CS gets off lightly in latest fine, Nikhil Rathi new CEO at the LSE (not group) replacing outgoing Alexander Justham while serial vendor Jonathan Cowan has a new gig too. Sobolewski openly criticizes Romanian government, EU seems to have finalised the next stage of deforming markets under the guise of reform. Various intriguing nuggets as a large Bitcoin miner changes direction…and there’s more:
Public Markets
Credit Suisse To Pay $4.25 Million & Admits To Providing Deficient “Blue Sheet” Trading Data
SEC
FAO: Earlier this month Credit Suisse said it will pay more than $80 million to settle allegations that it didn’t fully disclose to its clients how it operated its dark pool, while last month ITG paid $20 mln to settle “secret trading desk” claims with SEC.
EU Watchdog Finalizes Biggest Securities Reform In A Decade
Huw Jones – Reuters
Europe Unveils Rules ‘To Change Way Markets Function’ (subscription)
Philip Stafford & Emiko Terazono – Financial Times
Mifid II: Bitesize Takeaways From Esma’s Technical Standards (subscription)
Tim Cave & Anna Irrera – Financial News
More light on bond markets, caps on “dark pool” or anonymous share trading, and limits on commodity holdings were the objectives of reforms put forward by EU regulators on Monday to improve transparency for investors.
PLY: #fail. This has alas been a broadly pointless exercize in political point scoring which deforms, as opposed to reforming, markets as a whole.
DB1 Partners With REGIS-TR To Support Clients In Meeting Mifid II Requirements
MondoVisione
Longer Hours A Benefit To Shanghai Bourse (subscription)
Enoch Yiu – SCMP
Shanghai SE should amend its trading hours to overlap with London trade, an important move if the proposed stock connect between the two cities is to work. Shanghai’s morning and afternoon sessions cumulatively amount to only four hours a day, less than half that of London and ranking as the shortest opening among major markets.
Sobolewski: The Romanian Govt Is Responsible For The Underdevelopment Of BVB (Romanian version)
Adina Ardeleanu – Bursa
Speaking in front of US investors in NY, L. Sobolewski, BVB’s CEO, blamed the Romanian govt. for the underdevelopment of BVB.
Low liquidity levels are due to the frontier market classification. The market won’t become an emergent market if the govt. doesn’t continue the privatizations, Sobolewski said.
PLY: While the regulators play God enforcing infrastructure mergers, sadly Romania is lucky to be a frontier market given the PM being indicted for corruption amongst a myriad of headline issues. Interesting to see such headline frustration from Ludwik, is this a sign he is headed for pastures new when his term is up? (Could he manage the PiS double and return to run Warsaw SE when the likely new government removes former Minister Tamborski as CEO… intriguing possibilities and clearly Romania is a first world performer on the intrigue stakes if nothing else).
Private Markets
Taiwan SE Closed Tuesday Sep. 29
Taiwan SE
Market closed on 09/29/2015 due to Typhoon DUJUAN. Settlements due shall be postponed to the next business day.
The Challenge Of A Growing Stock Exchange – Namibia
Worldfolio
Tiaan Bazuin, CEO of the Namibian SE, outlines Namibia’s current economic dynamics, and the challenges of the stock exchange.
BSE Demutalisation In The Works
Barbados Advocate
Members of Barbados SE (BSE) have approved their plans to demutualise the organisation.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX up 1.5%, 63 Moons (FTIL) off 1%. Nothing changing per se in the NSEL firmament although the first 24 hours of a unified SEBI-FMC have been overall encouraging in terms of noises made.
Technology
How Wall Street Fell In Love With The Blockchain (subscription)
Financial News
PLY: Most interesting comments of the week have perhaps been from Jon Matonis (a real Bitcoin/Blockchain guru) noting that cost advantages may not accrue to financial entities using the blockchain to the extent they expect.
In other news, interesting to see how the first BTC company listed on ASX (which reversed its virtual miner into a tangible resource company) Digital CC is abandoning its mining business (unprofitable) in favour of a remittance solution…
Products
Investors Say Banks Gamed Treasury Sales (subscription)
Joe Rennison – Financial Times
A number of institutional investors are crying foul over how Treasury debt is sold, marking the gravest allegation of US government bond trading chicanery since Salomon Brothers was fined for cornering the market in 1992.
