The country just...

Investment Trade Groups Rally Against Basel II.(Accord on the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards)
December 15, 2003... The U.K. trade group the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS), and seven other European investment fund and retail brokerage trade associations representing Norway, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Italy...

TowerGroup: U.S. Brokerage Spending Minimal.
December 15, 2003... While compliance with the Basel II Accord is expected to trigger significant investment in time and money for many large global players, U.S. brokers are not allocating huge IT resources. About $6 million to $8 million is expected to be...

J.P. Morgan Prepares for Program Trading Surge.
December 15, 2003... To help prepare for growing program trading volumes, J.P. Morgan has rolled out a next-generation application-dubbed Cheops, after the Egyptian pyramid-to handle booking and allocation management for its program trading system for equities. ...

FPL Forms FX Group.
December 15, 2003... Building on functionality that has been included in existing versions of the spec, FIX Protocol Ltd. has formed a foreign exchange working group, with the first meeting scheduled to take place Dec. 19. The meeting will be chaired by Scott...

Savvis, HyperFeed Ink Deal.(Savvis Communications Corp.)(HyperFeed Technologies Inc.)
December 15, 2003... Savvis Communications and HyperFeed Technologies have teamed up to provide a service integrating HyperFeed's ticker plant technology with the Savvis network to provide low-latency delivery of real-time financial content. The new service,...

FS/ISAC Gets $2M for Threat Defense After Livewire.
December 15, 2003... The U.S. Treasury Department will pump $2 million into the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS/ISAC) to upgrade the industry's cyber threat warning hub into a "next-generation" platform, the agency said last week,...

Computershare Nabs Post-EFA User.
December 15, 2003... Australian software vendor Computershare has nabbed its first client in Asia-Pacific since its acquisition of the intellectual property rights of the trading and depository systems of the former EFA Software, which filed for bankruptcy late...

System Unstoppable, Specialist Not.
December 15, 2003... "This cycle of buys and sells created thousands of orders and the system was unstoppable," Nasdaq wrote to the SEC in explaining its cancellation of 3,790 trades in Corinthian Colleges on Dec. 5. In October 2002, a clerical error caused...

U.S. Bancorp Taps Xcitek's Corporate Actions Software.
December 15, 2003... U.S. Bancorp has become the latest firm to sign a multi-year contract with corporate actions software vendor Xcitek to license the firm's XSP processing platform and eTran Web-based notification module. New York City-based Xcitek had...

Northern Trust Rides Industry Wave, Offers Trade Execution Monitoring.
December 15, 2003... Northern Trust has became the latest custodian bank to expand into the trade cost-analysis arena. The bank last week unveiled an automated trade execution monitoring tool-called Trade Execution Analysis-that identifies the factors behind...

FT Interactive Sanctioned in Fraud Case.
December 15, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission last week leveled fraud charges against Heartland Advisors for misrepresentations, mispricing and insider trading in two of the firm's high yield bond funds. As part of the action, the SEC also charged FT...

PHLX on Top; BOX Near: Exchange number one in equity options as competition heats up.(Philadelphia Stock Exchange)
December 22, 2003... Competition is heating up in the options world where the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) surged last Wednesday to the No. 1 spot in terms of equity options volume amid the price war it ignited a week earlier. "We have the lowest cost...

With New CEO, NYSE Strikes Back.(New York Stock Exchange)
December 22, 2003... The New York Stock Exchange, seeking to recover from months of grueling controversy, last week signaled its intent to embrace much-needed changes by appointing a Wall Street executive with strong technology credentials as its new CEO. The...

Banks Battle Euroclear Over Settlement Plans.
December 22, 2003... While Euroclear Bank officials may have thought their proposal for a single settlement engine for the organization's international and central depository subsidiaries would satisfy clients eager to reduce transaction costs, several agent banks...

Cue the Lawyers: Exchanges face lawsuits aplenty Calpers vs. the NYSE and the Specialists.(California Public Employees' Retirement System)
December 22, 2003... Long regarded as "untouchables," U.S. exchanges are now coming under fire, with class action suits recently filed against the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market. Self-regulatory organizations have immunity from prosecution in...

