Securities Industry News articles from January 2006

Securities Industry News archives from January 2006

Outsourcing Grows Up: Asset managers reassess options, custodians respond.
January 9, 2006... Outsourcing of investment operations, a growing revenue stream for some of the world's biggest custodian banks, faced a reality check in 2005: F&C Asset Management in November called off an expanded relationship with Mellon Financial after a...

With Ferscha Out, Eurex US Hangs in the Balance.
January 9, 2006... The turmoil at Deutsche Borse has claimed another top-management casualty with the year-end resignation of Rudolf Ferscha, CEO of its Eurex subsidiary, the world's largest futures exchange. The 44-year-old Ferscha had spearheaded Eurex's...

Down Under, Custody Rising.
January 9, 2006... With Australia firmly establishing itself as an offshore and operational center for investment services--assets under custody for offshore investors there grew 13 percent through June last year, to $234 billion--custodian banks from around the...

FIX Engines Don't Stand Alone.
January 9, 2006... When FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) put out its request for proposals for fixed-income FIX certification three years ago, Cameron Systems was conspicuous by its absence from the bidding. The reason? Certifying other vendors for implementations of the...

The Registration-Outsourcing Connection.
January 9, 2006... With the Securities and Exchange Commission's hedge fund registration deadline only weeks away, many fund advisers are in the midst of determining how they will use information technology to establish their policies and procedures. Some are...

Oppenheimer Fined $4 Million by NYSE and Treasury.(New York Stock Exchange Inc.)
January 9, 2006... New York Stock Exchange member Oppenheimer & Co. has paid fines totaling $4.15 million relating to two separate disciplinary actions. According to a NYSE Regulation announcement Dec. 29, Oppenheimer was assessed $2.8 million for...

Hedge Fund Managers Balk at E-Mail Retention Rule.
January 9, 2006... A key requirement of hedge fund registration--that investment advisers retain and archive all electronic communications including instant messages (IMs)--is encouraging some of the biggest hedge fund managers to avoid registration altogether,...

U.S. Getting Anti-Money-Laundering Exam.
January 9, 2006... The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is conducting an extensive examination of the U.S. government and private sector's anti-money-laundering enforcement--a process that started in October and should be finished in the second quarter of this...

Thomson, ITG Deals Reflect Yearning for Analytics.
January 9, 2006... Acquisition announcements last week by Thomson Corp. and Investment Technology Group (ITG) underscore the demand for--and rapid consolidation taking place in--data-intensive analytical operations across the trade cycle. Thomson said it...

New Outsourcing Target: Private Equity Funds.
January 9, 2006... The operations and technology of private equity firms are looking more and more like those of mutual funds and hedge funds--at least in the eyes of two major custodian banks. Identifying private equity as a logical extension of their fund...

FIX-Engine Shopping, Orc Locks Up Cameron.
January 9, 2006... Orc Software's Dec. 28 announcement that it will acquire Cameron Systems of Australia makes it an overnight force in the FIX engine market that has grown up around trade-related messaging between buy- and sell-side counterparties. Pending...

New MiFID Group Takes On Jurisdictional Issues.
January 9, 2006... A new committee of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) joint working group will meet for the first time Jan. 10 to address market uncertainty over who has jurisdiction over multinational financial institutions complying with...

Euroclear Grabs Merrill Settlements Business From BNP Paribas.
January 9, 2006... In a sign of continued disintermediation from local European agent banks, Merrill Lynch & Co. has decided to move its clearing and settlement business for Euronext transactions from BNP Paribas Securities Services to Euroclear Bank, sources...

BT Radianz Appoints New CEO, CTO.
January 9, 2006... BT Radianz, a provider of extranet communications services to the financial industry, said it has appointed Rick Snape as CEO in place of Howard Edelstein, who has resigned as chief executive of both BT Radianz and BT Global Financial Services....

Ryan Beck Goes in Paperless Direction: New Jersey brokerage calls on Archive Systems to outsource documentation and workflow.
January 9, 2006... Choosing not to develop a document imaging and workflow system in-house, Ryan Beck & Co. recently signed a deal to begin using Archive Systems' service bureau in the first quarter. Nick Leone, director of operations at the Florham Park,...

Australia on Multi-asset Clearing Track.
January 9, 2006... Growth in exchange-traded derivatives is driving consolidation in Australia's financial markets infrastructure, a trend typified by financial technology company GBST's purchase of options processor Palion from OMX Australia for US$3.8 million,...

