Securities Industry News articles from January 2007

Securities Industry News archives from January 2007

FIX 5.0: New Version, Same Old Adoption Patterns: Technical Improvements Are Hailed,.(Product/service evaluation)
January 8, 2007... Regardless of FIX 5.0's potential to revolutionize the 13-year-old protocol for buy-side-to-sell-side messaging, the upgrade, announced in November at the FIX Americas conference in New York, could face a hard slog when it comes to acceptance...

FIX 5.0: New Version, Same Old Adoption Patterns: NYSE Makes FIX Play With TransactTools.
January 8, 2007... The FIX protocol was initiated more than a decade ago by institutional broker-dealers who wanted a standard way of exchanging trade data among counterparties. When vendors took this open protocol and began building software that would...

Tokyo Exchange Chooses Fujitsu--Again.
January 8, 2007... Continuing its technology upgrade in the wake of a series of operational and capacity problems, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is turning to Fujitsu as the developer of its next-generation trading system, to be completed by the second half of...

Reuters Trading Network Gets Big Boost From BNY Endorsement.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... The ever-intense battle for technology leadership on traders' desktops is heating up even more with a key endorsement that Reuters Group is announcing today. BNY ConvergEx Group, the agency brokerage, research and technology company that Bank...

Townsend Lists Enhancements.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Townsend Analytics, which has been growing rapidly amid institutional demand for multibroker, multi-asset and multicurrency trading and direct-market access technology, today is announcing a series of enhancements to its RealTick execution...

People In The News.
January 8, 2007... Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of trading technology developer eSpeed and of the firm that spun it off, Cantor Fitzgerald, has added a new title: president of eSpeed. It's the result of last week's announcement of a new trading platform,...

Options Benchmark Upgraded.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Options pricing, revaluation and risk management systems provider SuperDerivatives has released a new version of SD-IR, its pricing and analytics platform for interest-rate options and structured products. The London- and New York-based company...

Passing the Regulatory Buck.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... In a Nov. 30 editorial, the New York Times called for regulation of hedge funds on the grounds that the industry has gotten so big and so influential that it's time to move the discussion beyond whether they should be regulated to how they...

Automating Algorithmic Strategy Adaptation.
January 8, 2007... As the world of electronic trading becomes increasingly complex, it is becoming more difficult for traders to keep up using manual processes. Ever-increasing speed and exploding volumes are creating a market too complicated for traditional...

Fixing on Systems for Fixed Income.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... Over the last 20 years, the bond market has seen some significant changes. With the financial markets experiencing high levels of volatility, the eyes of the industry are once more focusing on fixed-income instruments in an attempt to inject...

Mutual Fund Demands Could Reshape Market Data Industry: Reuters-Greenwich research indicates broad interest in one-stop shops'.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... Seeking more cost-effective ways to obtain and manage market data, mutual fund companies are expressing interest in simplifying and streamlining their relationships with data suppliers, according to a report released recently by Reuters...

Options Pricing Will Standardize on Fast Market-Data Protocol.
January 8, 2007... The Options Price Reporting Authority (Opra) said it will adopt the Fast protocol, or FIX adapted for streaming, in response to the rapid growth in trade volume and price data that has strained the bandwidth capacity of exchanges and market...

Alternative Markets Proliferate; When Will They Consolidate?
January 8, 2007... Major securities firms spread their bets in 2006, making investments in a host of alternative trading venues that underscore the fierce competition that is brewing among trading platforms old and new, not to mention established centers led by...

Algorithms Tap Into Power on the Dark Side: New enhancements take aim at hidden liquidity and multi-asset strategies.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... If 2006 was the year that trading at the speed of light became commonplace, 2007 promises to be dark--very dark. Not in the sense of a bearish forecast, but rather a nod to the capabilities of tools that seek out liquidity that isn't accessible...

No Rest for the Weary Regulator or Compliance Officer: Hedge funds face likely scrutiny, but small companies, at least, get relief.
January 8, 2007... In 2006, the securities industry realized some long-sought regulatory goals, including an easing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's internal-controls provisions and the proposed consolidation of the self-regulatory organizations (SROs) overseeing...

New Clearing Entrants Fill Gaps Left by Consolidation.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... The cycle of consolidation in the correspondent clearing industry has reached a new turning point. Competition is heating up as new entrants fill gaps that the biggest players have left in their wake. A decade ago there were more than 100...

Post-Trade Automation Comes Forward.(Market overview)
January 8, 2007... The effort spearheaded by the U.S. Securities Industry Association (now the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association) to institute T+1 (trade date plus one day) settlement on equities trades was officially shelved in 2002, but it...