As reported yesterday, a total of 23 cases have been filed so far by investors claiming the US Treasury Market is rigged.
Forex Scandal Drives Shift To Algo Trading (subscription)
Chiara Albanese – Wall Street Journal
After paying billions in fines to settle allegations that traders tried to rig a key currency benchmark, banks are increasingly turning to computer programs to carry out forex trades.
European Repo Market Stagnates As Regulation Bites Into Trading
Eshe Nelson – Bloomberg
PLY: Sad to hear this. The Repo market is a barometer for the broader economy and the relative inefficiency being fed into the legacy banking system will further harm the already stagnant EU economy.
Point to ponder: By the end of the year, China will have grown 87% since 2009. The Eurozone will have grown 2% (source: City AM).
Tokyo Financial Exchange: Extension Of Three-month Euroyen Futures Discount Program
MondoVisione
Soon, New Products In Commodities Derivatives
Business Standard
Sebi on Monday took over the reins of the commodities derivatives market. Assuaging concern that surveillance and regulation would assume priority over development, Sebi Chairman U K Sinha said new products and participants could be introduced in a few months.
PLY: Very encouraging news…the slower the delay the better in developing new products for the Indian market.
Sebi Pitches For Allowing FPIs In Commodities Derivative Market
The Economic Times
Taking charge of regulating the commodities derivatives trading, Sebi Chairman U K Sinha favoured allowing foreign portfolio investors in this market.
PLY: Also very encouraging news. Likely to upset some but the more open the Indian markets are, the better will be the upside for all stakeholders.
Why India Might Finally Begin To Get Its Commodities Game Together
Nidhi Nath Srinivas (CMO NCDEX) – Huffington Post India
Read our Premium SEBI-FMC Merger Brief.
Indexes
CBOE Holdings To Launch New Options On Three FTSE Russell Indexes October 20
MondoVisione
Career Paths
Nikhil Rathi Appointed CEO Of LSE
MondoVisione
Effective immediately, Mr. Rathi succeeds Alexander (“JJ”) Justham who informed the Group of his decision to leave the Group earlier this year. Mr. Justham served as CEO of LSE since June 2012 and had Group-wide responsibility for Regulatory Strategy, Government and Public Affairs, and UK Regulation. Rathi joined the Group as Chief of Staff and Director of International Development in May 2014, the latter post he will retain alongside his LSEG Executive Committee membership.
Orc has appointed Jesper Alfredsson as President Orc Americas & Oscar Jönsson as VP Sales, Orc Americas.
FuturesTechs, the award winning technical research company, appointed Jonathan Cowan as a Director. The company also appointed Kevin Green and Andrew Gedye.
PLY: Plaudits to FuturesTechs founder Clive Lambert, bringing an excellent suite of appointments with Jonathan Cowan alone having a wealth of experience and contacts honed over 2 decades at the forefront of various vendor-related businesses. A good opening for a seasoned award winning technical analyst to improve his revenue streams, I wish all parties every success in this new relationship!
Financial Calendar
This week
30.09 – ICE $0.75 dividend for Q3 2015 payment
30.09 – ASX AGM
New announcement
CBOE Q3 2015 Results – Friday, October 30, 2015 – press release here.
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Analyst Notes
ICE “Buy” Rating Reiterated By Jefferies – $260.00 Price Target
A full table of current analysis can be found on our Analyst Ratings page which is updated daily.
Other stories
Stock Exchanges From Around The World Welcome New UN Sustainable Development Goals
UNCTAD
PLY: Hmmm, I can’t help feeling that UN propaganda to mark the General Assembly week will be quickly forgotten against the background that actually the entire Corporate Social Responsibility movement has its reputation in tatters thanks to leading global corporation Volkswagen being found to pay lip service from one side of its mouth while practising anything but CSR elsewhere..or as the British Daily Telegraph terms CSR: “a racket.” There is much work to do in developing markets, I am not convinced this hippy-centric NGO-centric approach is tangible for free markets.
UAE’s Securities & Commodities Authority Forces Dormant Account Mechanism On Brokerage Companies
MondoVisione