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Private financial cloud provider Options has completed the upgrade of the route between its venues in Savvis Weehawken, New Jersey (NJ2) and Equinix Secaucus, New Jersey (NY4).
The newly upgraded link uses the fastest fibre path available, reduces round-trip latency on the route by 36 per cent and will further complement the firm’s wireless connectivity, in addition to providing tailored balances of speed, availability and cost.
This latest announcement follows a busy 12 months on the connectivity front for Options that saw the firm add Quincy Data’s Quincy Extreme Data (QED) service, enabling the managed service provider to offer
Sturgeon Ventures, the regulatory incubator, has entered into a joint venture with Dublin-based Gandon Alternative Fund Management to offer a full regulatory service for alternative investment funds (AIFs) in Europe.
It is the first regulatory incubation service to offer full coverage for both the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
The service offers a regulatory option to AIFs, especially those that are smaller scale or currently lightly regulated, as the deadline for compliance with the AIFMD rapidly approaches. In the UK, the directive is due to be passed into law on
INTL FCStone has received regulatory approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority to consolidate the businesses of its two UK subsidiaries, INTL FCStone Ltd (IFL) and INTL Global Currencies Ltd (IGC).
IFL is a full scope investment firm providing advisory, execution and clearing services to commercial clients who wish to mitigate their price exposure to FX, metals, energy and soft commodities.
IFL is a category 1 ring dealing member of the London Metal Exchange, a full clearing member of ICE Clear Europe, CMECE, and LCH EnClear, and offers clearing services on a host of global exchanges through group affiliates.
Morgan Stanley Capital Group (MSCGI) has agreed to pay a USD200,000 civil monetary penalty to settle CFTC charges that it exceeded speculative position limits in soybean meal futures contracts trading on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).
The CFTC order finds that, beginning on 14 January 2013, MSCGI held in its house accounts net long positions in the CBOT soybean meal futures contract in excess of the all-months speculative position limit of 6,500 contracts established by the CFTC.
The order further finds that, on 15 January 2013, MSCGI decreased its net long position in CBOT soybean meal futures, but
2013 was a record year from a transaction perspective with EUR64bn of Europe’s non-core loans sold as part of portfolio transactions last year, a 40 per cent increase on the previous year, according to PwC.
Increased activity levels were mainly driven by the UK and Ireland, along with Spain and Germany.
Richard Thompson, partner, PwC, says: “We expect that 2014 will be another record year for the European non-core loan market, with activity levels expected to reach an all-time high of around EUR80bn. We also estimate that loan portfolios with a total face value of more than EUR30bn have
Nomura Asset Management has migrated its Japanese equity business onto the Charles River Investment Management Solution (Charles River IMS), and is expanding its use across the firm's domestic and international fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives operations.
A client since 2008, Nomura users worldwide benefit from Charles River's single, integrated solution for equity portfolio management, trading and real-time compliance monitoring.
"Charles River IMS is a scalable, multi-asset, multi-currency solution that consolidates numerous systems at Nomura into a global platform," says Masanao Tsuda, senior managing director, IT strategy and management, Nomura Asset Management. "It is a strategic choice to use
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the ongoing process of bank recapitalisation presents a compelling opportunity for bond investors, says Ariel Bezalel (pictured), manager of the Jupiter Strategic Bond Fund…
Developing positions in the banking sector
In Q3 2012, we took the decision to develop positions in the deeply subordinated bonds issued by banks in the UK and Germany. With central bank policy becoming more progressive in Europe (Mario Draghi would soon make his “do whatever it takes” pledge) and the US (QE3 was on its way), we were attracted to the sort of value on offer for an
Telecoms and healthcare were the hedge fund sector’s major buys in Q4 2013, according to S&P Capital IQ’s latest study of 13F filings of US pure play hedge funds.
S&P Capital IQ performs its hedge fund analysis quarterly in order to help investors understand what the most prominent US-based hedge funds are buying, holding and selling.
"Our firm develops its analysis through an examination of SEC filings accessed via proprietary Excel based models. In turn, clients can use these models to better spot global trends in various asset categories and see what some of the largest investors are targeting,"
Agriculture producer confidence remains unchanged since last March despite a drop in producers’ feelings about their current situation, according to the latest DTN/The Progressive Farmer Agriculture Confidence Index.
Producers’ overall confidence remained somewhat positive at 106.9, up slightly from 105.5 last December and unchanged from March 2013.
The value of 100 is considered neutral. Values above 100 indicate optimism, whereas values below signify pessimism.
The DTN/PF Agriculture Confidence Index, which surveyed 500 producers between March 1 and 10, measures the sentiments of agriculture producers on their overall impressions of the agriculture sector. Farmers are also asked to rate
ALT Xchange Ltd (ALTX Uganda) is to operate a securities and derivatives market, initially in Uganda, to service the East African region.
ALTX Uganda will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mauritius-based ALTX Africa Group, which will be fully incorporated this month.
ALTX also intends to develop a pan African footprint, providing a set of additional operating exchanges to facilitate both trading and clearing across the continent.
The board of the Capital Markets Authority of Uganda granted approval for ALTX Uganda’s application to operate an exchange in Uganda in March 2014.
ALTX is also planning the