Private Equity Emerges as a Systems Niche: A hedge fund-like.
January 15, 2007... With investor money pouring in and investment outlets diversifying, private equity funds, in an operational sense, are looking more and more like hedge funds did a few years ago. They are constantly honing strategies and seeking better ways to...

Interoperability Top Concern at Ipreo.
January 15, 2007... The long arm of private equity, in the form of New York-based Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), has reached into the securities industry niche of new-issue e-syndication, reshaping it in a series of merger transactions. The majority owner of...

NYSE, 3 Others Buying Stakes in India Exchange; SGX in the Wings.
January 15, 2007... The parent of the New York Stock Exchange and three other investors said last week that they will each buy 5 percent, $115 million equity stakes in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, that country's largest exchange and the...

Keeping Pace With Its Hedge Funds, GlobeOp Goes Global: Administrator, with two-thirds of workforce in India, expands products and technology.(Company overview)
January 15, 2007... When it was formed in 2000, GlobeOp Financial Services was an upstart among hedge fund administrators. But the industry was just entering the explosive growth phase that has since seen total assets under management climb toward $2 trillion, and...

NMS Delay Sought.(Brief article)
January 15, 2007... NYSE Group has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to push back the already delayed implementation of the Regulation National Market System (NMS) trading system requirements, the so-called order-protection rule, by a month, to March 5....

LME Sets Growth Strategy.(Industry overview)(Brief article)
January 15, 2007... The London Metal Exchange (LME), which bills itself as the world's premier non-ferrous metals market, wants to share in the growth that has swept other commodity markets. Martin Abbott, a former news editor and publisher and one-time LME...

Markit Buys ABSReports.(Brief article)
January 15, 2007... Markit Group has added to its string of acquisitions with ABSReports, which it says is the only electronic reporting service on the performance of European asset-backed securities (ABS), mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt...

People in the News.
January 15, 2007... Bisys Fund Services, a mutual fund and separately managed account (SMA) outsourcing unit within Roseland, N.J.-based Bisys Group's investment services business line, has hired Joseph Mrak from CheckFree Investment Services as SVP and general...

What's Right About the Self-regulatory Merger.
January 15, 2007... As counsel within the securities industry for over 20 years, I applaud the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission in supporting-and the National Association of Securities Dealers and NYSE Regulation in agreeing in principle to-the...

The Morgan Stanley E-mail Compliance Case.
January 15, 2007... On Dec. 19, the National Association of Securities Dealers leveled formal charges against Morgan Stanley for its e-mail storage and archiving practices. The charges centered on the New York firm's failure to provide e-mails required in...

Competing On the Road To Zero Fees: Alternative platforms' aggressive pricing approaches bottom limit.
January 15, 2007... With two fee specials from electronic communications networks (ECNs) expiring at the end of the month, traders can anticipate a fluid array of price schedules as the competition among alternative trading venues for specific and overlapping...

Trading: Dispute With CBOE Clouds CBOT-CME Merger.
January 15, 2007... The more a legal dispute between the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and CBOT Holdings, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade, heats up, the more it threatens to complicate the pending acquisition of CBOT by Chicago Mercantile Exchange...

Swift Wraps Up Pilot, Goes Live With Corporate Access: Trade and investment services expected to follow initial payment implementation.
January 15, 2007... The Swift messaging cooperative last week announced the launch of its standardized corporate environment, or Score, program for corporate-to-bank access after a three-month pilot. Its initial focus will be on cash management and treasury...

NASD To Follow Other SROs With Portfolio Margining Rule.
January 15, 2007... The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) plans to submit a proposal to offer portfolio margining accounts in time to be able to grant approvals to member firms before the April 2 deadline set by two other self-regulatory...

Private Equity Gets More Systematic.
January 15, 2007... Randy Winn, co-founder and managing principal of Standard & Poor's subsidiary Capital IQ, says that private equity firms are changing in ways similar to hedge funds. "Successful PE firms are forced to become more like institutions-most are more...

New Outlet for a VDR Provider.
January 15, 2007... IntraLinks, a pioneer of the Web-based document distribution and exchange systems known as virtual data rooms (VDRs), expanded into alternative investment applications from its original market serving loan syndications. In the latter, "a bank...

Trading Advances in Emerging Markets, Buy Side: GL Trade, Others Lead DMA Spread.
January 22, 2007... GL Trade, a Paris-based provider of automated trading solutions for international financial institutions, said that it will offer direct connectivity to major Latin American financial markets including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and...

