A sunny morning in Malta. Thanks to all who participated in my FinTech briefing here yesterday, and particular thanks to the JCI and Malta Enterprise for hosting the event where we discussed all manner of interesting entities and possibilities including Blockchain and much else besides…
Likely routine DoJ enquiry about ICAP-TNT deal, NASDAQ completes on Chi-X Canada, Egyptian commodity exchange inching forward…and more, happy scrolling:
Public Markets
Nasdaq Completes Acquisition of Chi-X Canada
GLOBE NEWSWIRE
Nasdaq announced the completion of its acquisition of Chi-X Canada, an ATS for TSX & TSX Venture listed securities, from Chi-X Global, having announced its intent to acquire Chi-X Canada on December 8, 2015.
QV Premium: Exchange Deals Brief.
PLY: Speedy completion, well done. Now, how many former TMX folks previously on the NASDAQ payroll can we expect to be deployed to Canada? Will former CEO now NED Tom Kloet go executive once again in Toronto?
Court Approves Proposed Acquisition Of Betfair By Paddy Power
Maria Nikolova – LeapRate
Shortly after the proposed merger of Paddy Power and Betfair secured the nods of approval of the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), and Ireland’s equivalent CCPC, the deal was approved by a UK court. Official announcement on the legal decision – here.
QV Premium: Exchange Deals Brief.
MondoVisione
- FY2014: PATAMI at RM198.6m ($47m), up 0.2%, operating revenue at RM487.7m ($115m), up 3.5%.
PLY: Somewhat flatlining at Bursa Malaysia, alas.
Tullett Says U.S. Justice Dept Seeks Details On ICAP Deal
Reuters
Tullett Prebon said the US Department of Justice had requested additional information relating to the British IDB’s proposed acquisition of ICAP’s global hybrid voice broking and information business.
PLY: This strikes me as being as unsurprising as the risk disclosure BATS noted about Brexit (despite some scribblers trying to make that sound like a crisis yesterday).
More Dark Pool Investigations Under Way, Says New York’s Top Cop
Keri Geiger, Sam Mamudi & Christie Smythe – Bloomberg
PLY: Why stop now when the fatted calf so effortlessly delivers lucrative settlements and political brownie points?
‘Dark Pool’ Settlements Bring Tangled Relationships to Light (subscription)
Scott Patterson – Wall Street Journal
Should Banks Drain The Dark Pools?
Michael P Regan – Bloomberg
The latest round of penalties over “dark pools” highlights how reliant banks & exchange operators have become on business from HFT —even on platforms that promised to blunt their advantage.
There are two ways to look at the $154 million that Barclays and Credit Suisse Group paid to settle allegations that they misled clients regarding how their dark pools operated.
1) it’s peanuts compared with the big bucks that large banks have spent on mortgage settlements
2) how much do banks make on MTFs & are they worth the hassle?
PLY: Good articles & good questions – I think the future for all broker related businesses in equities may be close to a capital crunch. Brokerage fees are low, MTF competition high and the fines are alerting boards to the notion that the internalisation play may not be worth the risk…
Hong Kong Considering Revision Of Share Suspension Rules
Michelle Price – Reuters
Regulators are considering revising share-suspension rules as pressure grows from hedge funds and other investors to bring them in line with Western markets.
CDCC & NGX Receive CCP Recognition From ESMA
Canada NewsWire via COMTEX
TMX announced that both NGX and the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation (CDCC), Canada’s national ETD CCP, certain OTC products & repos, have received third country CCP recognition from ESMA.
PLY: Good progress on recognition in recent weeks from the ESMA team.
EU Regulator Adopts Equivalence Decision For South African CCP – JSE Clear Is Globally Recognised
MondoVisione
CFTC Authorizes Eurex Clearing As A DCO
Mike Fox – LeapRate
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DFM Announces All Inclusive Plan To Reinforce Innovation
MENAFN
Experts Divided Over Self-Listing
Ashley Coutinho – Business Standard
PLY: India’s rather parochial experts against those with a more global view reflecting international best practice. Clearly, the worrying factor is the lack of trust in Indian institutions. That is harsh on NSE but unsurprising in an India riven by various crises where the blob is apparently unable to resolve them (qv NSEL in this parish alone).
ESMA Updates Registers Under MiFID And Short Selling Regulation
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ESMA Issues Technical Standards On Settlement Discipline Under CSDR
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Private Markets
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PLY: A Payment for Order Flow / rebate structure is at the heart of the Mercury model… Naturally given their typical operational excellence, I anticipate a smooth launch from ISE February 16th.
