Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: Dec 4 – Dec 8
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Broker News
Banks Struggle to Monitor Staffers Even After WhatsApp Probes
Bloomberg News | William Shaw
Wall Street is still struggling to keep track of the myriad ways bankers are communicating with one another, even after shelling out more than $2 billion in penalties over staffers’ use of WhatsApp and other unauthorized messaging services. That’s according to data compiled by the technology firm Global Relay, which says it works closely with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG. The firm found two-thirds of financial firms aren’t capturing LinkedIn communications data from their staff and just 3% have been able to monitor employees’ use of Zoom Video Communications Inc.’s conferencing technology.
BTIG Promotes Jennifer Mermel to Chief Strategy Officer and Adds Kyle Czepiel as Chief Operating Officer
Press Release | N/A?
BTIG announced today that Jennifer Mermel has been promoted to the new role of Chief Strategy Officer and Kyle Czepiel has joined the firm as Chief Operating Officer. The leadership appointments reflect the firm’s continued effort to evolve, seek new opportunities, and build the team needed for the next phase of BTIG’s growth. “We are so pleased to announce these exciting new changes. Jennifer is one of the firm’s founding partners.?
Firms Step Up Non-Compete Use to Protect Tech, Data IP
WatersTechnology | Max Bowie
Financial firms’ proprietary technologies play an increasingly important role in their ability to generate alpha and trade faster and better than their rivals. So it’s not surprising to see the headlines and courts full of examples of firms alleging that others have lured away their talent or accusing individuals of recreating one firm’s game-changing applications at their new employer. In the past, intellectual property (IP) generally referred to physical assets, such as client lists, or perhaps the code base for a top-secret piece of technology or trading algorithm.?
Outsourced Trading -- Is It Time for RIAs to Embrace the Disruption?
CAPIS | N/A
If you are responsible for trading at an RIA, chances are you’ve done a lot of thinking about outsourced trading over the past few years. In the face of growing costs, shrinking commissions, and ever-increasing client demands, this approach offers a wide array of benefits, and adoption has surged accordingly. This has sparked concerns among buy-side traders who believe outsourced trading’s meteoric rise is the beginning of the end for their role. Others fear giving up control of their trading.?
Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
LSE Sees Second Outage on AIM Stocks in Less Than Two Months
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has today, Tuesday 5 December, experienced its second outage of AIM stocks trading in less than two months. LSE confirmed in a member notice at 9:23 am this morning that it was investigating an issue impacting its trading system and that it was “undertaking immediate analysis”. Trading on all instruments other than FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and IOB securities was halted until 9:55 am when the exchange confirmed that it was set to resume trading at 10:15 am.
MIAX to Open Physical Trading Floor for Options in Miami
Traders Magazine | Stephen Berte (BIDS Trading)
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), announced that the new MIAX Sapphire options physical trading floor will be located in the 545 Wyn building in Miami’s Wynwood district. The new MIAX Sapphire exchange will be MIAX’s fourth national securities exchange for U.S. multi-listed options and will operate both an electronic exchange and physical trading floor. The electronic exchange is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2024, with the physical trading going live in the second half of 2024, subject to regulatory approval.?
TMX Looks Beyond Canada with New Trading Platform
Markets Media | Staff
TMX Group, the Canadian exchange operator and infrastructure provider, has introduced a new trading platform in its home market which will serve as a launchpad for its global ambitions. In November this year TMX Group announced the launch of a new Canadian trading platform consisting of two order books, Alpha-X and Alpha DRK. Rizwan Awan, president of equity trading & head of TMX Markets, products and services, told Markets Media: “It is not every day that new platforms are built. For our global strategy and vision, we want to be the marketplace of choice for execution quality.”
Vendor News
Broadridge Capital Markets Head to Depart
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Justin Llewellyn-Jones, head of capital markets, North America (equities, FX and derivatives) and chief product officer for capital markets at fintech firm Broadridge has announced his departure after more than four years with the business. Speaking in an announcement on social media, Llewellyn-Jones said: “I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity that I was given to drive the product strategy and revenue growth for Capital Markets, and incredibly proud of everything we achieved.
Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb Axe Joint Consolidated Tape Project
The DESK | Dan Barnes
Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb today jointly announced they will not form an independent company to participate in the public procurement procedure to become the fixed income consolidated tape provider (CTP) in the European Union (EU) or the United Kingdom (UK). “Various developments in recent months have added further clarity to the risk and complexity of delivering this project under a joint venture from our three firms,” they said in a statement.
