Forefront Fintech Digest Week in Review: Jan 22 – 26
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Broker News
Barclays Promotes Head of Equity Sales to Group Chief of Staff
Best Execution | Laurie McAughtry
Anita Tanna has taken on the role of group chief of staff for the firm, starting January 2024. She was formerly head of equity sales, high touch and program trading execution services for Barclays, a position she held for almost three years. Prior to joining Barclays, Tanna spent 12 years with Citi, most recently as UK head of equity sales. She started her career as an analyst at Bear Sterns in 2004 working in equity research, and has also worked at Goldman Sachs as an associate.
Citi Appoints From Within for Two New Global Equities Trading Roles
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
Citi has created two new equities roles, appointing from within, in a bid to drive its equity business strategy and “cement the gains made in the derivatives business,” according to an internal memo seen by The TRADE. Robert Smolen has been named head of exotics trading, having previously served as head of EMEA equity exotics and global hybrids trading following his move from JP Morgan in 2017.?The second appointment is that of Yohann Freoa as head of index flow trading – effectively expanding his remit to cover all clusters, having previously served as European head of flow trading.?
From Cocaine to Psychedelics, Traders and Bankers Take Us Inside Wall Street’s Underground Drug Culture
Business Insider | Alex Nicoll, Dakin Campbell, Alex Morrell, Hayley Cuccinello, Emmalyse Brownstein, Bradley Saacks, Bianca Chan & Kaja Whitehouse
In the 1980s, Rudy Giuliani, then the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, led a three-year sting operation, dubbed "Operation Closing Bell," aimed at drug trafficking on Wall Street. It resulted in more than a dozen financial-firm employees, including stockbrokers and a senior partner, being rounded up on charges of illicit dealing in cocaine, including in exchange for stock. Undercover agents who worked the case estimated that roughly 90% of the people they encountered in Manhattan's Financial District during their investigation either "used or accepted" cocaine.?
Exchange, ATS & Clearing News
Blue Ocean Technologies Selects MEMX As Technology Partner to Power Blue Ocean ATS
Press Release | N/A
Blue Ocean Technologies, LLC (BOT), a unique capital markets fintech leader in global afterhours trading, and MEMX, a market operator founded by a diverse group of participants to benefit all investors, announced today they have reached an agreement for a technology partnership. As part of the arrangement, MEMX will provide BOT its sophisticated market-as-a-service trading system to operate the Blue Ocean ATS global trading platform. The technology will be implemented by the end of Q1 2024.
Billionaire Howard Lutnick Is Taking On Exchange Giant CME
Wall Street Journal | Alexander Osipovich
Howard Lutnick became a billionaire by shaking up the clubby world of Wall Street bond trading. Now the chairman and chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald is taking on one of the biggest powerhouses in finance. Regulators said Monday that they signed off on Lutnick’s plan to introduce a new market for interest-rate futures, which is dominated by exchange giant CME Group.
Brazil’s B3 Begins Operation of Cloud-Based Foreign Exchange Clearing House
The TRADE News | Wesley Bray
Brazilian stock exchange group B3 has begun operating its foreign exchange clearing house with 100% cloud-based infrastructure – in what it claims to be an industry first.? The modernisation of its platform comes as part of B3’s aim to stimulate development within the country’s interbank market through the creation of products and developing new business opportunities. B3’s foreign exchange clearing house was established in 2002 as the infrastructure responsible for the registration, clearing, settlement and risk management of foreign exchange transactions in Brazil.
Saving Your Pennies: The Increasing Influence of Low-Priced Stocks in U.S. Markets
IEX Square Edge | John Ramsay
Something strange has been happening in the U.S. stock market over the last year, and that something is exemplified by the case of Bit Brothers Limited, a Nasdaq issuer with the symbol “BETS”. It may surprise you to know BETS was the most actively-traded stock, by share volume, during the last six months of the year. With a trading price of around one cent per share, BETS’ volume ramped up especially in December – during the last week of the month, BETS averaged about two billion shares a day, or 19% of all listed stock volume. On December 27, 3.5 billion shares of BETS traded, amounting to 28% of total volume for that day.
Vendor News
Bloomberg’s First Generative AI Tool Hits the Terminal
Institutional Investor | Michael Thrasher
Bloomberg terminal users got a research boost on Monday just in time for earnings season: summaries and analysis of company performance written by artificial intelligence. Some users were testing the beta version of Bloomberg’s first generative AI tool last quarter and others started getting access last week. Bloomberg is rolling it out to all users on Monday, the company told Institutional Investor. The summaries are designed to help analysts save time absorbing earnings data and transcripts by highlighting key points. They will be available immediately for companies in the Russell 1000 and the top 1000 companies in Europe.
