NY Pushes Crypto Exchanges for Transparency; ICE’s SONIA Futures; Nasdaq’s Nordic Shutdown

First Read

Hits & Takes
JLN Staff

Barbara Bush, matriarch of a U.S. political clan, has died at the age of 92. Mrs. Bush was once the featured speaker at a lunch at FIA’s Boca Raton conference. At the lunch there were fake pearl necklaces at the tables for the women to take home. She said, “Girls always wear your pearls.”~JJL

That lunch at Boca featuring Barbara Bush was sponsored by Peregrine Financial Group and Russ Wasendorf Sr., which probably means customer money bought the lunch.~JJL

Holly Duran Real Estate Partners, a firm that serves the financial markets, moved its headquarters to the CBOT Building in Chicago from the CME Building.~JK

Tax Day was yesterday. A story in the Wall Street Journal about the IRS Experiencing Computer Problems contained this interesting paragraph: “Congress has been steadily cutting the agency’s budget or holding it flat for the past few years, partly in a broader austerity effort and partly in response to the agency’s treatment of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.” (Editor’s Note: The IRS targeting scandal was proven fake.) ~SR

One of the truly great guys of the industry, Guy Taylor, has joined BNP Paribas as head of media relations for the Americas. Taylor was recently global head of public relations at Paragon Public Relations. He was at ICAP and NYBOT before also. I will always remember the first time I visited him at NYBOT in the NYMEX building in New York. As I was waiting to enter, another visitor who was waiting in the lobby came over and introduced himself. That visitor was Jeff Sprecher.~JJL

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Fracking, Ags and Africa – Julie Lerner, PanXchange
JohnLothianNews.com

After a pilot and proof of concept in agricultural products, PanXchange, a platform for OTC physical commodities, believes it has found a differentiating product – frac sand. The frac sand, or proppant, platform launched in October 2017.

In this video from JLN’s annual series with industry leaders, PanXchange CEO Julie Lerner talks about other niche markets the exchange has its eyes on and the challenges of disrupting the status quo.

Watch the video and read the rest here »

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MIAX Sees Green
Spencer Doar – JLN

The 15 exchange-strong U.S. equity options market is getting another younger sibling from the same group – MIAX – that brought the market its 15th exchange.

Named Emerald, MIAX’s third exchange is scheduled to open in Q1 2019 and will “fill a market structure niche not currently offered by the MIAX Exchange Group,” which rules out a pro-rata or maker-taker structure.

According to Tabb Group’s monthly Options Liquidity Matrix, MIAX’s two current exchanges accounted for 7.1 percent of industry volume year-to-date, up from 2017’s 5.6 percent. (That report in general was quite positive – January, February and March represent the best overall volumes in U.S. options history.)

But it’s more than just options. Subject to regulatory approval, MIAX plans to launch MIAX Equities at some juncture. After the launch of the equities endeavor, the group then plans to launch MIAX Futures Exchange. So by the 2020s, if all goes according to plan, the exchange group will be more of a one-stop trading shop.

MIAX’s eponymous first exchange began operations at the end of 2012.

For more on yesterday’s options-related news, see Tuesday’s JLN Options Newsletter.

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A Trader Named Morgan Stanley Just Left Morgan Stanley
Sonali Basak – Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley just left Morgan Stanley. No, really.
tinyurl.com/ydf2jaau

****** Seems like an identity crisis in the making.~JJL

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IRS Extends Tax Filing for One Day After Computer Problems; Acting commissioner apologizes for inconvenience; agency says tax-filing systems now working again
Richard Rubin – WSJ
The IRS issued a one-day, penalty-free extension for tax filers after suffering an all-day computer breakdown on Tuesday that prevented taxpayers from filing returns electronically on the day 2017 payments were due.
tinyurl.com/y7y4j7ja

**** My electronic filings yesterday did not go through.~JJL

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Tuesday’s Top Three
Yesterday’s top story was the obituary from Bloomberg Billionaire Banking Heir Matthew Mellon Dies at 54. Second was Bloomberg’s piece on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, in U.S. Libor Replacement, Two Weeks After Debut, Has Some Issues. Third was Bloomberg’s piece Cryptocurrency Exchange Kraken Pulls Out of Japan. A Bloomberg trifecta.

