First Read
Hits & Takes
In a presentation for Risk Management Monitor, John Fennell, OCC’s executive vice president and chief risk officer, discusses how a risk culture audit can help companies identify challenges in corporate behavior and helps them reorient how they think about today’s increasingly complex risk landscape. You can read the article here.~SR
Whether you think the crypto space is a bit-con or legitimate, it was disconcerting to see this article on Bitcoin.com yesterday – How to Buy Bitcoin When You’re Underage.~SD
Yesterday’s JLN Options newsletter can be found here.~SD
Asia Pacific Financial News from John Lothian News – November 29, 2017~JJL
What to learn to trade futures? Check out this course from the CME Institute.~JJL
Are you ready for AOL’s Instant Messenger to go away. Check out this Youtube video about ICE Instant Messenger.~JJL
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Other Voices: An Open Letter on Bitcoin Futures
Carl Gilmore via John Lothian News
A lot of ink has been spilled over bitcoin and its variants. Lately, the conversation seems to be focused on whether trading bitcoin futures is a good idea. For what it’s worth, my view is that it isn’t a good idea – it’s a great idea.
/goo.gl/uhWkAJ
***** Carl Gilmore is a bitcoin futures fan!
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Tales From The Crypt
The Reformed Broker
Okay, this is crazy. Yesterday I walked into the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and began ascending the escalators. The massive Consensus: Invest Conference, focused on cryptocurrencies, was being held on the fifth floor. But by the time I got to the third floor I could already hear it. By the fourth floor, the buzz was remarkable. By the time I got up to five, it was deafening. There were 1400 paid attendees at almost $2000 a pop according to my contact at Coindesk, the conference organizer. And then hundreds of exhibitors, speakers, AV people, journalists, etc. This thing was absolutely booming.
bit.ly/2BxjMuE
***** Category: What does a mania look like for $11,000?
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Jump Trading CTO Hunt departs in shakeup
Frank Chaparro – Business Insider
Steve Hunt, the chief technology officer of Chicago-based trading firm Jump Trading, has left the firm, according to the company.
Hunt’s tenure with Jump, a trading firm with offices in Chicago, New York, London, and Singapore, has spanned more than 10 years, according to his LinkedIn page. Before joining the firm in 2007, Hunt was a vice president at Goldman Sachs.
read.bi/2BwHkzT
**Hunt jumped.~JK
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Wednesday’s Top Three
Our top piece of the day on Wednesday was led by Bloomberg’s interview, Bitcoin ‘Ought to Be Outlawed,’ Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz Says where he says Bitcoin has no social purpose. Second went to Reuters’ piece Regulators look to shine more light on U.S. Treasury market. Third went to Bloomberg’s Hackers Now Have Incredibly Sophisticated Ways to Breach Banks’ Defenses
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Lead Stories
Nasdaq Plans to Launch Bitcoin Futures in First Half 2018
Stephanie Yang and Alexander Osipovich – The Wall Street Journal
Nasdaq Inc. and broker Cantor Fitzgerald LP are looking to join the rush on Wall Street to trade bitcoin, which powered above $11,000 on Wednesday.
Nasdaq aims to launch bitcoin futures in the first half of 2018, according to people familiar with the situation. Separately, Cantor said it is seeking to launch bitcoin derivatives on an exchange it owns, also in the first half of next year. The moves come after two major Chicago exchange operators announced similar plans for the digital currency.
/goo.gl/38JFqA
Irish Stock Exchange sold to Euronext
Donal O’Donovan – Independent.ie
The Irish Stock Exchange is understood to have agreed a sale to Euronext, which operates the main Paris exchange.
/goo.gl/cTJ25Q
Bitcoin broke $11,000, then plunged 18%, as thousands of newbies signed up for cryptocurrency wallets
Joon Ian Wong – Quartz
Bitcoin’s price soared past $11,000, plunged as low as $9,300, and then recovered to around $10,000óall in the space of 24 hours of trading yesterday (Nov. 29). It was an object lesson in the volatility of the bitcoin markets. However, the violent price swings didn’t stop hundreds of thousands of users opening cryptocurrency wallets for the first time, according to two major wallet providers.
/goo.gl/ypm3si
Australia bows to years of pressure, announces inquiry into finance sector
Byron Kaye, Paulina Duran – Reuters
The Australian government said on Thursday it will hold a wide-ranging inquiry into a scandal-hit finance sector, arguing one was needed to restore public confidence as it reversed its long-held opposition amid mounting political pressure.
