Hedge fund and proprietary trading firms that participate in derivatives markets are embracing new ways of self-clearing and taking greater control of their margining because they have achieved “huge financial firepower, influence, and resources,” and need to fill a vacancy caused by capital-constrained, heavily regulated banks and other sell-side firms. This is according to a… Read More >>
WFE Urges Caution as Exchanges Mull Longer Trading Hours
Exchanges across the globe are mulling moves to extended equity market hours, but the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) is airing a note or two of caution about the trade-offs and challenges of lengthening market hours for trading. The WFE is also arguing that round-the-clock trading is not inevitable. The WFE concerns are hitting as… Read More >>
Ops Teams Work Smarter via Clear Data & Insights
(Reconciliation and exception management, net asset value oversight, compliance checks, fee billing, and settlement all rely on data that has been properly captured, validated, and distributed — sometimes from thousands of sources. In an FTF News Q&A, Jenn McMackin, global director, data and managed services at Gresham, takes on these issues and discusses the provider’s… Read More >>
Japanese Firm & Chainlink Target Digital Assets
A $200 billion Japanese financial services firm, SBI Group, has entered into a “strategic collaboration” with decentralized blockchain oracle network Chainlink to push the growth of interoperable blockchains and digital assets in capital markets, officials say. A recent survey by SBI Digital Asset Holdings, SBI’s digital asset arm, found that among 50 financial firms, 76… Read More >>
‘Suboptimal Ops’ Will Fail via T+1 in U.K. & E.U.
(John Bevil, a senior product manager at data automation platform provider Xceptor, recently took questions from FTF News about a key European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) report on the E.U.’s transition to T+1 settlement and some of the lessons learned from the U.S. adoption. Bevil says that he has watched the financial services industry’s… Read More >>
Franklin Templeton Taps BNY for ETF Servicing
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton has appointed custody giant the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNY) to provide “a full suite of asset servicing and foreign exchange capabilities” for U.S.-listed, exchange-traded fund (ETF) offerings, officials say. “Franklin Templeton is expanding its long-standing relationship with BNY to leverage additional services for one of its fastest-growing… Read More >>
CME Adds FTSE CoreCommodity CRB Index Futures
Derivatives marketplace company CME Group has expanded its presence in the global commodities market with the planned addition of FTSE CoreCommodity CRB Index futures, pending regulatory approval. The FTSE CoreCommodity CRB Index tracks a diversified basket of 19 commodities — including energy, agriculture, precious metals, and industrial metals. Officials say the new offering is designed… Read More >>
SS&C Adds Investment Management Suite to Black Diamond
SS&C Technologies has added a suite of integrated capabilities to its Black Diamond Wealth Platform — dubbed Black Diamond Investment Management Services — that is intended to elevate client outcomes for advisors via streamlined portfolio management, trading, and client engagement, officials say. “Shifting client expectations are driving the need for advisors to solve more problems… Read More >>
FTF Reveals Winners of the 14th Annual Awards Program
Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) has revealed the winners of the 2025 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards program, and cutting-edge and mainstream achievements are the common themes among the winners. The FTF Awards program — now in its 14th year — honors providers, organizations, and individuals who made significant contributions to the profession of securities operations… Read More >>
Citi & SDX to Tokenize Private Market Shares
Citi is collaborating with SDX Group AG (SDX), the digital assets exchange from SIX, so that the global bank can transform a paper-based system into a tokenized one that settles and secures private shares via SDX’s digital Central Securities Depositary (CSD) platform. The new solution will also deliver “late-stage pre-IPO equities to institutional and eligible… Read More >>