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MarketsWiki Stats
123,816,035 pages viewed; 23,080 pages; 212,815 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

New York Pushes Crypto Exchanges for More Transparency; Attorney general Eric Schneiderman sends letters to 13 markets including Gemini, Coinbase Unit
Paul Vigna – WSJ
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is ramping up pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges to increase transparency in an industry that prizes anonymity and light regulation.
tinyurl.com/yaplgmen

****Other sources – Financial Times, TechCrunch and NY Post

Intercontinental Exchange Announces June 1 Launch of ICE Three Month SONIA Futures
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced that subject to relevant regulatory approvals, ICE Futures Europe plans to launch a new three month, cash-settled futures contract based on the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) rate on June 1, 2018.
tinyurl.com/y9zqvyyd

****The Financial Times here and Reuters here

Nasdaq’s Nordic Shutdown Extends to Hours as Regulators Probe
Kati Pohjanpalo and Hanna Hoikkala – Bloomberg
Fixed-income trading set to restart at 1:15 p.m. CET; Equities trading remains halted with no time given for fix
A delay of more than three hours in opening Nordic and Baltic equity and fixed-income markets prompted regulators to say they will start investigating Nasdaq Inc.’s preparedness for the unexpected.
tinyurl.com/y7w46k4q

Wall St reinvents equity collars as a risky money spinner; The complex financial product has been used by HNA, SoftBank and Geely and is generating large profits
Robert Smith and Arash Massoudi – FT
When Chinese billionaire Li Shufu needed help building a nearly 10 per cent stake in German carmaker Daimler, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley had 250m reasons to say yes.
tinyurl.com/y7bjmrzr

London-Shanghai stock trading partnership set to go ahead this year, according to People’s Bank of China governor
Lucy White – City AM
A trading partnership between the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange could go ahead as soon as this year, according to China’s top banker.
tinyurl.com/ybg3mes5

Steven Cohen Targets High-Frequency Trading With ‘Dark Pool’ Venture; Billionaire invests venture capital through his Point72 firm in new trading platform designed to counter impact of high-speed trading
Alexander Osipovich – WSJ
Billionaire Steven A. Cohen is backing a startup that aims to prevent high-frequency traders from eating away at the profits of stock-pickers like himself.
tinyurl.com/ya9y49ek

****CNBC here

Shanghai-HK exchange competition a boon for China listings; Investors who usually go to Hong Kong for mainland exposure can also look northwards
Henny Sender – FT
Last week, a delegation from oil-rich Kazakhstan arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai to meet local stock exchange officials. The visit was part of their due diligence as the group, headed by the chairman of sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, ponders where to list assets.
tinyurl.com/yc6g2j75

Hidden mid-point pegged order types at LSE hit new record; LSE sees new record for large-in-scale order type as block trading continues to gain momentum under the MiFID II regime in Europe.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) hidden mid-point pegged order type saw a new record daily value on Monday 16 April this week, with £275 million notional traded.
tinyurl.com/y89m6yg5

Startup aims to help industry adhere to FX Global Code; The Bank for International Settlements FX Global Code of Conduct was introduced almost a year ago, with more than 100 market participants committed.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
A new London-based consultancy startup is aiming to help foreign exchange (FX) market participants comply with the FX Global Code of Conduct, almost a year after it was introduced.
tinyurl.com/ya6s35rk

Exchanges, OTC and Clearing

Miami International Holdings to Launch New Options Exchange, MIAX Emerald, in 2019
MIAX
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), the parent holding company of the MIAX Options and MIAX PEARL options exchanges, today announced that it intends to launch MIAX Emerald as its third fully electronic options exchange in 2019. MIAX Emerald is expected to join the MIAX Exchange Group in Q1 2019, pending SEC approval.
/jlne.ws/2p50jzy

NYSE’s Chicago Takeover Perpetuates Fragmentation by Consolidation
Don Ross – Traders News
The recent announcement that the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, would buy its comatose Chicago counterpart (CHX) appears on its surface to herald the inevitable and final technology-driven consolidation of the traditional U.S. exchange business. The Chicago Stock Exchange is the last of the so-called regionals to be swallowed up, like the Boston, Philadelphia, and Pacific exchanges before it, by one of the big conglomerates. Yet it is set to perpetuate a very different trend, driven by perversities in well-meaning but misguided regulation: fragmentation.
/jlne.ws/2J3P1Ap

