DECEMBER 9 2016

elb2 Apologies for the slight delay today – bizarrely the Polish rail system has invested heavily in Pendolino trains without WiFi – which tells you everything you need to know about the problems with how the Polish state is still a Dickensian analogue device with a bit of digital lipstick around the edges trying to convince folks it is a modern state.

In Today’s Exchange Invest

CFTC Chairman supports open markets and freedom to clear against EU protectionist insurgency while ICAP raise a spectacular 10 million dollars from their charity day. A chink of light appears to be suggesting DB1 are starting to hedge their bets that the Merger of Equal Desperation is indeed as doomed as I have always argued (for the past, oh let me see now, easily a few hundred million in fees paid to multiplicitous advisors, let alone the time spent…).

And there’s more, don’t resist the urge to scroll!

Events

Today it is by the looks of it my final conference of the year and a chance to do something different.

So I am headed back to Wroclaw from Warsaw for In-Ference where I will be both actively contributing and chairing a panel on “DeepTech” AKA how the world moves forward and how it may look way out there in the world where science fiction meets reality (which is about next Tuesday in some bio and nanotech fields btw).

In BigWorld

They have impeached the South Korean President but her shaman-like guru probably told her that via a seance a few weeks back I suppose.

Public Markets

U.K.’s May Finds U.S. Ally in Brexit Tussle Over London Clearing
Bloomberg

PLY: Chairman Massad notes the folly of the EU’s attempt to be protectionist within its declared managed decline agenda. Great pithy remarks from parish consultant Jake Pugh in the article such as:

“It’s the ECB saying: ‘We don’t trust the Bank of England to regulate LCH properly. If you start introducing protections in reserve currencies, then you’re going down a path of utter madness.”

The tragedy here is that, like much of the Brexit media, the coverage can be deeply misleading. The EU making a land grab for Euro clearing is pure trade war creation material and Europe will be a clear loser.

DB1 CEO Sees Further Hurdles Ahead In LSE Takeover
Reuters UK

DB1 CEO Carsten Kengeter Thursday said the planned merger with LSE was still a long way off, even if European regulators should give it the green light. Asked about talk he could step down if the merger failed, Kengeter said only, “Deutsche Boerse is a wonderful company with and without me.”

PLY: Well this is the first set of remotely sanguine remarks about the Merger of Equal Desperation since this whole, misconceived (and arguably mis-sold) fiasco first emerged. Kengeter adds: “So it is still not clear at all that everything will work out.” Not sure despite his industry nickname as “Carcrash,” “CK1” will leave if the deal fails, as apart from anything else, the DB1 board remains pretty traumatised by ousting of Werner Seifert (and hence hung on to Reto Francioni for too long) and Germans are great at engineering but rubbish at firing people so CK1 is probably safe come what may. That said there have been some palpably odd remarks about the merger benefits and suchlike which didn’t really inspire confidence in management in places at either DB1 or LSE.

Nevertheless, I have never seen any logical reason other than unfettered monopoly behind this deal and it must fail if the EU is to avoid slipping into being a monopolist’s marketplace.

DERIVATIVES-EC Plans Statement On DB1-LSEG Deal
Reuters UK

PLY: Morningstar put the likelihood of the deal going through at 25% – that strikes me as optimistic.

ICE Told To Speed Up Investigations On US Futures Exchange
Reuters

Polish Bourse Talks To 100 Firms About Potential Debuts In 2017
Reuters

PLY: After a year of rallentando where the GPW is broadly perceived as having lost momentum, management expertise and ultimately diluted its brand through endless government intervention. This “we’re talking to lots of people” will hardly inspire a lot of confidence amongst those say above the age of majority.

AFME Comments On STS Securitisation Vote: Europe Risks Losing A Vital Financing Tool
MondoVisione

PLY: Madness, utter madness, in a week where more and more US issuers are withdrawing their listings from the EU due to the stupidity of recent insider trading laws and other daft impositions from the clueless blob of interventionist idiots masquerading as a European Parliament.

