Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: Sep 16 – 20
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Broker News
The Suave Italian Banker Who Wants to Be the Jamie Dimon of Europe
Wall Street Journal | Margot Patrick, Patricia Kowsmann & Joe Wallace
Andrea Orcel made his name helping banks choose the moment to pounce on a rival. Last week, the CEO of Italy’s deal-hungry UniCredit made his own move on Germany’s Commerzbank. Teeing up a possible takeover, UniCredit bought 9% of Commerzbank’s shares, half of them from the German government. His vision: build a European champion, capable of financing people and companies across the region seamlessly and profitably—and take back business lost to American rivals as Europe’s banking industry emerges from a dire decade.
Meet the Ex-Googler Joining Goldman Sachs to Build Tech and Optimize Its Investment Banking and Trading Business
Business Insider | Bianca Chan
Melissa Goldman will soon have oversight of the technology powering one of the highest-profile businesses on Wall Street. As the incoming global head of technology engineering for Goldman Sachs' global banking and markets division, the ex-Googler will run the engineering team for Goldman's investment banking and sales and trading units. "There is just a ton of stuff to do, so they tell me. And lots of different challenges in the space given how much is being invested in this particular business," Goldman told Business Insider, referring to efforts to build systems that can handle the firm's anticipated growth in a compliant and resilient way.
Howard Lutnick’s Challenge to CME’s Treasury Dominance Turns Political
Bloomberg News | Isis Almeida, Katherine Doherty, Lydia Beyoud & Alice Atkins
The battle for market share in US Treasuries is getting an extra dose of politics. Howard Lutnick, the longtime chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, has lined up major US banks to back his plan to start competing with CME Group Inc. in Treasury futures. Now the move from one of Donald Trump’s closest allies on Wall Street is drawing attention from the other side of the aisle.
Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
‘Flash Boys’ Exchange IEX Preps Options Venue as Market Booms
Bloomberg News | Katherine Doherty
IEX Group Inc. is preparing to open an options exchange, the latest firm to capitalize on the boom in derivatives trading across the US. The equity exchange operator will enter the options market next year, pending regulatory approval, according to President Bryan Harkins. It will be an electronic-only venue that provides access to the entire options market.
LSEG Launches New Cloud-Based Enterprise Data Solution
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has launched a new cloud-based, ready-to-use enterprise data solution.?Named DataScope Warehouse, the new solution offers cloud-based access to LSEG’s fixed income and equity data records. The solution supports Structured Query Language (SQL), allowing users to explore and query the pricing and reference database. Cloud collaboration is also facilitated by the solution, offering access to LSEG data via any cloud partner.
Eurex Opens Markets to Broader U.S. Client Base
Markets Media | Staff
Eurex opened its markets to further member groups in the U.S. As of 16 September 2024, the leading European derivatives exchange will allow U.S. Introducing Brokers (IB) to become direct exchange members. The European-based exchange is thus once again living up to its claim of making its markets easily accessible to a broad global trading community. The U.S. regulatory authority CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) announced in July that it has approved final rules amending Part 48 of its regulations.
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Vendor News
Lime Trading Corp Strengthens Leadership Team with Key?Executive Appointments
Press Release | N/A
Lime Trading Corp “Lime Trading”, a leading agency broker delivering fast, reliable and scalable direct market access to the US equities and options markets, announces the appointment of Eva Sehic as Chief Executive Officer and Johan Sandblom as President and Head of Business Development. These appointments reinforce Lime Trading’s commitment to optimizing business operations to best serve the trading community and deliver continuous product innovations that empower sophisticated retail traders alongside institutional clients.
GenAI Could Solve Connecting ‘Constellation’ of Vital Information Technologies
WatersTechnology | Nyela Graham
In her seminal book “On Death and Dying,” which was published in 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced a model—today known as the Kübler-Ross Change Curve—that describes the five emotional stages that people go through when experiencing significant change or loss, such as death. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Marion Leslie believes that this change curve can be applied to the application of emerging technologies.
Interop After Acquisitions Remains Daunting for Buyers
WatersTechnology | Nyela Graham & Anthony Malakian
For all the technological breakthroughs the last half-century has seen, “there hasn’t been a lot of change” for financial terminals since their earliest days, lamented Tim Baker while moderating a panel yesterday at the World Financial Information Conference (WFIC) in Austin, Texas. “We still have relatively closed applications on our users’ desktops—but I think we’re on the verge of a very big change,” said Baker, who is the financial services practice lead for Expero.
Buy-Side News
Apollo Pushes Into High-Grade Debt Business Long Dominated by Banks
Financial Times | Sujeet Indap & Eric Platt
Jamshid Ehsani began his Apollo career betting on death. Now he is the central executive behind its effort to help companies breathe fresh life into their operations. In the process, Apollo’s private credit strategy is taking on the largest traditional banks in the race to fund the billions needed by highly rated multinationals such as Intel, AT&T, AB InBev and Sony Music, which historically relied on high-rated bonds or vanilla credit facilities. Asset managers have long been established as alternatives to banks in the lending industry.
