Securities Industry News articles from December 2008

Securities Industry News archives from December 2008

Interactive Data in Japan.(News Desk)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Interactive Data Corp. has agreed to acquire 64 percent of NTT Data Financial Corp. (NDF), a Tokyo-based provider of pricing services and reference data, for 1.9 billion yen ($200 million). Interactive Data, a...

A Sensible Starting Point For Hedge Fund Regulation.(Comment)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Carol E. Curtis As volatility continues to rattle the financial markets, risk management and regulation have reemerged as top priorities, particularly in the hard-hit hedge fund industry. In fact, risk management solutions will...

Time to Rein In Algorithms? Calls for algo certification growing louder.(News)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires While trading algorithms are regularly praised for their speed and efficiency, a growing contingent of professional traders, financial engineers, consultants and academics say they are being misused, or are faulty...

SEC's Short-Sale Moves Are Driving Volatility, Says Thinkorswim Exec.(News)
December 1, 2008... Byline: John Hintze Since opening in 1999, thinkorswim, an online brokerage and software developer with an emphasis on options, has attracted 100,000 active retail customers and won industry acclaim-it finished second this year in Barron's...

Portfolio Margin Accounts Gain As Investors Look For Leverage.(News)
December 1, 2008... Byline: John Hintze Debits in portfolio margin accounts are making up an ever-larger portion of total margin debt, reflecting both repatriation of U.S. hedge fund assets and traders' desire for additional leverage. Traditionally, use...

Hedge Funds Bracing for Likely Disclosure Mandates; New administration, volatility increase odds for regulation.(News)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris Hedge funds, dealing with the demands of a growing institutional investor base and the specter of regulatory oversight, are increasingly performing a balancing act: Release sufficient information to capture...

Euroclear Purchases ICMA's Xtrakter Unit.(Trading)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris Euroclear, seeking to bolster its settlement functions, has acquired the International Capital Market Association's (ICMA) Xtrakter subsidiary for an undisclosed amount. London-based Xtrakter, which has approved...

FPL Taps FIX Veteran for Technical Director Post.(In The News)
December 1, 2008... Byline: John Sandman FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) has named Ryan Pierce, a contributor to the non-profit organization since 1998, as technical director-a newly created, full-time position. FPL, which includes representatives from 170...

Linedata's Hybrid ASP.(News Desk)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Linedata Services, a Paris-based supplier of order management and portfolio accounting systems, has introduced a hybrid application service provider (ASP) offering-Linedata Hosting-it says gives customers the...

DIFX Now Nasdaq Dubai.(News Desk)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Editrorial Staff The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) on Nov. 18 changed its name to Nasdaq Dubai, a move it had been planning since February, when Nasdaq OMX Group acquired a one-third stake in the three-year-old...

People in the News.(News Desk)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Instinet's CEO for Asia, Joseph Marchal (left), has shifted to the agency brokerage's Chi-X Global subsidiary, where he will be chief executive of the Asia-Pacific region. Marchal, who held the Instinet post for...

Hong Kong Regulator: Risk Is Everyone's Problem.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt Financial regulators worldwide are likely to ask banks to formalize their risk management procedures, much as they have set requirements for internal audits, according to Martin Wheatley, CEO of Hong Kong's...

QSG Aims To Bridge Portfolio Managers,Traders.(Data Management)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Quantitative Services Group (QSG), a consulting firm and provider of equity analytics, plans to introduce a set of products it says will bridge the gap between portfolio managers and trading desks. As part of the...

Branching Out, Tradeweb in 'Strong Position,' Says CEO.(Special Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Shane Kite Following its 1998 launch, Tradeweb, formed a year earlier by a consortium of banks, quickly established itself as the largest institutional electronic bond trading platform in the U.S. A decade later, the Jersey City,...

Retail Bond Platforms Excel During Debt Debacle.(Special Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Shane Kite While institutional electronic bond trading platforms have faced decreasing liquidity in the current financial crisis-thanks largely to risk-averse sell-side firms-retail systems have had the opposite experience....