Deadline Looms for Securities Lenders: Two-year agency disclosure initiative still trying to fill membership gaps.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... A two-year-old task force developing disclosure standards for agent data on securities loans is racing to meet an October deadline while seeking greater participation in the project from portions of the brokerage community that haven't shared...

Congressman Takes Aim at SEC.(Securities and Exchange Commission )
January 16, 2006... For many securities professionals, the face of the Securities and Exchange Commission is its office of compliance inspections and examinations (OCIE), a decade-old unit created by then-SEC chairman Arthur Levitt and still headed by Lori...

The e-Philly Strategy.
January 16, 2006... With a terse Jan. 6 announcement, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) added more force to the momentum away from floor-based equities trading and toward fully electronic markets. The 215-year-old exchange's chairman and CEO, Meyer "Sandy"...

Tokyo Story (Continued).(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... For the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), 2005 was annus horribilis. Asia's largest equity market was second to none when it comes to serious trading glitches and breakdowns, and it has become even more of a cautionary tale for the global capital...

Thomson's Tack On Research.(WALL STREE FIRMS)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
January 16, 2006... When Wall Street firms were wrestling with the roles played and costs borne by their research departments, Thomson Financial was no exception. The Thomson Corp. unit, like competing data vendors Bloomberg and Reuters Group, was known for vast...

Feds and Dealers Look to Mitigate "Chronic" Repo Fails.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... The Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department are creating multi-million-dollar backstop lending facilities for dealers to dip into to avoid failed trade settlements in the overnight processing cycle. The securities industry, led...

Wachovia Installs IPC Desktops.(Internet protocol )
January 16, 2006... IPC Information Systems said it has completed a major desktop trading installation for Wachovia Corp. in New York. The leading vendor in trading turret positions worldwide, IPC has placed its Internet protocol (IP) technology at 400 Wachovia...

Cantor Spin-offs Prepare Integrated Platform for Repos.
January 16, 2006... Powered by technology from eSpeed, BGC Partners is about to introduce what it says is the first integrated voice and electronic trading platform for U.S. dollar repurchase agreements (or repos) for the primary dealer community. The rollout, due...

TnT Implodes Telecom Costs: Merrill latest to outsource telecommunications expense management.
January 16, 2006... Merrill Lynch & Co. has turned to an outside firm to help it control telecommunications costs that hurtled out of control during the last technology spending cycle. The bulge-bracket firm in December gave telecom management specialist TnT...

In China, Saving Face Really Matters.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... In China, when they talk about saving face, they mean it. Western securities firms preparing to move into the country as it opens up its financial markets will have to come to grips with this uniquely Chinese cultural issue that may adversely...

SunGard, EquiLend and Lender Confidentiality.
January 16, 2006... SunGard Data Systems and EquiLend say they have solutions that make principal lender data available primarily to the credit and capital reporting desks of broker-dealers, in keeping with agent lenders' desire that the data be walled off from...

Schapiro Will Succeed Glauber as NASD Chairman.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
January 16, 2006... NASD announced that veteran securities regulator Mary L. Schapiro will succeed Robert R. Glauber as its chairman and CEO, effective next Dec. 6. Schapiro, 50, is currently vice chairman and president of NASD's regulatory policy and oversight...

Fidelity on New Clearing Path: National Financial unit goes outsourcing route, adds own twist.
January 23, 2006... Traditionally, broker-dealers either cleared trades and handled other operational functions internally or paid for turnkey solutions from their clearing firms. Now, clearers are changing the landscape, increasingly operating in the space...

Nyfix Retires Javelin as Part of Recovery Plan.
January 23, 2006... Trading connectivity vendor Nyfix Group, consolidating its FIX-based product and network strategy under its own name, is phasing out its long-standing Javelin brand while trying to put accounting and regulatory problems behind it. As a first...

STP: Stepping Back and Looking Ahead.
January 23, 2006... Over the past dozen years, Gary Brackenridge has literally gone end-to-end across the securities trading cycle. So as the Japanese stock market has struggled through its recent operational difficulties, which have taken the Tokyo Stock...

Bank of NY Obtains Patent On Messaging Technology.
January 23, 2006... Patenting, a contentious sidelight of the financial services industry--and of e-commerce and software in general--since a 1998 court case involving State Street Corp., is heating up again thanks to a close rival of that Boston-based banking...

