Securities Industry News articles from November 2006

Securities Industry News archives from November 2006

Back-End Authentication Moves to Forefront.
November 6, 2006... User authentication has been getting a lot of attention lately, what with lingering threats of identity theft, a U.S. regulatory initiative to have banks and other depository institutions raise their level of customer validation technology, and...

Is the Bisys Fund Kickback Scheme An Inkling of Another Big Scandal?
November 6, 2006... Might another scandal be brewing in the mutual fund industry? Still reeling from the market-timing and late-trading abuses that came to light three years ago, the industry got more bad news in late September, when the Securities and Exchange...

Prime Broker Trades Enabled on TradeWeb, Boost CDS Volume.(credit default swaps)
November 6, 2006... Just over a year since it started its online marketplace for credit default swaps (CDS) products, the Thomson TradeWeb fixed-income platform has introduced a system that streamlines transactions that are intermediated by prime brokerages....

Congressman Says West Is Best for Disaster Sites.(Paul Kanjorski-senior member of the House Financial Services Committee)
November 6, 2006... Business continuity planning (BCP) and disaster recovery are on their way to becoming more than what those concepts imply today, encompassing not only electrical power infrastructure, data backup and buildings to house systems and employees,...

European Groups Advocate Uniform Matching Guidelines: ESF and depositories body.(European Securities Forum)
November 6, 2006... propose 17 standards for harmonization effort Contributing to the growing list of European market-practice harmonization efforts, the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) and the European Securities Forum (ESF) have...

Your Computer's Reputation is On Line.(Iovation -Systems and data security software for preventing internet fraud)
November 6, 2006... Anyone who has bought or sold goods on eBay knows the importance of reputation in the online world. Anyone who buys a house understands the value of a good credit rating. While you may be developing a good name as an eBay seller or paying...

That Elusive Man in the Middle'.(Computer hackers)
November 6, 2006... In July, customers in Citibank's CitiBusiness program were hit by a cyberattack originating in Russia. The customers were using a two-factor authentication method--security tokens--like those that regulators are encouraging financial...

Funding for Web Service.(Monitor110)(Company overview)
November 6, 2006... Blog-watching is serious business, judging by the $11 million in venture capital funding just raised by Monitor110. The three-year-old New York company provides a persistent search and real-time Internet monitoring application for hedge fund...

Forecast Derivative.(Brief article)
November 6, 2006... Weather forecasts are important to commodity and energy traders, and some trade in weather derivatives. WSI Corp. of Andover, Mass. has introduced a tool to assess weather models such as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric...

Big in India.(GlobeOp Financial Services)(Brief article)
November 6, 2006... Hedge fund administrator and technology provider GlobeOp Financial Services said that in response to client demand it has opened its third office in Mumbai, India in as many years. The new facility has 42,900 square feet for software...

People In The News.(virt-x - Jim Gollan)(Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. - James P. Leonard )(NYSE Group- Rachel F. Robbins )
November 6, 2006... As part of a series of management changes announced by Zurich-based SWX Group, Jim Gollan, chief executive of the electronic virt-x exchange in London, will assume the title of chairman, effective Dec. 1. At the same time, Lee Hodgkinson, head...

Seeking Soft-Dollar Clarity.
November 6, 2006... When the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its final notice in July on what services can and cannot be included in soft-dollar commission practices, much of the securities industry breathed a collective sigh of relief. But for all the...

Hedge Funds, Derivatives and Systemic Risks.(Federal Reserve Bank of New York -Timothy F. Geithner)(Speech)
November 6, 2006... Federal Reserve Bank of New York president Timothy F. Geithner has been in the thick of both talk and action relating to the growth of credit derivatives and their risk implications as investments and as operational challenges for global banks....

What the New York Fed Said.(Federal Reserve Bank of New York -)(Brief article)
November 6, 2006... Following a meeting on Sept. 27 of 16 credit default swaps dealers and financial regulatory agency officials from the U.S. and Europe, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued this statement. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today...

Silver Lake Gets Its Early Exit' From Instinet: Buyout by Japan's Nomura seen as validating agency brokerage strategy.
November 6, 2006... As part of a series of transactions related to Reuters Group's divestiture of Instinet last December, private equity firm Silver Lake Partners of Menlo Park, Calif. took control of the agency brokerage in a deal valued at $208 million. By...

Facing Cost Realities, NYSE Is Closing a Trading Floor.
November 6, 2006... The New York Stock Exchange said last week it plans to consolidate trading operations from five rooms to four over the next 18 months. Bear Wagner Specialists and approximately 33 floor brokerage firms will relocate from the leased 30 Broad St....

