Securities Industry News articles from March 2006

Securities Industry News archives from March 2006

Bond-Clearing Business Gets Its Backstop.(securities)
March 6, 2006... A Bond Market Association (BMA) steering committee met last Thursday to set into motion NewBank, a standby institution that would step into the Treasury securities clearing business if one of the two dominant clearing banks were to exit. With...

Algo Trading Reaches Critical Mass.(securities trading)
March 6, 2006... Algorithmic trading will increase 34 percent this year and next and will account for 24 percent of all U.S. equities trading by the end of 2007, according to research firm Tabb Group. The Westborough, Mass. firm, in a report titled "Outlook on...

Start-up Tello's Take on Instant Connectivity: Ideal for Wall Street.(telecommunications equipment)
March 6, 2006... Telecommunications innovations of the Internet era--such as BlackBerry handheld devices, voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM)--have gotten warm receptions among the early-adopting Wall Street crowd. Doug Renert, the...

On the Market: SOA Technology Manufactured by Merrill Lynch.(SOA Software)
March 6, 2006... At the end of this month, a Web services product from Santa Monica, Calif.-based SOA Software will go into general release. It's the kind of thing that happens almost daily in the rapidly evolving, hotly contested world of service-oriented...

CME Upgrades in Face of Market Data Explosion.(futures markets)
March 6, 2006... The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has completed the early stages of a long-term, wide-ranging technology upgrade. By the end of 2005, the exchange had moved its order routing onto Hewlett-Packard computers using Intel Itanium processors and the...

XBRL Extension.(Securities and Exchange Commissionextends date for joining test group using extensible business reporting language )
March 6, 2006... There are still a few days--until March 10--to accept the Securities and Exchange Commission's invitation to join a voluntary test group using extensible business reporting language (XBRL) for corporate regulatory filings. The original deadline...

People in the news.(Frank McMahon joins First American Corp)(Kevin Iraca joins Gissing Software)
March 6, 2006... Property, credit and business information giant First American Corp. went shopping on Wall Street for a new CFO. Frank McMahon, a Lehman Brothers Holdings managing director, will join the Santa Ana, Calif.-based company on March 31 to oversee...

Where Is the Outrage?(industry sales reports)
March 6, 2006... Judging by its bottom line, the securities industry is in pretty good shape. In its year-end financial review, just before all the returns on calendar 2005 were in, the Securities Industry Association (SIA) estimated that the aggregate pre-tax...

Quantifying Compliance.(research on compliance costs)
March 6, 2006... This study is intended to contribute to development of a deeper understanding of how and to what extent various regulatory and legislative mandates have impacted compliance-related activities at U.S. securities firms. These activities have...

Nomura Using Vhayu Velocity in Tokyo.
March 6, 2006... Nomura Securities Co. has purchased the Vhayu Velocity system for high-volume streaming market data and tick analysis. The Japanese brokerage giant will use the technology as its Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) feed handler and for real-time and...

Portware Links With Citigroup to Boost Analytics.
March 6, 2006... In a platform combination that it touts as a first, trading technology vendor Portware said it has integrated its Portware Professional execution management system (EMS) with Citigroup's Best Execution Consulting Services (Becs), which provides...

Symantec, Orchestria in Archiving Partnership.(securities)
March 6, 2006... In the latest stinging reminder of the importance of compliant archiving, Morgan Stanley disclosed last month that it has reached an agreement in principle with the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay a $15 million civil...

SuperDerivatives Supercharges Its Commodity Offering.(commodity offerings)
March 6, 2006... Just three months since the launch of SD-CM, SuperDerivatives' platform for pricing commodity options, the London-based specialist in options pricing and trading technology has come out with an upgrade. Amid what SuperDerivatives founder and...

IBM, Novell Join Forces on ID Management.(International Business Machines Corp.)
March 6, 2006... IBM Corp. is joining forces with Novell to roll out an open-source identity management initiative. The project, billed as a cross-industry effort, was unveiled at a briefing in New York last week where Roger Burkhardt, CTO of the New York Stock...

MJK Litigation Nears Conclusion: Reg SHO and industry initiative lift veil on securities-lending industry.(regulations)
March 6, 2006... Litigation stemming from the implosion of MJK Clearing in 2001 is finally approaching a resolution. The case, revolving around a securities-lending failure, has shed light on the weaknesses of one of Wall Street's most important and least...

