Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: April 1 – 5
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Broker News
OpenYield Trading Prints First Trade
The DESK | Lucy Carter
Broker-dealer and alternative trading system OpenYield Trading has launched, printing its first trade. OpenYield is designed to make access to the bond market easier and for, and enhance the existing services of, broker-dealers, advisors and asset managers. Through what it describes as an “equity-like marketplace for bond trading”, OpenYield offers no minimums, limit and market orders. It also includes an automatic trading-oriented architecture, low-latency instant execution and a focus on odd lot economics. Currently, algo-enabled market makers including Flow Traders, TD Securities Automated Trading and Apex Clearing have been onboarded onto the platform.
Stifel Appoints Ex-Morgan Stanley Equity Sales Trader as Director of Global Low Touch Execution Services
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Marc Wanner has been named director, global low touch execution services at US investment bank Stifel, following nine years at Morgan Stanley. Zurich-based Wanner most recently served as executive director – equity sales trading at Morgan Stanley. During his tenure at the firm, he was a member of the institutional equity sales and trading desk in Europe for global equity cash flow, as well as leading and implementing the first execution service desk (ESD) on the continent for Morgan Stanley. ?
Susquehanna’s New Trading Desk Bets on Events from Bitcoin to Taylor Swift
Bloomberg News | Lydia Beyoud
Susquehanna International Group is starting a trading desk focused on so-called events contracts as part of a fresh push to attract Wall Street investors who want to bet on everything from monetary policy swings to Taylor Swift’s album performance. The firm plans to act as a market maker for transactions on Kalshi Inc., which has recently raised its trading limits to attract hedge funds and other large investors. On Kalshi, people can use binary options to bet on everything from the number of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve to whether Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in 2024.?
How Banks Are Adapting to All-Powerful Pod Funds
Risk.net | Ben St. Clair & Lukas Becker
Hedge funds are tricky customers for banks. They can trade complex instruments in big size, with little notice. They put multiple banks in competition at once, making it hard for dealers to profit from trade flow. And the growth of multi-manager funds, the likes of Citadel, Millennium, Point72 and Balyasny, has swelled the ranks of portfolio managers on the buy side, bringing new challenges for banks. First, how to service more clients without the extra expense of hiring new staff. Second, how to stay profitable, given many portfolio managers have been poached from the sell side and use their experience as a weapon to bludgeon banks for tighter, sometimes unrealistic, prices.
Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
Shedding Light on Deutsche B?rse’s Approach to the Dark
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Encouraged by some of its largest customers, Deutsche B?rse’s revival of its midpoint product is set for a November launch, having begun discussions a year ago. The move comes as an increasing number of clients have begun to seek dark offerings from primary exchanges in order to avoid having to go elsewhere – which creates a time delay and subsequent reduction in the efficacy of a trade due to the potential for market impact. Deutsche B?rse’s new service – known as ‘Xetra?Midpoint’ – offers an integrated solution for German instruments.
Cboe Adds Support to Launch of SFT Clearing in Europe
Markets Media | Staff
Cboe Clear Europe, Cboe’s Amsterdam-based pan-European clearing house, announced that it has secured the support of additional participants to support the launch of its Central Counterparty (CCP) clearing service for securities financing transactions (SFTs). Bank of America and State Street have committed to supporting the service from launch, which is expected during Q3 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. Their commitment brings the total number of launch participants for the SFT clearing service to nine, comprising a broad range of key market participants, including banks, clearing firms, asset managers and custodians.
Clear Street to Offer Clearing Services in Listed US Equities and Options
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Clear Street has launched clearing services for registered market makers in listed US equities and options. The move represents Clear Street’s first successful entry into the professional clearing market in almost a decade. The offering leverages the firm’s proprietary, cloud-native prime brokerage platform, to allow users comprehensive insight into effective strategies. Benefits include: a tailored approach, potential for global expansion, diversification into new asset classes and products.
Vendor News
LSEG to Sunset Redi EMS in Favor of Tora
WatersTechnology | Anthony Malakian & Eliot Raman Jones
London Stock Exchange Group is planning to sunset its Redi execution management system in favor of its Tora offering, WatersTechnology has learned. WatersTechnology understands that LSEG will wind down its support of the legacy EMS by the end of 2025. As part of the transition, Redi users will need to create new integrations with downstream systems—i.e., order, risk, and/or portfolio management systems.
Bloomberg Launches Benchmark Bond Indices to Aid Low-Carbon Transition
The DESK | Lucy Carter
Bloomberg has launched the Bloomberg Government Climate Tilted Bond Indices, offering investors exposure to Bloomberg’s fixed income benchmarks with a specific focus on companies incorporating climate transition objectives. The benchmark family currently consists of 14 indices. Country weights are adjusted based on Bloomberg Government Climate Scores (GOVS). These measure the relative preparedness of a government for the low-carbon transition, based on carbon transition, power sector transition and climate policy.
