Over in Bigworld the European rioting and civil disobedience championships are in full swing. Russia are by far the most impressive team, lithe, fit and ruthless, while England looked flaccid and ill-disciplined over the weekend. France’s ultras are clearly getting a home advantage boost from the entire country seemingly having stopped working apart from the troupe serving booze to the English & Russian contingents. I have to applaud the French government though for a rare example of “blob” quick thinking. The idea of organising a few football games at least brought a pause to the rioting. Meanwhile in sporting civilisation, Creator won the Belmont, Hamilton won Montreal and the second generation of Dunlop brilliance won the senior TT. Magnificent wins by all three.
In the parish, a Long-Term Stock Exchange looks beyond Minimum Viable Product. NASDAQ is turning Canadian, BATS restructures debt and launches indexes which attack FTSE’s monopoly head on. TMX loses another senior staffer to NASDAQ – will the CEO be the only person left in Bay Street to switch the lights off soon?
Last call: it’s the FESE Convention beginning Wednesday evening in Malta, 15/16th June.
As requested by various readers, I am rolling out a series trying to help undestanding of the Brexit dynamics and possible outcomes. Part One is in Exchange Invest Premium: Brexit – Introduction.
Public Markets
TMX Announces Resignation of CFO
CNW
Nasdaq Appoints Michael Ptasznik as CFO
GLOBE NEWSWIRE
TMX’s Ptasznik Leaves CFO Job To Take Up Same Role At Nasdaq
Christina Pellegrini – The Globe and Mail
Michael Ptasznik, TMX’s CFO, has resigned. On July 11, he will join Nasdaq as CFO.
PLY: Joining a horde of Canadian refugees who are amassing south of the border around Times Square, the brain drain at TMX is now very worrisome, particularly given the abject dearth of inspiration from the CEO.
London Next Stop In Stock Connect Plan
Gloria Song – The Standard
CSRC said that China will strengthen cooperation with Britain and consider the feasibility of a Shanghai- London stock connect.
FAO: Shanghai & London started discussions on a link-up last year. GDRs to be launched (discussed in April) initially in order to test market reaction.
Bats CEO Sounds Off On Wall Street’s High Share Prices
John Aidan Byrne – NY Post
The No. 2 US stock exchange by market share has thrown down the gauntlet to companies that refuse to split their pricey stocks.
And in a hell-raising newsletter — the first since the initial public offering in April — Bats CEO Chris Concannon takes no prisoners.
Concannon even needles archrival NYSE, declaring that NYSE owner ICE, “which trades close to $270 per share, could offer a stock split to send a signal to corporate America.”
The Big Bang Spawned A Dark-Trading Monster (subscription)
John Plender – Financial Times
PLY: The justified attack here is on dark markets and systematic internalisation – that’s a clear win for the media, so why is it still ongoing? However, competition per se has been good for markets.
ICAP Rebrands as Nex: What’s Really in a Name?
Jock Percy (CEO of Perseus) – Finance Magnates
Bats Announces Launch of Debt Refinancing Transaction
BUSINESS WIRE
Bats announced plans to refinance its existing $656 million Term Loan B facilities and $100 million revolving credit facility, scheduled to close in June.
CFTC Extends No-Action Relief To SEFs & DCMs From Certain CFTC Regulations For Correction Of Errors
MondoVisione
Private Markets
IEX Seeks SEC Guidance On Proprietary Trading Rule
Reuters
IEX on Friday asked regulatory authorities for guidance on a rule regarding proprietary trading, a request IEX said will not delay a deadline next week for its exchange application (Rule 11a2-2(T) of the Securities Exchange Act which provides members of an exchange an exemption to a prohibition that disallows them from trading for their own account).
Silicon Valley’s Audacious Plan to Create a New Stock Exchange
Ellen Huet & Brad Stone – Bloomberg
The author of “The Lean Startup” and his team are in early talks with the SEC.
PLY: Fascinating – albeit tricky to see how you get around quarterly reporting per se but a long term focussed market from an interesting startup figure.