Hedge Funds Grow Up, and So Does the Advice They Get.(financial instruments)
March 13, 2006... The assumption is that it doesn't take much to start a hedge fund--beyond the necessary start-up capital, a computer and access to market data. But as the hedge fund marketplace matures and even has to face the fact that it is regulated by the...

Bloomberg Opens Its B-Pipe; Reuters Soups Up Its Desktop: A barrier erodes between the market data titans.(Bloomberg L.P and Reuters Group PLC data feed management)
March 13, 2006... The rivalry between Bloomberg and Reuters Group has thawed enough for data feeds to begin traversing between their respective networks--a response by both market data titans to industry demands for more-open standards and architectures. But...

BlackBerry Survives Patent Suit, But New Options Considered.
March 13, 2006... When Research in Motion (RIM) agreed to a $612.5 million settlement in its patent dispute with NTP of Arlington, Va., Ra'ad Siraj was one of many well-wired executives in the financial services community who breathed a sigh of relief. Siraj,...

The IPO Club.
March 13, 2006... The New York Stock Exchange's landmark initial public offering on March 8, with the new NYSE Group's shares rising 24.5 percent from the previous day's close of the now-merged Archipelago Holdings issue, brought back memories--and perhaps...

In IT Strategy, Think Ahead.(internal technology)
March 13, 2006... That financial markets continued to advance, innovate and expand--geographically and by product--during 2005 should come as no surprise. There is much written of the latest product to hit the market, record volumes in each asset class,...

The Risk Beat Goes On.(market trends)
March 13, 2006... Global regulators continue to signal concern about the potential systemic risks in innovative financial products, while revealing more about their vigilance and the scope of their response. Much of this concern revolves around credit...

Industry Supports Efficiency But Blasts E-Proxy Proposal.
March 13, 2006... With the annual meeting season about to kick into high gear, the Securities and Exchange Commission's electronic-proxy proposal has kicked up a firestorm. Under the proposal, electronic distribution of public companies' proxy statements would...

The Street Weighs In on the SEC Proposal.(letters received by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the proposed electronic-proxy rule)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
March 13, 2006... The following are excerpts from comment letters filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a sampling of the securities industry's critiques of the agency's proposed electronic-proxy rule, also known as notice and access. The...

Evare Concentrating for Swift.(Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication)(membership)(Brief Article)
March 13, 2006... In January, Evare, the Burlington, Mass. data transformation company, obtained member-concentrator status in Swift through Evare's majority owner, New York investment firm Loeb Partners. Evare CEO Frederick (Ted) Stanley maintains that the...

Streaming Data Technologies Are in Acceleration Mode.
March 13, 2006... Eyeing the explosion of algorithmic trading and the data needed to fuel it, technology developers are rapidly getting up to speed--literally. Last week, Aleri Labs, a unit of Chicago-based Aleri, one of a host of companies vying to support the...

Outsourced Operations Dodge Philippine Turmoil.(state of emergency)
March 13, 2006... The recent state of emergency in the Philippines did not affect the Wall Street firms with operations in the island nation, including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. But the securities industry's interest in the...

FpML 4.2 Nearing Final Recommendation.(financial products markup language)(International Swaps & Derivatives Association)
March 13, 2006... The International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA) released the third working draft for version 4.2 of the financial products markup language (FpML) last month, adding into the specification support for credit derivatives, equity...

Carr: Nyfix Fixer.(Brian Carr)(Interview)
March 13, 2006... Nyfix, the Stamford, Conn.-based provider of technology and execution services to the domestic and international financial markets, went through a major top-level management change late last year. After an earnings restatement and the...

A Reference Data Subset Is Getting Its Due: Counterparty, entity information may even get outsourcing treatment.(database management of securities industry)
March 13, 2006... At firms grappling with data management on the vaunted enterprisewide scale, reference data issues are still pretty much front and center--and throughout the securities industry it remains a daunting challenge to bring it all together cleanly...

The Double Meaning of Know Your Customer'.(customer service)
March 13, 2006... Coordinating the sale of a municipal bond offering to retail brokerage customers who may want to replace soon-to-mature bonds in their portfolios appears, on the surface, to be fairly straightforward. But it doesn't happen efficiently. The...

The Research on Reference Data: Analysts see major technology strides, but there's still a long way to go.(Enterprise Data Management)
March 13, 2006... Awareness of, and attention to, reference data management has vacillated over the years, but now it seems likely to stay on the securities industry's technological front burner for a good long while. That's evident from the entry into the...