IBI Investment House Selects ViewTrade's NextGen Platform to Fuel New Retail Trading Capabilities
Press Release | N/A
ViewTrade Holding Corporation (“ViewTrade”) and IBI Investment House (“IBI”) today announced a strategic partnership to provide IBI clients with unprecedented access to international trading markets through a new retail trading experience powered by ViewTrade’s NextGen platform. By tapping into NextGen’s suite of front- and back-end capabilities, IBI’s trading and wealth management customers will benefit from a refreshed, modern user experience providing seamless functionality for trade execution.?
The IMD Wrap: Taking Stock of Inventory Management
WatersTechnology | Max Bowie
Most financial firms that consume market data will have an inventory management system. These unsung tools track the data services a company uses. They count how many people use these services—and, for some systems, how much an individual uses them. They alert users to upcoming expirations and renewals. They can also help monitor changes to terms and reconcile vendor invoices against what the firm is owed. At home, I employ a similarly sophisticated system for our household inventory. It’s called the FreezerMax 2000.
Buy-Side News
Two Sigma Says Co-Founder Rift Yet to Abate as Veteran Exits
Bloomberg News | Hema Parmar
Two Sigma Investments disclosed that a years-long dispute between its billionaire co-founders is continuing to pose material risks to clients and affect its ability to keep staffers from leaving, with a 12-year veteran of the $60 billion hedge fund set to depart. Co-founders John Overdeck and David Siegel still disagree on the authorities, responsibilities and compensation for their own roles as well as a range of senior executives, including chief investment officers, the firm said in an updated regulatory filing Friday. Their rift also extends to how teams are structured, corporate governance and oversight matters, and succession planning.
Societe Generale and AllianceBernstein Launch Cash Equities and Research Joint Venture
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale have launched a new joint venture focusing on global cash equities and equity research. Named Bernstein, the move follows the original announcement to form the joint venture in November 2022. Bernstein will provide institutional investors, corporates and financial institutions with investment insights into North America, European and Asia Pacific equity markets, alongside liquidity access and global trading technology.
Invesco More than Triples Size of Its FX Options Book
Risk.net | Cole Lipsky
Invesco more than tripled the size of its foreign exchange options book during the fourth quarter of 2023, as it took several large positions in G10 and Latin American currencies. ?The firm had the largest increase in notional volume among all mutual fund managers during the last three months of the year, adding $3.8 billion to take its total FX options notionals to $5.4 billion. It also more than doubled the number of trades it executed with dealers to 254 tickets. ?The data comes from quarter-end filings from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and aggregated by Risk.net’s Counterparty Radar data service.
领英推荐
Equity Buy Side Trading Desks Focus on TCA
Traders Magazine | Anna Lyudvig
The majority of institutional investors globally now use transaction cost analysis (TCA) in equity trading, a share that has risen steadily and continuously for nearly a decade, according to a new report from Coalition Greenwich. Almost 90% of buy-side desks reported conducting TCA for their equity trading in the past year. “TCA has long since moved past its early iteration as a ‘check-the-box’ tool for best execution,” said Jesse Forster, Senior Analyst at Coalition Greenwich Market Structure & Technology and author of Equities TCA 2024: Analyze This, a Buy-Side View.?
M&A / Investment News
iCapital to Acquire Mirador, a Leading Financial Technology Provider of Consolidated Reporting and Data Management
Press Release | N/A
iCapital, the global fintech platform driving the world's alternative investment marketplace for the wealth management industry, and Mirador, a leading technology-enabled provider of investment data aggregation and financial reporting across both alternative and traditional investments, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which iCapital will acquire Mirador. With the acquisition, iCapital will expand its data management and reporting capabilities to create an enhanced technology experience for clients in the wealth management, family office, endowment, and foundation segments.
Steven Tananbaum's GoldenTree Asset Management Sells Crypto Unit to Investment Firm Republic
The Block | James Hunt
Global asset manager GoldenTree has sold its digital asset unit to investment firm Republic, with former partner Joe Naggar set to join the company. Republic announced the acquisition of GoldenChain on Tuesday, a wholly owned subsidiary of GoldenTree, which managed the firm’s digital asset funds. Nagger will become CEO and CIO of the newly formed digital asset-focused entity Republic Digital.? Republic said the deal was designed to bolster its market position. It will leverage the combined expertise to explore new opportunities in the digital asset space.
News-Powered Hedge Fund Raises $100MN to Trade on Reporters’ Scoops
Financial Times | Kate Duguid & Joshua Franklin?
A US hedge fund has raised $100mn to make trades based on articles by its affiliated newsroom, launching a novel experiment in funding investigative reporting as the media industry suffers a fresh round of lay-offs. The business is an effort to pair the sort of investigative journalism typically done by newsrooms with a long-short hedge fund. The fund, Hunterbrook Capital, places trades based on scoops uncovered by reporters at the newsroom, Hunterbrook Media, which is separated by a layer of compliance. Those scoops would only be based on publicly available information.