Trading Technologies Bolsters Senior Leadership Team With Three New Additions
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
Trading Technologies (TT) has made three new appointments to its senior leadership team, including chief operating officer; executive vice president of fixed income; and executive vice president of futures and options – all of which will join the firm on 1 January 2024. Justin Llewellyn-Jones has been appointed chief operating officer (COO), joining from Broadridge where he most recently served as chief product officer and head of capital markets, North America (equities, FX and derivatives). Elsewhere in his career, Llewellyn-Jones served as global head of derivatives at ION after over 14 years with Fidessa, which was acquired by ION in 2018.
Exclusive: Bloomberg Message “Sprayed Dealer Runs Across the Street”
The DESK | Dan Barnes?
Sources, including several dealers, have confirmed that Bloomberg’s Message service, used by broker dealers for sending runs to clients, “sprayed dealer runs across the street” as one source put it. Runs are the lists of bonds and derivatives dealers will trade at certain prices. These were reportedly sent out to non-clients, including other broker dealers. Runs are typically sent direct to specific clients in order to drive trading activity, because pricing for bonds and derivatives is tied to the value of trading activity with a given client, and is valuable proprietary information.
Buy-Side News
Goldman Alum Shuts Hedge Fund, Joins Lazard to Head Small Caps
Bloomberg News | Sonali Basak
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. veteran Sean Gallagher is shuttering his hedge fund firm and joining Lazard Ltd.’s asset management unit to run a roughly $3 billion business. Gallagher, 53, will be global head of small-cap equities at Lazard, which has more than $220 billion of assets under management, the firm said Monday in a statement. He spent 18 years at Goldman and became co-chief investment officer of its US equity business before forming Connacht Asset Management in 2019.
Renaissance Technologies Names Longtime Employee Lippe as Co-CEO
Bloomberg News | Katherine Burton
Renaissance Technologies tapped longtime employee David Lippe to be co-chief executive officer of the $40 billion hedge fund firm, according to a note sent to investors. Lippe will start his new job alongside CEO Peter Brown on July 1. Brown has been running the firm on his own since 2018, when his former co-head, Robert Mercer, stepped down. “The two of us have worked closely together since David joined Renaissance in 2001,” Brown wrote Thursday in the note.?
领英推荐
Millennium Management Enlists Google for Building Custom Tech Solutions
WatersTechnology | Rebecca Natale
Multi-strategy hedge fund Millennium Management has selected Google Cloud for its portfolio managers to leverage AI tools such as Vertex AI and data analytics via BigQuery in a multi-cloud environment. ?Millennium’s 300-plus global investment teams and 1,200 technologists will use Google Cloud’s platform to build custom tech solutions and solve challenges critical to their investment workflows. “Millennium has been an early adopter of cloud technology, and by offering access to the Google Cloud infrastructure, we are providing portfolio managers and technologists with optionality in cloud capabilities.
‘Platform-Based’ Business Models Are Taking Over Asset Management
Institutional Investor | Michael Thrasher
Amazon primarily connects buyers and sellers of goods. But over time, it has evolved. Today, the company sells its own Amazon-branded products and has expanded into other types of businesses like cloud computing and entertainment. It’s an example of the platform-based business model common in the technology industry. Now, asset managers are adopting the model and the firms embracing it are growing faster than those that aren’t, according to a recent McKinsey report on the industry.
M&A / Investment News
Mercer to Buy Vanguard’s US OCIO Business
Markets Media | Staff
Mercer, a global leader in reshaping retirement and investment outcomes and a business of Marsh McLennan, announced that it reached an agreement to acquire Vanguard’s outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) business that provides investment management services for not-for-profit organizations and other institutional investors in the United States. Commenting on the acquisition, Marc Cordover, US Investments and Retirement Leader, Mercer, said: “Vanguard’s differentiated investment philosophy, strength in the not-for-profit sector, and client-centric approach complements our global capabilities across OCIO and managing alternative asset classes.”
Fidelity Backs AI Infrastructure Startup at $9 Billion-Plus Valuation
The Information | Cory Weinberg, Kate Clark & Anissa Gardizy
Vast Data, an AI software and storage startup backed by Nvidia, raised a new funding round led by Fidelity Investments and including participation of venture capital firms NEA and Bond. The round values Vast Data at more than $9 billion, people familiar with the matter said, compared to its valuation of $3.7 billion set in 2021. Seven-year-old Vast Data plans to use some of the proceeds of the fundraising to buy back stock from existing shareholders, the people said.
