New SEC broker-dealer rule proposal; Challengers to Libor; VIX-rigging?

First Read

Hits & Takes
JLN Staff

Cboe Global Markets announced the settlement of its April expiry bitcoin futures, the fourth contract settlement conducted since the product’s launch on December 10, 2017. The settlement price was $8,055.68.~SR

Quote of the day: “I quite understand at the end of the day everybody evolves and changes. China was a developing market that has developed in part because they needed to — they had an economy based on export at all costs…when you have to grow at 10 percent because you have to accommodate a population moving from villages to cities — and wanting to avoid social and political unrest.” – Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein at the US/China Business Summit. From CNBC.~JK

Criminals with a sense of humor: The founders of cryptocurrency startup Savedroid seem to have scammed investors on their ICO – the evidence being that their website now only has a picture of the South Park meme, “Aannd It’s Gone,” on the front page. (Editor’s Note: It seems this “scam” may have been an attempt by the Savedroid founders to teach people a lesson about the risks of ICOs. We will keep following this story and let you know more as information comes out.)~JB

Singapore Exchange was named Best Index Provider at the Structured Retail Products Asia/Pacific Awards. Last year, SGX launched a series of thematic indices on industry sectors such as robotics and cybersecurity.~JK

It seems everyone is getting in on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao is planning to start his own cryptocurrency.~JB

Regarding the above Pacquiao coin, consider that Floyd Mayweather Jr. beat Pacquiao in a unanimous decision in 2015. Also, consider Mayweather Jr. has already had a crypto experience when he endorsed an ICO. The founders of that crypto firm, Centra, have already been charged with fraud by the SEC. By the transitive property of boxing, it seems that Pacquiao’s digital endeavor has no chance of success?~SD

Don Wilson will be a keynote speaker at the June 27 Crypto Evolved event put on by Viable Markets. If you are interested in attending, contact me for a discount code for JLN readers.~JJL

CME Group has a video about volunteerism. Inspiring!~JJL

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Cross-Border Concerns – Jonathan Jachym, LSEG
JohnLothianNews.com

When Jonathan Jachym started at the London Stock Exchange Group stateside about three years ago, there were some 250 employees, most based in new York. Now, the group’s head of North American regulatory strategy and government relations has some 700 U.S.-based coworkers in six different locations. The personnel growth was matched in 2017 with revenue up across all core businesses, with its FTSE Russell and LCH arms doing particularly well.

In this video from JLN’s annual series with industry leaders, Jachym talks about compression becoming a natural part of a swap’s trading life cycle, how the group benefits from passive investing trends and the key issue facing the group and its customers – cross-border regulatory frameworks.

Watch the video and read the rest here »

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Fire extinguisher prompts lengthy outage at Nasdaq Nordic
Adam Samson – FT
The open of trade on Nasdaq equities bourses in seven countries was delayed by hours on Wednesday after the exchange operator faced a serious issue at a Swedish data centre that houses its servers. Trading across the group’s stock markets in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania did not begin on Wednesday until 1:15pm ó 2:10pm CET (12:15pm ó 1:10pm BST), hours after the typical opening time.
/jlne.ws/2vxO5mi

****** Server rattling fire alarms. Put that down as a new one.~JJL

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An 87-year-old millionaire buried treasure in the Rockiesóand he’s offered one main clue
Jonathan Blumberg – CNBC
Somewhere in the Rockies, in the roughly 1,000 miles between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Canadian border, may be a treasure chest worth millions. The man who claims to have hidden the fortune back in 2010 is Forrest Fenn, now 87, a former Vietnam fighter pilot and art dealer.
/jlne.ws/2vAuGBd

****** Anyone want to go on a trip?~JJL

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The Vomiting Camel has escaped from Bitcoin zoo
Katie Martin – FT
Just when you thought it was extinct, a mythical beast perhaps, the Vomiting Camel has once again been spotted in the wild. Truly, this is a special day. For the uninitiated, the Vomiting Camel is a joke. It is not a real thing. I have never been on a technical analysis training course. I am not really the chief investment officer of Vomiting Camel Asset Management, although my Twitter profile does say I am. (Fake news.)
tinyurl.com/yb3pyrq6

