The Bank of England is setting up a task force to implement the recommendations of a special panel that focused last year on the $20 billion spent annually on a “patchwork of manual or outdated technological processes” that support post-trade operations at firms across the globe. The Post‑Trade Technology Market Practitioner Panel of the U.K.’s… Read More >>
Merrill Lynch & FINRA Resolve Mutual Fund Fees Case
FINRA has ordered broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. to “pay more than $7.2 million in restitution and interest to customers who incurred unnecessary sales charges and paid excess fees in connection with mutual fund transactions.” In a formulation that will be familiar to FTF News readers, the firm says: “In settling this… Read More >>
FTF Unveils Winners of the 2020 FTF Awards
NEW YORK CITY — Despite the many challenges of this year, Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) is proud to announce that more voters took part in the 2020 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards (the FTF Awards) than participated last year — a sign of the enduring support for unique awards that honor achievement in securities operations…. Read More >>
Cboe Postpones Trading Floor Reopening
Cboe Global Markets has postponed the re-opening of its “South Loop” trading floor until Monday, June 15, a week later than previously announced. The reopening of the officially named Cboe Options Exchange (C1) trading floor “was previously scheduled for Monday, June 8, 2020,” according to the latest Cboe statement. “The decision to postpone the reopening… Read More >>
Morningstar Credit Ratings Settles Conflict-of-Interest Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports that it has settled with New York-based credit-rating agency Morningstar Credit Ratings, which it charged with violating a long-standing conflict-of-interest rule designed to separate a firm’s credit ratings and analysis from its sales and marketing. Morningstar Credit Ratings, a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., neither admits nor denies the… Read More >>
TORA Expands Outsourced Trading Team
TORA Adds Two New York-Based Traders A provider of outsourced trading systems, TORA, maker of a cloud-based order and execution management system (O/EMS), reports the addition of two traders to its outsourced trading team: Mark Mazor and Joe Zonenshine. Mazor has more than 15 years of experience as a trader, working as a global execution… Read More >>
Firms Need Collaboration to Keep Up: Q&A
(In the past, some financial services firms have been known to follow the mantra of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” notes Mark Bolton, head of international sales for Gresham Technologies. Yet the financial technology landscape has been changing fast and firms will have to keep up or risk having “solutions that are unable… Read More >>
NYSE Trading Floor to Reopen May 26
NYSE President Announces Floor Reopening via WSJ The open outcry trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will partially reemerge “slowly and carefully” on May 26, according to Stacey Cunningham, president of the NYSE, who made the announcement via an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, published May 14 The return of… Read More >>
SS&C Buys Innovest Systems for $120 Million
Acquisition Adds to SS&C’s Wares for Trust Companies Securities systems and services provider SS&C Technologies recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire wealth management technology vendor Innovest Systems, based in New York City, for a total of $120 million in cash and stock, officials say. SS&C officials say that this strategic acquisition is intended to… Read More >>
CAT Helps Sell Side Boost Regulatory Ops: Q&A
(The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) was in the headlines last month as the SEC revised the CAT reporting timeline for broker-dealers due to the complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new milestones for CAT reporting in 2020 are: June 22: initial equities reporting for large broker-dealers and small broker-dealers that report to FINRA’s Order… Read More >>
