Securities Industry News articles from July 2006

Securities Industry News archives from July 2006

In BNY-Eze Deal, A New Attempt to Span Trading Cycle.(order management systems)(BNY ConvergEx Group)
July 10, 2006... Last July, Investment Technology Group (ITG) of New York announced its acquisition of Macgregor, a leading provider of trade order management systems (OMS) to buy-side institutions. It was seen as the first step in an anticipated consolidation...

Outsourcing Resilient in India: Clamor for offshoring undeterred by recent security incidents.
July 10, 2006... About a year ago, call center employees of Bangalore-based Mphasis tricked Citibank customers into giving out their personal identification numbers, then used the codes to steal more than $300,000. By August, Indian police arrested three former...

Research Outsourcing Is Science and Art.
July 10, 2006... Even the most basic outsourcing decisions hinge on matters of control: Is the function sufficiently routine, or the service provider sufficiently proven and trustworthy, to handle data and processing needs from locations across the continent or...

Post-Trade CDS Firm Gets Boost From Bloomberg: T-Zero chosen to ensure.(credit default swaps)
July 10, 2006... Taking a major step to streamline processing of credit default swaps (CDS), Bloomberg said last week that it will make the T-Zero post-trade platform available to all users of the Bloomberg Professional service. Some 250,000 Bloomberg customers...

BofA's Harts: Trading Complexity in a Neat Package.(Bank of America Corp.)(Interview)
July 10, 2006... Competition in electronic trading technology and strategy is not just an arms race--it's also individual and team combat as firms vie to hire the best talent and avoid too much of the inevitable attrition. Banc of America Securities proclaimed...

CME in a Modest Deal ...
July 10, 2006... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has a war chest for acquisitions--its $17 billion market capitalization--unlike any other securities market. But the deal it announced last Wednesday was less than spectacularly priced: an agreement to...

People In The News.
July 10, 2006... SunGard Data Systems has hired former Merrill Lynch & Co. executive Richard H. Hulit Jr. as president of its GMI business unit, based in Chicago. Hulit manages and oversees the strategic direction of GMI--a clearing and accounting system for...

Hedge Fund Suspense.
July 10, 2006... Everyone loves a good suspense story, and one is in progress right now in Washington involving Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the judiciary and the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry. With the SEC's modest attempt at hedge...

Roth: Stating the Hedge Funds' Case.(Interview)
July 10, 2006... Hedge funds' phenomenal growth has been an employment boon for lawyers. These asset managers demand legal attention not only for their splashy deals and complex transactions, but also for compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission...

Automated Services Address Data-Integration Concerns.
July 10, 2006... As financial firms continue to grapple with the problem of how to link disparate data from multiple silos, often using painstaking, manual processes, several data vendors have come up with turnkey solutions. Standard & Poor's has unveiled...

Valuation Offerings From S&P, Thomson, FT.
July 10, 2006... Two of the securities industry's leading data suppliers, Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Thomson Financial, plan to announce today a joint distribution agreement centering on fixed-income valuations. Addressing growing demands for data on illiquid...

CME Expands in Asia With Yuan Derivatives: Korean currency products also in pipeline; office opening in Hong Kong.(Chicago Mercantile Exchange)
July 10, 2006... In August, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will introduce three derivatives based on the Chinese yuan; in June, it opened an office in Hong Kong to serve as its Asian business hub. The CME has been active in Asia for some time: It has...

China, Japan Futures Markets Cooperate on Weather Derivatives.
July 10, 2006... The Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), China's largest agricultural commodities futures exchange, and the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX), Japan's only financial futures exchange, have agreed to jointly develop weather derivative products for...

Transparency Taking Hold: Demands for greater disclosure are altering securities lending market.
July 10, 2006... Custodian banks acting as agent lenders in securities finance transactions are facing increased calls for transparency from borrowers and lenders. Broker-dealers are feeling similar pressures from regulators. These demands are prompting agent...

EquiLend Rides Growth Curve.(Interview)
July 10, 2006... As in other financial product areas, automation has promoted and supported growth in the $1.5 trillion global securities finance market. At the same time, the market is coming under unprecedented regulatory scrutiny since last year's...

Amid Legal Clouds, Automated Solutions.
July 10, 2006... Securities lending has become a significant source of income for brokers and custodians, particularly because of the business' importance in facilitating short selling. But increases in short activity are causing a regulatory and legal...

SEC's Short-Sale Guidance May Call for IT Adjustments.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
July 10, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission is close to amending its rules governing short selling, and industry participants expect the changes to burden brokers with increased and more specific reporting requirements. In the works for more...

Nasdaq's 3 Platforms To Become 1.(The Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.)
July 24, 2006... A Securities and Exchange Commission approval order dated July 14 has cleared the way for Nasdaq Stock Market to integrate its three linked but separate trading systems. The current Nasdaq Market Center and the company's two electronic...

Icap in the Blogosphere.(Icap (United Kingdom))
July 24, 2006... London-based interdealer brokerage Icap has joined the blogging generation. On July 12 it announced the launch of the Icap Insight interactive weblog at www.icapinsight.typepad.com/icap_insight with a focus on "market-moving issues and events,"...