Tullett Says Deal Will Make It Leader in Corporate Credit.(Collins Stewart Tullett )(Chapdelaine Corporate Securities & Co.)
November 6, 2006... London-based interdealer brokerage group Collins Stewart Tullett last week said it had agreed to acquire Chapdelaine Corporate Securities & Co. (CCS) in a deal that would make subsidiary Tullett Prebon the biggest broker of credit products in...

AFA Hires Lynch, Former SunGard Brass Chief.(Advanced Financial Applications-Patrick Lynch )
November 6, 2006... Advanced Financial Applications (AFA), a New York-based provider of trading technologies to buy- and sell-side organizations, has named Patrick Lynch president and CEO. Lynch was until recently president and CEO of SunGard Brass, the trading...

Financial Tech Veteran Named SmartStream CEO.(Ken Archer )
November 6, 2006... Today, two months since private equity firm TA Associates bought a majority interest in London-based straight-through processing (STP) systems company SmartStream Technologies, Ken Archer becomes SmartStream's CEO. A 25-year veteran of the...

A New Business Model With Customer Service: Competition increases, and lines blur, between agency and full-service brokerage.
November 6, 2006... Agency brokerages became a market force by focusing on buy-side demands for low-cost execution. But now the business is coming full circle: Institutions still want low-touch trading and algorithmic strategies, but they also want trading...

Full-Service Prowess Keeps Biggest Firms Competitive.
November 6, 2006... Demand for algorithms and execution services has generated a significant increase in bulge-bracket brokerage firms' agency businesses--and in the products they are coming out with to capitalize on the demand from institutional clients. Since...

Instinet's Breakaway Year Was Also Most Prolific': Algorithms, growth initiatives flowing freely since private equity buyout.(Company overview)
November 6, 2006... A month away from the anniversary of its restructuring and takeover led by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, and now that Nomura Holdings is preparing to take it over, the former Reuters Group subsidiary Instinet has firmly staked out a...

OMS-EMS Integration: New Architectures Emerge.(order management system)(execution management system)(Investment Technology Group Inc. acquired Macgregor )(BNY Brokerage merged with BNY ConvergEx)
November 6, 2006... Responding to buy-side demands for "soup to nuts" transaction functionality, agency brokerages Investment Technology Group (ITG) and BNY Brokerage have brought order management system (OMS) suppliers into their operations. ITG acquired...

Block Alert: ITG and Merrill Lynch's Common Ground.(Investment Technology Group)(Merrill Lynch and Company Inc.)
November 6, 2006... When New York-based Investment Technology Group (ITG) was assembling the alternative trading system (ATS) that it is now operating under the brand name Block Alert, it wasn't just a question of, "If we build it, will liquidity come?" ITG also...

Securities Loan Pricing Still Difficult Despite Technological Aids.
November 6, 2006... Recapturing interest-rate payments of up to 100 basis points on a portfolio of short securities is an attractive prospect for any cost-conscious securities borrower. Technology has made it easier to search for such savings, but new, intangible...

A Silver Lining in MiFID Preparations.(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive )(Interview)
November 13, 2006... Twenty years since the "big bang" deregulation in the City of London, bankers there and throughout Europe are focusing on a new batch of changes, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), that some are describing as the new big...

Europeans Support Code of Conduct; Local Custodians Voice Misgivings.
November 13, 2006... The European Commission's effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency in securities clearing and settlement has taken a major leap forward as trade groups representing European Union exchanges, clearinghouses and settlement systems endorsed a...

Instinet Represents Break From Nomura's Past.(Nomura Securities)(Instinet Group Inc.)
November 13, 2006... From its founding on Dec. 25, 1925 as a spin-off of Osaka Nomura Bank Co., Nomura Securities grew into one of the giants of Japanese capital markets and a player on the global financial stage. But in terms of corporate structure, the firm...

Room for One More ATS: Fidelity into the pool with CrossStream.(alternative trading system)
November 13, 2006... Fidelity Capital Markets Services is the latest to jump into the dark pool sweepstakes with CrossStream, an alternative trading system (ATS) that runs on the Fidelity Investments affiliate's own advanced technology, anonymously matching...

Fimat Gets Go-Ahead to Expand Portfolio Margining Accounts.(Fimat Preferred)
November 13, 2006... The pioneer in providing portfolio margining accounts in the U.S., Fimat Preferred, has obtained formal approval to include additional financial instruments in those accounts, preparing the way for the eventual inclusion of equities. Fimat...

MarketAxess Record.(financial)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... With its third-quarter earnings report on Nov. 1, institutional bond-trading platform operator MarketAxess Holdings revealed a healthy acceleration in transaction growth: At $83.8 billion in total volume, the quarter was its third-best on...

Hedge Fund in the Open.
November 13, 2006... Fortress Investment Group filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 8 for an initial public offering. The New York company, with $26 billion in assets under management, would be the first hedge fund to...