Market Data Vendors Are Justifying Huge Price Hikes for an Array of Reasons as Consumers Face Endless Cycle of Increases, Says New Whitepaper
The TRADE News | Claudia Preece
A volatile year saw 90% of firms renegotiate their data supply agreements with vendors in 2023 as price rises continued to soar for a multitude of reasons, says a new whitepaper from Substantive Research. Despite vendors claiming that price surges are in line across peers, significant cost pressures remain for market data consumers as the increases continue to be applied to the entire market in a so-called “endless cycle”.?
AsiaNext Selects Pico for Groundbreaking Digital Assets Exchange
Press Release | N/A
Pico, a leading provider of mission-critical technology, data and analytic services for the financial markets community, today announced that AsiaNext has selected Pico’s Corvil Cloud Analytics to monitor the performance of digital securities and crypto trading on their digital exchange. Building on Corvil Analytic’s two-decade legacy in the financial services sector, the new partnership underscores the platform's unmatched capability in extracting and correlating technology and transaction performance intelligence from dynamic network environments.?
Latest Cyberattack Leaves Banks Stuck With Excel and a Headache
Bloomberg News | Katherine Doherty & Donal Griffin
Another cyberattack against the unglamorous platforms underpinning Wall Street left one of global banks’ biggest businesses falling back on an old-fashioned method of doing business. Securities-lending teams at two major lenders had to resort to manually inputting certain stock loans and other transactions into spreadsheets after financial-technology firm EquiLend succumbed to a ransomware attack, according to people familiar with the matter. EquiLend, which processes trillions of dollars of transactions a month, said the incident on Jan. 22 took out some of its systems and may take several days to resolve.?
Buy-Side News
Buy-Side Spending on Equity Trading and Research Hits Decade Low
Bloomberg News | Lu Wang & Katherine Doherty
Even with stocks sinking and rebounding in a two-year round trip, Wall Street brokers are still battling to rake in revenue helping their institutional clients navigate market volatility. Buy-side spending payments for trade execution and research dropped 11% from a year earlier to $5.9 billion in the 12 months through the early part of the second quarter of 2023, according to an estimate by Coalition Greenwich. That marked a second straight year of double-digit declines and the lowest haul in the firm’s data history since 2011.
Abrdn to Cut 500 Roles
Markets Media | Staff
abrdn plc is announcing a new transformation programme targeting an annualised cost reduction of at least ￡150m by the end of 2025. This programme is designed to restore our core Investments business to an acceptable level of profitability and allow for incremental reinvestment into growth areas. This marks another step on abrdn’s journey to align its resources and capabilities to meet client needs and reinforce areas of strength across the Group. abrdn plc is also providing an update on its year-end 2023 assets under management and administration (AUMA) including second half 2023 net flows, and revenue margin guidance.
领英推荐
UBS Promotes New Head of Asset Management Division Following Credit Suisse Integration
BestExecution | Laurie McAughtry
UBS asset management chief Suni Hartford is retiring from the role, to be replaced by the former head of client coverage and head of EMEA and Switzerland.? Aleksandar Ivanovic will join UBS’s group executive board as president of asset management, taking on Hartford’s role. As head of client coverage and head of the EMEA and Switzerland regions for asset management, Ivanovic has played a key role in developing and executing UBS’s asset management strategy and leading the engagement with institutional and wholesale clients.
M&A / Investment News
Tradeweb Completes Acquisition of Technology Provider r8fin
Press Release | N/A
Tradeweb Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: TW), a leading, global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets today announced it has completed its acquisition of r8fin, a technology provider that specializes in algorithmic-based execution for U.S. Treasuries and interest rate futures. The transaction was announced in November 2023. Integrating r8fin’s intelligent execution capabilities into Tradeweb’s leading electronic trading platform for U.S. Treasuries will help clients take a broad-based approach to trading U.S. Treasury bonds and related futures.
TRG Screen Announces Acquisition of Xpansion for Reference Data Usage Management
Press Release | N/A
TRG Screen, the leading provider of enterprise subscription spend and usage management software, today announced it has acquired Xpansion, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for reference data usage monitoring in the financial services industry. The acquisition of Xpansion will further solidify TRG Screen’s position as a global market leader in market data management solutions. Xpansion – established in 2013 – is focused on empowering data operations teams to proactively manage their usage, control costs and optimize data workflows.?
Crypto Bank Sygnum Raises $40 Million at $900 Million Valuation
The Block | Danny Park
Crypto banking group Sygnum announced today that it has secured over $40 million in an interim close of a strategic funding round, led by Milan-based asset manager Azimut Holding. The amount raised exceeded the target number of $35 million, the company said in a statement shared with The Block. “The broader industry is emerging from the ‘crypto winter’ and investors and market participants are increasingly seeking to partner with trusted and well-managed financial institutions,” Gerald Goh, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum’s Singapore arm, said in the statement.
