Securities Industry News articles from September 2008

Securities Industry News archives from September 2008

Convergence of Trading Strategies Is Breaking Down Service Barriers.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris As hedge funds and traditional long-only asset managers borrow strategies from one another, the lines of demarcation between the prime brokerage and custodian bank communities are blurring, which is spurring both...

'Fair Value' Has Firms on Edge~As industry prepares for FAS 157, critics continue to raise concerns.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris With mandatory adoption of a standardized approach to fair-value accounting just around the corner in the U.S., some firms are arguing that the new rule doesn't reflect the reality of their business in today's...

A Proactive Approach to E-discovery.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Carol E. Curtis As the securities industry adapts to more stringent mandates for electronic communications archiving, innovative software providers are seeking to cash in with a new generation of outsourced solutions. One...

MiFID Market Data Challenges Mounting~In the face of exploding volumes, firms are piecing together solutions.(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)
September 8, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt New trading venues have been popping up all over Europe since the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) became effective late last year. That proliferation has come hand in hand with an explosion in...

An Efficient Europe: Clearing and Settlement Alternatives.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Almost ten years after the introduction of the euro, the cost to trade securities across borders remains high, thanks largely to the European Union's complicated infrastructure. And the exact route toward that elusive single...

Analysis: Amid Challenges, Is Swift Seeking to Reinvent Itself?(Conference notes)
September 8, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt When Swift's annual Sibos conference opens in Vienna next week, the exhibition floor will be crowded with banks and technology vendors displaying their offerings and prospecting for new clients. The event, now in its...

A Hedge Fund Hiring Feast: Funds benefitting from Wall Street reductions.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires Hedge funds with the means to hire experienced talent are taking advantage of budget cutbacks at investment banks. Larger funds are scooping up trading and middle-office personnel at compensation rates far less...

Institutions and Sell Side Alike Grapple With Impact of IOIs~Concerns grow over information leakage in dark liquidity pools.
September 8, 2008... Byline: John Hintze The dozens of dark pools that have emerged in recent years have each sought to offer unique features to draw order flow and increase fill rates. But some of the platforms' "special sauce" may make them less than fully...

EC Asks Securities Regulators For Help on Code of Conduct~CESR asked to identify interoperability holdups.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris The European Commission, seeking to expedite its voluntary code of conduct for market infrastructures, has asked the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) to figure out why clearinghouses haven't been...

CME MOU With Osaka.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Editorial staff The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE), Japan's largest derivatives exchange, have taken the first step toward creating a 24-hour global market with a memorandum of understanding...

Arca Offering Last-Sale Data.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff NYSE Arca began offering real-time last-sale data Sept. 3, following in the footsteps of the New York Stock Exchange and competitors Nasdaq OMX Group and BATS Trading, and giving distribution companies more options...

TradingScreen in Singapore.(Execution management systems)(office in singapore)(Brief article)
September 8, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Execution management systems (EMS) provider TradingScreen has opened an office in Singapore, its third in Asia. New-hire Nathan Walker, a ten-year veteran of Bloomberg, will be based in Singapore as head of...

People in the news.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Omgeo has named Scott Hillyer, previously SVP of client services at Eagle Investment Systems, a Bank of New York Mellon Corp. subsidiary that provides data management, accounting and performance measurement...

Operation Alpha.
September 8, 2008... Byline: Ben Keeler Investment management organizations that cater to pension, endowment and institutional clients have taken significant strides to expand their product roster over the past decade. But much like commercial real estate...

Could Greater Disclosure Breath New Life Into Mortgage-Backed Securities Market?
September 15, 2008... Byline: Shane Kite In an effort to resuscitate the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market, the American Securitization Forum (ASF) is working on disclosure and reporting packages that could bring institutional investors back...

LSE To Extend Sedol Codes to Derivatives Market.(In the News)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is announcing today that it will begin issuing Sedol identification codes for exchange-traded derivatives and new fixed-income products by expanding the functionality of Una-Vista,...

