Liquidity Fears Stalk the $4 Trillion ETF Market. Here’s One Fix.

By Ksenia Galouchko August 28, 2019, Bloomberg Market mayhem this month has re-ignited fears about how the $4 trillion U.S. ETF industry will react in a liquidity crunch. Europe may have an answer for averting disaster. The nightmare scenario:...

WFE flags concerns about EMIR 2.2 proposal

By Louisa Chender August 28, 2019, Global Investor Group The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) has flagged concerns with EMIR 2.2 claiming current proposals do not strike a balance between preserving EU clients’ access to clearing, the importance of...

German government asks EU to ease MiFID II rules

By Margaryta Kirakosian August 28, 2019, CityWire Selector Germany’s Ministry of Finance has asked Brussels to soften MiFID II guidelines, according to a statement from the governmental body. The ministry consulted investment firms, investors and other market participants one...

US G-SIBs grow and multiply ties with other banks

By Alessandro Aimone August 28, 2019, Risk Systemic risk data shows too-big-to-fail US banks became larger and more entwined with other financial institutions in the second quarter of this year. FR Y-15 reports show the riskiness of the...

Big US banks hold more Treasuries as swaps collateral

By Louie Woodall August 26, 2019, Risk Top US banks hold $43 billion of US Treasuries as collateral for in-the-money swaps, more than three times as much as five years ago, regulatory disclosures show. The eight global systemically important...

Wall Street Prepares for the End of a Crucial Benchmark

By Lananh Nguyen and Alex Harris August 27, 2019, Bloomberg Libor is dying, warn global regulators, and there’s nothing banks can do to stop it. Their only choice is to prepare for the end. full article

MiFID redux? ESMA insists on LEIs for repo collateral

By Samuel Wilkes August 27, 2019, Risk European regulators are turning to an old trick to boost the adoption of legal entity identifiers (LEIs) – a ‘barcode for finance’, designed to improve trade reporting. Less than two years after...

Volcker 2.0 gives trading desks more flexibility – expert

By Andrew Neil August 27, 2019, Global Investor Group The revised Volcker Rule, or Volcker 2.0, should allow trading desks to be more nimble in volatile markets, according analysts at U.S. investment bank KBW. On August 20, five U.S....

Trump administration to release plan for Fannie, Freddie after Labor Day

By Kelsey Ramirez August 27, 2019, HousingWire The Trump administration plans to release the plan for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in early September, sources close to the matter told HousingWire. Fannie and Freddie are coming...

Fed Rejects Call to Consider Politics in Policy Decisions

By Nick Timiraos August 27, 2019, The Wall Street Journal The Federal Reserve said it rejected political considerations in its policy-making after one of its former top officials called for the central bank to consider the economic risks of...

MiFID costs and charges: why asset managers want more rules

By Lizzie Meager August 20, 2019, Practice Insight from IFLR As asset managers continue to grapple with MiFID II’s myriad requirements, some are calling for clarification on a particularly unclear area: the disclosure of costs and charges. Buy-side sources...

Regulation drives asset management consolidation

By Jimmie Franklin August 21, 2019, International Financial Law Review A tough regulatory environment has left asset management struggling to comply, and keep costs down. This is leading to consolidation in the industry, with regulations in the E.U. such...

Plato’s Planned Platform Could Serve as Precursor to European Consolidated Tape

By Josephine Gallagher August 21, 2019, Waters Technology When European regulators included measures for a consolidated tape (CT) in their 2018 review of the trading rulebook, it was largely met with applause. The hope was that it would bring...

Banks cut middle managers in European research overhaul

By Paul Clarke August 21, 2019, Financial News London’s investment banks are putting their trust in old heads and young shoulders in the battle to provide fund managers with stock-market research worth paying for. European Union trading rules forcing...

More than 300 European firms have lost all sell-side coverage since MiFID II

By Louise Bowman August 21, 2019, Euromoney In late August, the U.K.’s Cass Business School published a research paper looking at the effects of MiFID II on sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts and firms themselves. Unsurprisingly, the authors – Bingxu...