Nasdaq Dubai Launches New ‘Share Link’ To Facilitate Trading For Egyptian Investors
Daily News Egypt
NCDEX Restricts Trading By Four Brokers
Partha Sinha – TOI
National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), which had suspended trading in castor seeds futures last week, on Monday barred 4 brokers (Mid India Commodities, Investsmart Commodities, Neer-Ocean Multitrade and Leo Global Commodities) from buying in the commodities bourse as part of its investigations into what led to the build up of a large position in the oilseed.
Metropolitan SE Members Queue Up To Surrender Membership
Suresh P Iyengar – The Hindu Business Line
The struggling Metropolitan Stock Exchange (formerly MCX Stock Exchange) is faced with a new crisis with most of its members surrendering their licences and seeking refund of the ₹10-lakh ($14.7k) deposit as the three-year membership term comes to an end from this year.
PLY: A worrying development for MCX SE (or MSXi or whatever its acronym is this week) but the exchange does not seem to have found a niche and has endured a drain in confidence.
Egypt To Launch Middle East’s First Commodities Exchange By End-2016
Reuters
Egypt plans to launch the Middle East’s first commodities trading exchange by the end of 2016, Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi said on Monday.
PLY: In a nation the size of Egypt, there is an enormous harvest yield gain to be made if an efficient market can help get more products to commercial centres before it goes to waste.
Shenzhen SE Signs MOU With Tel Aviv SE
MondoVisione
Dividend News
Bursa Malaysia is proposing a final dividend of 18.0 sen per share, bringing the full year 2015 total dividend to 34.5 sen per share.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX off 2%, FTIL -2.5% as these entities underperform a slightly lower NIFTY Index…
Technology
Data Fees—Everyone Else is Doing It; Why Can’t I? (subscription)
Max Bowie – Waters Technology
Like a drunk uncle at a family get-together, most data consumers view market data fees as an unwelcome guest—a necessary and inevitable evil that must be endured as a condition of participation in the capital markets “family.”
Products
India – Commodities Market Players Begin To Feel Regulatory Heat
The Economic Times
With the regulator Sebi stepping up its surveillance, commodities market players have begun to feel the heat and several non-serious entities are looking for an exit.
Shanghai SE Warns Securities Firms On Corporate Bond, ABS Risks
Reuters
China FX Regulator Says Has Not Asked Institutions To Defer New QDII Products
Reuters
ESMA Publishes Consolidated UCITS Q&A
MondoVisione
Career Paths
LeapRate reports that Moscow Exchange (MOEX) reappointed its CFO Evgeny Fetisov to its Management Board. Mr Fetisov, who has been in the roles of MOEX’s CFO and a MOEX’s Management Board member since February 2013, has secured an additional three-year term as a member of the Management Board.
Evgeny Fetisov joined MOEX from private equity firm Da Vinci Capital Management, where he was a partner and MD responsible for the investments in the financial services sector since 2007. In 2009 Mr. Fetisov, became a member of the BoD at RTS. Following RTS’s merger with MICEX, he served as a member of MOEX’s Corporate Governance Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Budget Committee.
The Hindu reports that LSE appointed Jasmine Arora as Head of India, Africa and Middle East for Equity and Debt Primary Markets. Jasmine has close to two decades of experience of working advising companies, institutional investors and private families.
FXCM announced that Mr. Perry Fish submitted his resignation to FXCM from his position serving as an independent member of the Company’s BoD for personal reasons.
FXCM’s Board, appointed Mr. Bryan I. Reyhani to serve as an independent member of the Board.
FN reports that Bill Benz, the head of Pimco in Europe and a 30-year veteran of the firm, will retire later this year.
The Romanian FSA validated the new Board of Bucharest SE Governors: Lucian Claudiu Anghel, Otto E. Naegeli, Robert Cosmin Pana, Dan Viorel Paul, Cristian Micu, Valerian Ionescu, Gabriel Marica, Octavian Molnar, Radu Toia.
PLY: I am sure the wise countenance of my old friend Otto Naegeli will add value to BvB via his board position. Good to see him confirmed alongside the other members.
MondoVisione
Financial Calendar
02.02 – SEC Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee Meeting – agenda.
03.02 – CBOE Q4 2015 Results
04.02 – ICE Q4 2015 Results
04.02 – ITG Q4 2015 Results
04.02 – SGX 5 cents interim dividend payment date
05.02 – CME Q4 2015 Results
New! 16.02 – ISE Mercury Launch
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Other stories
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European Court of Auditors’ Publishes Report On ESMA’s Supervision Of Credit Rating Agencies
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Keynote Speech Of CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad Before The Commodity Markets Council
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