FEBRUARY 9 2017

Welcome to Exchange Invest issue 929 which correlates to a Porsche hotpotch of designs along the way…in the future it may be something very groovy indeed if the rumours are to be believed but it will be about issue 2000 before we know for sure.

In Today’s Exchange Invest

ICE Clear Europe boss Paul Swann to retire. McKay brothers receive investment from Tower Research Capital, FTIL offers to invest in NSEL, fx stubbornly hanging on to “last look” despite the regulatory noose tightening on the worst of such practices.

And there’s more, happy scrolling:

In BigWorld

RIP Hans Rosling, “Who Dreamed of a ‘Fact-Based Worldview,’” (foreignpolicy.com).

“Having the data is not enough. I have to show it in ways people enjoy and understand.” – Hans Rosling, the Swedish physician, epidemiologist, and statistics expert who died on Tuesday at the age of 68 from pancreatic cancer.

If you like to see data dance, when you have 20 minutes watch this simply fabulous TED talk “The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen” from February 2006.

Public Markets

CME Group Increases Dividend By 10 Percent
PR Newswire

NASDAQ’s Black Belt Ceo On IPOs, Unicorns, And Roundhouse Kicks
Bloomberg

PLY: When you’re faced with questions that sound like the love child of a fortune cookie and a plant hazily legal for medicinal purposes, you know the interview is not going to help us truly better gain insights into the interviewee, even when you’re Adena Friedman. Take this gem of surrealist gibberish: “How long can a unicorn graze in its own private forest?”

Those three capitals in SMS-speak which I am unreliably informed stand for “Whither This Farce?” spring to mind.

This is at best, a workaday interview from Cosmo (surely even Vanity Fair would be embarrassed) on the new NASDAQ CEO but it leaves us with frustratingly bare glimpses of talent with little or no chance for crunchy business insight (the original purpose of Bloomberg Magazine I thought). It’s a shame Bloomberg spent so much time (and wasted minutes of mine) on such a flaccid piece.

Hopefully some insightful media will get to interview Adena soon but this is alas typical of the first wave ‘big gush’ for new exchange CEOs where the media gush and miss the point. Then again, it is par for the course: it took the hacks a year or so to get past Tom Farley attending gym classes with some antipodean actor whose name I have already forgotten. Adena Friedman is clearly a highly intelligent, capable executive. Her progress as CEO will be fascinating – I look forward to future interviews.

GAIN Capital CEO Comments On Acquisition Of FXCM U.S. Retail Clients
PR Newswire

Crunch Time For Increasingly Brittle LME
Financial Times

PLY: Modernity versus maintaining the status quo…

DFM Inaugurates Smart Trading Floor
Trade Arabia

London Stock Exchange Makes Play For Canadian Listings
The Globe and Mail

Bursa Malaysia To Launch New Private Market For SMEs
Malay Mail Online

Private Markets

Stellar BSE Debut To Boost NSE’s IPO Prospects
Business Standard

NSE’s Power Exchange India To Shut Down Soon
Moneycontrol.com

PLY: The Jignesh Shah created IEX (not to be confused with…) had first mover advantage and dominates the segment.

KDPW_CCP: The Obligation Of Central Clearing Of Selected PLN OTC Derivatives Takes Effect On 9 February 2017
MondoVisione

PLY: NB the lion’s share of PLN OTC enjoys CCP in LCH.

Neptune Continues Liquidity Expansion In First Few Weeks Of 2017
MondoVisione

Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads

63 Moons Technologies To Invest In Scam-Hit NSEL
Business Standard

PLY: I seem to recall, Jignesh Shah saying his FTIL (now “63 Moons”) would cover all the losses of NSEL a few years back when the scandal broke? Now he offers an aspirin to cure the appendicitis – 50 crore rupees per annum of investment in a company where the black hole from the scandal is a default of somewhere in excess of 5000 crore rupees.

Technology

McKay Brothers Receives Investment From Tower Research Capital
MondoVisione
The Race To The Speed Of Light Is Accelerating
Bloomberg

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Launches View Only Terminals
African Markets

Products

Transforming FX Trading And Driving Industry Change
Finance Magnates (blog)

PLY: LMAX CEO David Mercer looks pragmatically at the new code of conduct rules for global fx and points out some failings, such as the continued permission of the completely ridiculous “last look” provision.

Deutsche Bank Walks Away From Us Swaps Clearing
Financial Times

PLY: A worrying development even if DB itself has apparently profound difficulties in functioning as a bank.

Deutsche Börse: New SME Segment To Be Named Scale
MondoVisione

PLY: Boring name but at least it’s not “Scoach.”

Career Paths

Paul Swann To Retire From ICE Clear Europe
Reuters

PLY: I wish Paul every success on his retirement. It seemed obvious that his time in the City was coming to a close when rumours drifted south of his acquiring a rather delightful stately pile in the north of England – “Swannston Abbey” if you will. Good luck Paul and have fun on the next stage of life.

Paul will be replaced by Finbarr Hutcheson who was previously CEO of NYSE Liffe and was responsible for NYSE Euronext’s FICC business ahead of NYSE’s tie-up with ICE and latterly ICE’s benchmarking business.

The Federal Reserve General Counsel Scott G. Alvarez is retiring.

Hotspot Expands Global Sales Leadership Team, Promotes Leit, Watras To Europe, Asia Roles
Business Wire (press release)

Finally, Nasdaq has Appointed Nikolaj Kosakewitsch As New President Of Nasdaq Copenhagen.

Crowdfunding

Huge Spike In Deposits Reported After Lending Works IFISA Launched
P2P-Banking.com