China Allows Foreign Investors to Use T+3 Bond Settlement

By Manesh Samtami August 26, 2019, Regulation Asia The move will further facilitate the participation of foreign institutional investors in the interbank bond market, who need the extra time to fund their trades. China’s NIFC (National Interbank Funding Center),...

Japan’s regulatory chief urges BOJ to consider impact of easing on banks

By Takahiko Wada and Leika Kihara August 26, 2019, Reuters The Bank of Japan is responsible for deciding whether to ramp up stimulus to support the economy, but should weigh the impact its monetary policy will have on the...

Regulators aren’t done rolling back Volcker Rule

By Hannah Lang August 25, 2019, American Banker Banks notched a clear victory this past week when regulators approved a significant rollback of the Volcker Rule. But the agencies aren’t finished revamping the Dodd-Frank Act restrictions on bank trading....

Here’s Why Critics Think Changes to the ‘Volcker Rule’ Could Increase Risk and Leave Taxpayers Bailing Out Banks (Again)

By Erik Sherman August 26, 2019, Fortune After big banks received a bailout during the Great Recession (with taxpayer money) one guardrail that followed was increased regulation. Part of the overall Dodd-Frank regulatory framework was the Volcker Rule, which...

Reforms may boost banks’ algorithmic trading, Fitch says

By James Langton August 26, 2019, Investment Executive Last week’s move to ease the rules prohibiting U.S. banks from engaging in risky trading may enhance banks’ ability to compete in market making, but any move back to risky proprietary...

Mark Carney calls for global monetary system to replace the dollar

By Chris Giles August 23, 2019, Financial Times Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, has said that the world’s reliance on the U.S. dollar “won’t hold” and needs to be replaced by a new international monetary and financial...

Europe’s regulators grope for value of software

By Philip Alexander August 22, 2019, Risk In 2014, Michael Corbat, chief executive officer of Citigroup, referred to the multinational lender as “a technology company with a banking licence” – a remark that drew snickers at the time. Today,...

Libor trigger “tricky” to align with portfolios – experts

By James Thursfield August 23, 2019, Global Investor Group Legal experts have said the lack of consensus over how to switch away from Libor reflects how “tricky” it will be to align portfolios when Libor is deemed no longer...

Sonia loan market suffering from lack of leadership

By Alice Tchernookova August 22, 2019, Practice Insight from IFLR The development of a new loan market based on the risk-free rates is being hindered by a ‘lack of leadership’, according to sources. “Banks are certainly focused on the...

Mortgage Market Reopens to Risky Borrowers

By Ben Eisen August 21, 2019, The Wall Street Journal The risky mortgage is making a comeback. More than a decade after home loans triggered the worst financial crisis in a generation, the strict lending requirements put in place...

Central bankers seek fresh policy tools to combat slowdown

By Brendan Greeley August 21, 2019, Financial Times The world’s monetary policymakers arrive in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday for their annual summer gathering with two problems on their minds. One they have known about for a while: despite...

ECB extends timescale for banks to make bad loan provisions

By Martin Arnold and Rachel Sanderson August 22, 2019, Financial Times European banks have been given more time to set aside funds to cover losses from loans that go bad, after the European Central Bank bowed to pressure...

Buy-side continues with IM prep despite delays

By Ben St. Clair August 21, 2019, Risk Buy-side firms are far from putting their feet up after international standard setters eased pressure on the 2020 phase of the non-cleared margin rules, market participants say. Firms are now starting...

Euribor futures spread spike strangles prop traders

By Helen Bartholomew August 21, 2019, Risk A storm has raged through a slice of the European rates market, leaving some futures traders nursing heavy losses. It has also raised concerns over perceived safe-haven trades such as butterflies, amid...

Fannie and Freddie Plan Is Likely Released Next Month

By Andrew Ackerman August 21, 2019, The Wall Street Journal The Trump administration is preparing to release as early as the first part of September its long-awaited plan to return Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private-shareholder ownership, according...