Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: December 19-23
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Broker News
The Big Bank Hiring Boom Is Over
Wall Street Journal | Peter Rudegeair
Goldman Sachs Group is planning to lay off several thousand employees, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, making it the latest big bank to cut jobs in response to a slowing economy and lower activity levels on Wall Street. Here is a look at how large banks' payrolls have changed over the past three years: Collectively, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley employed 1.11 million workers at the end of September, a 7.1% increase from the end of 2019. Morgan Stanley increased its staff levels by 35% since the end of 2019, the most of any big bank.?
Morgan Stanley Bankers Exit After Rift Over Block-Trading Probe
Bloomberg News | Sridhar Natarajan & Ava Benny-Morrison
A pair of Morgan Stanley executives who were on its block-trading desk have departed the firm after being placed on leave and left in limbo amid a US probe into their group’s work. The bankers’ exit has opened a rift with the New York-based firm over their continued cooperation with the investigation, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The two executives had initially submitted their resignation but their notice period was cut short and departure accelerated over their unwillingness to work closely with the bank through the probe, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
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Behind a Wall Street Headhunter’s Rapid Ascent Lie Accusations of Harassment and Abuse
Insider | Alex Morrell
In late June, Vax Bahram received an upsetting email: A young rising star at his fast-growing financial-services-headhunting firm, Durlston Partners, was resigning. She was the second employee on his data-science recruiting team to quit that month. A week earlier the leader of the team had quit the London-based firm. At Durlston, a staff of more than 50 serves a bevy of marquee names on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, including Citadel, Blackstone, Schonfeld, Two Sigma, and WorldQuant, among many others.
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Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
Exclusive: David Nicol Leaves LedgerEdge; Rutter Steps Forward in Interim
The Desk | Dan Barnes
David Nicol, co-founder of LedgerEdge, a distributed ledger-based fixed income trading venue, has left his position as CEO. Ian Chicken, chief operating officer at the firm, is staying in his role. The departure has been triggered by the need for a management team with deeper industry relationships on both the buy- and sell-side as LedgerEdge seeks to accelerate the pace of client onboarding, according to chairman David Rutter. “David Nicol is an incredible guy, very talented and a complete rockstar. He helped build the company, he is a real startup guy,” said Rutter speaking exclusively to the DESK.
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OCC Announces Two Executive Leadership Promotions
Markets Media | Staff
OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced the promotion of two individuals on its executive leadership team. Dan Busby, currently Chief Administrative Officer, will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer effective January 1, 2023. He will succeed Scot Warren who previously announced his retirement. Warren will remain at OCC in an advisory capacity until April 2023. Busby is a 23-year veteran at OCC and previously served as Chief Administrative Officer, and Chief Clearing and Settlement Services Officer. Prior to that, he held leadership roles in Internet and Investor Services, Member Services and Business Operations.
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Vendor News
UBS AM and JP Morgan Complete First Bilateral Trade On FlexTRADER FI
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
UBS Asset Management and JP Morgan have executed the first EU bilateral trade on FlexTrade’s fixed income execution management system, FlexTRADER FI (FlexFI). FlexTrade said the trade was made possible through JP Morgan’s ability to provide its electronic liquidity directly into UBS AM’s FlexFi solution. “Our bilateral connectivity to JP Morgan, using FlexTrade’s fixed-income EMS, FlexFI, is the next big step in the electronification of our bond and credit trading activities,” said UBS AM’s global head of trading and order generation, Lynn Challenger.?
$5T Syndicated Loan Market Readies for Data-Driven Digital Makeover
Pymnts | Staff
The syndicated loan market has ballooned the past few decades, but technology has lagged, badly. Syndicated loans represent a $5 trillion corner of finance, and $1.4 trillion of that is traded annually through private instruments widely used for financing in corporate America. The loans themselves can reach into the tens of billions of dollars. And yet, despite the sheer amount of money changing hands, back-end processes are antiquated as banks and lenders juggle everything from faxes to emails to phone calls to transmit data and get trades done.?
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Buy-Side News
RBC BlueBay Adds Two to ESG Investment Team
Hedgeweek | Staff
RBC BlueBay Asset Management (RBC BlueBay) has made two appointments in its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investment team: Younes Hassar has joined the London office as senior ESG analyst, while Emir Beganovic has joined the Minneapolis office as an ESG Analyst. Both report into Lucy Byrne, Senior ESG Analyst. Hassar joined the BlueBay ESG investment team in December 2022, to support the firm’s investment professionals with ESG analysis and stewardship activities. He will support investment teams on ESG sovereign and engagement efforts for the BlueBay fixed income investment platform.
Citadel, Other Hedge-Fund Winners in 2022 to Return Some Profits to Clients
Wall Street Journal | Juliet Chung
Citadel expects to return about $7 billion in profits to its clients on the back of what is expected to be its most profitable year ever, said people familiar with the firm, highlighting the banner year some hedge funds have had even as others nurse deep wounds. Citadel’s flagship fund gained about 32% for the year through November, benefiting from bets across the firm’s strategies, the people said. The firm plans to return some profits from all four of its funds in early January but still expects to start 2023 with more than $50 billion in assets under management, one of the people said.