Manulife Completes CQS Acquisition, Expanding Its Fixed Income Offering
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Manulife Investment Management (IM) has completed its acquisition of multi-sector alternative credit manager CQS five months after it was first announced following approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority. The firm confirmed that the move is set to expand its fixed income offering as investors continue to increase their exposure in the asset class and seek more sophisticated strategies. Paul Lorentz, president and chief executive of Manulife IM, said: “With this acquisition, Manulife Investment Management is well-positioned to capitalise on the increased investor interest in alternative credit and accelerate the growth of our global business.
Regulatory & Legal News
Court Case Probes Open-Source Licenses as Movement Stands at Crossroads
WatersTechnology | Emma Hilary Gould
In a trial that began on March 25, another open-source non-profit, the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), is battling television manufacturer Vizio, alleging that the budget TV-maker violated the terms of GPL by failing to make its GPL-derived source code public. Previous cases of a similar vein were typically brought by the original copyright holder of the code, meaning that federal courts in the US could dismiss the claims under the fair use doctrine that allows courts to excuse instances of copyright infringement if it deemed it was in the public interest.
Private Fund Managers: Hello AML Compliance Officers
FinOps Report | Chris Kentouris?
Chief compliance officers (CCOs) at private fund management firms could be saddled with the extra title of anti-money laundering compliance officer and a lot more work if a proposed AML rule from the FinCEN unit of the US Treasury takes effect. FinCEN, short for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, has resurrected its longstanding desire for many investment advisers to fall under the same policies as banks and broker-dealers when it comes to complying with anti-money laundering regulations.
Regulator Probes BlackRock and Vanguard Over Huge Stakes in U.S. Banks
Wall Street Journal | Andrew Ackerman?
Banking regulators are scrutinizing whether index-fund giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are sticking to passive roles when it comes to their investments in U.S. banks.The three firms manage more than $23 trillion in total, with much of it in funds that passively mimic indexes such as the S&P 500. BlackRock and Vanguard each hold more than 10% of the shares at many banks, a threshold that normally determines whether an investor is assumed to have a controlling interest in a lender, while State Street also holds a number of sizable stakes.?
Senvest Management Hit with $6.5m Recordkeeping Fine
Best Execution | Shanny Basar
Senvest Management, a privately owned hedge fund sponsor which invests in US public equity markets, has been hit with a US$6.5 million penalty for its use of off-channel communications.The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the firm violated federal securities laws over “widespread and long standing” failures to preserve electronic communications. Eric Werner, director of the SEC Fort Worth regional office, said: “The Commission continues to focus on regulated entities’ compliance with the recordkeeping requirements. Adherence to these requirements is essential for the Commission to effectively exercise its regulatory oversight and enforce the federal securities laws.” ?
Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Bankman-Fried Is Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison Over FTX Collapse
Bloomberg News | Bob Van Voris, Chris Dolmetsch & Ava Benny-Morrison
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars from customers, marking the final chapter in a case that has upended the crypto industry. US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan delivered the sentence in federal court in Manhattan moments after Bankman-Fried said he was “sorry about what happened at every stage.” He was convicted last year of seven offenses, including fraud and conspiracy.?
Ripple Labs Joins Stablecoin Rush Amid Crypto Market Revival
Financial Times | Nikou Asgari
Ripple Labs, the cryptocurrency group accused of selling unregistered securities, is to launch a stablecoin as a revival in the price of bitcoin draws investors back to the digital asset market. The US group said on Thursday it would create a token that it hopes will allow asset managers and banks to trade securities on blockchains. Markus Infanger, senior vice-president at Ripple, said the token could act as a “portal” that bridges the divide between traditional capital and cryptocurrency markets. Ripple’s move into the stablecoin market comes after bitcoin hit a record high of $73,000 this year.
Coinbase Derivatives Integrates with Talos
Markets Media | Staff
Talos, a provider of institutional trading technology for digital assets, announced its integration with Coinbase Derivatives, LLC (Coinbase Derivatives), a futures exchange registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), expanding the avenues available for a growing number of institutional investors seeking to gain exposure to digital assets within a trusted and regulated framework. “The derivatives markets are a significant component of the digital assets ecosystem for institutions who seek secure, liquid, and increasingly, regulated venues for trading,” said Daniel Packham, VP and Head of Operations EMEA at Talos who oversees Talos’s provider network.
Quant Momentum Trade Is Hot Again in Crypto
Bloomberg News | Denitsa Tsekova
To the crypto faithful, buying and holding Bitcoin is the only trading game in town — offering about a 50% return so far this year alone for new investments. For quantitative hedge-fund investors and a spattering of academic researchers, however, there’s a better way to capture the volatile asset’s rally, while also profiting from the huge drawdowns: Simply follow the wisdom — or folly — of the crowd. From the world’s largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, Man Group Plc, to scholars at the University of Cambridge and beyond, a growing body of research signals that the quant strategy of trend following is especially well-suited and profitable for the famous ups and downs in Bitcoin’s price.