Credit Suisse officials shortly after they announced an exit from the prime services business revealed that they have signed a referral agreement with BNP Paribas that will enable the French banking giant to provide support for the Swiss bank’s prime services and derivatives clearing customers. The move was made to facilitate the migration of clients… Read More >>
Wall Street Firms Show Resilience Amid the Pandemic
Securities trading firms in New York City have been doing well for the past 18 months despite the multiple challenges caused by a global pandemic, the ongoing market volatility, and the loss of 3,600 jobs, says New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli in his annual report on firms that constitute Wall Street. “Wall Street’s… Read More >>
SEI Acquires Finomial
Finomial Technology to Be Added to SEI Platforms SEI reports the acquisition of Finomial, which it characterizes as an “investor lifecycle management firm offering cloud-native financial technology. The technology is expected to be added to SEI’s existing investor-focused platforms to further enhance automation and digitization capabilities, as well as reporting and transparency.” SEI’s current… Read More >>
‘Zombie Libors’ Don’t Exist & Can’t Help: OCC
Banks must avoid complacency in meeting the Dec. 31, 2021 deadline for transitioning from the ill-fated London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (Libor) to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) because failing to do so could cause problems with operations, safety, and soundness. In addition, banks should not be hoping for a “synthetic or zombie” Libor version that… Read More >>
CFTC Focuses on SOFR for Interdealer Brokers
Just in case you were wondering, the CFTC is doing its part for interdealer brokers transitioning from the ill-fated Libor reference rate to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) for U.S. Dollar (USD) non-linear derivatives, which are instruments whose rewards are not set in stone like swaps, futures, and forwards. In fact, the regulator has… Read More >>
CFTC Fines Citi in Second Swaps Reporting Case
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled charges against Citibank, N.A. and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. — two provisionally registered swap dealers, aka Citi — for allegedly “failing to comply with certain swap dealer requirements,” and for related charges of supervision failures. Specifically, the CFTC charged that those two Citi units did not… Read More >>
Trading Glitch Spurs CFTC Fine for Interactive Brokers
An electronic trading system that was not ready to receive negative crude oil futures prices and to calculate margin upon them serves as the basis for the CFTC’s recently settled case against Interactive Brokers in its role as a registered futures commission merchant (FCM). The CFTC is alleging that Interactive Brokers failed to prepare its… Read More >>
CFTC Cracks Down on Swaps Data Noncompliance
The CFTC is cracking down on the alleged failures of supervisory systems and other controls that swap dealers and other swap industry participants have set up to be compliant. In particular, the regulator has just announced enforcement actions against Société Générale S.A., Mizuho Capital Markets, and the Refinitiv SEF, among others. “Swap dealer registrants must… Read More >>
CME-IHS Joint Venture Targets OTC Ops Woes
Following an announcement this past January, CME Group and IHS Markit have formally launched a joint venture, dubbed OSTTRA, that will encompass offerings intended to ease the post-trade operational challenges of over-the-counter (OTC) transaction processing for interest rate, foreign exchange (FX), equity, and credit asset classes. CME Group and IHS Markit each own half of… Read More >>
TriOptima Launches Tri-Party Links via SWIFT
Four Tri-Party Agents Endorse New Connection TriOptima reports that its triResolve Margin offering now provides integration via the SWIFT financial services messaging and systems cooperative to four tri-party agents: BNY Mellon, Clearstream, Euroclear, and JPMorgan. “TriOptima’s clients will have direct connectivity to tri-parties via SWIFT for sending instructions as well as receiving status messages and… Read More >>
