Securities Industry News articles from November 2003

Securities Industry News archives from November 2003

Sources: SEC Assuming Lead Role in ITS Reform.
November 3, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken the lead in drafting the reform of the Intermarket Trading System (ITS) plan, acknowledging the nine-member ITS operating committee's (ITSOC) failure to reach agreement on the divisive issue,...

FIXML-FpML Converge, Front-End Messages Emerge?
November 3, 2003... In what could be a major step toward straight-through processing in the derivatives markets, the trade data standards of FIXML in the listed market and FpML in the over-the-counter market are moving toward interoperation, as a result of the...

E-Specialists Are Welcome On CBOE's Hybrid System.
November 3, 2003... In the latest example of U.S. floor exchanges gradually moving toward an electronic model, the Chicago Board Options Exchange last week unveiled its Hybrid 2.0 plan, highlighted by a new player: the competing e-specialist. HyTS, launched...

On Afghanistan's To-Do List, Market Development Remains Missing Issue.
November 3, 2003... I was in Afghanistan almost a decade ago, just before the Taliban came to power. I entered it from Tajikistan, a nearby former Soviet republic. Going to Tajikistan was like stepping back 20 years to a time of bad Soviet clothing, drab Soviet...

SEC's Colby on Market Data and Regulation.
November 3, 2003... At a time when many observers feel the current system for the dissemination of market data needs to be changed, Robert Colby, Securities and Exchange Commission deputy director, outlined the role played by market data during a panel on...

Internet Thieves Go Phishing' in U.K.
November 3, 2003... Several U.K. financial services firms were forced to suspend some online customer access last week to prevent scam artists from stealing key customer account information. Among those temporally pulling the plug on direct Internet access for...

Nasdaq to Offer Depth-of-Book Data.
November 3, 2003... Nasdaq, which plans to migrate the Nasdaq Intermarket from the legacy Computer Assisted Execution System (CAES) service to a new platform based on the SuperMontage platform, is also planning to roll out a new Intermarket datafeed service that...

Deutsche Bank Battles to Retain Dresdner Customers.
November 3, 2003... Deutsche Bank's recent purchase of Dresdner Bank's local institutional custody operations in Germany consolidates its stronghold in that market but Deutsche Bank will have to fight hard to retain Dresdner's book of business, said industry...

Intermediary Ops Key Focus of Late Trading Reforms.
November 3, 2003... Officials at the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will recommend rule and operational changes during testimony to Congress this week based on previous findings that late trading abuses have been perpetuated operationally more at the...

DTCC: New XML, Soap Specs for SMAS by December.
November 3, 2003... The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) will publish in December new XML- and Soap-based (Simple Objects Access Protocol) account activity and account maintenance standards specifications for the utility's much-anticipated Separately...

Germany Depository Adopts New Settlement Schedule.
November 3, 2003... Clearstream Banking Frankfurt, Germany's central depository, next month will phase in a new settlement model that will allow for earlier finality of German security settlement during its nighttime processing-but will change some collateral...

LCH Continues to Battle Eurex for LSE Clearing Biz.
November 3, 2003... The London Clearing House and Eurex Clearing have begun a pricing war for the London Stock Exchange's clearing business amid LCH's continued efforts to close its merger agreement with Clearnet to create LCH.Clearnet. The LSE has yet to...

Data Challenges New ISO XML Group.
November 3, 2003... As the ISO XML Working Group 11 begins the task of replacing its predecessor, the ISO XML WG 10, the new standards organization is extending the reach of the extensible markup language (XML) to other processes and message types, particularly...

OCC Expects to Roll Out FIXML Next Year.
November 3, 2003... Heralding greater support for FIXML in options trading, the Options Clearing Corp. has set June 2004 as the start date for deploying the standard in its processing systems. The options clearinghouse will run FIXML in parallel with its...

FIX-Compliant IOIs Get Another Backer.
November 3, 2003... While FIX-compliant indications of interest are certainly nothing new-since the standard emerged from the pre-trade space in the first place-a new Web-enabled service has generated enough excitement to nab support from big-name users such as...

CBOT to Roll Out Additional Data With New Platform.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... As part of the rollout of its new trading platform, the Chicago Board of Trade will be providing increased depth-of-book and tick data in January, which will more than double the amount of message volume provided by the exchange. The...

HyperFeed Exits Datafeed Sector.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... As part of a major shift in its corporate strategy, HyperFeed is selling about 250 consolidated datafeed customer contracts to Interactive Data Corp. for $8.5 million. The deal will reduce HyperFeed's expenses by another $8 million, said...

