Is LBMA less enthused about an open, broad, exchange market? Irish SE renews with DB1 technology as Virtu backs Aquis in HFT clampdown and given the delay there’s still a lot of MIFID II blah blah…
In some parts the media are leading the debate today – the excellent offices of Enoch Yiu in Hong Kong (on Shenzen-HK through train) & Mobis Philipose in India looking at the Indian government’s willful destruction of the corporate code.
Further to my Blockchain comments yesterday, the good folks of MondoVisione just published my February Trading Places column where I ponder if it isn’t back to 1999 again on some fronts.
Happy scrolling:
Public Markets
Virtu Backs Aquis’s Aggressive Trading Clampdown (subscription)
Philip Stafford – Financial Times
The US group has come out in support of Aquis Exchange, a London-based share trading venue that last week banned proprietary traders from placing so-called aggressive orders on its market.
Enoch Yiu – SCMP
Beijing should not wait for the market to stabilise to launch the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect scheme and should introduce it as soon as possible to help attract more capital inflow to the mainland China.
HKEx Chairman Chow Chung-kong said last week, on the first trading day of the Year of the Monkey, that the long-awaited stock connect scheme between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock markets would definitely be launched but it would need to wait for the stock market to stabilise.
QV Premium: HKEx – SZSE Stock Connect.
London Bullion Market Seems To Be Losing Enthusiasm For Reform
Platts
London bullion market participants were seemingly losing both interest and faith in the ongoing “request for proposal” aimed at digitizing and increasing transparency of the London’s gold trade, sources said Monday. LBMA recently issued a RfP for the reform of the London market, led primarily by increased regulation.
PLY: You can look at this two ways: Somebody somewhere will improve the LBMA from its surely rather Dickensian modalities…or: The LBMA already has trading which is way more virtual in its underpinnings than most, hence no need to actually change anything. Frankly the world’s most innovative gold organisation right now is the West Australian government owned Perth Mint.
ESMA Urged to Open Up Trade Reporting Data
Markets Media
ESMA should open up access to centralized trade reporting data to both market participants and other regulators in order to lower costs across the industry.
PLY: A summary of the EMIR review consultation.
CMC Markets CEO Peter Cruddas Confident Of Firm’s Future After Listing
proactiveinvestors
With an IPO price of 240p per share, giving it a market capitalisation of about £691 mln (USD 1bln), Cruddas says he is “100% happy” that the firm has listed.
Mifid II: When Obeying The Rules Could Land You In Jail (subscription)
Bernard Goyder & James Rundle – Financial News
If you had to submit your passport number, date of birth and national insurance number every time you used your credit card, you would probably worry about who might get their hands on the information.
Private Markets
Yangon’s Unseemly Dash For A Stock Exchange
Richard Morrow – FinanceAsia
How many shares do you need to launch a stock market? According to Myanmar’s outgoing government, the answer is zero.
Yangon SE (YSX) was opened last year in December.
Sigma To Launch Egypt’s Commodities Exchange For Grains
Gulf News
Jordan-based Sigma Investments will partner with the Egyptian government to launch the region’s first grains exchange by end 2016. Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat, purchasing about 10 million tonnes each year. Egyptian Commodities Exchange (Egycomex), with a proposed partnership of 20% government investment and 80% private investment, will trade spot and futures for grains, mainly wheat, as well as gold and oil.
PLY: However the tricky point remains surely Egypt’s remarkable propensity for subsidies and de facto price fixes, will the government really allow the exchange to be price freely?
Bisx Finds Partner To ‘Revive’ Junior Market
Neil Hartnell – Tribune 242
Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) is aiming to unveil a partnership with another Bahamian entity by end-March that will “revive” its long-planned junior market.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX off 2%, FTIL flat despite the news of forced merger with NSEL:
Is The Forced FTIL-NSEL Merger Really In Public Interest?
Mobis Philipose – Livemint
The government and its various agencies should rather spend their resources efficiently in bringing the fraudsters to book.
PLY: a good comment from Mobis Philipose who has always been clearly critical of FTIL where pertinent. This is a dreadful act of a shortsighted blob incapable of using its already vast levers of power to resolve the problem. QV Premium: NSEL Scandal Brief – Part 16 and NSEL-FTIL Merger Brief.
Technology
ISE Preps For Next Gen Xetra Migration
Banking Technology
The Irish SE (ISE) has renewed its strategic technology partnership with DB1 and extended its use of the DB1 trading infrastructure and related services until the end of 2021.
TMX CEO: Opportunities In Canadian Technology (Video)
Bloomberg
JPX: Commencement Of Proof Of Concept Testing For Blockchain Technology
MondoVisione
JPX To Test Out Decentralized Ledger
Nikkei
JPX will start experimenting with blockchain technology for clearing and other operations as early as March, aiming to lower transaction costs.
MondoVisione
Products
New Scheme Promotes HKEX’s Currency, Stock & Metals Futures on Mainland
HKEx
HKEX has launched its Mainland Market Data Distribution Partnership Programme with information vendors (IVs) to further enhance market data distribution and marketing for its RMB Currency Futures, or USD-CNH Futures, stock futures and London Metal Mini Futures contracts (selected futures contracts).
MOEX Improves Clearing Of OTC Derivatives
MondoVisione
Morgan Stanley Enters German Securities Market (subscription)
Eyk Henning – Wall Street Journal
Morgan Stanley has entered into a strategic partnership with one of the country’s largest online brokers to sell exchange traded products as it attempts to tap into the slowly rebounding securities market in Europe’s largest economy.
EEX To Add Second Renewable Future (subscription)
Alice Attwood – FOW
European Energy Exchange (EEX) plans to launch a wind power futures contract in the spring.
Powernext & ECC To Introduce Measures To Further Strengthen Liquidity In TTF Futures On PEGAS
MondoVisione
Powernext Pledges Push On TTF Futures In 2016 (subscription)
FOW
Powernext together with its clearing partner European Commodity Clearing have announced a range of initiatives to boost the European gas trading market.
Career Paths
Leaprate reports that Andy Malpass retired as Fidessa Executive Director and leaves the Board with immediate effect.
Business Information specialist Graydon appointed Rob Veneboer as new COO.
Financial Calendar
This week
16.02 – ISE Mercury Launch
17.02 – Euronext Q4 2015 Results
17.02 – DB1 Q4 2015 Results
New! – 29.02 – ESMA Open Hearing On MAR Guidelines, from 10:00 to 12:30, in the Auditorium, ESMA, 103 rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris.
ICDA Blockchain Conference…In the City of London in April 19-20, 2016.
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Other stories
ESMA Consults On Implementation Of The Benchmarks Regulation
MondoVisione