CCPs are steering margin around the system – Icma
Louisa Chender – Global Investor Group
Firms are using the repo market to fund margin requirements at central counterparties (CCPs) but in some cases it is redistributed back around the system, according to the International Capital Market Association.
“You have to be conscious about CCPs and the margin flows embedded in the market,” David Hiscock, senior director of market practice and regulatory policy at the International Capital Market Association (Icma), told FOW.
/jlne.ws/2H7cZdA

London Stock Exchange welcomes Fiji’s first international Green Bond
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange Group today welcomed Fiji’s first international green bond to start trading on the green bond segment of its International Securities Market (ISM).
tinyurl.com/y9xrlfp2

ELITE, Nairobi Securities Exchange & FSD Africa sign MoU
London Stock Exchange Group
ELITE, London Stock Exchange Group’s business support and capital raising programme, today announces that is has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nairobi Securities Exchange and FSD Africa to explore the launch of ELITE in Kenya.
tinyurl.com/y7yhx3y6

EurexOTC Clear: Extension of the Settled-to-Market model to OTC currency products, amendment of the Clearing Conditions
Eurex
On 18 May 2018, Eurex Clearing AG (Eurex Clearing) will extend the alternative treatment of Variation Margin payments with respect to OTC IRS transactions, which was introduced with Eurex Clearing circulars 102/17 and 120/17, to include OTC currency transactions.
tinyurl.com/ybcvqxg3

Bucharest Stock Exchange shareholders approve Central Counterparty
Romania Insider
Bucharest Stock Exchange’s shareholders approved the setup of a Central Counterparty Clearing House for the markets it manages.
/jlne.ws/2H7EEiN

Argentina’s share market bets on high-frequency traders
Benedict Mander – Financial Times
That there are misgivings towards high-frequency trading in an economy as crisis-prone as Argentina’s is no surprise.
But a bid to promote “algo” trading and HFT ó a computer-driven trading technique that relies on mathematical models to capture differences in the price of securities ó is part of mixed bag of efforts by the government of President Mauricio Macri to deepen Argentina’s tiny stock market.
/jlne.ws/2JSRpex

J.P. Morgan ETFs are a new addition for SIX
SIX
The ETF segment of SIX Swiss Exchange AG is constantly growing. SIX is pleased to welcome J.P. Morgan as a new issuer of ETFs.
tinyurl.com/18r

Fintech

Seismic Foundry Portfolio Firms Join SEI Incubator Codify
Seismic
Three of the portfolio firms that were invested in by the Seismic Foundry Capital Markets FinTech fund have joined the SEI supported incubator, Codify, based in their Alphabeta building in Finsbury Square, London. Kite Edge, Lodestar-Ecosystems and Waymark Tech joined the incubator this week for a 16-week period, while Enforcd have already benefited from the programme last year.
/jlne.ws/2H6HAfh

Rival Systems now offering Value-at-Risk within its award-winning Rival Risk platform
Press Release
Rival Systems (Rival), an award-winning provider of trading and risk management software, today announced the availability of Value-at-Risk (VaR) within its Rival Risk platform.
/jlne.ws/2HcNOu4

QuantHouse rolls out global trade and book synchronisation feature
QuantHouse
QuantHouse, the leading independent global provider of end-to-end systematic trading solutions including innovative market data services, algo trading platform and infrastructure solutions, today announced the launch of its trade and book updates synchronisation feature in response to client requirements.
tinyurl.com/ybvm7vfe

Greenwich Associates says the US banking analytics arms race has begun
FTSE Global Markets
In banking, the analytics arms race is on. Commercial and business banks are late to the analytics party, as advanced analytics have been adopted at a much faster rate in a range of other industries ó including consumer banking. According to a new report from Greenwich Associates, The Analytics Arms Race, by the end of 2018, some of the fastest-moving business and commercial banks will deploy data analytics platforms.
/jlne.ws/2J6fr4N

Fidessa partners with Tower to extend access to SI liquidity
Fidessa
Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA) today announced that it has added Tower Research Capital – TRSi to its Intelligent SI Liquidity Program. This latest partnership with Tower leverages Fidessa’s award-winning market access architecture and smart order routing capabilities, and further helps Fidessa customers meet the liquidity challenges they now face under MiFID II.
/jlne.ws/2HJtz4x