****Winner of the headline of the day.~JJL

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Wednesday’s Top Three
What’s in a name, and a resume? Our thread from the top three was led by Bloomberg’s short but irresistible piece called A Trader Named Morgan Stanley Just Left Morgan Stanley. Second went to the Wall Street Journal’s Steven Cohen Targets High-Frequency Trading With ‘Dark Pool’ Venture. Third went to Bloomberg’s The League and other selective dating apps may worsen inequality

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MarketsWiki Stats
123,890,936 pages viewed; 23,080 pages; 212,822 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics

Lead Stories

SEC stops short of toughest broker-dealer rules; Conflict-of-interest proposals cheer industry and disappoint fiduciary rule supporters
Kadhim Shubber and Barney Jopson in Washington – FT
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new conflict-of-interest rules for broker-dealers on Wednesday that stopped short of calls to impose a tough new fiduciary duty on the sale of financial products.
/jlne.ws/2vqmYcx

****Other sources – MarketWatch; Reuters; WSJ; and NY Times

Alternative benchmarks emerge to challenge Libor dominance; Industry wary of change because many loans and swaps rely on reference rate
Philip Stafford – FT
Tarnished by scandal that has cost banks more than $9bn in penalties, the clock is finally running for the demise of the Libor reference rate used by companies, banks and consumers for payment on loans and derivatives.
/jlne.ws/2vnQSy0

Bank of England expects big Libor switch to start in earnest
Huw Jones – Reuters
Financial markets should start accelerating efforts to ditch Libor in favor of the Bank of England’s revamped interest rate benchmark being launched next week, a senior BoE official said.
/jlne.ws/2vpDf1t

VIX Rigging Talk Erupts on Wall Street After Another Wild Swing
Lu Wang, Elena Popina, Luke Kawa – Bloomberg
The Cboe Volatility Index is how Wall Street measures anxiety. Lately it’s the gauge’s own plumbing that’s making people nervous. It’s a recurrent claim — the VIX is rigged. It got a fresh airing Wednesday, when the index swung wildly just as derivatives on it were expiring. Billions of dollars are earned or lost as VIX futures settle. The concern is that owners of those wagers are willing to spend a few million to make them pay off.
/jlne.ws/2vxMih4

**** FT on the action here.

Many Bitcoin Miners Are at Risk of Turning Unprofitable
Olga Kharif – Bloomberg
Large miners Bitmain, Bitfury are seen increasing dominance; Dorm-room miners are becoming a relic of the Bitcoin bubble
Bitcoin is at an inflection point.
Even with the price back above $8,000, many of the so-called miners that perform the complex calculations to generate the digital currency are at risk of turning unprofitable.
/bloom.bg/2JXleuw

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin on the bitcoin bubble and running a $125bn blockchain
Chloe Cornish – FT
Up in San Francisco’s Monterey Heights district stands a modest detached house; a house that would be perfectly ordinary, were its wide windows not covered in neon green scribbles ó half-finished equations, anatomies of computer architecture. They are marks left by the coders who use this place as a hide-out.
/jlne.ws/2vtBEHR

Crypto Confusion, Wall Street Delusion
David Weisberger, CoinRoutes and ViableMkts – TABB Forum
Crypto is here to stay, both as an asset class and as a technology that will improve other asset classes. But the market and its denizens need to mature. The misconceptions of the crypto community, coupled with a lack of understanding on the part of ‘traditional’ financial executives, play a large role in explaining why more investors, including institutions, don’t participate in the crypto-markets.
bit.ly/2HdrC35

Wall Street’s biggest banks eager to woo consumers with credit; Critics point to risk of mounting non-performing loans if households rack up ever more debt
Alistair Gray and Ben McLannahan in New York – FT
Donald Trump believes the US economy is heading for “one of the greatest booms ever”, with consumer confidence at “an all-time high”. And the country’s top banks, which in the past week announced buoyant first-quarter results, seem to share some of the president’s optimism.
/jlne.ws/2vs1wUz

Noncompete Agreements Boost Investment But Stifle Start-Ups
Alex Verkhivker – Chicago Booth Review
While noncompetes raise investment significantly, they also measurably hamper entrepreneurial activity, according to a new working paper from Chicago Booth’s Jessica S. Jeffers.
/jlne.ws/2vAtFcn

