Securities Industry News articles from November 2007

Securities Industry News archives from November 2007

NYSE Pursues Former Glory in Joint Venture With Bids Trading~Block-trading venue seeks to reaggregate liquidity.
November 5, 2007... NYSE Euronext and the Bids alternative trading system (ATS) are joining forces to create an independent trade-execution destination that will seek to replicate electronically the block-trading strengths of the New York Stock Exchange before the...

Pandemic Study Says Telecommuters Could Strain Network Infrastructure.
November 5, 2007... Financial services firms' contingency plans for a pandemic of avian flu rely heavily on the ability of staff to work off-site, but a study by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggests that telecommuting could have a negative...

Dark-Pool Aggregator Aims to Ratchet Up Matching Rates.
November 5, 2007... Frustrated by the inefficiencies, high costs and low matching rates of dark pools and alternative trading systems, agency brokerage Weeden & Co. and its technology partner, Pragma Financial Services, decided to take matters into their own hands...

SuperDerivatives Answers Call for Credit Derivatives Transparency~CEO says platform addresses subprime-crisis issues.
November 5, 2007... SuperDerivatives seven years ago introduced currency options pricing; it has since expanded to handle an array of product classes. Last month, the London- and New York-based provider of derivatives management tools rolled out a major upgrade to...

India Opens Investment.
November 5, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last month put a halt to the issuance of offshore derivative instruments, also known as participatory, or P, notes. The instruments had seen increasing demand from hedge funds and other...

Fidessa Routes to Pure Trading.
November 5, 2007... The launch in September of Pure Trading, Canada's first displayed-market alternative to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), has prompted London-based Fidessa Group to add a smart-order routing service to its Canadian Trading Platform (CTP)....

Charles River and SwapsWire.(Charles River Systems Inc)(Brief article)
November 5, 2007... Burlington, Mass.-based Charles River Development said last week that it will tap over-the-counter derivatives platform SwapsWire for automatic trade confirmations of interest-rate swaps in the 8.2 version of the multi-asset-class Charles River...

People in the News.
November 5, 2007... Focusing on expansion in Canada, trade management services provider Omgeo has added Tony Remedios as an account executive in the country. Prior to the move, Remedios, who is a 17-year veteran of Canadian financial services, had a consulting...

Japan and the Future of Electronic Trading.
November 5, 2007... Coming out of a decade-long recession, the Japanese securities market is undergoing major shifts as it continues to search for new growth opportunities. The enactment of the Financial System Law of 1996 began the "big bang" changes in the...

ECB Has Target2 Answers, but Questions Remain.
November 5, 2007... A progress report from the European Central Bank (ECB) on its Target2-Securities (T2S) centralized settlement engine indicates that some operational decisions have been made, but broad-reaching economic and governance ramifications are still...

Coming Soon: An Asian AIM~Tokyo, London to create exchange for start-ups.
November 5, 2007... The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is partnering with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on an exchange for start-ups, which TSE officials say will make Tokyo the center of a new community of Japanese and international investors and brokers. The...

Seeking Expansion, CME Plans to Trade Korean Futures on Globex.
November 5, 2007... A partnership between CME Group and the Korea Exchange (KRX) will allow Kospi 200 index futures contracts to be traded, beginning in 2008, on the CME Globex electronic trading platform. Under the proposed agreement--a letter of intent was...

Mitsubishi Updates Fixed-Income Infrastructure.
November 5, 2007... London-based Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International (MUSI), a unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in Tokyo, is aggressively building up its fixed-income and derivatives business with advanced technology to power it. Jason Ross, business...

New Flavors for Portfolio Margin Accounts~Asset-class expansion moves toward fixed income, futures may be considered.
November 5, 2007... Portfolio margin accounts have gotten a highly enthusiastic response at the 12 brokerages allowed to offer them, and regulators are broadening the array of financial instruments that can be included in the collateral-saving accounts--but major...

Prime Brokers' Liability Fears~Lawsuits brought by collapsed funds have industry on edge.
November 5, 2007... As the subprime mortgage crisis continues to take a toll on hedge funds, the prime brokerage industry is casting a nervous eye toward the courts, where the outcomes of two cases involving prime broker liability in fund blowups could...

OTC Vendors See Fertile Ground in U.S.~Providers of structured-product integration, risk tools take aim at hedge funds.
November 5, 2007... After testing their mettle in the structured-products markets in Europe and Asia, providers of tools that integrate over-the-counter derivatives into ever-more complex transactions, and manage their risks, are now targeting U.S. brokerages and...

