Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: June 17-21
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Broker News
Jane Street Ordered to Give Ex-Traders ‘Roadmap’ of Secrets
Bloomberg News | Chris Dolmetsch
A federal judge ordered Jane Street Group to share with two former traders a detailed court filing on a secret trading strategy it claims they stole, rejecting the firm’s argument that it would give them a “roadmap for further misappropriation.” Douglas Schadewald and Daniel Spottiswood must have access to the disclosure, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled on Wednesday. He said they needed the information to properly defend themselves against the suit Jane Street filed against them and their new employer, Millennium Management, in April.
Market Maker IMC Latest To Join Cboe Europe Derivatives as Trading Participant
The TRADE News | Annabel Smith
Cross asset market maker IMC has become the latest trading participant to join Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX). “We are very excited to become a direct trading participant on CEDX and provide liquidity across the exchange’s range of pan-European equity derivatives contracts,” said Koen Langemeijer, IMC Europe market making lead. “We are strongly aligned with CEDX’s ambitions to enhance and grow Europe’s derivatives markets and look forward to providing its participants with access to our exceptional levels of liquidity.” CEDX came to market in 2021, officially launching with a futures and options trading offering.
Inside Citigroup’s Most Mysterious Business
Wall Street Journal | Justin Baer
One of Citigroup’s oldest businesses is finally ready for its close-up. For decades, Citi Services has moved money around the world for companies and safeguarded big investor assets. The division, one of five lines of business, makes up half of Citi’s total profits and is crucial to Chief Executive Jane Fraser’s turnaround plan. Touting these businesses might seem like a no-brainer, but they have long stood in the shadows of pretty much everything else in Citi’s vast portfolio, from credit cards to bond trading.
William Donaldson, Investment Banker Who Led SEC, Dies at 93
Bloomberg News | Laurence Arnold
William Donaldson, a founder of Wall Street investment bank Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette who presided over a divided US Securities and Exchange Commission during its crackdown on corporate misdeeds from 2003 to 2005, has died. He was 93. He died on June 12, according to Yale University’s School of Management, of which he was the founding dean. No cause was given. In a career that spanned a half-century, Donaldson was co-founder and chairman of DLJ, the first New York Stock Exchange member to go public; an undersecretary of state under President Richard Nixon; and head of the New York Stock Exchange.
Exchange & ATS News
New Retail Focused US NMS Stock ATS Targeting 2025
Traders Magazine | Anna Lyudvig
BLOX Markets, emerging gradually from stealth mode, is in the process of developing a new retail focused equities ATS, Traders Magazine can reveal. “At BLOX Markets, our mission is to open up access to off-exchange equity retail flow through order competition. We believe retail investors would benefit from greater competition in the execution of their orders and other investors would benefit from opportunities to execute against such orders, so we’re building a trading venue bridging the gap between retail and institutional investors”, Khody Azmoon, Head of Business Development & Product Strategy at BLOX Markets, said.
Indonesia Stock Exchange Partners with Nasdaq to Upgrade Market Infrastructure
Traders Magazine | Staff
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) and the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) today announced an expansion of their technology partnership which will see IDX upgrade its core trading platform to Nasdaq’s most advanced matching engine. The deal also includes an extension of Nasdaq’s market surveillance partnership with IDX, and an agreement to enhance IDX’s Index business to help foster a deeper and sophisticated global capital markets ecosystem.
Retail Investors Are Turning to Bonds Like Never Before and Brokerages Want In
MarketWatch | Gordon Gottsegen & Zoe Han
There are a few things about buying bonds that are different from buying stocks. Bonds usually aren't traded on exchanges, which means it isn't quite as easy for retail investors to buy bonds compared with stocks. Retail investors can buy bonds over-the-counter from the bond issuer (like buying Treasurys from the U.S. government-backed website TreasuryDirect), they can buy ETFs that hold bonds as underlying assets or they can buy them through a financial institution that's registered as a bond broker. Jonathan Birnbaum, the founder and CEO of OpenYield, believed this made the retail bond market prime for disruption.
Wall Street Faces Tougher Margin Rule as Zero-Day Options Boom
Bloomberg News | Lu Wang & Katherine Doherty
The world’s largest derivatives-clearing house is seeking to introduce fresh margin requirements on Wall Street firms as the frenzy in zero-day options shows no sign of letting up. Options Clearing Corp. is looking to harden rules on intraday margins at brokers and dealers in the event their risk exposures breach certain thresholds, according to a spokesperson. OCC is also proposing a monthly add-on to their collateral contributions to ensure the smooth functioning of markets, among other obligations, the person said.
Vendor News
The Coming AI Revolution in QIS
WatersTechnology | Helen Bartholomew
If you ask ChatGPT, quantitative investment strategies (QIS) are “exceptionally well-suited” to the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques—and at least some dealers think investors are coming round to the same conclusion. “As more and more clients are cognizant of ChatGPT, we also see a renewal of interest in how to use this technique within the context of systematic trading,” says Sandrine Ungari, head of cross-asset quant research at Societe Generale.