Exchanges, OTC and Clearing

Cboe Conducts April Settlement of Cboe Bitcoin Futures
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE | Nasdaq: CBOE), one of the world’s largest exchange holding companies, today announced the settlement of the April expiry Cboe bitcoin (XBT) futures, the fourth contract settlement conducted since its launch in December.
/jlne.ws/2vqAjBR

ICE Europe says could make Brexit changes quickly
Huw Jones – Reuters
The shift in contracts from London to New York earlier this year showed how the transatlantic Intercontinental Exchange (ICE.N) could respond rapidly to Brexit if need be, the bourse’s European head said on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/2vv6L60

BoE’s Brazier says now surer of dodging Brexit hit to derivatives
Huw Jones, Andy Bruce – Reuters
The Bank of England is becoming more confident that it can avoid disruption to trillions of pounds in cross-border financial contracts after Brexit, a senior BoE official said on Wednesday.
/goo.gl/B13qYZ

SGX Index Edge recognised at SRP’s Asia-Pacific Awards
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been named Best Index Provider at Structured Retail Products’ (SRP) Asia-Pacific Awards ceremony held last night in Singapore. The Awards recognise the best service providers and distributors and best buy and sell-side companies across the region.
tinyurl.com/y9r59yqm

T2S crosses borders with Clearstream’s new offer; Four markets migrate to Clearstream’s new investor CSD model for T2S / Centralized custody and settlement of securities in T2S, non-T2S and international markets / Asset Servicing supports cross-border T2S settlement
Deutsche Bˆrse
Clearstream, Deutsche Bˆrse’s post-trade service provider, has successfully migrated its markets in Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands to its new investor CSD model for TARGET2-Securities (T2S). Clearstream is thus bringing the first truly cross-border volume to the ECB’s pan-European securities settlement platform.
/jlne.ws/2HvBCUT

Nasdaq Hosted 3rd Nasdaq International Designation Virtual Investor Conference
By GlobeNewswire
Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) announced the conclusion of its 3rd Nasdaq International Designation Virtual Investor Conference on April 4, 2018. Nasdaq welcomed select Nasdaq International Designation Member Companies to present their current state of business to a broad audience including potential investors. The Conference also provided individual and institutional investors an opportunity to engage with CEOs, CFOs, and IROs from a wide range of sectors globally.
/jlne.ws/2qIzAqD

Fintech

Number of German Banks Declines While Fintechs Attack
Stephan Kahl – Bloomberg
Network of savings, cooperative banks shrinks by 5.1% in 2017; Bundesbank will publish report on consolidation next month
Even before Bundesbank will publish its annual statistics on the consolidation in the German banking industry in May, there are already indications that the total number of banks and branches has dropped even further. Banks from abroad or those focusing on very specific customer groups are among the few that are expanding.
/jlne.ws/2vxneqo

TradingScreen Integrates BondCliQ’s Data and Visualization for Improved Fixed Income Offering
TradingScreen
TradingScreen Inc. (TS), the all-asset class order and execution management system (OEMS), today announced a partnership and product integration with BondCliQ, the corporate bond market’s first central market system. The integration of BondCliQ’s U.S. Corporate traded volume data will provide buy-side clients with an instant, contextualized, intelligent and transparent view of decision quality market data. BondCliQ is the first data provider in the TS TradeSmart EMS content hub.
/jlne.ws/2vsqT8W

Adam Toms, CEO, OpenFin Europe, discusses the recently launched Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium (FDC3) initiative and how it aims to revolutionise the buy-side trading desktop through universal standards.
By John Brazier – The Trade
What is OpenFin and how does it benefit the buy side?
/jlne.ws/2Hz7uYO

Mosaic Smart Data partners with ESA for new frontier of FinTech; FICC data analytics firm to adopt ESA algorithms to improve market surveillance technology.
By John Brazier – The Trade
Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) analytics startup Mosaic Smart Data will adopt algorithms developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for capital markets.
/jlne.ws/2qLhGUc

Cryptocurrencies

‘Big bitcoin heist’ suspect escapes prison and flees Iceland ‘on PM’s plane’
Samuel Gibbs – The Guardian
The suspected mastermind behind the theft of 600 computers used to mine bitcoin in Iceland has escaped from prison and fled to Sweden on an aeroplane reportedly carrying the Icelandic prime minister.
bit.ly/2JS3IrL

