Securities Industry News articles from March 2009

Securities Industry News archives from March 2009

Shifting Prime Relationships; Hedge funds adjusting to the new prime broker.(Special Report)(Company overview)
March 2, 2009... Byline: John Hintze It's a difficult time to be a small hedge fund. Many funds that manage less than $300 million have reportedly been shown the door by their prime brokerages, and others, even if they've generated positive returns, are...

Open-Source Messaging Standard Ready to Take Off; In cost-conscious environment, AMQP's 1.0 release may find wider adoption.(Technology)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Katherine Heires In development since 2004, the advanced messaging queuing protocol, or AMQP, will gain greater visibility, and perhaps wider acceptance, with the beta release of its 1.0 version next month. Supporters of the...

U.S., European Depositories Are Branching Out; DTCC and Euroclear are finding automation opportunities in new sectors.(Operations)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Chris Kentouris Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and Euroclear Bank operate settlement systems that are linchpins in the global equities and fixed-income markets. Now, they are extending their services into areas like...

Lehman Deal Fuels Barclays' Prime Ambitions; Integration of Lehman's U.S. operations paying off on prime brokerage front.(Special Report: Prime Brokerage)
March 2, 2009... Byline: John Hintze Barclays' acquisition of the North American businesses and operating assets of Lehman Brothers may end up being the bargain of 2008. Not only has the $1.75 billion purchase already shown a profit, but it has made a...

Primed for Change: Pershing's Messinger on An Industry in Flux.(Special Report: Prime Brokerage)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Pershing started its prime brokerage division in July 2007 at the tail end of the hedge fund heyday, when Wall Street's bulge-bracket firms typically had their pick of clients. But as a subsidiary of a custodian...

London Exchange Joins Fast Bandwagon.(Messaging)
March 2, 2009... Byline: John Sandman The London Stock Exchange (LSE), following the lead of venues such as NYSE Arca, BATS Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is preparing to accept messages in the Fast, or FIX adapted for streaming, protocol....

How TD Ameritrade Is Planning for Tomorrow.(News)
March 2, 2009... Byline: John McCormick Many financial firms are struggling with today's economic challenges. But TD Ameritrade isn't just looking to get through these difficult days. According to COO Dave Kelley, the online brokerage is laying the...

Feeding Collocation Hunger, Equinix Ramps Up in Secaucus; Direct Edge and CBOE sign on to N.Y. metro area's largest data center.(Case Study)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Behind the faAs.ade of a non-descript building in an industrial area of Secaucus, N.J. is a response from Equinix to the electronic trading community's seemingly insatiable demand for collocation services. In...

Crisis Puts Sec Lending Risk Practices to the Test.(Comment)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Roy Zimmerhansl, Principal at Zimmerhansl Consulting Sevices and former director of Icap's i-Sec platform A decade ago the securities lending business was more of a profitable hobby than a super-sized, critical component of the...

Welcome to the 'New' Securities Industry News.(Publisher's Note)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Kenneth Heath, Publisher What you hold in your hands is the result of several months' work to improve the publication. We began by hiring an independent research firm that surveyed our readers (thank you) and arrived at the...

Sybase IQ Gets Smarter.(News Desk)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Database technology provider Sybase says that it has bolstered the power and flexibility of its analytics server to provide faster, more accurate reporting and analysis. Dan Lahl, director of analytics at Sybase...

Four Cost-Cutting Keys For Investment Firms.(Comment)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Adam Broun, Principal with Deloitte Consulting In the face of shrinking assets and shaken investor confidence, investment management firms have seen declining management and performance fees. That has put dramatic pressure on...

Options Market Ripe for New Entrants as Demand Builds; Lime considers direct access and order routing as high-frequency traders embrace options.(Operations)
March 16, 2009... Byline: John Hintze As the equities market flounders, options are drawing increased interest from high-frequency traders and traditional asset managers, prompting broker-dealers and other market participants to test the water. New...

Business Semantics Repository Aims for Data Precision.(Special Report)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Chris Kentouris While financial firms have long known that accurate data is integral to efficient operations, concerns about risk have brought increased attention to the way they process, analyze and store transactions. Spending...

Enterprise Pricing Policies Crucial to Risk Mitigation.(Special Report)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Chris Kentouris With bad valuations of complex financial instruments commonly cited as a key factor behind the credit crisis, valuation experts are stressing the importance of consistent, enterprisewide pricing policies in...

BlackRock Preps Technology Platform for Revamped CDS Sector.(Case Study)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Shane Kite Asset management giant BlackRock is making changes to its technology platform and derivatives operations in anticipation of a newly transparent credit derivatives market. The New York-based fixed-income specialist is...

At A Glance.(At A Glance)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Company: BlackRock Corporate Headquarters location: New York Assets under management: $1.3 trillion Revenue: $5.1 billion (2008) net income: $786 million (2008) operating income: $1.6billion...

Propping Up Credit Swaps' Reputation.(News Desk)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff The credit derivatives sector has been called casino capitalism and a time bomb by critics, many of whom point to the instruments as the primary cause of the current financial crisis. But several banks, seeking to...