Trading Advances in Emerging Markets, Buy Side: TradingScreen Deals With Top Brokerages Reflect Multi-Asset-Class Trade Demand.
January 22, 2007... In separate announcements over the last week, trading platform supplier TradingScreen said it has teamed up with two of the biggest names in buy-side and algorithmic trading services to extend multi-asset-class electronic transaction...

Reuters Signs HSBC to Global License.
January 22, 2007... Advancing its strategy of providing integrated, multiproduct packages to global financial institutions, Reuters Group has signed an enterprise license agreement with HSBC Group. Under a three-year contract with a two-year extension option, the...

SEC Agrees With FinCEN on AML Data Exchange In Examinations.(Financial Crimes Enforcement Network)
January 22, 2007... More than five years since the USA Patriot Act was passed, and nearly four years since it was handed to the Treasury Department for implementation, the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has agreed with the Securities...

U.S. and Canada Take Trade-Matching Initiatives.
January 22, 2007... Settlement of securities transactions one day after the trade date, or T+1, isn't yet in the cards for North American markets, but both the U.S. and Canada are accelerating or otherwise improving post-trade matching processes. The Canadian...

Prepping for Independence.
January 22, 2007... Automatic Data Processing's ADP Brokerage Services Group in New York has settled on its new name. Once the spin-off, which was announced last Aug. 2, is complete in the spring, the brokerage processor will be Broadridge Financial Solutions....

ICE-Nybot This Week.(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... When IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) completed its merger with the New York Board of Trade (Nybot) on Jan. 12, it said Nybot soft commodity contracts would begin trading on the ICE electronic platform a week later. But that was delayed a week to...

People In The News.
January 22, 2007... Former American Stock Exchange president and Quick & Reilly CEO Peter Quick has been named a director of foreign exchange trading and technology company Gain Capital Group. "His experience leading one of North America's largest brokerage firms,...

Intermarket Sweeps and the Quest for Liquidity.
January 22, 2007... Liquidity is king. It drives profit for exchanges, electronic communications networks (ECNs), alternative trading systems (ATSs) and dark pools. That explains why all of these matching entities want to attract the most quotes possible and to...

NSX Selects TNS as a Preferred Provider.
January 22, 2007... Data communications servicer Transaction Network Services (TNS) has been designated a preferred technology provider by the all-electronic National Stock Exchange (NSX). Under the arrangement, TNS will offer connectivity, access to market data...

Wall Street Systems Partners With NumeriX.
January 22, 2007... Eyeing the fast-growing market for derivatives-related products and services, Wall Street Systems has announced a strategic partnership and the launch of a new product with NumeriX, a specialist in cross-asset derivatives pricing software. ...

SEC Moves to Eliminate Price Tests on Short Sales.
January 22, 2007... Securities regulators are inviting public comment on a new set of rule changes that would eliminate a short-selling advantage that regional exchanges have enjoyed while easing trading and compliance hurdles for short sellers and their...

The Nuts and Bolts of Data Transparency: Fears of lack of preparedness ahead of MiFID's November effective date.(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)
January 22, 2007... With the implementation of the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) ten months away, regulators and securities firms are grappling with the final details of the measure's grueling trade transparency requirements....

Obstacles to Cross-border Voting May Finally Fall: Shareholder rights proposal could force Continental consistency by 2009.
January 22, 2007... At a time of universal and efficient communications, and when barriers between markets are falling, one might think that shareholder voting across borders would be getting easier as the financial institutions responsible for safekeeping...

UCITS III Brings Opportunities--and Operational Challenges: Collective investment measures affect vast majority of Europe's fund assets.(Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities)
January 22, 2007... The final implementation of the third version of the European Union directive known as the Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) is imminent, and investment fund promoters, their software providers and...

Top Financial Firms Join Effort to Make Databases Compatible, Software Supplier Says.
January 23, 2007... Two months since announcing the launch of a large-corporate consortium to promote easier conversions of databases from one vendor's system to another's, Silicon Valley data server company ANTs Software said that it has ten charter members...

China Cleanup Nears Completion ~Bad brokerages culled; new products coming.
January 23, 2007... The three-year overhaul of China's securities industry, including better risk management measures, share ownership reforms, and the introduction of new products, will be completed in August, according to regulators. A moratorium on new...

SMA Standardization Poised to Advance~DTCC readying for first seven message types this year.
January 23, 2007... The separately managed accounts (SMA) industry will be taking a major step to promote straight-through processing later this year when Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and some of the biggest market participants begin using standardized...