New Storage Tech Reducing Need for Tape, Optical.
November 3, 2003... After punch cards, tape storage might be the most inconvenient way to keep data around. Tapes, though cheap, are awkward to store and hard to handle. The tape heads require regular cleaning, just like those in a VCR. However, tape is still...

Storage Tech Glossary.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... Direct Attached Storage (DAS): A disk drive, tape drive or disk array is directly attached to a server, much the same way that a hard drive is directly attached to a desktop PC. The data is stored in blocks. Network Area Storage (NAS):...

International Securities Exchange Fires Back at BOX.
November 3, 2003... Securities Industry News excerpted in its Oct. 20 issue a memo by the Boston Stock Exchange (BSE) regarding its proposed electronic derivatives platform, the Boston Options Exchange, or BOX. BSE Chairman and CEO Kenneth Leibler sought to...

Most ECNs Voice Support for Nasdaq Fee Cap Plan.
November 3, 2003... Nasdaq's proposal to cap ECN fees on SuperMontage at 0.3 cent a share and to treat ECN quotes on par with market makers' orders is drawing mostly positive reviews from the electronic venues. In comments to the Securities and Exchange...

Firms Face OFAC Compliance Amid Shifting Policies.
November 3, 2003... While the industry awaits additional guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission on how to ensure compliance with customer identification rules to guard against money laundering that went into effect last month under Section 326 of the...

AML Cayman Islands-Style.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... An investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission can be a big motivator: One such probe led to a cooperative effort between the U.S. and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) to root out insider dealing the SEC had suspected...

Bank of Bermuda Takeover Boosts HSBC's Admin Ops.
November 3, 2003... HSBC's $1.3 billion cash takeover deal for Bank of Bermuda will strengthen the world's second largest bank's stronghold in the fund administration arena, particularly hedge funds, where Bank of Bermuda technology will dominate, but overlaps in...

Donaldson: SEC Evaluating Trade-Through Rule.
November 3, 2003... As calls to relax or repeal the trade-through rule continue to mount, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson told a House hearing last week that the crucial regulation is under active review. "As part of our...

What the Other Options Markets Offer.
November 3, 2003... THE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE (Amex) offers auto-execution for up to 250 contracts per option class. Last year, Amex and First Traders Analytical Solutions co-launched Total Access Options, or TAO, the first desktop product marketed by an...

Sources: Days Numbered for ITS.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to let the financial industry figure out its own solutions to accessing U.S. exchanges instead of relying on the aging Intermarket Trading System (ITS) network, industry sources said. "ITS...

Data Fees in the Crosshairs.
November 10, 2003... The topic of market data fees, how they get set and what they fund is likely to emerge again in the wake of investigations into specialists and mutual fund trading practices, according to industry observers. That's because exchanges will...

Calling for Backup: Task force proposes industry-owned guvvie clearing bank.
November 10, 2003... The industry-regulatory task force formed to mitigate the risk posed by having only two banks clear the nation's government securities has drafted a proposal to charter an industry-owned backup bank. As part of the plan, the institution...

Custodians, Euroclear Find Common Ground.
November 10, 2003... The schism between international central securities depositories (ICSDs) and subcustodian banks over the regulation of the clearance and settlement landscape in Europe appeared to narrow a bit last week. In comment letters released to the...

Is John Reed's Plan To Reform the NYSE Going Far Enough?
November 10, 2003... New York Stock Exchange interim chairman and CEO John Reed last Wednesday proposed changes regarding the governance of the world's largest electronic market. The exchange described Reed's proposal as "far-reaching," in terms of setting up the...

A New Era for SEC-NYSE Relationship.
November 10, 2003... "The Commission finds that the NYSE failed to enforce compliance with federal securities laws and NYSE rules." Any similarity between the aforementioned statement and current events would be purely coincidental, as this Securities and...

NASD Poised to Turn Over Amex Control to Members.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... Having failed to find a buyer for the troubled American Stock Exchange after shopping it around for more than two years, NASD last week reached an agreement to transfer control of the Amex to the Amex Membership Corp. In a joint press...

Feds Expand Lending Opportunities for Erisa Funds.
November 10, 2003... In a small victory for custodian banks, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is considering allowing Erisa funds to lend securities to non-U.S. broker-dealers and banks, and to accept non-U.S. collateral, albeit with some restrictions. "U.S...

