A very warm spring has come to the New York City area this week and coincidentally we are debuting a new online magazine from FTF News (a printed version is also available). To underscore our new commitment to magazine journalism, we have renamed the publication “FTF Focus,” and for this special edition, we took on… Read More >>
SEC Approves Pilot Project for New Tick Sizes
The SEC has approved a proposal by national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for a two-year pilot program that will test the waters on implementing tick size regulations for some stocks, officials say. In a nutshell, the program will widen the minimum quoting and trading increments – also known as tick… Read More >>
Integral Aims New Exchange at Fragmentation
Over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange (FX) trading network provider Integral Development Corp. has unveiled the Open Currency Exchange (OCX), its latest effort in an attempt to counter the fragmented liquidity of incumbent FX platforms, officials say. OCX offers unlimited screen trading for a monthly subscription of $275 and “dramatically lowers the cost of accessing FX markets,”… Read More >>
Bank of the West Deploys OpenLink Findur
Financial and energy trading and risk management vendor OpenLink has announced that Bank of the West has implemented OpenLink’s Findur solution for its capital markets and treasury operations, officials say. The implementation at Bank of the West, a subsidiary of the BNP Paribas Group, included “a number of workflows to automate and facilitate both pre… Read More >>
Can Scandal Spur Global Regulatory Harmony?
Something surprising appears to be underway behind two major financial crime stories that broke over the past several weeks – regulators and law enforcement officials domestically and internationally can work together for positive results. To recap, a coalition of sorts joined forces to bring in alleged “Flash Crash trader” Navinder Sarao, a British futures trader…. Read More >>
Fort Worth Regional Director Leaving SEC
The SEC reports that David Woodcock, regional director of the Fort Worth, Texas office since 2011 and head of the SEC enforcement division’s nationwide financial reporting and audit task force, is leaving the commission later this spring. As regional director, he currently oversees a region that includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas. Woodcock “helped form… Read More >>
Industry Vet Joins Trendrating as North American Sales Head
Factor analytics vendor Trendrating has hired John Coulter as its new managing director of North America covering sales, marketing and client service, officials say. In his new role, Coulter will be responsible for “product positioning and driving the company’s North American go-to-market strategy,” according to a company statement. He will report to Rocco Pellegrinelli, Trendrating’s… Read More >>
SmartStream Launches Office in Saudi Arabia
Reconciliation vendor SmartStream has opened a new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a bid to cement its presence in the Middle Eastern market, officials say. After successful efforts to centralize its operations in the Middle East at its Dubai office, “SmartStream has experienced unparalleled growth, necessitating the launch of this newest office,” according to… Read More >>
BlackRock to Pay $12M to Settle SEC Charges
BlackRock Advisors will be making a penalty payment of $12 million to the SEC for failing to disclose a conflict of interest created by the outside business activity of a top-performing portfolio manager, SEC officials say. To settle the charges, BlackRock has also agreed to hire an independent compliance consultant to conduct an internal review,… Read More >>
Hearsay Social Launches Curated Content Channels
Silicon Valley-based Hearsay Social, a privately held provider of social media compliance tools for financial agents and advisors, has unveiled curated content channels, its newest offering for financial professionals, available through the Hearsay social content library, according to a company statement. In Hearsay’s library, advisors and agents can find content on “topics of their choosing… Read More >>