Data Industry Growth.(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Information industry research and advisory firm Outsell, in its 2006 MarketView report on credit and financial information providers, estimates that the sector as a whole is growing at an 8.6 percent compound annual rate, on its way to $45.1...

People i the News.
November 13, 2006... State Street Corp. has appointed former Mellon Financial Corp. executive Jack Klinck to the newly created position of EVP and head of global product services, reporting to Jay Hooley, who as EVP and head of investment servicing and investment...

Sifma: Tough Acronym, Challenging Future.(Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association)
November 13, 2006... The Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association held its inaugural conference in Boca Raton, Fla. last week. The name is the result of the merger of the Securities Industry Association (SIA)--whose Boca Raton gatherings are a...

Late Movement on Basel II.
November 13, 2006... As most of the financial world was stepping up the pace of comprehending and complying with the updated Basel II bank capital accords, U.S. regulatory agencies had been slow to reach their own accords with the policy--and consensus with each...

Nazareth: Penny Pilot Will Yield Useful Analysis.(Annette L. Nazareth )
November 13, 2006... The options industry is moving rapidly toward penny pricing increments--a development jump-started in May by discussions at the Options Industry Conference in Miami, including a speech on the subject by Elizabeth K. King, associate director of...

ESpeed Claims Advantage in Patent Dispute: But plaintiff Trading Technologies questions the Cantor spin-off's interpretation.
November 13, 2006... Trading technology and electronic marketplace provider eSpeed said last week that a cloud of uncertainty has been lifted in a patent infringement case, allowing its futures business to step up marketing of the disputed system. The Cantor...

Thinkorswim Extends Zero-Commission Program.(penny pricing )
November 13, 2006... Chicago-based online brokerage and options technology pioneer thinkorswim (TOS) is expanding zero-commission option trades to all customers who buy back short single options for 5 cents (to close). It also said that option spreads that are...

Indata's Version 7 Includes ASP, Mobile Capabilities.
November 13, 2006... Buy-side technology provider Indata has released version 7 of its enterprise investment management system for institutional asset managers. The San Diego-based company, which typically makes two software releases a year, assigned this one a...

Swingvote Morphs Into Full-Service Proxy Provider.(R.R. Donnelley Global Software Services)(Institutional Shareholder Services)
November 13, 2006... Upstart proxy processor Swingvote is turning its effort to compete against Automatic Data Processing (ADP) up a notch through an alliance with RR Donnelly and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). RR Donnelly will handle proxy mailings...

FFIEC Manual: The AML Reference of Choice?(Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council )(Anti-Money Laundering )
November 13, 2006... In July, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), an umbrella organization for federal regulators of banks and other depository institutions, released the 2006 edition of its Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering...

FinCEN Sanctions N.Y. Bank; Ex-Merrill AML Exec Now In Place.(Financial Crimes Enforcement Network)(Israel Discount Bank of New York)(anti-money-laundering)
November 13, 2006... Three government agencies announced a $12 million penalty Oct. 31 against Israel Discount Bank (IDB) of New York for federal and state anti-money-laundering (AML) violations. The bank had already paid $8.5 million to the New York district...

Among Brokers, Wirehouses Are Losing Their Edge: Fidelity unit's survey shows many reps prefer other sales channels.
November 13, 2006... The biggest brokerage firms no longer have a clear advantage in technology and financial products, according to an independently conducted survey of 1,000 individual brokers. The survey, sponsored by Fidelity Investments' National Financial...

NumeriX Upgrades Developer Kit.
November 13, 2006... NumeriX, a specialist in cross-asset derivatives pricing software, said that in response to demand for more and better analytics, it has upgraded its five-year-old software developer's kit (SDK). The updated programming tools facilitate the...

Automating the Middle Office: National Financial broadens processing mandate.(Interview)
November 20, 2006... Under the stewardship of president and CEO Norman Malo, Fidelity Investments' National Financial unit has been rising quickly in the correspondent clearing standings. With $614 billion in assets under custody and 346 clients serving over 70,000...

NYSE Bonds Platform Still Facing Regulatory Issues; Direct-Access Technology Lined Up.(New York Stock Exchange Inc.)
November 20, 2006... As NYSE Group's plan to revitalize New York Stock Exchange bond trading moves closer to fruition--last week it announced that direct-access connectivity will be available from vendors Kestrel Technologies and Townsend Analytics--the Securities...

Australia Exchange Pricing Gets Closer Look: Revenue boost may not sit well with big institutional brokers.
November 20, 2006... A change in pricing policy at the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that was set in motion last December and promised to boost ASX revenues may be revisited by the market's new managing director and CEO, Robert Elstone. The proposal, aimed...