Interactive Brokers Branches Out~Brokerage adds prime services, portfolio margining accounts.(Company overview)
November 5, 2007... What a difference 30 years makes. In 1977, Thomas Peterffy bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange and began trading as an individual market maker in equity options. On May 3, 2007, Interactive Brokers Group (IB)--the company he founded...

Futures Could Trigger Portfolio Margining Boom.
November 5, 2007... As demand rapidly increases for portfolio margin accounts, so does the likelihood that they will eventually include futures contracts, which would drive even more growth. That's the hope of supporters of the one-pot approach outlined in...

Record Results for Liquidnet.(Financial report)(Brief article)
November 12, 2007... Buy-side alternative trading system Liquidnet last week announced its third-quarter results, which included record average daily volume of 60.9 million shares, up 12 percent from the second quarter and 31 percent from the same period last year,...

New SecFinex CEO.(Company overview)
November 12, 2007... Securities lending platform SecFinex has a new chief executive in Peter Fenichel, a 30-year veteran of the financial services industry. Fenichel, most recently a consultant and senior advisor at Cairneagle Associates, previously worked at...

Tokyo Opens in China.
November 12, 2007... The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) last week became the third foreign exchange to receive approval from Chinese regulators to open a representative office in Beijing. TSE, which said it will open the office within 90 days, joins the New York Stock...

People in the News.
November 12, 2007... Banc of America Securities managing director and head of equity strategy William Harts has left the firm as part of a round of layoffs announced last month. BofA spokesperson Melissa Kitlowski, who noted that about 500 of the 3,000 eliminated...

From Outsourcing to Smart-Sourcing.
November 12, 2007... The appetite for outsourcing in today's capital markets shows no sign of slowing down. According to research firm Yankee Group, the worldwide market for financial services outsourcing will grow from $11.2 billion in 2004 to $17.2 billion next...

A Time for Regulatory Humility.
November 12, 2007... European Union internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy, at the opening of Wachovia Bank's European headquarters on Oct. 26, noted that the firm's selection of Dublin for the office was likely related to the city's "favorable fiscal and...

Hedge Fund Replicators: In Pursuit of Alternative Beta~Strategies offer added transparency, lower costs, but models are disputed.
November 12, 2007... Hedge fund replication strategies, which aim to provide hedge fund-like performance without the potential pitfalls, are garnering growing interest in the investment industry as a number of high-profile banks have taken up the approach. ...

Xenomorph Signs Societe Generale; Upgrades Platform.
November 12, 2007... Societe Generale's asset servicing arm is bolstering its financial engineering group's ability to handle complex structured products with data management technology provider Xenomorph's cross-asset-class TimeScape platform. "We needed a...

Payments and Securities: The Case for Convergence.
November 12, 2007... In a world marked by standardization, regulatory mandates and relentless pressure on margins, the divide between payments and securities-transfer mechanisms could be artificial and potentially disruptive. Though not an issue even ten years...

MarketAxess: A Credit-Crunch Case Study?(Case study)
November 12, 2007... Institutional bond-trading platform operator MarketAxess Holdings has reported that revenues and corporate bond volumes declined in the third quarter. However, the company saw growth in credit default swaps (CDS) trading. Citing the recent...

Growing a Global Market in Dubai~Chief executive Per Larsson.(Industry overview)
November 12, 2007... The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), which opened in September 2005 and is located in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), touts itself as a unique entity in the Middle East. While there are other exchanges in the...

SEC Is Scrutinizing NSCC's Proposed Ban On Trade Compression.
November 12, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission, following a meeting with a group of high-profile industry players last month, is reportedly taking a closer look at the data behind the National Securities Clearing Corp.'s (NSCC) proposal to eliminate...

Exchange Dreams Move Closer to Reality for BATS.(BATS trading inc)
November 12, 2007... The BATS Trading electronic communications network (ECN) on Nov. 5 filed its anticipated application to become an exchange, formally starting a lengthy process that, if successful, should benefit customers and give the new exchange more control...

With PHLX Purchase, Nasdaq Is Gaining an Options Alternative~On heels of BSE deal, Nasdaq acquires more licenses.
November 12, 2007... The Nasdaq Stock Market last week announced it will buy the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) for $652 million in cash, its second major acquisition in as many months and a deal that will jump-start its options-execution volume and add to its...

Options Symbology Gets a Makeover~OCC's new nomenclature will eliminate exchanges' proprietary work-arounds.
November 12, 2007... With the publication last month of an implementation timetable, Options Clearing Corp. (OCC) and the U.S. options exchanges are proceeding with their efforts to overhaul the symbols used to represent exchange-traded options contracts despite...

Markit Buys iTraxx.
November 19, 2007... With a pair of acquisitions, London-based derivatives data and pricing vendor Markit Group is taking control of the world's largest credit derivative benchmarks. Markit has purchased Frankfurt-based International Index Co. (IIC)--owner of the...