CFETS To Open Branches In London, New York
Reuters
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), a subsidiary of China’s central bank, said in a statement that by expanding its network offshore, it aims to serve more overseas institutions and become a “main trading platform and pricing center” for the yuan globally.
FAO: Earlier this month ICAP closed a $65m deal with CFETS to supply fixed-income and currency market technology to CFETS.
Sebi Asks NSE To Refund Rs 250 Crore (USD 37m) To Clearing Members From SGF Contribution
Rajesh Bhayani – Business Standard
Based on new norms, Sebi found that the settlement fund had enough money; exchange refunded the money a few days ago.
NSE To introduce a Corporate Governance Index To Up Standards
Caroline Njoroge – The Exchange
Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) will launch its first sustainability index to encourage listed firms to adopt high corporate governance standards.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX and FTIL slightly off.
Govt Seeks 6 Weeks In NSEL-FTIL Merger Case
Business Standard
The government has sought six weeks’ time from the Bombay High Court to respond to the plea filed by the Financial Technologies Ltd (FTIL) challenging the final merger order with NSEL issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affair (MCA).
QV Premium: NSEL Scandal Brief – Part 16 & NSEL-FTIL Merger Brief.
Technology
A Former Flash Boy – Ari Rubenstein, CEO, Global Trading Systems (subscription)
Nicole Bullock – Financial Times
The high-frequency trader’s operation has been vilified. Now he plans to win back respectability.
Osaka Exchange: Handling Of Rules & Important Notes Concerning Launch Of Next J‐GATE & New Products
MondoVisione
Products
Europe Delays Key Swaps Rules (subscription)
Andrew Ackerman – Wall Street Journal
EU’s executive arm won’t meet September deadline to complete collateral standards on certain swaps.
Indexes
Bats Europe to Launch New Index Series
Bats
FTSE Benchmarks Face Challenge From Bats Europe (subscription)
Philip Stafford – Financial Times
Bats Europe will launch 18 stock indices that aim to undercut the lucrative market position of FTSE. The indices, informally known as the BUKs, will share a number of characteristics with their more famous counterparts including a large-cap segment consisting of 100 companies and quarterly re-balancing.
FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index Up 1.8% In May As ICE Drops LSE Bid
MondoVisione
Career Paths
Michael Ptasznik, TMX’s CFO, has resigned. On July 11, he will join Nasdaq as CFO.
PLY: Amongst the many to move from Bay Street to NASDAQ include CTO Brenda Hoffmann, former CEO Tom Kloet became a NASDAQ NED (March 2015 ), alongside various direct appointments to NASDAQ acquisition Chi-X Canada such as Kevin Cowan (March 2016).
In April, TMX hired Shaun McIver from Nasdaq and named him its new chief client officer, in the one trade going the other direction…
HK’s SFC has appointed Ms Christina Choi as Acting Head of Investment Products with effect from 19 June 2016. She is currently Senior Director of the Division. Ms Choi replaces Mr James Shipton whose contract ends on 18 June 2016.
Ms Choi will oversee the Investment Products Division pending the appointment of a permanent Executive Director of Investment Products to replace Ms Julia Leung who will become Executive Director, Intermediaries on 19 June 2016. Ms Leung will replace Mr James Shipton whose contract ends on 18 June 2016.
Financial Calendar
14.06 – Interactive Brokers $0.10 quarterly dividend payment
14.06 – ITG $0.07 quarterly dividend payment
15.06 – Thomson Reuters $0.34 quarterly dividend payment
15-16.06 – FESE Convention 2016 – Malta
16.06 – Record date ICE Q2 $0.85 dividend
17.06 – CBOE $0.23 quarterly cash dividend payment
New! 28.07 – CME Q2 2016 Results
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Analyst Notes
BATS “Neutral” Rating Reissued By Citigroup – $29.00 Price Target
A full table of current analysis can be found on our Analyst Ratings page which is updated daily.
Other stories
MondoVisione
Statement Of CFTC Commissioner Sharon Y. Bowen Before The AT Roundtable
MondoVisione