FIF Surveys Members on Options Symbology Alternatives.(In the News)(Financial Information Forum)(Securities Industry and Financial Market Association )(Conference notes)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris The Financial Information Forum (FIF), a New York-based technology trade group, is conducting a survey of its member firms on their preparedness for a new nomenclature for listed options. Results of the survey,...

OMG Standards Could Influence ISO 20022 Migration.(Standards & Protocols)(Object Management Group Inc.)
September 15, 2008... Byline: John Sandman In a pair of moves that could affect adoption of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 20022 messaging methodology, the Object Management Group (OMG) has signed a statement of understanding with FIX...

Traditional Asset Mangers Adopting EMS, Says Aite.(Standards & Protocols)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Dawn Kissi Traditional asset managers over the last two years have rapidly adopted execution management systems (EMS), which historically have been associated with hedge funds and other firms seeking the most sophisticated trading...

StreamBase, Oracle Seeking CEP Standardization.(complex event processing)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires As complex event processing (CEP) becomes more prevalent at trading venues and Wall Street firms, vendors are taking steps toward standardizing the technology's multiple development languages. The latest effort...

CEP Provider Aleri Issues Latency Test Results.(Standards & Protocols)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires Chicago-based Aleri on Sept. 13 released the results of a performance test of its complex event processing (CEP) platform by an independent lab, the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC). Although the...

Now Part of ICE, Creditex Sees Bright Future in OTC Derivatives.
September 15, 2008... Byline: Maureen Nevin Duffy Within days of its acquisition by IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), Creditex Group had good news for regulators and credit derivative market participants: It completed its first portfolio compressions of...

Are Firms Ready for Twitter? Playing catch-up with community-creating technology.
September 15, 2008... Byline: Maria Trombly New channels of electronic communication have been a boon to many industries, opening up sales and marketing opportunities, helping improve customer service and speeding up innovation and collaboration. For Wall...

Admitting Credit Suisse Algos, Aqua Opens Liquidity~ Cantor-backed ATS is moving beyond regionals, institutions.
September 15, 2008... Byline: John Hintze Aqua Equities, a dark book backed by Cantor Fitzgerald and affiliate BGC Partners, is opening up its liquidity. Following a month-long trial run, Credit Suisse last week began officially sending algorithmic orders to...

BNY ConvergEx Partners With Thomson Reuters.(Trading)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Through a new strategic alliance, Thomson Reuters clients will gain access to BNY ConvergEx Group's execution and liquidity management services. Under the deal, Thomson Reuters will become a preferred market data...

Nasdaq in South Africa Deal.(News Desk)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Nasdaq OMX Group has agreed to provide post-trade administrative services and a central counterparty (CCP) for the Bond Exchange of South Africa's (BESA) new derivatives market. The two exchanges plan to create a...

Northern Trust Enhancement.(News Desk)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Northern Trust Corp.'s investment risk and analytics services (IRAS) unit has introduced an upgraded fixed-income performance attribution analytical tool. The tool bases its analysis of fixed-income investments on...

People in the News.(News Desk)(Kevan Cowan has been appointed at Toronto Stock Exchange)(Satish Nandapurkar has been named at Chicago Climate Exchange)(Ehab El Sawy Hassaan has been hired at Citisoft)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff TMX Group, parent of the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Exchange, has appointed Kevan Cowan president of TSX Markets-the exchange operator's trading business unit-and group head of equities. Since 2007 Cowan...

Rethinking Your Market Data Strategy.(Guest editorial)
September 15, 2008... Byline: Don Finucane The cost and complexity of sourcing real-time market data appears to have reached a pivotal point for many financial firms, causing them to rethink their data sourcing strategies. Over the past two to three years,...

Japan Looks at OTC Clearing.(News Desk)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Edditorial Staff The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), Japan Securities Clearing Corp. and Japan Securities Depository Center have formed a study group to look at the possibility of establishing centralized post-trade services for...