FIX Certification Process Poised for Reinvention.
November 10, 2003... FIX Protocol Ltd. recently took the next step in addressing FIX certification, announcing that its certification working group, formed in July, is in the process of selecting vendors to provide this service to member firms. Certification...

NSCC Set to Support Trace Link.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... The National Securities Clearing Corp. (NSCC) will support a link for Trace corporate bond reporting for dealers via the Real-Time Trade Matching (RTTM) system under 15-minute reporting times, said John Fitzgerald, managing director of the...

CheckFree-Heliograph Deal Adds Post-Trade Options.
November 10, 2003... CheckFree's acquisition of middleware vendor Heliograph will expand the vendor's reach from reconciliation to the financial messaging, transaction management and corporate actions arena, thus providing several hundred clients a full post-trade...

A Determined Nasdaq Lands INET for SuperMontage.
November 10, 2003... INET, the super-ATS to result from the fusion of the Instinet and Island ECN platforms, will quote on Nasdaq's SuperMontage starting in January, in what represents a strategic coup for Nasdaq's new management team led by CEO Robert Greifeld....

Communicator Offers Public IM Connections.
November 10, 2003... In a sign that instant messaging interoperability is becoming ever more important to Wall Street users, Communicator's new Hub Connex product offers connections to public IM networks from AOL, Yahoo! and MSN. "It speaks volumes about how...

Our World In Numbers.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... Below is Securities Industry News' Third-Quarter Statistical Report, chronicling the ups and downs, the highs and lows, of trading and processing volumes for many of the companies, exchanges and utilities in our industry. Of the ECNs and...

Regulators to Examine Soft Dollars Amid Fund Scandals.
November 10, 2003... A potential ban on soft dollars is one of many options on the table in calls to reform the $7 trillion mutual fund industry, according to lawmakers and industry members, who called for unprecedented legal, ethical and operational overhauls in...

Thomson Embraces Web Services.(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... In the process of building a Web services architecture across its business groups, Thomson Financial is currently focusing on providing its assets in the Thomson One framework via Web services, said Bob Lamoureux, who was recently named chief...

A Formula for Reform.
November 10, 2003... Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson testified in Senate and House committees last month about reforms to reconcile the national market system (NMS) with the trading technology revolution. The SEC chief identified...

Fund Scandals to Force Ops, Compliance to Merge.
November 10, 2003... Regulatory pressure in response to systemic compliance and fiduciary failings in some of the nation's largest mutual funds-in which primary aspects of the funds' trading operations were used to fraudulently enrich professional money managers at...

Citibank Expands Via Forum Financial Buy.
November 10, 2003... Citibank's acquisition earlier this month of fund service provider Forum Financial Group gives the bank a quick entree into the U.S. mutual fund administration arena, as well as the offshore hedge fund market, where it has yet to make a mark....

SEC Could Cap ECN Fees Lower.
November 17, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering changing the formula for ECN access fees in a bid to curb locked markets, a practice fostered by liquidity rebates across the fragmented Nasdaq marketplace, sources said. "The SEC is...

Nasdaq Embraces Rule Changes.
November 17, 2003... Nasdaq expects looming regulatory changes to have a favorable impact on its market, whose rules it is also changing to woo the fast-rising "black-box" dealers, a Nasdaq executive said. "On the regulatory reform side, there is a lot of...

Liberty Bonds Crucial for Rebuilding.
November 17, 2003... Industry and local government leaders are seeking an extension from Congress on the availability of Liberty Bonds, as financial firms have used the post-9/11 financing to fund relocations or build new operations facilities in New York following...

EAI Gains Traction: Vendors offer plug-and-play integration solutions.
November 17, 2003... About a year ago, the Royal Bank of Canada began to hear the same demands from different divisions within the bank. Everybody wanted business process management and real-time analytics, and the bank faced a number of distinct integration...

Nothing But the Facts From the NYSE About The Trade-Through Rule.
November 17, 2003... In its Oct. 20 issue, Securities Industry News carried the views of executives at three electronic markets about the trade-through rule that mandates sending orders to the venue displaying the best quote. The rule is meant to ensure investors'...

Eurex Finds U.S. Entry Not So Easy.
November 17, 2003... While the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is more amenable to foreign participants than the Securities and Exchange Commission, Eurex is finding out that entering the U.S. derivatives exchange arena is not quite a walk in the park. ...

