S&P Issues Disorderly Brexit Warning to U.K. Banks

By Emily Horton January 11, 2019, Financial News S&P Global Ratings could reassess its guidance on U.K. banks if the country is forced into a disorderly exit from the European Union. The warning comes less a week before prime...

Bad Education: How to Cure Cynicism Around SI Data

By Amelia Axelsen January 11, 2019, Waters Technology When regulators overhauled the trading environment with the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), their intent was increased transparency, but acquiring systematic internalizer (SI) data remains a huge undertaking...

LEI Adoption Alleviates Market Abuse Concerns – Expert

By Louisa Chender January 11, 2019, Global Investor Group The introduction of the legal entity identifier has gone a long way in alleviating concerns around monitoring market manipulation that spilled over from the market abuse regulation (MAR), an expert...

No Delays to SFTR Implementation – European Council

By Andrew Neil January 11, 2019, Global Investor Group The European Council has stressed there are no delays to SFTR implementation following reports of an extended scrutiny period. “On January 8, the E.U. Council decided to extend the one-month...

Traders May Go Outside E.U. to Mitigate Brexit – Fidessa

By James Thursfield January 11, 2019, Global Investor Group Trading out of a non-E.U. country could allow certain businesses to better manage Brexit uncertainty, according to an expert at London-based tech giant Fidessa. Christian Voigt, senior regulatory advisor at...

Volatility Having Little Effect on Sec Lending Market – FIS

By Andrew Neil January 11, 2019, Global Investor Group U.S. stock market volatility at the tail-end of 2018 had a marginal effect on the securities lending market, according to data from FIS. In a note to clients, securities finance...

SEC Cyber Guidance Helps Corporates Avoid Breaches

By John Crabb January 11, 2019, International Financial Law Review Interpretive guidance issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February 2018 has been effectively helping corporates to prepare disclosures and control cyber security risks in the 11...

Majority of Buy-Side Firms Anticipate Increased Spend on AI Technology

By Hayley McDowell January 11, 2019, The Trade Over 60% of asset managers have said they expect their spending on artificial intelligence (AI) technology to increase over the next year, according to research. TABB Group surveyed 160 buy-side, sell-side...

U.S. Congressman: CFTC, Not SEC, Should Regulate Crypto

By Arnab Shome January 11, 2019, Finance Magnates In the United States, there is tension between the Securities and Exchanges Commision (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as both the agencies are claiming their authority on digital...

Government Shutdown Could Delay Reg BI Rollout

By Cassie Miller January 1, 2019, Advisor News Add another possible casualty to the government shutdown – the timetable of the Security and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard. The wrinkle is one of the twists in the proposal’s...

ETF Growth Sputters After Markets’ ‘Rocky Ride’ in 2018

By Chris Flood January 11, 2019, Financial Times Global inflows to exchange traded funds dropped by a fifth in 2018 after the first annual decline in the U.S. stock market since the financial crisis dented investor appetite for low-cost...

Fund Fees Eat a Quarter of Retail Investor Returns

By Siobhan Riding January 11, 2019, Financial Times Retail fund investors lose up to a quarter of their gross returns in costs and charges, according to research from the E.U.’s main securities regulator. The disclosure will ratchet up pressure...

Banks Raise Bets on Prime Broking for Struggling Hedge Funds

By Lindsay Fortado and Laura Noonan January 9, 2019, Financial Times Big banks are throwing extra resources into prime broking, betting on their embattled hedge fund clients to provide a much-needed revenue boost as other areas falter. Despite hedge...

Money Managers Win New Round in Brexit Fight Over E.U. Control

By Alexander Weber January 10, 2019, Bloomberg Money managers scored another point in their drive to prevent European Union regulators from gaining more control over their operations after Brexit. Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted to water down a...

Brexit Poll Part One: a Market Divided

By Sharon Kimathi January 10, 2019, Practice Insight from IFLR After several months covering the Brexit beat, Practice Insight journalists wanted to get to the crux of the matter: exactly how are firms preparing for this seminal event? Are...

