Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets are becoming the preferred way to meet cash and liquidity requirements for digital securities settlements, according to a report from Citi Securities Services. However, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is cautioning that banks using permissionless a.k.a public blockchains face “risks related to operations and security, governance, legal,… Read More >>
Citi Invests in ATS Provider for Mexican Bonds
Citi’s Markets Strategic Investments (MSI) unit has made an undisclosed “minority investment” in Cicada Technologies, maker of an all-to-all electronic alternative trading system (ATS) for global institutional market participants trading in Mexican government bonds, officials say. Citi will also act as a liquidity provider for the trading platform. Although based in Greenwich, Conn., Cicada has… Read More >>
Citi & Wellington Explore the Disruptive Power of Tokens
Late last year, Citi, Wellington Management, WisdomTree, and DTCC officials conducted a proof of concept (POC) experiment to explore how tokenization could be applied to private funds and to test the capital markets capabilities of blockchain technology. “Tokenization is the process of issuing a digital representation of an asset on a blockchain,” according to a… Read More >>
Securities Lending Revenue Rose in Q3 & Other News
Securities Finance Industry Revenue Hit $2.65B in Q3 With the onset of T+1 shorter settlement, securities lending has come under a lot of scrutiny, but one aspect of the global securities finance industry appears to have an upside: revenue for this sector is rising. “The global securities finance industry generated $2.65 billion in revenue… Read More >>
T+1 Will Overhaul Securities Lending: Report
A new report from Citi — “Securities Services Evolution 2023” — argues that the move to shorter, T+1 settlement will leave no one in securities operations untouched. However, the report strongly argues that securities lending is in for a rollercoaster ride as securities firms move to T+1. Firms and other market participants will need to… Read More >>
Citi & FINOS Push for ‘Common Cloud Controls’
Financial services giant Citi and the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) are launching an open standard project that will formulate “consistent controls” for cloud computing cybersecurity, resiliency, and compliance that cloud service providers (CSPs) can use as the basis for a common set of services. The “Common Cloud Controls (CCC)” push is intended to bring… Read More >>
DTCC & CME Push to Expand Treasuries Deal & Other News
DTCC, CME Need Regulators to Allow Cross-Margining Expansion Post-trade infrastructure system and services provider DTCC and derivatives exchanges company CME Group report that they would like to improve their cross-margining arrangement so that clearing members of CME and the Government Securities Division of DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC) can trade and clear U.S. Treasury… Read More >>
Mason Stevens Taps Citi Securities Services for Custody
Mason Stevens Ltd., a private investment manager, has tapped Citi Securities Services, the custodian group at Citi, for custody as the Sydney, Australia-based firm sets in motion plans to expand its wealth management platform, officials say. Mason Stevens, which offers investment administration and managed account solutions, is actually expanding its relationship with Citi as they… Read More >>
Nasdaq Launches a Digital Assets Business & Other News
Nasdaq Establishes a Custody Solution for Digital Assets Nasdaq reports the launch of a new business that it says will “power the digital asset ecosystem.” The new business “underpins Nasdaq’s ambition to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation in digital assets by providing trusted and institutional-grade solutions, focused on enhanced custody, liquidity and integrity,”… Read More >>
Citi & Bloomberg Target ETFs & Other FinTech Briefs
Citi Integrates ACES With Bloomberg’s BSKT Citi and Bloomberg officials report that they have integrated Bloomberg’s service for negotiating fixed income baskets, known as BSKT, with a proprietary platform from Citi known as ACES (Citi Advanced ETF System). The integration is intended to provide better support for Citi’s exchange-traded funds (ETF) clients that use BSKT…. Read More >>