Colt launches low latency connectivity between ASX and CME exchanges
Colt Technology.
Colt Technology Services today announced the launch of its new ultra low latency service connecting the Australia Securities Exchange (ASX) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), offering the lowest latency available in the industry. In addition, Colt is now able to provide protected services to ASX with the implementation of this new route.
tinyurl.com/ych6tsjk

Industry veteran Mike Yallop joins OpenFin board; Former UBS, ICAP and Deutsche Bank veteran joins OpenFin as non-executive board director.
John Brazier – The Trade
Former UBS and ICAP veteran Mike Yallop has joined the board of application-agnostic operating system provider, OpenFin.
tinyurl.com/y79oh2au

Cryptocurrencies

Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Virtual Currency Plans
Nathaniel Popper and Nicholas Confessore – NY Times
The embattled voter-profiling firm Cambridge Analytica quietly sought to develop its own virtual currency in recent months through a so-called initial coin offering, a novel fund-raising method that has come under growing scrutiny by financial regulators around the world.
/jlne.ws/2Ha2A0T

NY attorney-general queries cryptocurrency trading platforms
fastFT
New York attorney-general Eric Schneiderman said on Tuesday that his office is launching a fact-finding investigation into cryptocurrency exchanges, seeking disclosures of key information from 13 major platforms where digital currencies like bitcoin and ether are traded.
/goo.gl/qQj2Cx

**SR: Among the platforms queried are Coinbase, Gemini and Bitfinex.

Police Officers Arrested in India for Kidnapping, Extortion of Bitcoin
Simon Golstein – Finance Magnates
Nine police officers were arrested last week in the Indian state of Gujurat for kidnapping a man and extorting 200 bitcoins from him.
/jlne.ws/2Hayazm

Bitcoin Boom Or Bust?; The Current Trough of Disillusionment
Jessica Darmoni – Hehmeyer
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published an article on Bitcoin’s vanishing hype and how we have entered the boring phase of this new technology. According to the WSJ, Bitcoin prices lost about two-thirds their value after a December high, when the first bitcoin futures contract launched at Cboe Global Markets. In fact, the article states that Bitcoin’s average daily trading volume is currently about 70% lower than on the most active days at the end of 2017.
tinyurl.com/ycm99lpy

New Blockchain Playbook Helps Governments Embrace The Tech And Cut Through Hype
Aaron Stanley – Forbes
Cryptocurrency markets may still be mired in the trough of disillusionment, but interest in blockchain and distributed ledger technology continues to percolate within the United States government.
tinyurl.com/ybsy9oqw

Britons will not support Digital Currency even if backed by Bank of England
Marko Vidrih – TokenTurf
Even after the global upsurge in bitcoin’s value most of the Britons are against the use of digital currency. A recent survey shows that they do not have any intention to invest in bitcoin even if Bank of England backed it.
/jlne.ws/2qFXm6I

Citigroup is looking to hire bitcoin pros to sniff out risks in cryptocurrency
Frank Chaparro – Business Insider
Citigroup is seeking talent with a background in bitcoin to staff up its anti-money laundering group.
tinyurl.com/yaa5zf36

Politics

China fans trade dispute with hefty deposit on U.S. sorghum imports
Dominique Patton, Tom Polansek – Reuters
China will slap hefty anti-dumping deposits on imports of U.S. sorghum from Wednesday, the government said on Tuesday, a higher-than-expected charge on the grain used in livestock feed and the spirits industry, as trade tensions escalate between the world’s top two economies.
/jlne.ws/2J61nrT

Regulation

A.G. Schneiderman Launches Inquiry Into Cryptocurrency “Exchanges”
New York State
Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative Seeks to Improve Transparency and Accountability of Major Cryptocurrency Trading Platforms to Protect Virtual Currency Investors
tinyurl.com/ycktxvpe

The IRS Really Needs Some New Computers; The tax agency’s embrace of IBM in the 1950s helped drive down audit rates. It’s still depending on the same code.
Stephen Mihm – Bloomberg
Taxpayers who rushed to complete Form 1040 by Tuesday’s deadline can take some comfort from the fact that they’re exceedingly unlikely to get a follow-up visit from the Internal Revenue Service. Over the past 50 years, audit rates have fallen pretty steadily. Today, the average taxpayer has one chance in 200 of getting audited.
tinyurl.com/y8zc5cnl