Best-Execution Mandates Pushing TCA Adoption.(Special Report)(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)(transaction cost analysis)(Report)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski Regulations requiring broker-dealers to obtain the best price for their clients are helping transaction cost analysis, or TCA, become a ubiquitous feature of trading desks on both sides of the Atlantic. In the...

Asia-Pacific: Best-Execution Regulations on the Way?(Best Execution & TCA)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Wang Fangqing While the U.S. and European Union have rules mandating that brokerages find the best possible price for clients, there are currently no equivalents in the Asia-Pacific region. That could change, however, as...

SunGard Introduces Centralized Messaging Hub.(Technology)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt SunGard Data Systems introduced its Ambit Messaging Hub, a highly flexible messaging platform, at Swift's Sibos conference in Vienna last week. According to the Wayne, Pa.-based company, the system offers a single...

OTC Derivatives, Stock Lending Expansion for LCH.Clearnet.
September 22, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris LCH.Clearnet unveiled major initiatives in two sectors last week, announcing plans to offer a single clearing platform for most over-the-counter and all listed derivatives and central counterparty (CCP) services for...

Swaps Operations Are Holding Up Amid Historic Financial Crisis.
September 22, 2008... Byline: Shane Kite The people and systems supporting the credit default swaps (CDS) market are thus far weathering the young sector's biggest operational test, say market players. The situation, however, is continuing to evolve following...

Lehman, Merrill Trading Platforms Likely to Live On.
September 22, 2008... Byline: John Hintze The currents of the electronic trading world's order flow may be shifting in the wake of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp.'s deal for Merrill Lynch & Co. last week. However, the trading platforms of...

InteliClear Emerges as Trade Processing Alternative.
September 22, 2008... Byline: John Hintze Broker-dealer FolioFN, run by former Securities and Exchange Commission member Steven Wallman, has begun processing trades and performing other back-office functions using software from InteliClear, marking that...

New Tradeweb CEO.(News Desk)(Lee Olesky has been appointed)(TradeWeb L.L.C.)(Brief article)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Fixed-income platform operator Tradeweb announced that president and co-founder Lee Olesky has been named chief executive, replacing co-founder Jim Toffey, CEO since 1998. According to Jersey City, N.J.-based...

RSP Now SecondMarket.(News Desk)(Restricted Stock Partners has changed its name)(Brief article)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Editorial staff Restricted Stock Partners (RSP), operator of a trading platform for restricted stocks, auction rate securities (ARS) and bankruptcy claims, has changed its name to SecondMarket, to "better reflect the direction of...

BofA, MIT Measuring Illiquidity Risk.(News Desk)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Janice Fioravante While Bank of America Corp. made a loud splash last week with its agreement to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co., a quieter recent initiative with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could also have a big impact....

Leveraging the E-archive.(Guest Comment)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Charles Weeden Over the past five years, most institutions regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission have implemented compliance archival technologies. However, this is likely only the first step of a three-phase...

Hedge Fund Focus Hasn't Hurt Eze Castle Integration.(In The News)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Carol E. Curtis Continuing volatility in the financial markets has taken a toll on hedge funds. During the first eight months of 2008, Hedge Fund Research says the average fund lost almost 5 percent-the worst numbers the industry...

Study: UCITS an Opportunity for North American Funds.(In The News)(Undertaking for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris Despite the directive's limitations, North American fund managers should capitalize on the European Union's Undertaking for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS), says a report from London-based...

SS&C Gets SEC Approval for E-confirmations.(Trading)
September 22, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris SS&C Technologies has received a no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission that allows broker-dealer customers of its post-trade communications service to eliminate paper-based disclosures...

Race Is On for Alpha-Based Algos~For Wall Street, incorporating alpha into strategies is the next big thing.(Special Report)
September 22, 2008... Byline: John Hintze U.S. Regulation National Market System mandates that broker-dealers and exchanges ensure best execution, but, when more than one displayed venue has the same price, many institutions rely on algorithms to find an edge,...