Crypto Data Platform Startup Shadow Raises $9 Million in Paradigm-Led Seed Round
The Block | Nathan Crooks
Crypto data platform startup Shadow, which says it can reduce development costs on Ethereum, has raised $9 million in a seed round led by Paradigm. Additional investors included Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap and Flashbots, the company said in a statement provided to The Block. The company's first product, which allows "anyone to augment any contract to get the exact data they need with custom events and view functions," is now open for public demo.?
Regulatory & Legal News
Binance Copped a $4 Billion Plea but Is Still Fighting the SEC
Wall Street Journal | Dave Michaels?
When top Biden administration officials gathered last month at the Justice Department to announce a $4.3 billion legal resolution with Binance, one powerful regulator was absent. Attorney General Merrick Garland was there. So was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. But Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler wasn’t, even though he has his own legal beef with Binance. The SEC sued the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in June and has been the regulatory scourge of the crypto world.
Brokerages SoFi, Public Fined for Misleading Customers Over Stock Loans
Wall Street Journal | Alexander Osipovich
Brokerages SoFi Securities, Public and M1 Finance misled millions of investors about their securities-lending programs, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In such programs, brokerages make money by loaning out investors’ shares to third parties including short sellers, who bet against those stocks. Until recently, SoFi, Public and M1 said they would pay customers a slice of their revenues from lending the shares, but instead kept the money, Finra alleged in a set of enforcement actions unveiled Wednesday.
Industry Confused by EU’s ‘Bingo Card’ Clearing Rules
Risk.net | Sharon Thiruchelvam
Market participants warn the complex requirements proposed by the Council of the European Union for local firms to clear a proportion of euro swaps onshore amount to a “bingo card” that would be difficult to implement if adopted at the end of the legislative process. In its negotiating position, adopted on December 6, the Council suggests EU firms must clear a “representative” portion of their trades onshore over a set period of time. The concept of representativeness requires the slicing and dicing of transaction types according to three classes of derivatives and four maturity buckets.
Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Robinhood Launches Commission-Free Crypto Trading App in Europe
Bloomberg News | Emily Nicolle
Robinhood Markets Inc. is launching commission-free crypto trading in the European Union, a week after making its international debut with stock-broking services in the UK. The app, which will go live on Thursday, will allow European investors to buy and sell more than 25 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana’s SOL, Robinhood Crypto’s general manager Johann Kerbrat said in an interview. The company will offer a cashback-like loyalty program, Kerbrat said, crediting a percentage of each user’s monthly trading volume in the form of Bitcoin.
Société Générale to Become First Big Bank to List a Stablecoin
Financial Times | Nikou Asgari
Société Générale is set to launch its own stablecoin on a cryptocurrency exchange, becoming the first big bank to offer digital tokens tracking the price of hard currencies to a wide range of investors. France’s third-largest bank on Wednesday will debut trading of its own stablecoin, called EUR CoinVertible, on Bitstamp, an exchange based in Luxembourg.
VersiFi Announces Veteran FinTech Hires as it Ramps Up Digital Asset Trading and Lending Business
Press Release |? N/A
VersiFi, a digital asset trading and lending firm, today announced that Sol Zlotchenko and Daniel Zayfman have joined as Chief Product and Technology Officer and Chief Information and Security Officer, respectively. Both Zlotchenko and Zayfman have substantial fintech experience and will lead the technology development and infrastructure behind VersiFi’s institutional-grade trading and lending platform.? “I’m delighted Sol and Daniel have joined the VersiFi team,” said Sameer Shalaby, Founder and Co-CEO, VersiFi.?
Dimon Says He Would Shut Down Crypto If He Had Government Role
Bloomberg News | Katherine Doherty
Jamie Dimon told US lawmakers he would shutter the cryptocurrency industry if he had their power. “If I was the government, I’d close it down,” the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said at the Senate Banking Committee’s annual Wall Street oversight hearing Wednesday. The remarks add to Dimon’s long history of bashing digital currencies, which he has previously called “Ponzi schemes” and a “fraud.” His latest comments follow a series of hacks and scandals in the crypto industry, which has been under increased scrutiny from US regulators and lawmakers since the unwinding of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency platform.
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