NeoNet Enters Poland.(Brief article)
November 19, 2007... Agency broker NeoNet said last week that it is offering direct-market access to its first Eastern European exchange, the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and its 26th overall. The addition of the Polish exchange, comprised of 339 listed companies, with a...

SuperDerivatives Extends Inflation Derivatives Coverage.
November 19, 2007... SuperDerivatives has expanded its interest rate platform, SD-IR, with tools for managing inflation derivatives in multiple currencies--an enhancement that may prove timely as the price of oil nears $100 a barrel. The London- and New York-based...

Kentucky Windage Rules the Day In the Collateralized Debt Markets.
November 19, 2007... As the housing meltdown and credit squeeze continue to play out, and more banks and financial services firms announce write-downs and quarterly losses, it's important for the financial community to begin the complex task of not just analyzing...

Schapiro: Building a Better Regulator.
November 19, 2007... The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) last week launched a multimedia advertising campaign targeted at baby boomers, with a goal of increasing awareness among the general public of the self-regulatory authority (SRO) created in...

Exchange Implementation Drives Fast~FIX-based market data protocol catches on, but standardization issues arise.
November 19, 2007... After a sluggish start, the Fast protocol for high-speed delivery of market data is finding increased usage among securities exchanges, a sign that it may soon reach critical mass with major distributors of data. The Fast, or FIX adopted...

FIX 5.0, One Year On~Adoption picks up as cross-asset messaging standard evolves.
November 19, 2007... FIX, or the financial information exchange, protocol, which began life in 1992 as a communications framework used by Fidelity Investments and Salomon Brothers for equity trading, has evolved into the global standard for buy-side-to-sell-side...

FIX Is All About the Network~Rising volumes, execution speeds have industry reexamining access strategies.(FIX engines)(Industry overview)
November 19, 2007... Ten years ago, providers of FIX engines proliferated in response to broker-dealer demands, but that market shrank as users began to develop in-house engines. Now, with firms facing rapidly increasing volumes and execution speeds--and trading...

London Exchange Ramps Up Trading Platform~Accenture, HP, Microsoft bolster LSE systems to meet algorithmic, MiFID demands.
November 19, 2007... The London Stock Exchange (LSE) this month upgraded its electronic trading platform, coinciding with the Nov. 1 effective date of the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), but the introduction was not without...

Wall Street Could Warm Slowly to New Intel Quad-Cores.
November 19, 2007... Smaller, swifter and more energy-efficient chips utilizing hafnium--a metal often found in fake diamonds--will eventually find a home in Wall Street data centers, at least for targeted uses such as trading, pricing and risk analytics. That...

Merrill Installs IPC VoIP Trading Turrets.
November 19, 2007... IPC Systems, a provider of trading floor communication systems for the financial services industry, said last week that Merrill Lynch & Co. will install nearly 4,000 IPC trading desktops on its two largest trading floors in New York and London....

Credit Crunch Good for Interdealer Brokers?
November 19, 2007... New York-based interdealer brokerage GFI Group is attributing its record third-quarter net income and revenues to volatility caused by the subprime debt crisis, which ramped up trading between the firm's dealer-customers. Revenues tied to...

Bank of New York Mellon Servicing 130-30s; Pershing Subsidiary Reenters Prime Brokerage.(Company overview)
November 19, 2007... A new service from Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Pershing Prime Services, a recently created division of the bank's clearing subsidiary, will allow 130-30 funds--and those with similar strategies--to use Pershing for prime brokerage and...

Easier Access, New Products Spur Derivatives Growth in Asia.
November 19, 2007... The International Swaps & Derivatives Association's (ISDA) announcement last month that it was opening a regional headquarters in Hong Kong underscored how Asia's booming derivatives markets have been attracting increasing attention from...

Feeding the Machine (News)~Dow Jones Elementized News Feed adds company data.
November 19, 2007... A recent enhancement of the public company data available on the Dow Jones Elementized News Feed has furthered a growing trend: Computers are reading press releases, news and government reports, highlighting what's important, and passing it on...

Market Data Deals Expand Pyxis Reach~Adds SunGard, Thomson access, offers customization.
November 19, 2007... While the use of mobile solutions in financial services is still relatively new, a pair of partnerships announced by Pyxis Mobile are indicative of how handheld devices have moved beyond e-mail to delve into investment management functions. ...

Unlikely Proponent of Fund Regulation Wants Mandatory Inspections.
November 19, 2007... When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year struck down a rule requiring hedge fund registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the hedge fund industry celebrated. But with the turmoil in the...