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The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts has ruled that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has the power to prosecute fraud involving virtual currency.
James McDonald, CFTC Director of Enforcement, says: “This is an important ruling that confirms the authority of the CFTC to investigate and combat fraud in the virtual currency markets. This ruling, like the one in McDonnell from Judge Weinstein in the Eastern District of New York, recognises the broad definition of commodity under the CEA, and also that the CFTC has the power to prosecute fraud with respect to commodities including virtual currencies. We will
North Capital Investment Technology (NCIT), a provider of technology services for exempt securities offerings, has launched a new custody solution for funding platforms and introducing brokers.
The new service will enable the creation and funding of specialised brokerage accounts at North Capital Private Securities (NCPS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCIT, to hold cash and unregistered securities that have been issued in exempt offerings. NCPS was approved as a self-clearing broker-dealer in late 2016 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory authority for registered Broker-Dealers. North Capital Private Securities is an SEC-registered broker-dealer, member FINRA and SIPC.
“Today, the settlement
Broadridge Financial Solutions has appointed Les Turner as Vice President, Investor Communication Solutions International.
As part of a management role focused on operations and client service within Broadridge’s global proxy business, Turner (pictured), will work closely with product, sales and account management teams. He is based in London and reports to Demi Derem, General Manager, Investor Communication Solutions International.
Turner brings with him 30 years of highly relevant industry experience and joins from ISS, where he served as Head of Global Proxy Distribution. Turner also held senior leadership roles at Deutsche Bank and provides significant, market-leading expertise in asset
SimCorp, a provider of investment management solutions and services to the global financial services industry, has opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan which will offer the company’s full suite of integrated solutions to the country’s asset management industry.
Japan’s investment management sector is one of the region’s most developed, yet it currently faces increasing pressures to keep pace with evolving market complexities, from demographic pressures and shifting investor risk appetite to regulatory changes and ultra-low-yielding bonds. Combined, these factors now call for institutional investors to seek a larger investment universe, outside of the traditional, domestic market. With
eVestment, a specialist in institutional investor data and analytics, has named Ashish Aryal as Head of Strategy for EMEA. He will be based in eVestment’s London office.
Aryal (pictured) is responsible for developing and implementing strategic initiatives aimed at furthering eVestment’s growth in the EMEA region. This will include developing eVestment’s solutions for clients in the region, recommending new initiatives to drive business in the region, and working across the business to position these solutions to clients.
Prior to joining eVestment, Aryal served for seven years as Vice President of Global Market Intelligence and Corporate Strategy at investment giant
Cinnober, an independent provider of exchange and clearing technology, is to make GAP600’s instant cryptocurrency transactions functionality available as an add-on service to Cinnober’s cryptocurrency exchange offering.
“GAP600’s instant confirmation service removes the lag time associated with cryptocurrency deposit transactions between users and exchanges,” says Eric Wall, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Lead at Cinnober. “Such transactions can take 60 minutes or more until they are visible in the user’s trading account. Due to the volatility in the cryptocurrency markets, the value of the assets can change significantly during this time. This problem is removed with GAP600’s service.”
“The cooperation with
Pictet Asset Management (Pictet AM) has expanded its Total Return fund range with the launch of the Pictet-TR Akari fund, a UCITS-compliant Japanese equity market neutral fund with weekly liquidity.
Pictet-TR Akari aims to achieve long-term capital growth with low equity market correlation, by combining bottom-up stock selection with Japanese market specific technical factors. The fund will take exposure principally to liquid and mainly large-cap stocks while targeting overall beta neutrality.
The fund will be managed by Senior Investment Managers Teruhiko (Eric) Nishimura and Tomohiro (Tomo) Yamaguchi, who are based in Tokyo. The team has been managing capital in
PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform operated by Powernext, saw a strong push on its futures market during the month of September to achieve its highest volume in 2018 on this segment with 96.8 TWh.
A total volume of 169.4 TWh was traded over September 2018 (September 2017: 184 TWh), including 173 GWh on the options market.
Spot trading volumes in September reached 72.4 TWh , up 19 per cent over the previous year (60.9 TWh). 24.9 TWh were traded on the Dutch TTF market area which was an increase of 43 per cent (September 2017: 17.5 TWh). The
Advent Capital Management (Advent), a firm focused on convertible bonds, high yield, and specialist credit investments, is bolstering its team with several new hires and promotions to meet global demand.
Advent recently strengthened its team in London by adding Alastair Smith as Managing Director of business development. With 25 years of experience, Smith is a veteran of the specialist investment management industry, having worked at the Man Group, GAM and Polar Capital.
“It is an honour to work with the best convertibles team in the world and to bring the firm’s expertise to European institutional investors,” says Smith.
Argentex, an FCA-regulated provider of foreign exchange services to corporate and private clients across EMEA, has reported another year of strong growth across all key metrics.
The growth was achieved despite considerable exceptional costs in the financial period, as the business continued its investment in compliance functions related to the implementation of MIFID II, GDPR and PSD2 regulation.
Revenue of GBP13.2 million, was up 24.5 per cent year on year (2017: GBP10.6 million), while gross notional currency traded increased by 37 per cent to GBP7.8 billion (2017: GBP5.7 billion). The company also saw 19 per cent growth in trading