Nasdaq Offers Experimental' Glimpse at Data Products.(web access services)
March 13, 2006... Going directly to its public for feedback on its data-product development efforts, the Nasdaq Stock Market is offering access to an experimental Web site where users can obtain nearly real-time reports for free, give their reactions and suggest...

Canada to Mandate Same-Day Matching.(Canadian Securities Administrators)(securities transactions regulations)
March 13, 2006... Almost two years after floating the idea, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has decided to require same-day matching of securities transactions. Matching would take place by 7:30 p.m. on the trade date by July 1, 2008. The...

A Shot in the Arm for Single-Stock Futures: OneChicago's numbers climb; brokerage firm's buy-in validates the asset class.
March 20, 2006... The reception was about as chilly as the autumn wind in November 2002 when OneChicago, a joint venture of the big three Chicago derivatives exchanges, introduced trading in single-stock futures. The innovation was unmistakable--investors were...

NYSE, Others Attack Nasdaq Data Facility.(New York Stock Exchange)
March 20, 2006... The Nasdaq Stock Market could soon clear one of the last hurdles in the way of its conversion to a stock exchange: Securities and Exchange Commission approval of its proposed Trade Reporting Facility (TRF) for collecting price quotes. But a key...

Market Braces for Reg NMS--and Its Costs - First of a series.(National Market System )
March 20, 2006... The controversy surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation NMS market-structure reforms subsided after the SEC published the final rule in June 2005. The industry had a full year to comply with its principal trading-related...

Compliance Burden Shifts With Redemption Rule.
March 20, 2006... Compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's redemption-fee rule, which is designed to inhibit improper market-timing practices, could get easier for mutual funds thanks to some recently proposed amendments. Brokerage firms and...

International CDS Week.(credit default swaps )
March 20, 2006... Thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's intervention in the credit derivatives industry's back-office crisis--not to mention the fact that most major dealer banks have offices within blocks of that institution--New York more than ever...

-ST_BY-.(ownership restructuring of MTS Systems Corp)
March 20, 2006... The Rome-based electronic fixed-income markets operator MTS has reconstituted its supervisory and management boards to reflect the restructuring of its ownership in January, when MBE Holding, a joint venture of the multinational Euronext...

No Lifeguard on Duty.(hedge fund registration)
March 20, 2006... For at least one member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the verdict is in on hedge fund registration, and it is not reassuring to investors. In a Feb. 28 speech to the Investment Adviser Compliance Best Practices Summit, SEC...

Hedge Funds and Derivatives: The Treasury Perspective.(market growth)
March 20, 2006... As hedge funds and credit derivatives have emerged as objects of risk and regulatory concern, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve Bank of New York, respectively, were the U.S. agencies quickest to take oversight...

The NASD in the SRO Debate.(National Association of Securities Dealers)(self-regulatory organization)
March 20, 2006... The Senate Banking Committee hearing on March 9, just a day after the NYSE Group's newly listed stock began trading, turned into a debate on the securities industry's approach to self-regulation. The NYSE's CEO, John Thain, came under fire as...

Analysis: NYSE Could Be Formidable in Bonds, Too.(New York Stock Exchange)
March 20, 2006... Most of the recent action at NYSE Group, the newly minted, publicly traded parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has revolved around its March 8 stock listing, its merger with electronic trading pioneer Archipelago Holdings and potential...

Citi Brings Securities Services to Vietnam.
March 20, 2006... Continuing its aggressive expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, Citigroup's global transaction services (GTS) unit has brought its custody and clearing services business to Vietnam. Anticipating significant growth, Citi had already offered...

MiFID IT Committee Goes Commercial.(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)
March 20, 2006... A committee that has been analyzing the technological ramifications of Europe's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) has turned itself into a profit-making venture with a mission of helping firms comply with the rules set to take...

Keeping Data Projects On an Even Keel.
March 20, 2006... Ensuring that data is accurate and timely is easier said than done. In fact, it is just one issue among many for the world's largest securities firms as they face the challenge of managing information on the securities they trade and process,...

BNY's Meserve on Soft-Dollar Transparency.
March 20, 2006... Soft dollars have long been a thorn in the side of regulators. The term refers to the use of client assets to pay for brokerage and other services that money managers receive from broker-dealers in exchange for using those firms to execute...