Startup Pigzbe is launching a cryptocurrency wallet for kids, introducing “a new piggy-banking paradigm”
Jenny Anderson – Quartz
One of my children currently gets £1.50 a week in pocket money; the other, £2.50 (about $2.00 and $3.50). We encourage some pretty basic behaviors with these funds: save, spend, and donate. Jars, wallets, small bags, countertops, and backpacks act as various means of storage. But in our efforts to instill some financial literacy in our grade-school-age kids, we have committed a gross oversight: We failed to incorporate the blockchain.
bit.ly/2HdHcM0

India’s cryptocurrency traders scramble after RBI crackdown; Some exchanges are repurposing their business to avoid central bank rules
Simon Mundy in Mumbai – FT
When the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto gave birth to bitcoin in 2009, Nischal Shetty was briefly intrigued. Using his home computer, the young Indian computer scientist mined a small number of the virtual coins ó then worth less than a dollar apiece ó before losing interest.
/jlne.ws/2vuW2bP

Ex-CEO of Bankrupt Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Has a New Job in Crypto
Jen Wieczner – Fortune
Mark KarpelËs, the CEO who presided over Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox until it went bankrupt in 2014, has had a hard time finding work for the last four years. After all, when he announced in February 2014 that he’d lost all of Mt. Gox’s 850,000 Bitcoins, he instantly became the biggest villain of the cryptocurrency world.
/jlne.ws/2J85dRb

Blockchain Is About to Revolutionize the Shipping Industry
Kyunghee Park – Bloomberg
Maersk, APL, Hyundai race to build paperless cargo system; Adoption of blockchain could generate $1 trillion in trade
Globalization has brought the most advanced trading networks the world has seen, with the biggest, fastest vessels, robot-operated ports and vast computer databases tracking cargoes. But it all still relies on millions and millions of paper documents.
/jlne.ws/2vqDNEa

Politics

Cohen Would Turn Against President if Charged, Counselor Warned Trump
Joe Palazzolo, Michael Rothfeld and Michael Siconolfi – WSJ
One of President Donald Trump’s longtime legal advisers said he warned the president in a phone call Friday that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and close friend, would turn against the president and cooperate with federal prosecutors if faced with criminal charges.
/jlne.ws/2vnPrQe

Regulation

SEC Proposes to Enhance Protections and Preserve Choice for Retail Investors in Their Relationships With Investment Professionals
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose a package of rulemakings and interpretations designed to enhance the quality and transparency of investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers while preserving access to a variety of types of advice relationships and investment products.
/jlne.ws/2vqA61x

New CFTC Videos Give Inside Look At Binary Options Fraud
Mondovisione
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today released The Truth Behind Binary Options Fraud, new videos that give viewers a first-hand look at the tactics shrewd fraudsters use to con investors out of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
bit.ly/2JYdBEo

Bank Rule Changes Chip Away at Those Pesky Stress Tests; The annual exams lose their effectiveness as they become more opaque.
Stephen Gandel – Bloomberg
After a slow start, the Trump administration, with the help of Congress, may actually be “doing a number” to Dodd-Frank financial regulations, as the president promised he would, even bigger than many people realize.
/jlne.ws/2vrQMFK

US regulatory rollback boosts sales of debt products; Bundling of lower quality company loans into CLOs surges this month
Joe Rennison and Eric Platt – FT
The bundling of lower quality company loans into collateralised loan obligations has surged this month, with activity boosted by a rollback of post-financial crisis regulations.
/jlne.ws/2vrPuuo

CFTC Charges Multiple Individuals and Companies with Operating a Fraudulent Scheme Involving Binary Options and a Virtual Currency Known as ATM Coin
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing of a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging Defendants Blake Harrison Kantor, who frequently uses the alias Bill Gordon, and Nathan Mullins, both of New York, and the entities Blue Bit Banc, located in the United Kingdom, Blue Bit Analytics, Ltd. (Analytics) located in Nevis, Turks, and Caicos, and Mercury Cove, Inc. and G. Thomas Client Services (G. Thomas), both New York corporations, with operating a fraudulent scheme involving binary options and a virtual currency known as ATM Coin.
/jlne.ws/2vpgR8t