The Citigroup Exchange.
January 23, 2006... Citigroup in 2004 acquired Lava Trading, a developer of advanced trading technologies, in a strategic move that has been replicated in other bank deals, most recently by Lehman Brothers' December buyout of Chicago-based Townsend Analytics. Last...

Tough Week in Tokyo.
January 23, 2006... The big financial headlines in Japan last week revolved around Livedoor, a formerly high-flying Internet services company being investigated for accounting fraud and causing an investor panic that took the Nikkei 225 index down about 6 percent...

People News.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... John Grifonetti may not at first glance have much in common with two at least moderately celebrated CEOs: Edward Nicoll of Instinet, who recently took the one-time Reuters-controlled brokerage private; and Jeffrey Citron, who heads Vonage, the...

Multi-everything.
January 23, 2006... If there is a common theme that currently binds the investment world and those providing services to it, it is multi-asset-class. The term crops up everywhere from hedge fund strategy discussions to the marketing materials of technology and...

Despite SEC Explanations, Advisory Rule Still Cloudy.
January 23, 2006... A long-awaited Securities and Exchange Commission interpretation of a rule issued last April that had been expected to make clearer distinctions between brokerage and advisory fee-based accounts was finally completed in late December, but it...

Private Banking AML Rule Extends to Securities Firms.
January 23, 2006... The Treasury Department has issued its final rules on Section 312 of the USA Patriot Act, which was passed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The section requires U.S. financial institutions that establish, maintain or...

CDS Indexing Partnership Expands Into Asset-Backeds.
January 23, 2006... CDS IndexCo, a consortium of 16 investment banks that make markets in the Dow Jones CDX credit default swaps (CDS) index, is teaming up with Markit Group to introduce a synthetic index of U.S. home equity loan securities. Dubbed ABX.HE, the...

Making Best Execution Legal': Nobody argues with a much-desired principle, but clear definitions are hard to come by.
January 23, 2006... It's only a matter of time before laws on both sides of the Atlantic require best execution of securities transactions. If only financial institutions and their technology vendors could be so certain about how to comply and what they need to do...

Into the Pooling: Multinational asset servicing potential tempts custodians.
January 23, 2006... Multinational pension funds and investment managers are finding efficiencies and higher returns in asset pooling, and the world's biggest custodian banks are diving for the potentially lucrative servicing fees. The potential was...

Automating From Scratch: OTC Derivatives.
January 23, 2006... When it comes to taking operational risk out of the over-the-counter derivatives market, the securities industry is at a crossroads. As these multi-asset-class instruments have become products du jour for many investors, causing volumes to...

Bear Stearns Selects Vhayu's Velocity.
January 23, 2006... Bear Stearns & Co. has chosen Velocity, a high-speed tick analysis system from Vhayu Technologies of Los Gatos, Calif., to support its algorithmic trading operations. The selection represents a significant endorsement of Vhayu and is the latest...

Options Taking Center Stage: Technology and education bring complex products to the mainstream.
January 30, 2006... Electronic trading for the active individual investor took hold first in equities; fixed income and foreign exchange have followed. Now it's options' turn. Their popularity has surged in the last few years, as companies such as optionsXpress...

E-prospectus Prospects: Funds are ready for online distribution.
January 30, 2006... The various constituencies regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission have entered the year with fresh optimism as the new chairman, Christopher Cox, makes his mark on the agency--and the mutual fund industry is no exception. It isn't...

FX Settlements Target Of State Street Plan.(State Street Corp)
January 30, 2006... State Street Corp. has teamed up with a payments processing vendor to raise the level of automation in settlement instructions for foreign exchange transactions. The linkage between State Street's FX Connect currency trading network, part of...

CBOT, Nybot In Technology Link-Up; Other Ties Possible.
January 30, 2006... The New York Board of Trade (Nybot) has taken a big step toward joining an increasingly potent technology alliance in the derivatives industry: Last week it announced the signing of a nonbinding letter of intent to have its financial products...

Banc of America Offers Smart-Order Routing for Options.(Banc of America Securities L.L.C.)
January 30, 2006... Banc of America Securities' electronic trading services has added smart-order routing for equity options to its InstaQuote direct market access platform. The new technology, as in equity trading, enables InstaQuote users to efficiently complete...

Nymex Links With BT Radianz.
January 30, 2006... BT Radianz, which operates an extranet service for financial-market connectivity, has added the New York Mercantile Exchange to its network. The link, being announced today, will facilitate trading and market-data access over Nymex via the...