Trading Technologies Offers Charting.(Trading Technologies Inc. introduces financial software)
March 20, 2006... Trading Technologies International (TT), the Chicago-based developer of high-performance trading software for derivatives products, has launched a charting and analysis application. Called X Study, the system enhances the previously released,...

Trading Abuse Crackdown: Are The Regulators Hitting the Mark?(fraudulent market timing and late trading of mutual fund shares)
March 27, 2006... The penalty announced March 16 by NYSE Regulation was its largest ever: $250 million in fines and disgorgement of profits by Bear Stearns & Co. for fraudulent market timing and late trading of mutual fund shares. Though the dollars were large,...

Market Centers Prepare for Reg NMS: Deadline Delay Likely As NYSE's Hybrid and.(National Market System)(New York Stock Exchange)
March 27, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission's compliance deadline for key trading-related provisions of Regulation NMS is about three months away, and executives at stock exchanges, other market centers and their technology suppliers believe the...

NMS, ECNs and Regionals: Are They the Winners?(National Market System)(Electronic Communications Networks)
March 27, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation NMS market-structure reforms, at least on their surface, should level the proverbial playing field for market centers and enable second-tier or regional exchanges to pose a stronger challenge...

Donovan: Swift Securities Division in Fast Lane.(Donovan, James P.)(Interview)
March 27, 2006... When the Swift consortium lured him out of retirement last summer to take charge of the faster-growing half of its business--the securities industry division--it didn't take James P. Donovan long to identify growth opportunities and boil them...

Hybrid Timing.(New York Stock Exchange's Hybrid Market plan)
March 27, 2006... The New York Stock Exchange got its long-awaited approval last week from the Securities and Exchange Commission to move forward with the Hybrid Market plan, which had been kicking around since 2004 and is designed to combine the best of both...

The Independent Self.(restructuring NYSE)(Editorial)
March 27, 2006... Editor's Note: On March 9, two days after the New York Stock Exchange's landmark conversion into a for-profit, publicly held company, NYSE Group CEO John Thain participated in a hearing on securities industry self-regulation before the Senate...

Bad Timing: Bear v. NYSE.
March 27, 2006... On March 16, when Bear Stearns & Co. announced record quarterly earnings of $508.7 million, 37 percent more than in the first quarter of 2005, the company also said it agreed to a $250 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange...

Anvil Expands in North America.(signs contract to provide software)
March 27, 2006... London-based trading systems developer Anvil Software has signed Bank of Nova Scotia as the newest North American client for its Arts product for automating securities lending and repurchase agreements (repos). "We were relying on two...

Langford Quits AML Agency for JP Morgan Chase.(William D. Langford leaves U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and joins JP Morgan Chase & Co)
March 27, 2006... William D. Langford, associate director for regulatory policy, programs and enforcement at the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), is leaving at the end of April to become senior vice president and director of global anti-money...

Test Prep: Securities Firms Cram for AML Exams.(Anti-Money Laundering regulations)
March 27, 2006... In complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, the banking industry had a two- to three-decade head start on the securities industry. But whatever gap remains between these two populations is closing fast as the new mandates of...

Four Years On, Patriot Act Questions Linger.(stronger anti-money laundering (AML) safeguards)
March 27, 2006... Once it became clear that the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers managed to game the U.S. financial system and move the funds needed to commit their crime without detection, stronger anti-money laundering (AML) safeguards became a top policy concern....

OMS Providers Make Fixed-Income Strides: TowerGroup.(Order Management Systems)(fixed-income business)
March 27, 2006... Order management systems (OMS) vendors have made significant headway adding advanced fixed-income functionality to their products over the last two years, according to a TowerGroup survey. Last year saw "explosive growth" in adoption of...

Nymex Turnover.(New York Mercantile Exchange's acquisition by General Atlantic)(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... Mitchell Steinhause will not seek reelection to the board of Nymex Holdings, the parent of the New York Mercantile Exchange, after being instrumental in negotiating the sale of a 10 percent stake to private equity firm General Atlantic....

Tokyo Invests.(Tokyo Stock Exchange will go toward a next-generation trading system)(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), its operations strained by capacity deficiencies that caused suspensions of trading and other glitches over the last several months, filled in more details of its technology investment plans last week. It said it...

ICE Glitch.(Intercontinental-Exchange)(processing error in Brent crude contracts )(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... In a sign that even the most high-tech of exchanges are not perfect, Intercontinental-Exchange's ICE Futures market in London reported that a processing error in Brent crude contracts late on March 22 forced a decision to suspend trading for 3...