FPL Delays Certification Decision.
December 22, 2003... FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) has postponed until next year a decision on choosing the vendors-or vendor-to develop a FIX certification process. Five firms-Aegis Software, B2Bits, FIXML Flyer/Tepin, Javelin/NYFIX Technologies and...

RIXML 2.1 Adds Ratings Functionality.
December 22, 2003... RIXML.org, the consortium that has developed an XML-based standard for investment research, last week released version 2.1 of the specification, which will add functionality for debt and equity ratings. RIXML is designed to make it easier...

UTP Committee Approves Market-Wide Trading Halts.(unlisted trading privileges)
December 22, 2003... Quickly responding to the trading debacle affecting Corinthian Colleges stock on Dec. 5, the unlisted trading privileges (UTP) operating committee last week approved uniform procedures for market-wide trading halts. "We are proposing...

Will Trade-Through Reform Live Up to industry Hype?
December 22, 2003... Despite much hoopla, the best-execution debate may not yield the dramatic changes-such as the repeal of the trade-through rule and the demise of the specialists-that some are wishing for in 2004. Instead, regulators might favor limited...

Will IT Spending Finally Increase?
December 22, 2003... Industry analysts aren't unanimous on the 2004 outlook for North American IT spending by securities firms, but more are expecting a pickup than forecasting a decline. There are, however, several trends that these industry observers agree...

Will Users Benefit From Clearing Changes?
December 22, 2003... While 2002 spotlighted national and international depository systems, the year just past saw the oft considered clearinghouses take center stage. Nearly all of the major players, from Chicago to Paris, have undergone significant changes in...

SEC Set to Tackle wide range of Market Issues in 2004.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
December 22, 2003... After passing a number of important reforms to better protect investors this year, the Commission may be able to tackle some long-running market structure issues in 2004. Senior reporter Isabelle Clary looks at the year that may be at the SEC....

Chairman Donaldson Drops Hint.(William Donaldson)
December 22, 2003... Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson addressed the issue of the trade-through rule in his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in October. The chairman indicated that investors should have a choice between...

Fix Tag-Value and FIXML: Divergence or Common Ground?(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... FIXML, the version of the FIX protocol based on the extensible markup language (XML), first appeared in parallel with FIX 4.2 in 2000, in the shadow of the traditional tag-equals-value version of FIX that has been steadily gaining acceptance...

Will the Buy-Side Get What It Wants From E-Bond Trading?
December 22, 2003... Bloomberg could gain market share in the coming year in the institutional e-bond trading space, experts say, if it offers what the buy-side wants but what its rivals have not supplied: anonymous trading. While the potential is certainly...

The Year In Quotes.
December 22, 2003... "We are trying to ride a wave where eventually we'd love to get out of a world of proprietary software." -Former Merrill Lynch CTO John McKinley (Jan. 6) "What is now on the table is an impractical and anticompetitive solution that...

Mark-It Partners Expands.(LoanX Inc.)
December 22, 2003... Credit pricing firm Mark-It Partners' acquisition of LoanX, a U.S. provider of syndicated loan data, will provide market participants with pricing information across multiple asset classes through one platform, thereby increasing credit market...

Nasdaq Plans to Launch Closing Cross in March.
December 22, 2003... Nasdaq, which said this fall that it would provide a closing cross to address concerns over the quality of its closing price, plans to launch the facility in March. The filing for the plan appeared in the Federal Register Dec. 11. ...

Nasdaq to Expand TotalView.
December 22, 2003... A proposed rule change to expand Nasdaq's TotalView Data Feed and offer a pilot program providing the TotalView service for $70 per month appeared in the Federal Register earlier this month. Nasdaq plans to expand the TotalView Data Feed...

Singapore Market Consolidates Trading.
December 22, 2003... The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has become the first market to tap OMHex's new trading engine, ClickXT, to consolidate its electronic trading for equities and derivatives onto a single platform, known as SGX Quotation and Execution System. ...