Tech Innovation and Regulatory Actions Prompt Buy Side Compliance Overhaul
Traders Magazine | Staff
领英推荐
An explosion of data, communication channels and a series of costly regulatory actions are driving a compliance overhaul by asset management firms, hedge funds and other investment organizations around the world, according to Coalition Greenwich. In February of this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) levied more than $81 million in fines against 16 prominent investment advisors for failing to properly maintain electronic communications records.
Currency Traders Are Becoming ‘Algo DJs’ as AI Alters Roles
Bloomberg News | Alice Atkins
Algorithmic trading is radically changing the role of currency dealers, leading them to question who will be responsible for the growing reliance on computer models. Buy-side currency traders say the advancements in technology have already altered their day-to-day jobs, but they are skeptical that artificial intelligence will fully eradicate the need for human oversight, market participants said at the TradeTech FX conference in Amsterdam this week.
M&A / Investment News
Axel Springer and KKR Near Deal on €13.5bn Break-up
Financal Times | Laura Pitel, Arash Massoudi & Ivan Levingston
German billionaire Mathias D?pfner and KKR are nearing a deal to split up the media giant Axel Springer, in a move that would allow one of the world’s largest private equity firms to bow out of news media after five turbulent years.?The two sides are expected to discuss the proposed structure of a deal that would give KKR majority control of the company’s profitable classifieds business at a meeting of its supervisory board on Thursday, according to four people familiar with the matter.
LSEG Acquires Axoni Post-Trade Technology
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has moved to further expand its post-trade capabilities with the acquisition of Axoni’s post-trade technology. The transaction remains subject to closing conditions and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter. Amongst the new technology acquired by LSEG is Axoni’s Veris network, a post-trade lifecycle and reconciliation management platform for equity swaps that launched in 2020.
BlackRock, Microsoft to Invest $100bn in Data Centers
Markets Media | Staff
The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) to make investments in new and expanded data centers to meet growing demand for computing power, as well as energy infrastructure to create new sources of power for these facilities. These infrastructure investments will be chiefly in the United States fueling AI innovation and economic growth, and the remainder will be invested in U.S. partner countries.
Regulatory & Legal News
Retail Traders Could Lose if Trading Hours Cut, Says SIX Exec
Financial News | Jeremy Chan
The renewed push to shorten trading hours in Europe by institutional traders could make trading more difficult for retail participants, according to one senior industry figure. Bj?rn Sibbern, global head of exchanges at SIX, told Financial News the industry needs to keep in mind the needs of retail traders when discussing trading hours. “It’s only fair that retail has the opportunity,” he said. “If you can’t trade during the day for job reasons, you should have the opportunity to also trade at least late afternoon or in the evening.”
Archegos Banks That Unwound Bets Face Criminal Antitrust Probe
Bloomberg News | Ava Benny-Morrison & Sridhar Natarajan
The US Justice Department is ramping up scrutiny of banks that collectively lost billions of dollars in the collapse of Bill Hwang’s investment firm — mere months after scoring a conviction against him for deceiving those very firms. Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s criminal antitrust division have kicked back to life a dormant probe examining how Hwang’s lenders unwound more than $150 billion in bets placed by his family office, Archegos, according to people familiar with the matter.
SEC Approves Stock Quotes in Half-Penny Ticks on Exchanges
Bloomberg News | Lydia Beyoud & Katherine Doherty
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved rules that will allow thousands of stocks and ETFs traded on exchanges to be quoted in half-penny increments. The agency’s move Wednesday, which came with a unanimous vote from the five commissioners, might help trading venues such as the New York Stock Exchange and IEX Group Inc. better compete with wholesalers that can quote in finer increments outside of an exchange.
Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Guarding Crypto Is a Lucrative Business and Wall Street Wants In
Bloomberg News | Olga Kharif & Paige Smith
In the traditional investment world, providing custody of assets is a pretty boring, albeit crucial, business: Keeping clients’ holdings of stocks and bonds safe is a fairly straightforward job. Yet in the roughly $2 trillion cryptocurrency market, a favorite playground for hackers and fraudsters, custody is anything but boring. As a result, the service costs up to 10 times more than safeguarding traditional assets like securities and cash, according to Hadley Stern, chief commercial officer for Solana custody tool Marinade, who previously headed digital asset custody at Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
EDXM Global Announces Forthcoming Launch of Its Singapore-Based Perpetual Futures Trading Venue
Press Release | N/A
EDXM Global today announced the forthcoming launch of its perpetual futures venue. EDXM Global is a part of EDX, a family of digital asset technology companies that delivers trusted, liquid and efficient crypto market structures. Expected to go live in Q1 2025, this new venue follows the company’s launch of its Singapore-based settlement service in May 2024 and will enable secure, efficient and low-risk trading for perpetual futures contracts in Bitcoin and Ether. Additional major cryptocurrencies, such as Solana and XRP, will be listed in the months following launch.
Trump Rolls Out His New Cryptocurrency Business
New York Times | David Yaffe-Bellany, Sharon LaFraniere & Matthew Goldstein
A day after an apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump, he appeared on a livestream on Monday to champion his latest business venture: cryptocurrencies. “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Mr. Trump said on X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” Beside him were his collaborators, including a family friend; Mr. Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; and two little-known crypto entrepreneurs with no experience running a high-profile business.