Strength in Numbers: Knight's ECN Invites Investors; Bids Hits Milestone.(Knight Capital Group, Attain electronic communications network )(block trading venue )
January 23, 2007... Executing brokerage Knight Capital Group, which in 2005 acquired the Attain electronic communications network (ECN) and renamed it Direct Edge, has sold a minority stake in the operation to Citadel Derivatives Group. The move anticipates Direct...

Exchanges Step Up to Challenge of Credit Swaps.
January 23, 2007... Major derivatives exchanges see opportunities in the rapid growth of over-the-counter credit default swaps (CDS), but their attempts to bring out exchange-traded products that let investors take positions in that burgeoning market have yet...

Eurex, Out in Front, Finds the Going Tough.
January 23, 2007... The Eurex derivatives exchange introduced its first credit-default products March 27, three months before U.S. exchanges did, and it has been battling to attract liquidity--though not unexpectedly. "It was quite obvious that, entering a...

Private Equity Boom?
January 23, 2007... The announcements pile up by the week. Last Wednesday, Boston private equity firm Advent International said it had acquired a majority stake in Sophis, a Paris-based specialist in derivatives software. The dollar--or euro--amount was not...

TheMarkets Funded.(TheMarkets.com raised $30 million through a rights offering)(Brief article)
January 23, 2007... Securities research aggregation and distribution platform TheMarkets.com has raised $30 million through a rights offering to its owners, which are 11 of the biggest investment banks. The investment will finance "strategic development...

Gateway to Mexico.(Trading Technologies International launched X-Trader 7 platform and signed with Mexican Derivatives Exchange)(Brief article)
January 23, 2007... In the latest sign that high-tech trading is migrating to emerging markets, Trading Technologies International (TT) of Chicago said that it will have a connection between its X-Trader 7 platform and the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MexDer) in...

Emerging Eurex.
January 23, 2007... Frankfurt-based derivatives exchange Eurex said that on Aug. 1 it will launch "Trader Development Program for New Markets," an effort to extend its distribution to markets where direct membership is not possible because of regulatory...

People In The News.
January 23, 2007... High-tech foreign exchange brokerage FX Solutions of Saddle River, N.J. has hired Daniel Darst as executive director of institutional and partner business. He will be responsible for FX Solutions' white-label initiatives, marketing the...

Fixing the Everyone Problem.
January 23, 2007... Successful securities organizations excel at adapting to change, and information technology typically plays an important role in this agility. Data drives much of the securities business, and it has to be created, stored and shared in a way...

TradeWeb Retail Completes a 100-Branch Installation~Janney Montgomery Scott sees good fit with other Thomson products.
January 23, 2007... A year since the Thomson TradeWeb fixed-income trading network announced its entry into the retail market, the company's TradeWeb Retail unit said it has completed a major deployment for brokerage firm Janney Montgomery Scott. The installation...

Piper's SHO Fine: Another Slap on the Wrist?
January 23, 2007... A $150,000 fine of Piper Jaffray & Co. announced July 11 makes that the fifth firm in the past year to be cited by the New York Stock Exchange's regulatory arm for "naked shorts" in violation of the Securities and Exchange Commission's...

Electronic Specialist Names Levine CEO.
January 23, 2007... On the heels of a recent private equity infusion, New York-based executions firm Electronic Specialist (ESP) has named former E-Trade Financial Corp. executive Joshua Levine CEO. Levine, who will be responsible for all new companywide...

Bank of America Adds Algo and Options Capabilities~Firm enhances smart routing and best execution for derivatives.
January 23, 2007... Following the recent launch of its tenth equity algorithm, Bank of America has introduced enhancements to its derivatives trading business. Spread Trader, a newly launched smart-order routing system for equity options, allows InstaQuote users...

Liquidity-Aggregating Algo.
January 23, 2007... BofA labeled Fusor, released this month, a liquidity-aggregating algorithm designed specifically to find and gather any available shares from electronic communications networks, dark pools, crossing networks and stock exchanges. Fusor is being...

Options Firm Thinkorswim Gains Credit Suisse Endorsement.
January 23, 2007... Online brokerage and options technology pioneer thinkorswim will be providing its front-end trading technology to customers of algorithmic trading leader Credit Suisse under an agreement announced this month. Typical of any relationship...

Oanda System Serves FX Portfolio Needs.
January 23, 2007... Foreign exchange brokerage and technology company Oanda is introducing a service designed to make it easier for money managers to handle forex trading and portfolio management across their many accounts. The software automates executions, trade...