Spreadbetters Hit Again As German Regulator Announces A Clampdown
City A.M.

PLY: Unsurprising and self-inflicted.

Oslo Børs VPS Holding Ex. Dividend Of NOK 2.60 Today
MondoVisione

Nasdaq Comes Clean About Giving Back
Forbes

Private Markets

NSE IPO May Be Marginally Delayed Due To Ramkrishna’s Exit
Livemint

PLY: Rational remarks from NSE Chairman, as I have said all week I cannot see how the NSE can list without an, at least marginal, delay.

Impact On Exchange Volumes A Short Term Pain: NCDEX
Moneycontrol.com

PLY: CEO hopes for better days ahead after he volume dislocation driven by the Indian cash upheaval. In other news, I noted one card terminal vendor reporting a 9000% increase in orders since the demonetisation shock began.

FunderBeam Stock Exchange For Startups Uses Blockchain Technology
Business Insider Nordic

PLY: Interesting reading.

Caribbean CSDs Sign SWIFT’s ISO 20022 Harmonisation Charter – As The First Caribbean Securities Market Infrastructures To Sign The Charter, CSDs In Barbados And Jamaica’s Are Poised To Support Regional And International Initiatives
MondoVisione

Ljubljana Stock Exchange Becomes Active member of SEE Link
SeeNews

PLY: Inevitable since Ljubljana was acquired by SEE Link founder Zagreb SE. Great to see all the same in the same week Belgrade joined the growing network.

Spot FX Blockchain Clearing FXCH Raising €8.5 Million Including Seedrs Crowdfunding
LeapRate

PLY: Expanding on yesterday’s story (suggesting a lower raising) about the Irish based Blockchain cored FX clearing house project.

East Africa: Target Investors From Asia, East African Bourses Urged
AllAfrica.com

SEC: Stock Exchanges Not Immune From HFT Suit
Westlaw Insider (blog)

ASIC Imposes Licence Condition On OpenMarkets Australia Limited
MondoVisione

PLY: OpenMarkets Australia…oh no hold on a second…

Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads

No news today.

Technology

Tullett Prebon Teams Up With Quaternion For Derivatives Risk Analytics
The Trade

Tullett Prebon Information has announced a partnership with risk management firm, Quaternion, to launch an open source code derivatives risk project

Börse Berlin Implements Scila Surveillance For Real Time Monitoring And Prevention Of Market Abuse And Insider Dealing

Fintech Required To Have Minimum Capital, Foreign Ownership Cap
Jakarta Post

PLY: So that’s the end of Jakarta’s ambitions as an international financial centre for fintech then…

Products
New Sport Exchange
CalvinAyre.com

Indexes

Semi-Annual Review Of The OMX Stockholm 30 Index – New Portfolio Of The OMX Stockholm 30 Index Will Become Effective On January 2, 2017
Semi-Annual Review Of The OMX Copenhagen 20 CAP Index – The New Portfolio Of The OMX Copenhagen 20 CAP index Will Become Effective On December 19, 2016
MondoVisione

Career Paths

Enforcement Director Andrew J. Ceresney To Leave SEC
MondoVisione

PLY: It is seriously beyond the point where that “would the last person left in the SEC remember to switch the lights off?” quip is even remotely funny after the vast recent exodus.

Crowdfunding

P2P Lending Platform CapitalStackers Receives Full FCA Authorization
Crowdfund Insider

Fintech Startup Rupaiya Exchange Secures Angel Funding From HNIs
ETtech.com

Delhi-based Rupaiya Exchange, a player in the nascent P2P lending market, has raised $200,000 in angel funding from a group of HNIs.

Fintech Startup Of The Month: P2P Lending Platform CreditGate24
Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH

CreditGate24 is a Swiss online P2P lending platform.

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