Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: May 15-19
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Broker News
Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman to Step Down Within 12 Months
Bloomberg News | Sridhar Natarajan
Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman plans to step down as chief executive officer in the next 12 months and assume the role of executive chairman. “It is the board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months,” Gorman, 64, said Friday at the firm’s annual meeting. “That is the current expectation in the absence of a major change in the external environment.”
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Hidden Road Receives Investment Firm License in the Netherlands, Expanding Offering to EU Counterparties
Press Release | N/A
Hidden Road, the global credit network for institutions, today announced that its Netherlands entity, Hidden Road Partners CIV NL B.V., has recently been granted a license as an investment firm by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). This license enables Hidden Road to offer spot and derivative products to institutional counterparties within the European Economic Area. This license adds to Hidden Road’s growing footprint of licenses, registrations and certifications for the firm’s entities around the world.
Two Trading Apps That Allowed Chinese Citizens to Invest Overseas Get Pulled From China
Wall Street Journal | James T. Areddy & Elaine Yu
Two Nasdaq-listed online brokerages that cater to clients in China are preparing to further curtail their offerings in the country, amid tightening controls by Beijing on private firms, capital flight and data flows. Futu Holdings and Up Fintech Holding, known as Tiger Brokers, are planning to remove apps from online stores in China that allow their customers to trade stocks overseas, according to people familiar with the matter. After the Journal’s article was published, a Tiger Brokers spokesperson said the company would remove its trading platform from app stores in mainland China starting Thursday.
BNP Paribas Strengthens Equities Unit in London with Hire of Credit Suisse Risk Arbitrage Team
The TRADE News | Will Canny
BNP Paribas is bolstering its equities team in London with the hire of Credit Suisse’s event driven team, according to two people familiar with the matter. Susan Stryker Marinello, event driven specialist sales for the EMEA region at the Swiss bank, and Andy Martin and Simon Scott, both risk arbitrage traders, are joining the French lender, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private. The team previously worked together at Wall Street giant Citi prior to joining Credit Suisse.
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Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
Tradeweb Appoints New Chairman as Lee Olesky Announces Retirement
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
Tradeweb has announced that chairman Lee Olesky will retire from its board of directors at the end of Q2 , with Jacques Aigrain set to succeed him as chairman, effective 1 July. Olesky co-founded Tradeweb in 1996 and officially stepped down as the firm’s chief executive office in December last year after more than two decades of leadership at the company. “Tradeweb is always evolving, and it’s time for me to start the next chapter of my life knowing that the company is in good hands,” said Olesky.
London Stock Exchange Reports Halved Latency Following Data Centre Migration
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
The London Stock Exchange completed a data centre and hardware upgrade of the exchange itself, Turquoise and TRADEcho services to a new dedicated facility in London in February, as a means of improving latency. According to the exchange, the move has seen a 50% reduction in average round trip latency for the equities order book, as well as ‘outlier’ observations in the distribution reducing by 75%, LSE said. LSE’s ETF order book has seen a 66% reduction in average round-trip latency, with outliers down by 80%. “LSEG is delighted to confirm that it has successfully migrated its trading and market data systems to a new highly efficient, purpose-built data centre near Docklands, London.
A Fully Cloud-Hosted Exchange Is Coming—but for Now, One Piece at a Time
WatersTechnology | Max Bowie
While it won’t happen this year, the day could come when every aspect of an exchange’s operations will be hosted entirely in the cloud—but industry experts say that day is still some way off. Exchanges have been migrating components of their business into the cloud over the last few years. And despite some high-profile alliances between exchanges and cloud vendors, exchanges seem to be hedging their bets and working with multiple providers, depending on which best meets the needs of the particular function being offloaded.
Euronext to Launch Dark Trading and Expanded Retail Trading Services Amid Second Best Quarterly Results in Its History
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
Euronext has announced plans to launch a new dark trading service and an expanded retail trading service as part of its quarterly results. The new services come off the back of one of the exchange’s strongest quarters in its history, reporting adjusted net income of €147 million despite an overall reduction in trading revenues from €151 million to €129 million. The new dark trading service for Euronext listed stocks is expected to launch in the fourth quarter and will include sweep orders, midpoint trading, and interaction between dark and lit markets. It will also not be restricted by the Large in Scale (LiS) waiver.
