In other news, FINRA issues an alert against Russian hackers, Nasdaq has an executive shuffle & CME Group readies new crypto reference rates.
DTCC Treasury Kinetics Takes On Repo Market Transparency
Post-trade infrastructure and systems provider DTCC is launching a service for accessing U.S. treasury transaction data, called DTCC Treasury Kinetics, which is intended to increase transparency into the repurchase agreement (repo) market, officials say.
The DTCC Treasury Kinetics was crafted to deliver “comprehensive views of the repo markets … providing increased transparency for investors and intermediaries,” officials add.
The new service will use data from the Government Securities Division of DTCC’s subsidiary, the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC), to provide a daily summary of “aggregated and anonymized trade activity including [the] number of trades, volumes, dollar amounts and rates for delivery vs. payment (DVP) repo,” according to DTCC officials.
The greater volatility in the repo market “has underscored the need for market participants to have access to data that enables them to better understand valuation, rates, and liquidity. Treasury Kinetics provides historical data dating back to 2011, allowing users to back-test current repo data against historical events,” according to DTCC officials.
“This new service meets a critical industry need: access to a single, comprehensive data source that provides greater insight into the U.S. repo markets,” says Tim Lind, managing director of DTCC Data Services, in a prepared statement.
The data set of DTCC Treasury Kinetics offers market participants “the ability to track stability, spot potential market dislocations, or search for the next investment opportunity,” officials say. “DTCC is working to expand access to its DTCC Treasury Kinetics and other data services products by making them available on cloud-based marketplaces, beginning with Snowflake Data Marketplace, which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2022.”
FINRA Cybersecurity Alert Warns Against Russian Hackers
Brokerage self-regulator FINRA issued on Feb. 15 a “Shields Up” cybersecurity alert warning of an attack by Russian hackers upon U.S. organizations.
“The Cyber and Analytics Unit (CAU) within FINRA’s National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection (NCFC) program would like to bring an important cyber-related development to your attention,” according to the FINRA alert.
“The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI issued a ‘Shields Up’ warning this week regarding potential Russian cyberattacks to target U.S. organizations related to Russia’s potential destabilizing actions against Ukraine. CISA advised that while there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S., they recommend that all organizations, namely U.S. critical infrastructure including the financial service industry, adopt a heightened posture related to cybersecurity,” according to the alert.
CISA officials are directing people to https://bit.ly/3gKRinc where they can find recommendations for specific actions to reduce the likelihood of a cyber intrusion, detect a potential intrusion, ensure organizations are prepared to respond to an intrusion, and maximize an organization’s resilience to a cyber incident.
“Implementing the recommended steps will assist your firm in protecting its critical assets including confidential customer and firm information,” officials add.
Ottersgård’s Retirement Spurs Executive Shuffle at Nasdaq
Lars Ottersgård
Exchanges company Nasdaq is replacing Lars Ottersgård, its retiring executive vice president for market technology, and appointing Jamie King to oversee the Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) division and Roland Chai to run the Market Infrastructure Technology business, officials say. King and Chai will report to Adena Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq.
Effective from April 4, 2022, King will be promoted to executive vice president, Nasdaq, and will lead Nasdaq’s Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) business, officials say. The AFC business consists of solutions to detect and fight financial crime through trade and market surveillance, and Verafin’s fraud detection and anti-money laundering solutions. King is co-founder, president and CEO of Verafin.
Chai will move from his post as global chief risk officer for Nasdaq to executive vice president overseeing Nasdaq’s Market Infrastructure Technology business, say officials.
John Zecca, Nasdaq’s chief legal and regulatory officer, will take over for Chai and will become chief legal, risk and regulatory officer, officials say. Before joining Nasdaq in 2020, Chai was head of post-trade and group risk officer at the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX). He also once served as head of equities at LCH Ltd. after beginning his career in software development.
After 16 years with Nasdaq, Ottersgård “will transition into an advisory role on April 30, 2022, until his formal retirement on August 31,” officials say. At Nasdaq, Ottersgård “presided over a near tripling of the company’s market technology franchise and was instrumental in growing the business into one of the world’s largest solutions providers to exchanges, clearing organizations, central securities depositories, regulators, banks, and brokers,” according to Nasdaq.
CME Group Readies Launch of New Crypto Reference Rates
CME Group, a derivatives exchanges company, will be unveiling two reference rates for the cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether on February 28 to provide a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of the two digital assets, published at 4 p.m. New York time, officials say.
The new reference rates — CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York (BRRNY) and CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate New York (ETHUSD_NY) — “are designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of participants in the digital asset space,” says Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investment products, CME Group, in a prepared statement.
“In Q4 2021, the New York calculation window was the second-most traded hour for Bitcoin futures behind the London rate. As we continue to see more institutional clients use our Bitcoin and Ether futures products in active portfolios or structured products like ETFs, these New York reference rates become increasingly important as they allow market participants to more accurately and precisely assess cryptocurrency price risk with timing more closely aligned to their portfolios and regions,” McCourt says.
The new reference rates will complement the existing CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF-Ether Dollar Reference Rate (ETHUSD_RR), “which provide a daily benchmark price for bitcoin and ether in U.S. dollars, published at 4 p.m. London time,” officials say. “The BRR and ETHUS RR will continue to serve as the benchmark rates for settlement of all CME Group Bitcoin futures, Micro Bitcoin futures and Ether futures and Micro Ether futures contracts, respectively.”
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