ESMA updates bonds transparency calculations for MiFID II/MiFIR
ESMA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has updated today its MiFID II/ MiFIR transitional transparency calculations (TTC) for bonds.
/jlne.ws/2HxDcpf

ESAs appoint new members to the Board of Appeal
ESMA
The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have appointed three new members to the Board of Appeal of the ESAs.
/jlne.ws/2qIzW0r

NFA Swap Dealer Regulatory Workshop Registration
NFA
NFA will hold a swap dealer (SD) regulatory workshop at the New York Marriott Downtown in New York, N.Y. on May 9, 2018.
/jlne.ws/2qIKZa0

Investing and Trading

RFRs: Libor is changing!
Chris Barnes – Clarus Financial Technology
ICE are planning to change the calculation methodology for LIBOR.
LIBOR is not currently (April 2018) transaction based – it remains a survey.
ICE would like to change this so that it can be based on transactions, but not all Libor tenors see transactions every day.
There is therefore a new suggested “waterfall” methodology to allow all tenors to be calculated.
ICE have published data comparing LIBOR using both new and old methodologies.
bit.ly/2JYbmAY

Currency trading volumes hit record highs in first quarter
Reuters
Foreign exchange trading volumes rose to a record high in the first three months of the year, data from CLS showed on Thursday, as a rise in volatility from multi-year lows encouraged more buying and selling of currencies.
/goo.gl/m8kQv5

The end is far from nigh for the Faangs era; Regulatory risks will not stop big tech race to give world its first $1tn company
Richard Waters in San Francisco – FT
What do you do if you are a corporate leader and US President Donald Trump is hell-bent on attacking your company?
/jlne.ws/2vqGfKS

Return of US stocks correlation most dramatic since ’87 crash; Three-month correlation of stocks in the S&P 500 index has rocketed to 52%
Robin Wigglesworth – FT
Stock pickers may have started 2018 in an ebullient mood after their strongest performance in eight years, but a dramatic snapback in equity market correlations has once again soured the environment for traditional, active fund managers.
/jlne.ws/2vuVKlf

Big Bad-Volatility Complex Loses Bite as Traders Price in Calm
Dani Burger – Bloomberg
VIX curve falls back into contango in sign of normalcy; New continued high-vol regime “unlikely,” says Goldman
Welcome back, tranquility. The first stages of restored market calm are underway, suggesting that a sky-high Cboe Volatility Index isn’t the new normal, unlike what so many observers warned about after the recent turmoil. Instead, traders are pricing derivatives in a way that suggests equity swings will soon ease even further.
/jlne.ws/2vrReUs

What Happens in Treasuries Doesn’t Stay in Treasuries; The pickup in U.S. funding costs is starting to be felt across the globe.
Marcus Ashworth – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion of tax cuts have to be funded somehow. Step forward ever more U.S. Treasury bills and notes. As the bulk of the new supply is coming at five-year maturities or less, that’s having a pronounced effect on the U.S. yield curve. And markets on the other side of the world are starting to feel it.
/jlne.ws/2vqASeX

Commodities rocket on $100 oil talk, metals stress
Marc Jones – Reuters
Talk that Saudi Arabia has its sights on $80-$100 a barrel oil again ignited a fierce rally in commodities and resource stocks on Thursday, though the potential boost to inflation globally put some pressure on fixed-income assets.
/goo.gl/QXQev9

Institutions

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs have made a lot more profit after the financial crisis than before it
Preeti Varathan and Jason Karaian – Quartz
No big bank will remember 2008 fondly. That was the year that Lehman Brothers blew up, subprime mortgage-backed securities soured, and the global financial system was generally brought to its knees. Bailouts and strict new regulations followed, with policymakers pushing to rein in the profitable but risky behavior that flourished before the crash. In the future, banking would be a safer but leaner business.
For some.
/goo.gl/24nsYZ

Matt Zames Named President of Cerberus Capital Management; Private-equity firm names Frank Bruno as co-CEO alongside co-founder Stephen Feinberg
Miriam Gottfried – WSJ
Matt Zames, the former chief operating officer of JPMorgan JPM -0.81% Chase & Co. who was once seen as a possible successor to Chief Executive James Dimon, has been appointed president of private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.
/jlne.ws/2vtCvs3