Putting Principles to the Test~U.K.-type model has wide appeal, but compliance spending would rise.
January 23, 2007... As markets around the world increasingly converge, the concept of principles-based regulation is moving to the forefront as a way to reform or streamline the U.S. regulatory environment. Under a principles-based approach, such as that recently...

More Bang for the Records Management Buck~Adaptable systems help firms keep pace with new policies, technologies.
January 23, 2007... Many brokerages remain uncertain and unaware of the implications of a changing regulatory and compliance landscape. Nevertheless, a long-term, integrated approach to compliance can reduce costs--and regulatory hassles. Compliance technology...

Regulators and Investors: A One-Two Compliance Punch~Even without a registration requirement, hedge funds clean up their act.
January 23, 2007... In June 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down a rule requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But that was hardly the last word on the subject of hedge fund...

AML Solutions Are Comprehensive, Consolidatedand Costly ~Costs rising fastest in North America; vendors cooperating on solutions.
January 23, 2007... The regulatory anti-money-laundering (AML) mandates may now be etched in stone, but the business of keeping dirty money out of financial firms continues to be a complex and ever more expensive endeavor. According to a survey released July 10 by...

LPL Opens Clearing Business; Axa Is Big Customer Win.(Linsco/Private Ledger)
January 29, 2007... Jumping into the increasingly competitive correspondent clearing market, Linsco/Private Ledger (LPL) has taken a sizable customer away from Bank of New York's Pershing unit, although the latter retains the business of another broker-dealer just...

Moments of Truth on Short Selling and Soft Dollars: SHO Change Portends Higher Broker Costs.(Regulation SHO)
January 29, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of an amendment closing exemptions to new short-selling rules, anticipated this quarter, should reveal whether Regulation SHO has adequate teeth. If so, then short sellers and their...

New Disclosure Issues, Courtesy of Labor.(employee benefits)
January 29, 2007... The six-month grace period to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission's July 2006 directive on soft-dollar commissions ended Jan. 24, but thanks to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the issue has hardly been put to rest. The...

European Trade Reporting Group Names Two Vendor Partners.(contracts of Cinnober Financial Technology and Markit Group with consortia)
January 29, 2007... The nine-bank Project Boat consortium has named Stockholm-based trading systems company Cinnober Financial Technology and data vendor Markit Group to support efforts to meet the best-execution requirements of Europe's Markets in Financial...

Undisclosed Payments Emerge as Top Priority for SEC Examiners.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
January 29, 2007... Compliance officers, take note: The number-one priority for federal securities examiners this year is undisclosed payments for business of the type that got Bisys Fund Services into trouble with regulators last year. Furthermore, the Securities...

Ten States Eye Naked-Short Clampdowns.
January 29, 2007... As the Securities and Exchange Commission moves to reduce the securities-delivery failures leading to naked shorting, ten states are considering their own proposals, egged on by lobbyists led by a group called American Entrepreneurs for...

NMS Delay OK.(National Market System)
January 29, 2007... On Jan. 25, the Securities and Exchange Commission granted NYSE Group's request for a one-month delay, until March 5, for stock exchanges to comply with the order-protection rule of Regulation National Market System (NMS). The parent of the New...

ISE's S&P 1500.(International Securities Exchange, Standard & Poor's Corp.)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... International Securities Exchange said that all of the securities in the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500, S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600--a 1,500-issue universe in all--have been added to the ISE Stock Exchange fully displayed...

More for Markit.(Markit Group of London and New York)
January 29, 2007... Last week was especially busy for Markit Group of London and New York, and not just because the over-the-counter database powerhouse entered into a new kind of relationship as manager of the business operations of pre- and post-trade data...

Principal Bid vs. Agency Trading: Defining the Edge.
January 29, 2007... Many changes in equity trading over the last decade have contributed to the growth in program and algorithmic trading. These include the advent of electronic communications networks (ECNs), decimalization, increased usage of order management...

Self-regulation at the Crossroads.
January 29, 2007... Just over a week ago, a vote of the National Association of Securities Dealers membership supported a change in bylaws to clear the way for a merger of that agency with the other principal broker-dealer self-regulatory organization (SRO), the...

Intermarket Sweeps and the Quest for Liquidity.
January 29, 2007... Liquidity is king. It drives profit for exchanges, electronic communications networks (ECNs), alternative trading systems (ATSs) and dark pools. That explains why all of these matching entities want to attract the most quotes possible and to...

BT Radianz Connects to London Stock Exchange.(BT Radianz)
January 29, 2007... BT Radianz, the New York-based global financial extranet operator, has become a provider of connectivity for the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The exchange will use BT Radianz's shared market infrastructure to extend its market data distribution...