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Last July, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (the Commission) embarked on a process to overhaul the Investment Funds Act. The Investment Funds Act 2003 was largely structured to be in line with the operations of fiduciary administrators and did not necessarily account for the appropriate regulation of the various roles within a fund structure.
Consequently, the SCB’s mission last summer was to address those gaps by asking two major law firms to develop draft legislation and update the Investment Funds Act that would help support institutional, as well as private wealth business.
“In launching the overhaul, it was important
Market access technology provider Vela is to support bitcoin futures, meaning that firms wishing to take advantage of the new contracts from Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) and CME Group Inc (CME) can receive market data and trading access without delay from launch.
Data and trading access to the Nasdaq Bitcoin Futures contracts will also be available on launch in 2018.
As part of an ongoing program of product enhancement, Vela has been monitoring market appetite for new instruments and has been well prepared as the announcements regarding Bitcoin futures have been made by CME, CFE, and most recently by
Tradeweb has secured authorisation from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate an Organised Trading Facility (OTF), effective from 3 January 2018.
Tradeweb will be able to offer its clients greater flexibility to choose the type of venue and execution method that suits their needs. It will support the execution of intermediated and discretionary flow and allow clients to discover new liquidity sources and trading opportunities.
Tradeweb has operated an FCA-regulated MTF since 2007, providing direct access to the highest quality fixed income, derivatives and ETF markets. The FCA-authorised Tradeweb APA already has commitments from leading sell-side firms
Oslo Børs, the Oslo Stock Exchange, and Baymarkets Technology AB (Baymarkets), have implemented upgrades to the Baymarkets OTC system, which is used by Oslo Connect, to provide Tailor Made derivatives and reporting OTC derivatives transactions.
The updates support the changing regulatory requirements demanded by MiFID II and MiFIR.
The MiFID II/MIFIR enhancements to Oslo Connect include the introduction of new transaction flags into the GUI functionality, ensuring that all required transaction details are available and in correct format, and additional trade cancellation and amendment processing. The system has also been prepared for the use as Approved Publication Arrangement (APA)
Geopolitical uncertainties in Asia, as well as prolonged uncertainties associated with Brexit negotiations, have positioned geopolitical risk as a top risk to watch in 2018, according to a new survey published by The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).
Geopolitical risk ranks as the number two overall risk, with 69 per cent of respondents including it in their top 5 risks for the coming year – a 17 per cent jump since the last survey to an all-time high. Slightly over 20 per cent of respondents view geopolitical risk as the top overall risk – a 5 per cent increase
Following an improvement in performance in October, the Societe Generale CTA Index continued its positive run last months as it gained 0.30 per cent in November, increasing gains for the year to 1.77 per cent.
Trend followers also made further gains, as the SG Trend Index posted the strongest performance in November, up 0.59 per cent and now +0.75 per cent for the year.
However, short-term strategies continued to face challenging market conditions and ended on average down 1.07 per cent, pushing losses this year to -6.23 per cent. Performance was mixed across all CTA strategies, as approximately half
Cboe Global Markets’ Cboe bitcoin futures (XBT) traded a reported 4,127 contracts in their first day of trading. XBT futures debuted Sunday, 10 December, at 5:00 pm CT, the beginning of Global Trading Hours. The first trading session closed at 3:15 pm CT on 11 December.
The Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) daily settlement price for the front-month Jan Cboe Bitcoin (XBT) future for the December 11 session was USD18,545.
Some 20 trading firms actively participated in the December 11 session. Cboe previously announced that all transaction fees will be waived1 throughout the month of December.
Over the last
The CFTC has issued interpretative guidance providing that a futures commission merchant (FCM), swap dealer (SD), or introducing broker (IB) that receives separate compensation for commodity trading advice is not required to register as a commodity trading adviser.
The proviso is that the offered advice is “solely incidental” to the conduct of the FCM’s or SD’s business, or “solely in connection with” the operation of the IB’s business.
The interpretation was requested as a result of the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II Directive), which will require certain investment managers to make separate payments for
Birch Century International, a global alternative asset manager, is to open a new Tokyo based office, authorised by the Financial Services Agency of Japan. Birch Century International Japan will provide accredited investors with access to the company’s alternative investment and asset management platforms.
Building upon Birch Century International’s alternative investment capabilities, the Tokyo office is scheduled to open in March 2018, and will expand the firm’s global platform whilst enhancing its ability provide investors with access to specialised market opportunities.
With offices based in New York and Hong Kong, the announcement of the new Tokyo office further cements Birch
Alternative investment manager FS Investments is to create a joint venture with EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), a global alternative investment firm focused on energy and energy-related infrastructure.
The joint venture is expected to create a platform with the scale, flexibility and energy industry expertise to offer energy and infrastructure companies flexible financing solutions across the capital structure. As a result, following the formation of the venture, the FS Investments/EIG team expects to generate enhanced deal flow – particularly directly originated deals – that positions the portfolio to create long term value for FS Energy and Power Fund (FSEP) investors.