Nasdaq Launches Compliance Tool.(News Desk)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Nasdaq Stock Market has introduced a compliance tool designed to help firms' traders, back-office analysts and compliance personnel monitor activity on the exchange operator's trade reporting facilities. Nasdaq...

People in the news.(News Desk)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Fidelity Investments' National Financial Services has appointed Sanjiv Mirchandani to succeed Norman Malo as president. A 12-year veteran of clearing services provider National Financial, Malo led the unit for six...

Has Hedge Fund Regulation Hit a Wall?(News)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Carol E. Curtis The hedge fund industry has largely accepted regulation as inevitable, and legislators have called it a priority, but despite the apparent momentum, there is little to indicate that federal oversight will become a...

One Year After Bear's Collapse, JP Morgan Reaping Benefits.(News)
March 16, 2009... Byline: John Hintze JP Morgan Chase & Co.'s acquisition of Bear Stearns may not have helped its profits last year, but prudent risk management, a relatively strong balance sheet and the rapid integration of legacy platforms has...

Tech Focus Drives TMX Expansion.(News)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Alexa Jaworski TMX Group, as reflected by a derivatives platform deal with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), has been moving quickly on the technology front since it was formed last May by a merger of the Toronto Stock Exchange...

Class-Action Surge Strains Processing Abilities; Amid rising litigation, financial firms bolster resources or tap third parties.(Operations)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Chris kentouris As securities class-action lawsuits mount, money managers and their financial intermediaries are beefing up internal resources or turning to third-party processing agents to handle the complex operational work...

Cutting-Edge Software Drives Interactive Brokers' Growth; Indian online brokerage launches amid steady expansion.(News)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Carol E. Curtis Interactive Brokers Group, with the launch this month of an online brokerage in India, is continuing its global expansion even as some of its competitors scale back. A strong focus on technology will be integral to...

In Uncertain Environment, Merrill Bolsters Alternative Research; As some investors pare research providers, Open Minds service expands.(Data Management)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Alexa Jaworski As institutional investors increasingly demand a broader array of specialized research, Merrill Lynch's Open Minds service is expanding its roster of research providers to accommodate them. The one-year-old...

State Street Mulls ISDA Engine Amid Calls for Pricing Alternatives.(Data Management)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Shane Kite State Street Corp. may begin offering its buy-side clients a credit default swaps (CDS) pricing engine that is being freely distributed by the International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA). ISDA is hoping that...

In Hedge Fund Shakeout, Managed Futures Soar; 'Agnostic on the economy,' funds see rapidly growing investor demand.(Operations)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Carol E. Curtis While the hedge fund industry took a beating in 2008, it may also have been the year that managed futures funds came into their own. Now technology providers are rushing to help the funds deal with their growth. ...

Exchanges a 'Bright Light' In Crisis, Says CBOE Head; In global leadership role, Brodsky tackles short-sale rules, fragmentation.(Operations)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Alexa Jaworski In a global financial crisis, cooperation and coordination among the world's exchanges takes on a new light, according to William Brodsky, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). As chairman of...

Uptick Rule: Do Exchanges Have Better Alternative? New proposal could pose fewer operational burdens.(News)
March 30, 2009... Byline: John Hintze As pressure builds in Washington to reinstate the uptick rule for short selling, the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering several options, including a proposal from three exchanges that could generate fewer...

How AllianceBernstein Built a Better Trading Platform.(News)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Katherine Heires While others debate the relative merits of order management systems and execution management systems, Michael Schwartz, COO of global trading at investment manager AllianceBernstein, created a hybrid to get the...

Transactional Transparency A Delicate Balancing Act.(Comment)
March 30, 2009... Byline: John Sandman, Standards Editor Will greater disclosure of customer data make the financial services industry more stable at the cost of privacy breaches? In a climate where regulators are expected to demand increasing information...

BATS Hires Options Exec From 3D.(Newsdesk)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff BATS Exchange has hired Jeromee Johnson to look into building an options platform aimed at the high-velocity traders BATS caters to in the equities market. VP of market development at BATS, Johnson was previously...

A New Risk Advisory Option.(News Desk)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Citing growing concerns about fund managers' due diligence, a pair of investment industry veterans have started up a risk advisory designed for both institutional investors and advisers. Newport Beach,...

Wachovia Units Fined for Notification Failures.(News Desk)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), citing systems and operational issues, has fined two former Wachovia Corp. subsidiaries $1.1 million for failure to deliver more than 800,000 notifications to...

People in the news.(News Desk)
March 30, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Swift's global head of securities and CEO in the Americas, Chris Church, has been added to the board of XBRL US. Church, who joined the interbank messaging cooperative in August from Radianz, said, "the work XBRL US...

Risk-Wary Primes Pass OTC Processing Burden to Funds; Hedge funds will face new costs as prime brokers cut back on give-ups.(Clearing & Settlement)
March 30, 2009... Byline: John Hintze Hedge funds could find it more difficult to process over-the-counter derivative trades as their prime brokers grow increasingly reluctant to provide give-ups, where they act as counterparty to their clients' dealers....