Guggenheim Partners Chief Investment Officer Minerd Dies at 63
Reuters | Niket Nishant & Davide Barbuscia
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Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer at investment and advisory firm Guggenheim Partners and a prominent Wall Street bond investor, has died, his firm said on Thursday. Minerd, 63, suffered a heart attack during his regular workout on Wednesday, the company said in a statement. During his 25-year stint with Guggenheim, Minerd became a prolific commentator on financial markets and was often quoted by the media. He also held the role of managing partner at Guggenheim.
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M&A / Investment News
LSEG Expands Multi-Asset Post-Trade Offering with Acadia Acquisition
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has moved to expand its capabilities in multi-asset post-trade services with the acquisition of Acadia. Financial terms around the transaction have not been disclosed and the deal remains subject to regulatory approval. Acadia provides risk management, margining and collateral services for the uncleared derivatives markets. LSEG has held a minority stake in the firm since 2018. The exchange said the transaction will strengthen its “provision of resilient and systemically important financial market infrastructure”.?
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QuantCube Technology Raises Series B Funding to Support Growth in Economic Nowcasting, Harnessing AI and Big Data Analytics
Press Release | N/A
Real-time economic intelligence provider QuantCube Technology today announced that it has secured funding led by Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the investment arm of UAE’s Tawazun Council, together with previous backers Moody’s and Five Capital, and other private investors. Using AI to analyse billions of alternative data points in real time, QuantCube is the global leader in macroeconomic intelligence nowcasting and in pinpointing macro regime change. The new funding will help the firm deliver on its vision to become the standard point of reference for real-time macroeconomic, corporate and environmental intelligence.?
Crypto Exchange Bullish’s Ambitions for Public Listing Stumble as SPAC Deal Times Out
The Block | Kollen Post
Bullish has ended a SPAC deal that would have brought the block.one-founded crypto exchange onto the New York Stock Exchange. Cayman Islands-registered Bullish and Far Peak, the acquisition vehicle led by former NYSE leader Tom Farley, put out a joint announcement on the end of the partnership, which they'd originally publicized in July 2021. Far Peak will be shutting down as an entity between now and March 7.?“Our quest to become a public company is taking longer than expected, but we respect the SEC’s ongoing work,” Bullish CEO Brendan Blumer said in a statement.?
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Regulatory & Legal News
Proposed SEC Trading Regs May Aid Exchanges, Pressure Retail Brokers
FitchRatings | Staff
Recent SEC proposals to overhaul retail equity trading regulations could meaningfully shift the competitive market dynamics in favor of exchanges at the expense of wholesalers and off-exchange market makers, Fitch Ratings says. The proposals could sustainably reduce the scope and economics of payment for order flow (PFOF) for retail brokers, while increasing their best-execution obligations and disclosure requirements for retail orders. Proposals to amend PFOF mechanisms between retail brokers and electronic market makers are in line with Fitch’s expectation for increased regulatory scrutiny focusing on market structure and trading in the U.S.
The Tale of the Tape
The TRADE News | Staff
A European consolidated tape can be good for everyone, especially for retail investors, who are after all the bedrock of the industry, writes Caroline Serdarevic, head of Millennium Europe, a broker-dealer for global corporate bonds, municipal bonds and mortgage-backed securities. The move towards a consolidated price feed for European credit markets seems to be inevitable. That’s good news, especially for retail investors who have been hamstrung by the lack of price transparency – and therefore decent liquidity – for far too long.??
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Caroline Ellison, Associate of FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges
Wall Street Journal | Corinne Ramey & Dave Michaels
Two associates of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have pleaded guilty for their roles in fraud that contributed to the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse and are cooperating with federal investigators. Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, a trading firm tied to FTX, and Gary Wang, FTX’s former chief technology officer, both pleaded guilty to criminal offenses similar to those Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with last week. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the charges and plea agreements in a video posted online Wednesday night.?
Sam Bankman-Fried Released on $250M Bail Secured by Parents
CoinDesk | Elizabeth Napolitano & Jesse Hamilton
A federal judge agreed to release former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after he appeared in U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday on charges that he was the mastermind behind the fraud and illicit movement of customer funds inside his former crypto empire. The judge set bail at $250 million. Bankman-Fried, who was brought to the U.S. overnight by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after his extradition from the Bahamas cleared on Wednesday, arrived at the courthouse in New York to face the U.S. felony charges for the first time.
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Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Special Report: Binance’s Books Are a Black Box, Filings Show, as It Tries to Rally Confidence
Reuters | Tom Wilson, Angus Berwick & Elizabeth Howcroft
The world's biggest crypto exchange, Binance, is battling to shore up confidence after a surge in customer withdrawals and a steep drop in the value of its digital token. The exchange said it dealt with net outflows of around $6 billion over 72 hours last week "without breaking stride" because its finances are solid and "we take our responsibility as a custodian seriously." After the collapse of rival exchange FTX last month, Binance's founder Changpeng Zhao promised his company would "lead by example" in embracing transparency.
Hidden Road Secures Digital Asset Firm Registration from the UK’s FCA
Press Release | N/A
Hidden Road, the global credit network for institutional investors, today announced that its UK entity, Hidden Road Partners CIV UK Limited, has been granted registration as a digital asset firm in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Hidden Road is the only prime broker with both an FCA investment firm license and an FCA digital asset firm registration. This enables Hidden Road to uniquely offer products in spot and derivatives of both FX and digital assets.?
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1 年Thanks for sharing.