Fed’s new capital buffer refocuses on risk
Philip Alexander and Steve Marlin – Risk.net
The US Federal Reserve’s proposed revisions to its capital framework would make risk-based capital requirements more volatile, bank analysts say, intensifying prudential and shareholder focus on risky assets while improving the comparative appeal of low-risk activities.
/jlne.ws/2J5uUCd

German trader wins $524m ruling against Chinese LPG group
David Sheppard – Financial Times
A German commodity trader has been awarded one of the industry’s largest legal payouts after a Chinese petrochemicals company reneged on a contract for US liquid petroleum gas (LPG) supplies.
/jlne.ws/2J5kZMC

Fee Rate Advisory #3 for Fiscal Year 2018
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that starting on May 22, 2018, the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $13.00 per million dollars.
/jlne.ws/2J3jpuN

Getting Ready for Initial Margin: The Steps to Take
ISDA
Each September until 2020, increasing numbers of entities will be required to meet initial margin regulations as the threshold level for compliance reduces. Preparation for meeting these requirements will take significant time, and will involve intensive work to ensure systems, processes and documentation are in place.
tinyurl.com/yaqzbekw

2018 GASB Accounting Support Fee to Fund the Governmental Accounting Standards Board
FINRA
In February 2012, pursuant to an SEC order, FINRA established an accounting support fee (GASB Accounting Support Fee) to adequately fund the annual budget of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The GASB Accounting Support Fee is collected on a quarterly basis from member firms that report trades to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Each member firm’s assessment is based on the member firm’s portion of the total par value of municipal securities transactions reported by all FINRA member firms to the MSRB during the previous quarter. FINRA will assess and collect a total of $8,346,300 to adequately fund the GASB’s annual budget by collecting $2,086,575 from its member firms each calendar quarter beginning in April 2018.
tinyurl.com/y9yn2obt

Monthly Disciplinary Actions April 2018
FINRA
tinyurl.com/ybhofaxm

SEC Unveils Public Service Announcement to Promote Background Checks on Investor.gov
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today unveiled a public service announcement (PSA) to encourage investors to check the background of their investment professional by using the free search tool on Investor.gov before investing. Investor.gov, the SEC’s website dedicated to individual investors, provides investors with tools and resources to help them invest wisely and avoid fraud.
tinyurl.com/ycefxtk9

Investing and Trading

Oil Trader Gunvor Agrees to Disclose Payments to Governments
Andy Hoffman – Bloomberg
Gunvor to join rival Trafigura in transparency initiative; Puts pressure on other trading houses to join program
Gunvor Group Ltd., one of the world’s largest independent oil traders, said it would join rival Trafigura Group in disclosing some of the billions of dollars it pays to governments and national oil companies each year by joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
tinyurl.com/y7t5yrge

Goldman Sachs Warns Rusal Shock May Drive Aluminum to $3,000
Swansy Afonso – Bloomberg
Bank boosts metal’s outlook, but says selloff may follow rally; Buyers scrambling for supplies after sanctions target Russia
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says that the extraordinary rally in aluminum unleashed by U.S. sanctions against United Co. Rusal may have way, way further to go, forecasting the metal may spike to $3,000 a metric ton, while raising the possibility of further curbs against Russian coal supplies.
tinyurl.com/y9ldnpdr

Institutions

U.S. Bank Profit Fueled By Higher Interest Rates, Lower Taxes; The regional bank also reported growth in corporate payments, credit cards, wealth management and investment services
Christina Rexrode – WSJ
U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by higher interest rates and lower tax rates.
tinyurl.com/y73a6lrp

Goldman outpaces peers in debt underwriting, bond trading
Catherine Ngai – Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Tuesday reported a year-on-year jump in debt underwriting revenue after working on financing for big M&A deals that some peers missed out on.
/jlne.ws/2H6kqlj

****NY Times – Goldman Sachs May Be Getting Its Groove Back

Dimon Goes to War on JPMorgan Bureaucracy, Isn’t Hot on Meetings
Sonali Basak – Bloomberg
Someone recently told Jamie Dimon during a JPMorgan Chase & Co. leadership gathering that bureaucracy is a necessity in a complex company.
tinyurl.com/y7eybt9s