Regulatory & Legal News
A Rewiring of the World’s Biggest Bond Market Will Transform Trading
Bloomberg News | Liz Capo McCormick & Lydia Beyoud
After years of regulatory tinkering, Washington is now forcing through the most rigorous overhaul of the world’s biggest bond market in decades. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who once oversaw federal debt management at the US Treasury, has championed a move to require the vast majority of Treasuries trading to migrate to a central counterparty clearinghouse — an intermediary between buyers and sellers that assumes ultimate responsibility for the transaction.
Brokers' Crypto Marketing Flagged by Wall Street Regulator
Wall Street Journal | Dave Michaels??
Some stockbrokers are caught up in the crypto hype. That's according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an organization funded by Wall Street that functions as the front-line overseer of brokerage firms. In a new report, Finra says 70% of crypto advertisements and other communications it reviewed may violate rules that require fair, balanced and truthful communications with the public. The potential violations include false statements that crypto works like cash, unsound comparisons to equities, and “unclear and misleading explanations” about how crypto assets work and the federal protections that apply to them.
SPAC Mania Is Dead. The SEC Wants to Keep It That Way.
Wall Street Journal | Paul Kiernan
The speculative bonanza in special-purpose acquisition companies, better known as SPACs, appears to be dead. Gary Gensler wants to make sure it doesn’t come back to life. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which Gensler chairs, voted 3-2 Wednesday to adopt rules that seek to make it clearer to SPAC investors if they are getting a raw bargain. Once the rules take effect in about five months, according to lawyers familiar with the deals, they will likely drive another nail into the coffin of a recent Wall Street fad fueled by market froth and regulatory arbitrage.
Hedge Fund Demands $100 Million From Its Compliance Team After SEC Probe
Bloomberg News | Sridhar Natarajan
Wall Street firms usually grumble in private after getting punished by regulators. Anthony Melchiorre’s Chatham Asset Management is dragging its advisers into a public legal battle for $100 million. The $6 billion hedge fund is demanding that Adviser Compliance Associates not only cover Chatham’s costs for settling a US probe last year, but also damage to its business. In an unusual lawsuit, Chatham claims the outside consultant, founded by former regulators, failed to prevent trading practices that ran afoul of authorities.
Crypto?& Digital Asset News
Grayscale Led the Fight for Bitcoin ETFs. Now Its Fund Is Bleeding Billions.
Wall Street Journal | Vicky Ge Huang & Alexander Saeedy
The crypto asset manager that forced U.S. regulators’ hand in approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds has lost billions from their launch. Investors cashed out $2.8 billion from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust after it converted into an ETF on Jan. 11, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data through Friday. In contrast, nine newly launched spot-bitcoin ETFs have drawn about $4 billion in inflows within their first six trading days, with funds from BlackRock and Fidelity Investments each attracting more than $1 billion in inflows.
Elwood Receives Authorization as a Service Company from UK Financial Conduct Authority
Press Release | N/A
Elwood Technologies LLP (“Elwood” or “the Company”), a leading software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that provides institutional-grade access to digital asset exchanges and liquidity venues, today announced it has been authorised as a service company by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). This authorization applies to Elwood’s execution management system (“EMS”) in relation to security tokens and derivatives. The Company’s EMS platform allows clients to connect to global crypto exchanges and OTC venues, through a single application or API, to trade digital assets.
EDX Markets Launches Clearinghouse for Crypto Trading and Announces Completion of Series B Funding Round
Press Release | N/A
EDX Markets (EDX), a leading digital asset marketplace designed to meet the needs of both crypto-native firms and the world's largest financial institutions, today announced the successful launch of its digital asset clearinghouse, EDX Clearing, and the completion of its Series B investment round, with new investor Pantera Capital co-leading with founding investor Sequoia Capital. EDX Clearing (EDXC) revolutionizes EDX’s marketplace and is the newest advancement in the markets for digital assets.
SEC Finds More Favorable Judge in DC as Binance Tries to Dismiss Lawsuit
Blockworks | Casey Wagner
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is once again looking to a federal judge to back up its stance of having authority over the crypto industry. In a four-hour hearing Monday, Binance squared off with the SEC in Washington DC in an effort to dismiss charges brought against the exchange, its US arm and former CEO Changpeng Zhao last summer. Judge Amy Berman Jackson immediately expressed doubt that Binance had a leg to stand on.?
It's fascinating to witness the innovative strides within the fintech sector, especially with EDX Markets and Blue Ocean Technologies leading the charge. As Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." This evolution reflects the intricate yet simplified beauty of financial technology. For those making similar impactful strides in their fields, join us in setting a Guinness World Record in Tree Planting, blending innovation with environmental responsibility. Discover more here: https://bit.ly/TreeGuinnessWorldRecord ?????
Exciting developments in the Fintech world this week! ?? As Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” EDX Markets and Blue Ocean Technologies are certainly leading the charge in digital asset management and global trading. Let's keep pushing the boundaries! ??? #Innovation #FintechLeaders