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Vendor News
Overbond Expands Automated Bond Trading Service with Deutsche B?rse European Fixed Income Data
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
AI quantitative analytics provider for institutional fixed income capital markets Overbond has entered into an agreement to integrate European fixed-income transaction data from Deutsche B?rse into its AI-aggregated data feeds and automated bond trading. The agreement specifically relates to Deutsche B?rse and Clearstream’s recently co-developed new fixed income data service, Bond Liquidity Data. Through this partnership, Overbond customers will be able to access settlement-level fixed-income transaction data derived from the 170 million transactions that Clearstream processes annually.
Coming to America: Foreign Agents Seek to Subvert Domestic Tech Incumbents
WatersTechnology | Max Bowie
It’s a procurement dilemma: If you’re responsible for acquiring trading and data-related technology and infrastructure at a financial firm, you want to maintain a diverse array of suppliers, and avoid concentration risk created by vendors buying rivals and independent companies. On the other hand, you don’t necessarily trust an unknown startup with infrastructure responsible for billions of dollars. So, what do you do? What if there were companies with established technologies, an existing client base, and the scale to make management feel confident that they’ll have a world-class product with local support? There are—and they’re about to start knocking on your door.
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Buy-Side News
Buy Side Demands Better Data Aggregation for Primary Corporate Bonds
WatersTechnology | Nyela Graham
“Data is the new oil.” The title of British mathematician Clive Humby’s talk at a National Association of Advertisers conference in 2006 has been repeated over the years, even as some say data and oil can’t be compared because data is anything but scarce. But Humby wasn’t talking about scarcity; rather, his assertion referred to refinement. In the 2006 talk, he posited that like oil, data had to be refined in order to have value. Data-driven companies can’t sell raw data just as oil companies can’t sell oil without first refining it.
Inside the Hedge-Fund Talent War: How Elite Funds Are Battling for Star Portfolio Managers
Insider | John Pierson
The competition for investment talent is escalating, and finding top portfolio managers is no longer a contact sport — it's an all-out war. Being a portfolio manager for an elite hedge fund is the finance-industry equivalent of becoming a professional athlete or a US Special Forces operative. Few make it, fewer can handle the intensity, and only the strong survive. I recently had a 6:30 a.m. coffee meeting with a PM. Being so early, I asked how much sleep she had clocked overnight. She grinned and said, "I don't sleep; I wait."
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M&A / Investment News
Leading Enterprise Crypto Company Ripple Acquires Custody Provider Metaco for $250M
Business Wire | Staff
Ripple, the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, announced today it has acquired Metaco, a Swiss-based provider of digital asset custody and tokenization technology. Diversifying into custody solutions is a milestone in Ripple’s business and product strategy, bringing new revenue opportunities to the company. Ripple and Metaco share strong crypto DNA, top-tier institutional customers, and a long history of working with regulated entities to create secure enterprise-grade solutions. With this acquisition, Ripple will expand its enterprise offerings, providing customers with the technology to custody, issue, and settle any type of tokenized asset.
Auradine Raises $81 Million to Build ‘Next-Generation Web Infrastructure'
The Block | Yogita Khatri
Auradine, a tech startup co-founded by a serial entrepreneur with a track record of building billion-dollar companies, raised a sizable $81 million in its initial funding round for the development of "next-generation web infrastructure." Celesta Capital and Mayfield co-led the Series A round, with Sriram Viswanathan, founding managing partner of Celesta, and Navin Chaddha, managing director of Mayfield, joining the Auradine board. Other investors included Marathon Digital Holdings, Cota Capital, DCVC, and Stanford University, Auradine announced Tuesday.
PE Is Pouncing as Companies Spin Off Businesses to Raise Cash
Institutional Investor | Hannah Zhang
In an effort to raise much-needed cash, more private companies are spinning off non-core businesses. And private equity firms are eagerly buying. Forty-nine percent of corporate M&A professionals at private companies say they are likely to spin off a non-core division in 2023, according to a recent study by Deloitte. Forty percent of M&A staffers at these companies say they are likely to sell one to two businesses this year, while 7.5 percent say they are likely to pursue three to four divestitures.
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Regulatory & Legal News
US SEC Proposes Plan to Bolster Clearing Houses’ Resiliency
Reuters | John McCrank
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday voted to propose a plan to bolster the resiliency of clearing houses during times of significant market stress, such as the 2021 "meme stock" trading frenzy. Clearing agencies and their infrastructure are often referred to as the plumbing of the market, and stand between buyers and sellers of every trade, taking on the risk if one side defaults, or act as central securities depositories. The SEC proposal builds on rules passed in 2016, and would require clearing houses to monitor margin exposures on an ongoing basis and gives them the authority to make intraday margin calls as frequently as circumstances warrant, the regulator said.