BNY Mellon, Under Investor Pressure, Posts 9% Revenue Growth
Charles Stein – Bloomberg
Top-line growth in first quarter exceeds analyst expectations; BNY chief Charles Scharf sees expansion through technology
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Chief Executive Officer Charles Scharf should be able to keep his doubters at bay — at least for awhile.
/jlne.ws/2vxQOw2

UBS, Credit Suisse Said to Explore Sharing Back-Office Costs
Jan-Henrik Foerster, Patrick Winters
Zurich-based banks said in early-stage talks on cost-sharing; UBS CEO said recently banks can’t afford separate back offices
Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS Group AG are in talks about combining some back-office functions to cut costs, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/2vqFrFQ

Blackstone Group’s Assets Jump 22% to Record $450 Billion
Heather Perlberg – Bloomberg
Investors are allocating more capital to firm, CEO says; Firm reports its first quarter inflows at $18.2 billion
Blackstone Group LP just keeps raking in money from investors.
/jlne.ws/2vqCQfl

Deutsche Bank COO Kim Hammonds to leave
Laura Noonan – FT
Deutsche Bank chief operating officer Kim Hammonds has become the latest senior executive to quit the bank.
/jlne.ws/2vtysvR

Morgan Stanley chief hails ‘exceptional’ trading in record profit; Gorman upbeat as bank closes bright Wall Street earnings season
Ben McLannahan – FT
Morgan Stanley posted record quarterly revenues and its best profits for a decade, prompting James Gorman, chief executive, to hail the “exceptional” performance of the bank’s trading arm.
/jlne.ws/2vrhSNf

BAML names new head of EMEA business
Laura Noonan – FT
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s London-based fixed income boss Bernie Mensah is taking over as president of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business.
/jlne.ws/2vxjXY8

Regions

Iceland Takes Hard Look at Tech Boom Sparked by Its Cheap, Bountiful Power; Lawmakers rethink whether a proliferation of data centers lured by the island’s Nordic climate and geothermal steam is risking the environment and tourism business
Zeke Turner – WSJ
Steaming geysers, dramatic waterfalls and icy landscapes lure millions of tourists to this country every year. Now its geology is fueling a computer tech boom.
/jlne.ws/2J88tME

Banks Warn Sweden’s Central Bank to Stay Out of Retail Market
Amanda Billner, Rafaela Lindeberg – Bloomberg
Rapid decline in Swedish cash usage now looks to have halted; Banks say e-krona could compete with commercial banks
Swedish central bank in Stockholm. Photographer: Johan Jeppsson/Bloomberg
The Swedish central bank’s deliberation on creating an electronic currency is sounding the alarm at the country’s lenders.
/jlne.ws/2J9eYPk

JPMorgan Asset Management seeks China A-share research edge; Fund manager expands proprietary research coverage in bid to lead the industry
Emma Dunkley – FT
JPMorgan Asset Management is aiming to beat other investment managers in its research coverage of mainland Chinese equities as the country’s share market opens up to overseas investors.
/jlne.ws/2vriSAZ

Brexit

JPMorgan mulls moving 200 bankers to Paris post-Brexit – Les Echos
Reuters Staff
JPMorgan (JPM.N) is considering moving almost 200 banking jobs from London to Paris after Britain leaves the European Union, Les Echos newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources.
/jlne.ws/2JapLsD

Government suffers two Brexit defeats in House of Lords; Peers vote heavily for negotiating new customs union and limiting ministerial powers
Henry Mance – FT
The House of Lords defeated the government in a key Brexit vote on Wednesday, demanding that ministers take steps to negotiate a new customs union with the EU.
/jlne.ws/2JaEfIV

Miscellaneous

London’s skyline is set for a revamp with hundreds of skyscrapers planned over the next decade
Courtney Goldsmith – City AM
London’s skyline is poised for a facelift over the next decade as the capital’s appetite for new skyscrapers strengthens, with more than 500 tall buildings currently in the pipeline.
/jlne.ws/2vrOiXW

The post New SEC broker-dealer rule proposal; Challengers to Libor; VIX-rigging? appeared first on John Lothian News (JLN).