Two Get QFII Approval.(qualified foreign institutional investors )(Brief article)
July 24, 2006... Morgan Stanley and Prudential Asset Management this month were approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission as qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs). They are the first to gain the designation since April and bring the...

The Trouble With Stopgaps.(business process management)
July 24, 2006... Historically in the securities industry, the back-office and accounting departments have been last on the list when organizations handed out budget dollars for new IT investments and related resources. These departments have been relegated to...

McCreevy's Way: No Directive Now.(Charlie McCreevy)(securities industry faces regulatory intervention)
July 24, 2006... Charlie McCreevy, the European Commission member responsible for internal markets and services, warned earlier this year that the Continent's securities industry faced regulatory intervention if it did not show progress at improving efficiency...

Capital IQ Addresses Real-Time Data Demands: S&P unit catering to hedge funds and changes in market dynamics.
July 24, 2006... As competition in the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry continues to heat up, money managers and other investment professionals are making ever-greater demands on databases and related strategy-building tools. These processes require...

Nybot, SDS in Four-Year Development Deal.(SDS Financial Technologies)(New York Board of Trade )
July 24, 2006... SDS Financial Technologies, a New York-based provider of electronic trading systems and market data, has entered into a four-year systems development agreement with the New York Board of Trade (Nybot). The futures and options exchange will rely...

Royalblue Extends Fidessa to Exchange-Traded Derivatives.(Fidessa equities trading system)(Royalblue Group PLC)
July 24, 2006... Trade execution vendor royalblue has extended its Fidessa equities trading system for European users to include support for exchange-traded derivatives. U.S. users will gain the capability by the beginning of 2007. Fidessa provides...

CBOT Launches Binary Options.(Chicago Board of Trade)
July 24, 2006... The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) has launched binary options on the target federal funds rate. The new, electronically traded contract serves to diversify CBOT's product range at the short end of the yield curve, the company said. "Binary...

NYSE Pricing Changes Will Take Effect Next Week.(NYSE Group Inc.)
July 24, 2006... The NYSE Group is instituting a number of pricing changes in New York Stock Exchange-listed equities and NYSE Arca options, effective Aug. 1. The company said the changes, announced at the end of June and described as the first in a series,...

Liquidnet To Trade Canadian Equities.
July 24, 2006... Block trading platform Liquidnet said it has obtained approval from the Ontario Securities Commission to trade Canadian equities and will begin to facilitate such trades for its institutional members in the fourth quarter. The approval is...

OptionsXpress and CBOE Allow Simulated Trading for Education.(Chicago Board Options Exchange)
July 24, 2006... OptionsXpress' comprehensive virtual trading platform is available to the approximately 1 million investors who utilize the Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE.com Web site each month, the companies announced last week. Available free to...

Analysis: EC Seeks Policy Goal Without Formal Rule.(European Commission)
July 24, 2006... Having opted to promote a code of conduct to encourage trading, clearing and settlement efficiencies, the European Commission must now wait to see if the results are as quick and effective as they might have been had it pushed for legislation...

Thomson TradeWeb Buys LeverTrade as Retail Entry Point: Deal is third within two months altering lineupin fixed-income market.(TradeWeb L.L.C.)
July 24, 2006... Thomson Corp.'s institutional bond-trading powerhouse TradeWeb last week unveiled its strategy for entering the retail end of the business, presenting a new and potent challenge to at least two incumbents--BondDesk Group and ValuBond--that have...

International Treaty Provides Conflict-of-Interest Guidance: U.S. and Switzerland first to sign G30-backed Hague Securities Convention.(Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held )
July 24, 2006... The U.S. and Switzerland this month became the first countries to sign the Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with an Intermediary--otherwise known as the Hague Securities Convention. It brings a...

Bond E-syndication Progresses Despite ICMA Setback.(International Capital Market Association)
July 24, 2006... Although five banks have pulled out of ICMA Match, the International Capital Market Association's program to promote electronic distribution of new syndicated debt issues, work toward that end is continuing under the aegis of FIX Protocol Ltd....

Swift, FpML and ISITC Advance Standards Efforts: Swaps and FRAs first to get post-trade help.
July 24, 2006... The Swift communications utility has agreed to use financial products markup language (FpML) formats on its SwiftNet network, initially for interest-rate swaps and forward-rate agreements (FRAs). By the end of the year, the agreement will...

Swift, FpML and ISITC Advance Standards Efforts: All fund classes on NAV reporting agenda.(net asset value)(International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication)(total portfolio value )
July 24, 2006... The International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) effort to standardize the modeling methodology for net asset value (NAV) messages started to take shape at a meeting in Toronto last month, where...

Addressing the Investor Identifier Issue.(International Capital Market Association )
July 24, 2006... In the wake of the exit of five bank participants from the ICMA Match syndicated debt communications system, the International Capital Market Association is weighing its options for a technology platform to standardize its e-syndicate schema...

Dubai Mercantile Exchange To Open in Fourth Quarter.
July 24, 2006... The Dubai Mercantile Exchange is on track for a fourth-quarter launch that will make it the first international energy futures exchange in the Middle East, according to its chief executive, Gary King. It will operate from a trading floor now...