Dash expands team with new hire from Bloomberg Tradebook; Jamie Bogen from Bloomberg Tradebook has been appointed MD of execution services at Dash Financial Technologies.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
Dash Financial Technologies has appointed Jamie Bogen as managing director of execution services, who joins the trading technology and platform provider from Bloomberg Tradebook.
tinyurl.com/y98zqlpo

Goldman’s Bloomberg Tradebook deal helps drive equities growth; Goldman Sachs is currently onboarding 1,300 new clients after striking equities broker agreement with Bloomberg Tradebook in November.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
Goldman Sachs’ recent broker deal with Bloomberg Tradebook has helped drive the bank’s equities business to its highest revenues in three years.
tinyurl.com/ybjrxwaw

Morgan Stanley First-Quarter Profit Rises to Record High
Sonali Basak – Bloomberg
Revenue also climbed to all-time high on trading increase; Shares rise after suprise jumps in debt trading, banking fees
Wall Street’s top stock traders got some help from their bond brethren.
tinyurl.com/y9phws8c

Blackstone’s Epic Swap Trade Intrudes on Friendly Lunch With Blankfein
Sridhar Natarajan and Nabila Ahmed – Bloomberg
Goldman, Blackstone are on opposite sides of clash over swaps; Controversy over deal tied to Hovnanian has gripped markets
Lloyd Blankfein and Jon Gray, two of the most powerful figures on Wall Street, sat down for lunch last month, just as tensions between their firms were ratcheting up.
tinyurl.com/yaa8luf5

Goldman Bond-Trading Bounce Not Enough to Get Investors on Board
Katherine Chiglinsky – Bloomberg
Shares drop as bank says it will halt buybacks to fund growth; Firm posts biggest fixed-income revenue jump on Wall Street
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s fixed-income trading desk and debt-underwriting division helped generate the bank’s highest revenue in three years. Investors still want to be convinced it’s sustainable.
tinyurl.com/ybqz45md

Goldman may acquire its way to a bigger consumer bank
Lauren Tara LaCapra – Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) is likely to expand its consumer bank through small acquisitions, its finance chief said on Tuesday, without ruling out the idea that it might buy a traditional lender, too.
tinyurl.com/ybck8bs9

Regions

Deutsche Bank names institutional client group head in China
Reuters Staff
Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) has appointed Beng-Hong Lee as China head of its institutional clients group, a business unit that distributes fixed-income and equities products to institutional investors, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
tinyurl.com/y9j27jya

More than half of Brits wouldn’t buy a Bank of England-backed cryptocurrency
Courtney Goldsmith – City AM
While cryptocurrency companies are hopeful that government acceptance could buoy public sentiment for the controversial digital assets, new research reveals more than half of Brits would not support the Bank of England (BoE) in launching its own cryptocurrency linked to the pound.
tinyurl.com/ydcv38p7

Brexit

Brussels seeks emergency powers to prepare for hard Brexit; European Commission to issue up to 40 legal measures to reduce uncertainty for business
Alex Barker – FT
Brussels is issuing dozens of legal proposals on Brexit over the next 10 weeks, in a flurry of lawmaking to prepare the EU for an sharp break from the UK, partly by giving emergency powers to the bloc’s institutions.
tinyurl.com/y723xswr

Miscellaneous

Apple Is Planning to Launch a News Subscription Service
Mark Gurman and Gerry Smith – Bloomberg
Company integrating Texture purchase into Apple News offering; About 20 Texture staff were cut soon after Apple acquisition
Apple Inc. plans to integrate recently acquired magazine app Texture into Apple News and debut its own premium subscription offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a broader push by the iPhone maker to generate more revenue from online content and services.
tinyurl.com/y7quumd3

Elite Dating Apps Threaten to Make America’s Wealth Gap Worse; Swipe right for inequality.
Jeanna Smialek – Bloomberg
Their romance began on a server at a San Francisco startup. Anna Wood had submitted a profile to the League, a dating app aimed at young professionals. She was the perfect prospect: Degree from a top university? Check. Management-track job at a marquee company? Check. Carefully selected profile pictures and a winning smile? Check and check.
tinyurl.com/ybq36q2p

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