Decision on Nasdaq Access Raises Toronto's Ire.
November 17, 2003... The British Columbia Securities Commission's decision last week to allow investors under its purview to trade shares directly on the Nasdaq marketplace, while by itself a small change to existing rules, portends a much larger potential effect:...

FIF, Nasdaq Object to S&P Plan for Closing Prices.
November 17, 2003... The Financial Information Forum (FIF) and Nasdaq have both raised concerns over Standard & Poor's planned pilot program to use the American Stock Exchange for closing prices in Nasdaq stocks. The FIF is asking S&P and the Securities and...

Sources: CME Looking at Liffe Connect Platform.
November 17, 2003... Euronext.liffe is in talks with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to license its Liffe Connect technology for a possible upgrade of the CME trading system, sources said. Euronext's derivatives trading arm is also cutting costs at NQLX, the...

Asia-Pacific Grows in STP Stature.
November 17, 2003... While the U.S. and European securities markets have taken the lead in embracing straight-through processing, glimmers of greater automation in front- and back-office functions are now finally emerging in Asia-Pacific. Granted, the region...

matching services spar over bond automation.
November 17, 2003... Buy-side firms are increasingly looking at electronic allocation services for fixed-income trades-a development that, according to executives at central matching services providers Omgeo and TradeWeb, could serve as a foundation for the...

BrokerTec Futures Exchange to Stop Trading.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2003... BrokerTec Futures Exchange, launched in June 2000, will suspend trading on Nov. 26, thus removing from the U.S. fixed-income trading scene the only fully electronic government securities futures market. "We are suspending our trading...

TF Reorginization Targets Integration.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2003... In line with its strategy of moving from operating as a collection of individual divisions to functioning as one company, Thomson Financial has combined the sales, service and marketing organizations of its two main units into one global group...

FXall Platform Building on Prime Brokerage Entry.
November 17, 2003... Internet-based foreign exchange trading platform FXall has added three new users to its prime brokerage messaging solution: Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse First Boston, bringing to 10 the number of banks using the feature. ...

XBRL Extends to Quarterly Reports as Usage Grows.
November 17, 2003... The extensible business reporting language, XBRL, the XML-based standard for accounting, is being extended to earnings releases and ultimately to 10K and 10Q reporting, according to participants at the XBRL.org Seattle conference this month....

Universities Embrace Next-Gen Trading Simulators.
November 17, 2003... Students from Loyola, the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Kent State may find themselves battling one another for supremacy in trading futures and options contracts on college campuses this holiday...

J.P. Morgan Unveils New Communications Hub.
November 17, 2003... J.P. Morgan Investor Services last week became the latest custodian to disclose that it would offer a messaging hub as part of its investment management outsourcing offerings. Known as J.P. Morgan Message Express, the new service will allow...

FpML Makes Slow Migration To the Front Office.
November 17, 2003... Since its unveiling in 1999, the financial products markup language (FpML) has resided primarily on the back end of the over-the-counter derivatives market. The initial concept included front-end delivery of trade data, but as more...

SIA-BMA in Merger Talks.
November 17, 2003... Collaboration between the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association at an upcoming lending and repo conference, while nothing new, has taken on greater significance. The reason is that merger talks are ongoing between two...

Euroclear Adds to Funds.
November 17, 2003... International depository Euroclear last week added money-market funds denominated in euros, U.S. dollars and U.K. pounds to its dedicated investment-fund processing platform, FundSettle, thereby enhancing investors' short-term liquidity...

CLSA Turns to Smartstream.(Brief Article)
November 17, 2003... Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia-Pacific Markets (CLSA) has become the first firm in Asia-Pacific to commit to Smartstream Technologies' TLM as a regional reconciliation product, officials of the brokerage said last week. The...

Sources: Swift Dropping Out of FIX Certification RFP.
November 17, 2003... The field of vendors vying to oversee FIX Protocol Ltd.'s planned FIX certification program has narrowed, as at least one very prominent name has dropped out. According to industry sources, banking and securities messaging utility Swift is...

MTS Expands to Greek Market.
November 17, 2003... MTS, the family of electronic trading systems in European government bonds, is adding Greek bonds as a segment of EuroMTS today-a decision that puts it in competition with Greece's central bank and provides access to all eurozone fixed-income...

Scandals Good for Transition Managers, Bad for Ops -.
November 17, 2003... So-called "transition management" units are experiencing a windfall of business as state pension and other funds take their money out of mutual funds caught up in ever-growing market-timing and late-trading scandals, which last week forced the...