HSBC Hit With “Deeply Troubling” Spoofing Fine
The Full FX | Colin Lambert
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against HSBC Bank USA for manipulative and deceptive trading related to interest rate swaps with bond issuers and spoofing – conduct a CFTC commissioner has called “deeply troubling”. The CFTC also charged the bank over supervision and mobile device recordkeeping failures at various times during approximately an eight-year period and levied a $45 million fine. HSBC says it has already undertaken and continues to undertake extensive remedial measures, as described in the order.
Yes, Prosecutors Will Claw Back FTX Money From US Lawmakers
Blockworks | Casey Wagner
The Department of Justice has instructed lawmakers with FTX-linked political donations to hand over the cash, and at least some Congressional campaigns have complied. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, was one of the campaigns the DOJ contacted earlier this year regarding political donations from FTX, as well as its associated subsidiaries and individual employees. Ryan Salame, the former chief executive of FTX Global Markets, gave $2,900 to Latta’s campaign in October 2022, data from the Federal Election Commission shows. Salame gave a total of nearly $23 million to candidates during the 2022 midterm election cycle, almost exclusively to Republicans.
SEC Isn’t Considering Short-Selling Ban, Gensler Says
Bloomberg News | Benjamin Bain
US regulators aren’t currently weighing a ban on selling stocks short as wild trading continues in the shares of some regional banks. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler batted down the prospect of such a ban, saying that similar restrictions haven’t worked in the past. Critics have argued that such measures are necessary because recent declines in some bank stocks have little to do with a lender’s outlook. “We at the SEC are merit neutral — folks can go long, folks can go short, as long as those markets work,” Gensler said Monday during an event hosted by the Atlanta Federal Reserve.
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Crypto & Digital Asset News
Galaxy Trades First Fully Blockchain-Settled OTC Option
Markets Media | Staff
Galaxy recently completed the world’s first over-the-counter option trade settled entirely on-chain, marking an expansion of the firm’s trading capabilities by leveraging the benefits of decentralized finance infrastructure. On-chain OTC options trading represents the next evolutionary step in trading and finance. By utilizing DeFi and blockchain technology, eligible counterparties can now trade bilateral options tied to digital assets with Galaxy in a trustless manner that alleviates credit risk normally associated with traditional OTC options trades.
Coinbase Expands Singapore Services Amid International Expansion Drive
The Block | Ryan Weeks
Coinbase Global, the crypto exchange operator, is extending the range of services it offers customers in Singapore. The move comes as Coinbase takes steps to bolster its international presence, in direct response to a crackdown by regulators in the U.S. — where the company is based. “The message here is the world is sort of moving on with or without the U.S. and we are very committed as a global company to keep moving forward on international expansion,” said Hassan Ahmed, country director for Singapore at Coinbase.
Bankrupt Crypto Company Celsius Could Get New Life From Wall Street
Wall Street Journal | Peter Rudegeair & Alexander Saeedy
Two Wall Street heavyweights are locked in a bidding war for bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network. Apollo Global Management and senior executives at distressed-debt specialist Fortress Investment Group are each backing competing groups that aim to restart Celsius under new management, people familiar with the matter said. Each proposal would kick in around $50 million to help Celsius resume some operations as a publicly traded company owned mostly by its creditors, according to people familiar with the matter and investor presentations viewed by The Wall Street Journal
Crypto’s Most Influential Companies Often Follow Their Own Rules — Even After FTX’s Collapse
Bloomberg News | Emily Nicolle
Before it filed for bankruptcy last November, many of the entities in Sam Bankman-Fried’s colossal FTX empire had never held a board meeting. The crypto exchange operator itself, once valued at $32 billion with $1.8 billion in venture capital raised, only established a board near the end of its life with three directors. Its sister trading house Alameda Research, which allegedly received unfettered access to FTX customer assets to fund its bets, had such poor recordkeeping that Bankman-Fried told staff members its books were “unauditable,” according to communications published by the group’s new management.
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Realtor Associate @ Next Trend Realty LLC | HAR REALTOR, IRS Tax Preparer
1 年Thanks for posting.