Trading Tech Gets Benchmarks.(News Desk)(Securities Technology Analysis Center)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Editorial Stqaff According to the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC), users and providers of trading technology can now make apples-to-apples performance comparisons using standard benchmark specifications and testing...

Buy-Side Firms Still Need Sell Side, Say Panelists.(Standards & Protocols)(Discussion)(Conference notes)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Janice Fioravante Although buy-side firms have increased their product knowledge, they still derive value from the sell side, said Eugene Choe, director of Credit Suisse's Advanced Execution Services (AES), at the Securities...

Lawmakers: ARS a Financial 'Roach Motel,' Problems Remain.
September 29, 2008... Byline: Carol E. Curtis Last week's standing-room-only House Financial Services Committee hearing on the Treasury Department's bailout plan stood in marked contrast to one held days earlier on auction rate securities (ARS). Playing to...

Placing Blame On Naked Shorts, SEC Overlooks Reg SHO Issues.
September 29, 2008... Byline: John Hintze The Securities and Exchange Commission has banned short selling for nearly 900 financial services securities-at least until Oct. 2-and issued other emergency orders cracking down on illegal short sales. However, the...

DOL Guidelines On Pension Plans' Valuation Practices: Coming Soon? Erisa advisory council examines plans' procedures for hard-to-value assets.(Employee Retirement Income Security Act)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Chris Kentouris The Department of Labor (DOL) could soon begin work on guidelines for how pension plan managers, or fiduciaries, should value their investments in alternative vehicles. However, new regulations, if implemented,...

Point-in-Time Cross Upstart Sees Liquidity Opening, Challenges~Mismi applying new technology to portfolio matching.
September 29, 2008... Byline: John Hintze Mismi, a point-in-time crossing network expected to launch by year-end, plans to provide users with more effective technology to execute portfolio-wide trades. Though the concept is decades old, Mismi management sees it...

Nasdaq-Ho Chi Minh MOU.(News Desk)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Nasdaq OMX Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) to develop the Vietnamese venue's trading infrastructure and enhance the efficiency and liquidity of the...

People in the News.(News Desk)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Interactive Data Corp. has appointed Keith Webster, former managing director of Dun & Bradstreet's enterprise risk and compliance solutions unit, as managing director of its fixed-income analytics division,...

The River Known as Regulation.(Comment)(Securities Industry Association)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Michael Forman Heraclitus of Ephesus, a 6th century Greek philosopher, was more concerned with the physical make-up of the world than questions of ethics and morality. But he did leave us one very memorable concept: Believing the...

STA: Reg SHO Should Be Enough.(Original Sources)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Editorial Staff Seeking to stabilize volatile markets, the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 15 announced an emergency order mandating that broker-dealers have a bona-fide borrowing arrangement in place before shorting the...

Panel: No SEC for EU, But Consistency Needed.(Compliance)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Tom Groenfeldt The European Union may need an effective regulator for its burgeoning securities industry, but if a recent panel discussion at Swift's annual Sibos conference is any indication, more talk, rather than enforcement, is...

New Technology for Smart-Phone Compliance.(Technology)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Katherine Heires As BlackBerrys and other handheld devices play an increasing role in financial professionals' communications-and come under increased regulatory scrutiny-a bevy of technology vendors are releasing products to ease...

Linux Foundation Extends Membership to CME.(Technology)
September 29, 2008... Byline: Alexa Jaworski CME Group has joined the Linux Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on furthering the usage of the open-source operating system. According to the foundation, membership will allow the Chicago...

Swift Working With OMG on Standards for ISO 20022.(Standards & Protocols)(Object Management Group)(International Organization for Standardization)
September 29, 2008... Byline: John Sandman The Object Management Group's (OMG) announcement earlier this month that it is working with FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) on the unified modeling language (UML) raised questions about the possible impact on the International...