Trading Technologies Broadens Product Line with New Offerings for Futures TCA and Multi-Asset Trade Surveillance
Press Release | N/A
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced the introduction of TT Futures TCA and TT Trade Surveillance, two new offerings that significantly enhance its Data & Analytics and Compliance lines of business. TT Futures TCA, a comprehensive transaction cost analysis (TCA) tool for futures trading, leverages the largest collection of anonymized, millisecond-level futures market and trade data with a vast array of metrics and measures.
Confluence Launches Rex 2.0
Traders Magazine | Staff
Confluence, a global technology solutions provider for regulatory, analytics, and investor communications, today announced Rex 2.0, a significant advancement of its AI-powered SaaS offering that delivers capabilities beyond TSR/Annual Report reconciliation, allowing the investment management industry to gain a new level of operational efficiencies and insights. Rex 2.0 expands the document-to-document reconciliation capabilities, covering use cases such as reconciling annual reports with prospectuses, excel working papers with annual report PDFs, quarterly reports with annual reports, and prospectuses with KIID documents.
Buy-Side News
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Readies New Hedge Fund Targeting AI Stocks
Bloomberg News | Hema Parmar
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management is seeking to raise about $1 billion for a new stock-picking hedge fund focused on artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund will bet on and against AI hardware and semiconductor companies globally and will be the firm’s first new hedge fund in decades, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Point72 currently has a main hedge fund along with some venture capital vehicles. Cohen has said he expects the impact of AI to be “transformational” and that it has the power to change how companies work and save them millions of dollars.
Hedge Fund Arrowpoint Lures CPPIB, Temasek Unit as Anchors
Bloomberg News | Bei Hu & David Ramli
Former Millennium Management Asia executive Jonathan Xiong’s new hedge fund pod-shop has signed up Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and a unit of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. as additional backers, according to people familiar with the matter. Canada’s largest pension plan and Seviora Capital Pte, a wholly-owned unit of the Singapore state-owned investor, will join Blackstone Inc. as anchor investors for Arrowpoint Investment Partners’s fund, said the people, who requested not to be named because the matter is private. Arrowpoint aims to start trading on July 1 and deploy more than $1 billion within two months, said one of the people. That makes it one of the largest Asia hedge fund startups in history based on assets amassed at inception.
Inside Schonfeld’s Macro Shake-Up: Research Turnover, PM Changes, and a Shift Away From Big Bets
Business Insider | Bradley Saacks
领英推荐
Schonfeld's strong start to the year has been critical for the $10 billion manager after a tough 2023 nearly turned existential, thanks to potential takeover talks from its rival Millennium. However, the strong performance has come with some tweaks at the New York-based multi-manager in 2024. Several people close to the firm say the discretionary and fixed income division, under the purview of the firm's head of Europe, Colin Lancaster, and Mitesh Parikh, based in Dubai, has changed this year thanks to portfolio-manager changes and a focus on less volatile relative-value strategies over directional ones.
Investors Shifting To Private Credit as Bonds Lose Hedging Appeal, Says Bobby Jain
Hedgeweek | Staff
Bobby Jain, founder and CEO of New York-based hedge fund firm Jain Global, said that hedge funds face growing competition from private credit firms for investor capital, on a panel at the UBS Singapore Family Wealth Forum on Thursday, according to reports. At the event, which was attended by around 300 UHNWIs with at least $30m in investable assets, the former Millennium Co-CIO noted that investors who once relied on bonds to hedge against stock market volatility are now seeking alternative, “uncorrelated” asset classes, of which private credit “has taken up a lot”. Jain explained that the traditional 60/40 portfolio model, which allocates 40% to bonds, is becoming less effective.
M&A / Investment News
Advent International, ADIA Buy Stake in Fisher Investments
Markets Media | Staff
Fisher Investments announced that Advent International and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have agreed to make a minority investment in Ken Fisher’s namesake firm, Fisher Investments. The investment by Advent and ADIA of at least $2.5 billion and up to $3 billion values FI at $12.75 billion. Following closing, which is expected to occur later this year, Ken Fisher will remain active in his current role as FI’s Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer, and FI management led by CEO Damian Ornani will continue to drive the company.
FINBOURNE Technology Raises ￡55 Million in Series B Funding Round
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
FINBOURNE Technology has raised ￡55 million in a Series B funding round led by Highland Europe and AXA Venture Partners (AVP). The move follows a Series A finding round of ￡15 million in 2021, with this latest investment set to fund the firm’s commercial development, including expanding its sales, product and marketing capabilities in the US, UK, Ireland, Singapore and Australia.
Japanese Exchange Bitflyer to Acquire FTX Japan
Cointelegraph | Helen Partz
Japanese cryptocurrency exchange BitFlyer will acquire the Japanese arm of the collapsed crypto trading platform FTX. BitFlyer Holdings is acquiring and subsequently rebranding FTX Japan, the firm officially announced on June 20. Following the acquisition, FTX Japan’s core business will shift from operating a crypto exchange to an institutional-grade crypto custody service. It will initially be rebranded New Custody Company, as the new name has not yet been determined. In the announcement, BitFlyer mentioned that the acquired platform aims to provide services related to crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have yet to be launched in Japan.