Revenues Down, GFI Targeting Electronic CDS Trading in U.S.(Electronic Bond Trading)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Shane Kite After posting a third-quarter loss it pinned on the credit crunch, interdealer brokerage GFI Group is making a big push in U.S. credit derivatives trading, gearing up to introduce a new electronic system for credit...

IPO Delayed, Liquidnet Faces Patent Issues; Initial valuation may overlook patent risks.(News)
December 15, 2008... Byline: John Hintze When Liquidnet Holdings announced in July that it was planning an initial public offering, expectations were high, even in a difficult environment. After all, the institutional brokerage had built a stellar reputation...

U.K. Buy Side Wants Consolidated Tape, Routing Rule.(Compliance)
December 15, 2008... Byline: BChris Kentouris Europe needs a consolidated tape, according to the U.K.'s Investment Management Association (IMA), which has issued a set of recommendations intended to improve transparency in the continent's equities market. The...

DTC Will Pay Transfer Agents for Recordkeeping Changes.(Compliance)(Depository Trust Co.)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris The Depository Trust Co. (DTC) has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to make procedural changes to its direct registration system (DRS) and compensate participating transfer agents for...

HPC-Minded Microsoft Gears Excel for Grids.(Technology)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt Microsoft Corp. has reengineered its Excel spreadsheet application to run on larger server grids-widely used by financial services firms to model, analyze and price exotic derivatives. Excel, originally designed...

Keeping Up With Real-Time Risk: New Solutions Needed.(Guest Comment)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Allan D. Grody Now that regulators across the globe are both overseers and indirect owners of financial institutions, they will need risk management tools to better inform their new principal shareholder-the taxpayer. They will...

Hudson Street Widening for Goldman.(Viewpoints)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Since Goldman Sachs launched Hudson Street Services in early 2007, the unit has carved out a comfortable niche in the alternative research space by supporting and offering access to a host of content and technology...

SEC and Finra Clash on Mutual Recognition; Critics call initiative a radical departure.(News)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Carol E. Curtis A divide has opened up between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) over an initiative that would significantly loosen restrictions on overseas exchanges and...

Trading Risk the Focus of New FPL Committee; Effort under way to establish best practices for bad trades.(News)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires Amid dramatic volatility, FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL), the governing body for the buy-side-to-sell-side messaging protocol, has formed a risk committee to address growing concerns among market participants and trading...

Getting Risk Systems to Ask the Right Questions.(News)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt Contrary to what one might expect at this point in the global financial crisis, investment bankers are not complaining bitterly about the shortcomings of risk technology-nor are they rushing to order more of it. ...

TD Ameritrade Offers UMAs.(News Desk)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff TD Ameritrade Institutional announced last week that it plans to let its registered investment advisers (RIAs) offer unified managed account (UMA) programs with Placemark Investments as the overlay manager. "We...

ELX Selects OCC.(News Desk)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff ELX Electronic Liquidity Exchange, the consortium-backed futures market expected to launch next year, has chosen Options Clearing Corp. (OCC) as its clearing provider. In a statement issued Dec. 9, ELX chief...

Ex-Townsend Chief Takes Helm at Lime.(News Desk)(Lime Brokerage has appointed Jeffrey Wecker)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Lime Brokerage introduced a successor to CEO Alistair Brown earlier this month, naming Jeffrey Wecker, head of execution management systems provider Townsend Analytics until May, to the position. Brown, who...

Omgeo Launching Korean Trade Processing Bureau.(Trading)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alex S. Dai Trade management servicer Omgeo has announced a joint venture with the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) to provide investment firms in that country with automated trade matching and processing. Slated to begin...

Visualization Start-Up Launches Market Data Tool.(Data Management)(Aqumin)
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Houston-based start-up Aqumin has introduced a visualization tool it says lets investors seamlessly integrate large streams of data into a three-dimensional environment. The solution, dubbed AlphaVision and...