People in the News.(Omgeo L.L.C. appoints Paul Vigilante, Sanjay Vatsa, Jeff Potter)
January 30, 2006... Post-trade communications servicer Omgeo last week named three senior securities industry executives to the governance committee of its Americas advisory board, which provides "client input to help us provide the best solutions for the...

Subpenny Rule at Hand.
January 30, 2006... The subpenny rule, one of the least controversial of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation NMS market-structure reforms, takes effect Jan. 31. To prevent market participants from stepping ahead of displayed limit orders by...

Next on CDS Calendar.(Calendar)
January 30, 2006... The leading credit default swaps (CDS) dealers will make a return visit to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb. 16. That will be almost five months to the day since the 14 top banks in credit derivatives were read the riot act by U.S....

No More Mega-penalties?
January 30, 2006... When former California Congressman Christopher Cox took the helm of the Securities and Exchange Commission last August, he made it clear that enforcement was his number-one priority. One not-so-subtle directional change in that area is evident...

Clarification.(Correction Notice)
January 30, 2006... An article in the Jan. 16 Securities Industry News, "TnT Implodes Telecom Costs" (page 12), described efforts by TnT Partners to cut telecommunications costs for financial firms including Merrill Lynch. The first paragraph was not as clear as...

Setting the Tone: SEC's Atkins.
January 30, 2006... In a Jan. 19 speech to the Securities Regulation Institute in San Diego, Paul Atkins, a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, provided a broad overview of current policy issues and concerns, and in so doing struck a firm...

The Power of Currency'.
January 30, 2006... In the securities industry, whose stock in trade is information, there is perhaps no greater need than quick and easy access to high-quality data. Whether it's a trader, investment manager, risk or compliance officer or back-office staff, each...

Chinese XBRL Data On the Way.(extensible business reporting language)
January 30, 2006... Supporting the Chinese markets' push into the automated future, Edgar Online said it will be the first U.S. financial information company to deliver fundamental data on Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) issues in...

New Standards Body Seeks to Reunify ISO 20022.
January 30, 2006... FIX Protocol Ltd.'s (FPL) abandonment of its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Swift messaging network has been followed by the rise of a new standards initiative. This new initiative could cause further controversy for Swift over ISO...

Troubled Tokyo Stock Exchange Appoints CIO.(chief information officer)
January 30, 2006... Taizo Nishimuro, acting CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), named a new chief information officer last week and promised to double technology spending to overcome the market's recent operational and capacity problems. Yoshinori Suzuki,...

Knight-Hotspot Deal Reflects Changing Priorities.(Knight Capital Group )
January 30, 2006... Trading execution specialist Knight Capital Group amplified at least two current securities industry themes last week when it agreed to pay $77.5 million to acquire online foreign exchange network Hotspot FX: It gained an important...

Canadian Exchange Links to SFTI Extranet.
January 30, 2006... The Montreal Exchange has become the latest of about a dozen market centers to establish a connection with the extranet service linked to the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure, known as SFTI B2B. The service is an offering of the...

Ameritrade Closes Deal, Retains Much of Its Infrastructure.
January 30, 2006... At the close of its acquisition of TD Waterhouse on Jan. 25, online brokerage giant Ameritrade Holding Corp. embarked on its new life as TD Ameritrade with a management team and board populated by both companies but with a decided bias toward...

EdgeTrade, Tradeware Enter Rebranding Game.
January 30, 2006... Two New York-based trading technology providers have started off the new year with a new face: Tradeware Systems Corp. has changed its name to Tradeware Global Corp. to underscore its focus on expanding its geographical reach and cross-border...

Feds Renew Fight Against Money Laundering.
January 30, 2006... The Treasury Department's 2005 Money Laundering Threat Assessment says that money laundering has been elevated to "an independent and primary focus of" the Justice and Homeland Security Departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug...

Chinese New Year Gestures: Regulatory Reforms: More oversight, investor protections among changes designed to lift market standards.
January 30, 2006... The start of the new year brought sweeping reforms to China's securities industry, beginning with three new rules issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)--the first of more than 40 expected within a month and designed to...

A Chinese First: Brokerage Goes Bankrupt.
January 30, 2006... As China's secondary financial center, the southern city of Shenzhen has helped to lead the country's fitful drive toward free markets. Last week it blazed a different, though still pioneering, trail as the location of the first bankruptcy in...

Marketing Luxembourg.
January 30, 2006... A year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Luc Frieden spoke at length on big issues at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C. Having served as Luxembourg's World Bank governor since 1998--in...