Abacus Group Acquires Tribeca Technology Group to Strengthen UK Presence
Fintech Futures | Cameron Emanuel-Burns
Abacus Group, a global IT services and cybersecurity firm, has snapped up Tribeca Technology Group, a UK-based IT provider for the alternative investment sector, to “further strengthen its existing market presence and capabilities across the UK market”. To achieve this, the two enterprises are to “pool their experience, diversify their portfolios and scale their offerings”. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Founded in 2006, Tribeca complements Abacus’ expertise in the hedge fund and private equity sectors, particularly with its specialist experience in the UK private equity and asset management markets, according to the buyer.
Regulatory & Legal News
US CFTC Investigating Trading Firm Jump’s Crypto Activity: Fortune
The Block | Sarah Wynn
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating trading firm Jump, according to reporting from Fortune. The derivatives regulator is specifically looking into the firm's crypto involvement, such as trading and investing, Fortune reported on Thursday. The CFTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block. Jump declined to comment when contacted by The Block. Both the CFTC and its sister agency, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, have honed in on bringing charges against crypto-related entities over the past few years.
Binance Fined $2.25m by India’s Financial Intelligence Unit
Cointelegraph | Amaka Nwaokocha
India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has imposed a 188.2 million rupees ($2.25 million) fine on crypto exchange Binance for providing services to Indian clients without adhering to the nation’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. On Thursday, June 19, the agency announced that the penalty applies to multiple violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Binance operates as a Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider, which qualifies it as a reporting entity (RE) under Section 2 (as) (vi) of the PMLA. This designation requires maintaining and reporting transaction records and ensuring robust AML measures.
SEC’s Head of Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit Departs After Nearly Nine Years
The Block | Adam James
The head of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit in the Division of Enforcement has left the agency after nearly nine years. "This past Friday was my last day with the SEC after almost 9 years," David Hirsch wrote on LinkedIn. "During that time I had the opportunity to work on more complex, challenging investigations and issues than I ever imagined when I joined the agency as a staff attorney in the Fort Worth Regional Office."
EU to Delay Core Element of Basel Bank Capital Reforms by One Year
Reuters | Huw Jones
The European Union will delay a core element of global reforms to bank capital rules by one year to January 2026, the bloc's financial services chief said on Tuesday, to ensure a level playing field between EU banks and their U.S. rivals. Countries are introducing the last batch of a global bank capital accord known as Basel III, rolled out after taxpayers were forced to bail out lenders in the global financial crisis of 2007-09. EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness, said it was becoming clear the United States would not be able to meet its self-imposed deadline of July 2025 for introducing the rules.
Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Bridgewater Holdings Exec Joins Anchorage Digital Bank Board Ahead of Growth Spurt
Institutional Investor | Michael Thrasher
Anchorage Digital Bank, the only digital asset bank chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that provides custody, and other services to institutional investors, has added a high-profile hedge fund employee to its board of directors. Connie Shoemaker, the chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Bridgewater Associates Holdings, the parent company of the namesake hedge fund, will be an independent member of the board going forward, according to Anchorage, which is expected to announce the news on Thursday.
StanChart Plans Spot Crypto Trading Desk for Bitcoin, Ether
Bloomberg News | Emily Nicolle
Standard Chartered Plc is setting up a trading desk for Bitcoin and Ether, people familiar with the matter said, making it one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading. The new crypto desk is close to starting operations and will be part of the bank’s FX trading unit, two of the people said, asking not to be named discussing private information. It will be run from London, according to one person. Banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been trading cryptocurrency derivatives for years, but strict regulations have kept them from dealing directly in the underlying assets. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed that banks must apply a 1,250% risk weighting to any unhedged crypto exposure, making it difficult to generate profits.
Hashdex Proposes New ETF That Would Own Both Spot Ethereum and Bitcoin
The Block | Sarah Wynn
Crypto asset management firm Hashdex plans to launch an exchange-traded fund that directly owns spot bitcoin and ether. Nasdaq posted the proposal via Form 19b-4 on Tuesday for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF, which ETF experts say was not necessarily a surprising move. "A dual Ethereum and #Bitcoin ETF filing from @hashdex just dropped," said Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart in a post on X. "Will be market cap weighted. Shouldn't be a surprise to anyone -- makes a lot of sense."
Ripple Extends Collaboration With Archax To Bring Tokenized Assets Onto the XRP Ledger
Finextra | Staff
Ripple, the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, and Archax, the UK’s first Financial Conduct Authority regulated digital asset exchange, broker and custodian, today announced an extension to their existing collaboration which is expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars of tokenized real world assets (RWAs) onto the XRP Ledger (XRPL) over the coming year and establish the XRPL as one of the leading blockchains for RWA tokenization. Archax works with leading financial institutions to enable them to tokenize their financial RWAs.