Solutions
The economics of fixed income dealing operations is evolving due to market structure changes, emerging regulations, and disruptive technologies already in the market and on the horizon.
As new regulations continue to put pressure on revenue models, firms are investing in innovation in areas such as trading models, price discovery, and trading technology, according to a new report from Celent called “The future of electronic fixed income trading-cash and derivatives: regulation and dealer economics spur innovation in dealer-to-client markets”.
There are a myriad of regulatory drivers, and they all have teeth. The Basel III regulation (global) and the Volcker rule
SS&C Technologies, a provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, has released Total Return 2012, an update to its portfolio and partnership accounting and reporting platform for hedge funds, funds of funds and family offices.
The enhancements will offer greater transparency for investors in line with increasing market requirements.
In response to the growing demands for additional fund disclosure, the latest release of Total Return allows for processing and Microsoft SQL reporting at various levels of detail and frequency. Key features include the integration and automation of Form PF filing, enhanced incentive fee calculations and expansion of the fund
Cantor Fitzgerald plans to launch Cantor Clearing, a service providing clearing, settlement and technology solutions for financial services firms.
Cantor Fitzgerald plans to launch Cantor Clearing, a service providing clearing, settlement and technology solutions for financial services firms.
Subject to FINRA approval, Cantor Clearing will provide a suite of services to correspondent clearing firms including institutional broker dealers, online direct access broker dealers, registered investment advisers and other asset managers.
Cantor already provides equity and fixed income clearing and trade execution services to hedge funds, money management firms and proprietary trading firms via its prime brokerage unit launched in 2009.
Chicago Board Options Exchange will launch trading in a new type of S&P 500 Index options contract, known as CBOE S&P 500 Range options (SRO), beginning on 28 August.
CBOE Range options were designed to provide individual investors with a lower-risk, lower-cost way to trade S&P 500 Index options.
SROs pay an exercise settlement amount if the settlement value of the underlying index at expiration selected by the investor falls within a specified "range length." The range length for SROs will be set at 70 S&P 500 Index points.
SRO payouts work as follows: if the S&P 500 Index settlement
MarkitSERV, an electronic trade processing service for OTC derivatives, has agreed heads of terms with four FX interdealer brokers (IDBs) to provide voice trade affirmation, regulatory reporting and clearing services for FX transactions.
With a single connection into the MarkitSERV FX trade processing platform, BGC Partners, GFI Group, Tradition and Tullett Prebon would be the first four interdealer brokerage firms to benefit from fully-integrated voice affirmation, clearing and regulatory reporting workflows.
This market-leading initiative is designed to assist IDBs to transition effectively to a regulated FX trading environment, including requirements to execute trades using swap execution facilities (SEFs). By providing
CF Partners, the trading and investments firm, has expanded its main trading entity to include investments in commodities across the energy complex.
To reflect this expansion CF Partners is changing the name of the fund from CF Carbon Fund II to CFP Energy Limited.
CFP Energy will leverage CF Partners’ experience in the carbon and wider energy markets to transact in commodities including oil, gas, coal and power.
The fund’s diversification is part of CF Partners wider strategy of building on its core expertise in carbon to roll out new products that meet the growing demand from clients for
UBS has launched a new business area called UBS Quant HQ, focused specifically on the unique requirements of the systematic, or quantitative, trader.
Organised as a global joint venture between the firm’s prime services and direct execution businesses, Quant HQ provides tailored access to the wide range of UBS global investment services.
“We’ve consistently invested in creating a fast, innovative, highly scalable platform,” says Mike Stewart (pictured), global head of equities, UBS. “Making that available in combination with our global market access, industry-leading capital position and deep expertise in enterprise formation, the goal of Quant HQ is to deliver a
BrokerTec, ICAP’s electronic fixed income trading platform, and MTS, a fixed income trading venue in Europe which is majority owned by London Stock Exchange Group, are launching a daily repo index series for the sovereign bond markets of the main eurozone countries.
The series will include an index for each of the sovereign bond markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Finland and will be launched in quarter four 2012.
The index calculation and design has been established following significant market interest and demand and is supported by a group of repo dealers representing several major
Chi-X Canada ATS, a wholly owned subsidiary of alternative trading venue operator Chi-X Global, is launching a second lit marketplace, CX2 ATS, in the first quarter of 2013.
“Canada’s equity landscape will soon change dramatically. With CX2, we hope to satisfy the trading community’s demand for healthy competition and help ensure that Canada remains at the forefront of innovation both domestically and globally,” says Dan Kessous, chief executive of Chi-X Canada.
“Since our launch we have been committed to providing greater transparency and the means to reduce execution costs. CX2 aims to target under-serviced areas of the market such as
Interdealer broker ICAP is reorganising to create a single, global broking division to reflect the changing nature of its business and serve customers more effectively.
Until now ICAP has operated its broking business on a regional basis in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.
The reorganisation mirrors the way ICAP’s electronic and post trade divisions are already run on a global basis and will enable the group to execute a global strategy for voice and hybrid broking services.
The division will also be renamed "Global Broking" from "Voice" as it better describes ICAP’s broking interface to markets and the significant