E.U. Banks Punished Over Lowball Credit Risk Estimates

By Louie Woodall January 10, 2019, Risk Quantum European authorities judge that almost one in six banks included in a recent supervisory benchmarking exercise have flawed credit risk models that underestimate their capital requirements. Under the Capital Requirements Directive,...

Prop Firms Face Disproportionate Capital Rules – FIA EPTA

By Louisa Chender January 10, 2019, Global Investor Group The prop trading community will still face disproportionate capital rules under the European Council’s latest proposed text, the FIA European Principal Traders Association (ETPA) warns. The FIA EPTA remains concerned...

Two Percent of Firms Have Renegotiated Libor-Based Contracts Ahead of 2021 Deadline

By Hayley McDowell January 10, 2019, The Trade The vast majority of firms with exposure to Libor are yet to begin preparations and renegotiate contracts ahead of the withdrawal of the benchmark in 2021, according to a survey. Of...

European Benchmark Transition Faces Hurdle

By Shanny Basar January 9, 2019, Markets Media The low volume of cleared swaps based on Eonia, the euro overnight index average rate, may make it difficult to transition to a new risk-free interest rate based on actual transactions...

Fed Economists Float New Way to Project Op Risk Losses

By Steve Marlin January 10, 2019, Risk Companies should look at their size and past loss experience in tandem to get the most accurate projection of operational risk losses under stress conditions, three US Federal Reserve economists have proposed....

DTCC, ICE Clear Europe Lead Top CCPs in Boosting Liquidity Buffers

By Alessandro Aimone January 10, 2019, Risk Quantum Ten of the largest central counterparties added $20.8 billion to their liquidity buffers during the third quarter of 2018 – a 4% increase on the second quarter – having extended credit...

Non-Netting Status Denies Capital Boost for Chinese Banks

By Aileen Chuang and Blake Evans-Pritchard January 10, 2019, Risk China’s largest banks could reduce the capital held against derivatives counterparty credit risk by as much as a fifth, following the implementation of new global rules on January 1,...

China’s ‘Flash Boys’ Hedge Funds Eye End to Hiatus

By Noah Sin and Samuel Shen January 9, 2019, Reuters China’s data-driven “flash boys” – hedge fund managers who for years have been handicapped by government curbs on tools to short-sell stocks – are dusting off high-speed trading products...

Equity Derivs Healthy, Prime Brokerage Slower in Q4 – Analysts

By Andrew Neil January 10, 2019, Global Investor Group Investment banks saw healthy equity derivatives trading activity in the last quarter of 2018, according to HSBC, although prime brokerage growth may have weakened. Analysts at HSBC suggest equity derivatives...

ECB Urged to Keep Options Open as It Winds Up Stimulus

By Claire Jones January 10, 2019, Financial Times France’s top central banker has warned the European Central Bank to take a “gradual and pragmatic” approach to ditching its crisis-era stimulus, as the world’s monetary policymakers react to fears of...

Fintech Sector Hurt by Shutdown

By Chris Brummer January 10, 2019, Roll Call The consequences of the partial government shutdown for the poor, the environment, federal employees and those relying on government services or benefits have become painfully evident, and are getting worse. The...

Brexit Barriers to U.K. CCPs Persist – ISDA

By Louisa Chender January 9, 2019, Global Investor Group The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has identified outstanding issues that could have an immediate impact on European clearing firms’ access to U.K. central counterparties (CCPs) after Brexit. In...

For U.S. Banks, Billions in Regulatory Manna

By Joanna Wright January 9, 2019, Risk 2018 was a heady year for regulatory change in the U.S. Proposals came thick and fast, with some hawked as a helping hand to U.S. banking’s mid-sized and small contenders. As the...

Volatility: How ‘Algos’ Changed the Rhythm of the Market

By Robin Wigglesworth January 9, 2019, Financial Times Philippe Jabre was the quintessential swashbuckling trader, slicing his way through markets first at GLG Partners and then an eponymous hedge fund he founded in 2007 — at the time one...

Computer Models to Investors: Short Everything

By Stephanie Yang January 9, 2019, The Wall Street Journal Investors have started to shake off last year’s steep losses, helping markets regain some ground in 2019. But the robots are still almost uniformly bearish. Trend-following investment strategies —...