Capgemini and Kanbay: Outsourcing Powerhouse.(Company overview)
November 20, 2006... The top end of the information technology outsourcing market will get more competitive early next year when global consulting firm Capgemini completes its $1.25 billion acquisition of Kanbay, a deal that points up the importance of the North...

Intel's Quad-Core Gets a Boost From Aspeed.(Aspeed Software )
November 20, 2006... The quad-core Xeon 5300 processor that Intel Corp. began shipping Nov. 14 offers the promise of much faster processing of high-end analytics and trading applications. New York-based Aspeed Software says that it can take the time for running a...

People In The News.(Henry Umney, Joe Ricca joined ClusterSeven)
November 20, 2006... ClusterSeven, a three-year-old New York and London company whose enterprise spreadsheet management software is gaining rapid acceptance among financial firms seeking to strengthen compliance-related controls, has added two technology sales...

PHLX's New XLE.(Philadelphia Stock Exchange launched PHLX XLE)
November 20, 2006... The Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) launched its new, Regulation NMS-compliant equity trading system last week. Dubbed PHLX XLE, the new platform builds on the exchange's electronic options trading capability to enhance speed of execution,...

NSX Adds Track.(National Stock Exchange Inc., Track Data Corp.)(Brief article)
November 20, 2006... Track Data Corp.'s Track ECN became the second electronic communications network to connect to and quote on the National Stock Exchange's new technology platform, NSX Blade. Kansas City-based Bats Trading was the first ECN on NSX Blade,...

Fixed-Income Switch.(James Wangsness joined TheMuniCenter)(Brief article)
November 20, 2006... James Wangsness, who left TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. in March after serving as SVP and managing director of Ameritrade Advisor Services, has joined fixed-income execution platform TheMuniCenter as COO, primarily overseeing retail sales,...

Agility in Capital Markets Technology.
November 20, 2006... Wall Street firms do not have a spectacular success record in software delivery. They devote vast resources--large budgets, leading-edge technology and highly paid software engineers--to help make these projects succeed. Even with all this...

Regulatory Structure Must Adapt to Consolidating Markets.
November 20, 2006... Today is the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. So much has changed since then--and we don't often stop to recall what our outlook on things was like before that historic event. I remember visiting the Berlin Wall when the Cold...

New NASD Chairman on a New Era in Regulatory Response.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
November 20, 2006... "May you live in interesting times" is generally presumed to be a Chinese proverb and is really meant as a curse rather than a blessing. I say it is of dubious origin because scholars cannot actually trace it back to any Chinese writings, but...

Analysis: Competing Utilities Address Common OTC Problems.(Swapswire)(Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.)(Over the counter markets)
November 20, 2006... London-based post-trade processing consortium SwapsWire and Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), the U.S. central depository in New York, have at times eyed each other warily. Though they have denied wanting to compete head-to-head, ...

UBS Looks To Capitalize on Vietnam's Growth.(UBS Investment Bank)
November 20, 2006... Extending its Asian and emerging-markets strategies, UBS obtained a license to buy and sell securities in Vietnam. The license came just in time for Vietnam's admission into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was approved Nov. 7. ...

Risk Management Vendor Makes Common Cause With Google.(Mathon Systems alliances with Google Inc.)
November 20, 2006... Mathon Systems, an information risk and compliance solutions company with a strong financial technology pedigree, said that it is integrating its flagship product with Google for enterprise search functions. Los Altos, Calif.-based Mathon,...

Vhayu Applies Tick System to Options Data.(Vhayu Technologies)
November 20, 2006... Vhayu Technologies, a Los Gatos, Calif. company known for its streaming tick processing and persistence software, has unveiled Vhayu Velocity for Options, which it says is the only tick capture engine available that can scan and analyze the...

Athens, Cyprus Exchanges Unify Platform.(Athens Exchange and Cyprus Stock Exchange)
November 20, 2006... Preparing for expansion beyond their home markets, the Athens Exchange (Athex) and Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) have moved to a common trading and settlement system and have harmonized their rulebooks. In place as of Oct. 30, the unified...

Data Management Automation Continues; Regulatory Compliance Key.
November 20, 2006... Vienna-based data management vendor AIM Software released a survey last week showing continued interest among financial institutions in automating data functions either through proprietary software, external software or outsourcing. ...

Loss Databases Support Basel II Compliance: But are they sufficiently relevant to a given institution's risk profile?
November 20, 2006... The September collapse of Greenwich, Conn. hedge fund Amaranth Advisors was a reminder that financial failures are a constant hazard, regardless of the risk management measures in place. Even before Amaranth, some financial institutions had...

FlexTrade Seeks to Be First With Block Forex System.(FlexTrade Systems)
November 20, 2006... FlexTrade Systems, a leader in multi-asset algorithmic execution management systems (EMS), is preparing to launch what it claims to be the first block-order foreign exchange trading platform that provides level-playing-field access to both buy-...