Solutions
PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform operated by Powernext, achieved its best trading results on its spot segment in 2018 by reaching 1,111.2 TWh, improving its previous record (826.2 TWh in 2017) by over 34 per cent.
The total traded in 2018 amounted to 1,962,9 TWh , including 846.2 TWh on the futures and 5.5 TWh on the options segments, which was fairly stable compared to 2017 (1,977.3 TWh). Overall, TTF remained the most liquid hub on PEGAS with 1,068.0 TWh followed by NCG (260.6 TWh) and PEG (181.3 TWh).
Dr Egbert Laege (pictured) , President of Powernext, says:
B2C2 OTC, the UK subsidiary of cryptocurrency liquidity provider and electronic OTC trading specialist iB2C2, is now authorised and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to arrange and deal in Contracts for Difference (CFDs) with eligible counterparties and professional clients.
The FCA authorisation will allow these clients of B2C2 OTC Ltd to gain exposure to cryptocurrency markets via the firm’s CFDs.
Max Boonen (pictured), Founder and CEO of B2C2, says: “We are excited to have received authorisation from the FCA to introduce a cryptocurrency CFD product. Eligible counterparties and professional clients can now gain derivative exposure to the
Luminex Trading & Analytics has launched Luminex 2.0, a new user interface for its buy side-only trading venue.
Luminex says the enhancements represent a significant upgrade to the platform and were developed in consultation with clients to simplify workflows and create a more intuitive overall experience. The more flexible user interface enables traders to customise their workspace with more than 50 performance, cost and execution data points.
Built on OpenFin technology, Luminex 2.0 works seamlessly with other trading and financial services applications and is designed to make implementations of future enhancements easier, with minimal disruption to users and support
BCS Americas (BCSA), a division of BCS Global Markets (BCS GM), has launched a new trading platform that will provide global equity execution and settlement capabilities to institutional investors with access to a suite of algorithmic trading tools accessible 24 hours a day, five days a week.
BCS GM first unlocked Russian markets for US investors with the launch of BCS Americas in 2016. BCS Americas’ trading desk is run by experienced traders with expertise in algorithmic trading and aggregating liquidity across multiple execution venues.
The Algo Suite includes a robust pairs trading offering and BCS Americas’ SOR capabilities
CloseCross, a multi-party, decentralised derivatives trading platform in beta, has opened its investment round with USD3 million backed by Amnis Ventures, a privately owned venture fund based in Houston, Texas.
The investment puts CloseCross at a post-money valuation of USD60 million.
CloseCross is committed to a disruption of the current financial derivatives market by deploying patented multi-party settlement mechanisms and proprietary algorithms. Its aim is to create a derivatives environment where market participants enter collective smart contracts instead of traditional one-to-one contracts. CloseCross’ testnet application is currently available in beta in 140 countries across both iOS and Android platforms.
On 3 December 2018, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) published amendments to December 2017’s AML Guidance notes on the Prevention and Detection of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. Under the AML/CFT regime, a clear distinction has been made between delegation and reliance with respect to how an investment fund manager handless its AML obligations.
Many Cayman hedge funds go the ‘reliance’ route, using a trusted service provider whose own AML officer performs the duties in line with the service provider’s own compliance framework. This is unlikely to change under the AML/CFT regime, but CIMA will expect fund managers to check
2018 was an extremely busy year for Walkers, one of the Cayman Islands’ leading international law firms. The firm saw a tremendous amount of activity in private equity and related downstream corporate work, while with respect to hedge funds the Cayman team was busy doing restructuring work.
“We had instructions in relation to changes to fee terms, to re-energise products and make them more attractive to current investors and new investors. Overall, we were very busy across the group,” says Caroline Heal, Partner, Walkers’ global Investment Funds group.
The last 12 months has certainly seen Cayman continue to implement global
Prior to the election of the new Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, in October 2018 after winning 55 per cent of the vote, there had long been a trend among Brazilian fund managers to allocate capital offshore to invest outside of the country. Now, as the markets begin to stabilise, investors – both locally and globally – are starting to reconsider Brazil again for investment opportunity.
For fund administrators such as the Maitland, who have become increasingly active in Brazil over the last four years, this shift represents a significant opportunity to assist managers with their offshore investment vehicles – typically
The cryptocurrency market is predicted to reach USD1 trillion according to Smartereum as the market capitalisation continues to grow. Currently, the estimated size of the crypto market is approximately USD417 billion, a very modest number and one that remains dwarfed by other traditional and alternative asset classes. To put things into context, global private equity alone raised more than USD453 billion in 2017.
So despite all the hype and hyperbole surrounding cryptocurrencies, the fact remains that this is still a nascent asset class. That is not to say, however, that the wider ‘digital asset’ marketplace is not set for significant
Q&A with Joanne Huckle, Ogier
As someone who advises both hedge funds and private equity managers, are there common themes affecting both sets of clients?
The once-rigid boundaries between the hedge funds industry and the private equity industry are becoming blurred – we’re seeing traditional hedge fund managers increasing investments in private equity opportunities such as real estate and illiquid private debt, a marked growth in the number of new hybrid fund launches, and institutional investors and family offices alike are reallocating capital to private equity funds in search of higher returns. In the background of course, new legal and