/goo.gl/iNH4G5
Takeover speculation returns after Rolet’s exit from the LSE
Samuel Agini – Financial News
Analysts at JPMorgan are already asking whether Xavier Rolet’s immediate exit from the London Stock Exchange could reinvigorate takeover interest from one of the biggest exchange groups in the world.
bit.ly/2BxFoak
Activist TCI keeps up effort to remove LSE chairman Brydon
Philip Stafford – FT
The Children’s Investment Fund is to go ahead with its attempt to remove Donald Brydon, the chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group.
/goo.gl/zbLCgo
****SD: Also from the FT’s Stafford – Rolet stands down but doubts remain over future of LSE
U.S. Securities Markets Coalition Opposes Senator Wyden’s Proposed Amendment “Modernization of Derivatives Tax Act of 2017”
OCC
The members of the U.S. Securities Markets Coalition (the “Coalition”) write to share our opposition to Senator Wyden’s filed amendment (Wyden #11, Committee #155) to the Chairman’s Mark of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that would add the language of his proposed Modernization of Derivatives Tax Act of 2017.
/goo.gl/mkUa4u
Itiviti-ULLINK Combo Sets Sights on Trading Tech Market Leader Fidessa
Intelligent Trading Technology
The planned merger of Nordic front-office trading systems provider Itiviti with rival French supplier ULLINK is aimed at creating a global full-service trading powerhouse with a remit to take on market leader Fidessa. The merger of equals – announced today – expects to meld Itiviti’s trading and market-making capabilities with the equities and listed derivatives expertise of ULLINK, and offer global connectivity via the latter’s NYFIX network and a full range of high- and low-touch order and execution management (OMS/EMS) solutions and services.
/goo.gl/aiwtDs
What is going on in Uncleared Derivative Markets?
Chris Barnes – Clarus Financial Technology
In an age of Clearing Mandates (2017), Regulatory Reforms (MIFID II) and Uncleared Margin Rules (ISDA SIMM) we may be tempted to anticipate the inevitable demise of uncleared markets. We certainly don’t write about them much on this blog.
However, that isn’t the case. There will always be derivatives that are not cleared (see the small volumes in Swaptions or the lack of a cross currency swap solution). There will continue to be legacy trades. There are also counterparties exempt from Clearing Mandates.
/goo.gl/CYA9HS
What Organizations Need to Know about Risk Culture Audits
Risk Management Monitor
John Fennell, OCC’s Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, discusses how a risk culture audit can help companies identify challenges in corporate behavior and helps them reorient how they think about today’s increasingly complex risk landscape.
bit.ly/2BuLlVD
Bitcoin’s price is collapsing and people can’t trade because 2 big exchanges have crashed
Becky Peterson – Business Insider
Bitcoin on Wednesday dropped to about $9,200 from an all-time high of about $11,400 after many users found themselves locked out of two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the US.
read.bi/2BzaOgI
London lost the Frenchman who has tried to save its $1 trillion clearing business
John Detrixhe – Quartz
One of the UK’s unlikely Brexit championsóa Frenchman who has tried to protect London’s financial sector from European Union officials (including the French ones) who want to dismantle itóhas stepped down. Today (Nov. 29) London Stock Exchange Group CEO Xavier Rolet is leaving the company after its boardroom drama spilled into the public.
/goo.gl/oiMjaH
Turkish gold trader details money laundering scheme for Iran
Brendan Pierson – Reuters
A Turkish-Iranian gold trader described in a U.S. court on Wednesday how he ran a sprawling international money laundering scheme aimed at helping Iran get around U.S. sanctions and spend its oil and gas revenues abroad.
reut.rs/2Bxtk97
****SD: Financial Times here.
Bitcoin Futures Draw Push Back, Not Stop Light From Market Cops
Newsmax
Bitcoin just passed $10,000 and a bid by the world’s largest futures exchange to make it even more mainstream is probably inevitable. But that doesn’t mean U.S. regulators will let trading resemble the Wild West.
/goo.gl/7QxAQE
Carbon Pricing: The Business Case for Low-Carbon Innovation
Rochelle March, Senior Analyst – S&P Dow Jones Indices Indexology Blog
The belief that economic growth is possible without lowering carbon emissions is becoming harder to sell by the minute. A study by the London School of Economics showed that if business-as-usual emissions continue over this century, the value of risk to global financial assets in today’s terms is 1.8%, or USD 2.5 trillion. Likewise, analysis by Trucost shows that operating margins will turn negative for 46% of companies in the chemicals sector by 2030 because emitting carbon will become too expensive.
bit.ly/2BxxJJ9
Bundesbank Says Brexit Deal Could Keep Swaps Clearing in London
Nicholas Comfort – Bloomberg
Dombret says intensive supervisory cooperation would be needed; Such an agreement could obviate need for relocation of firms
Bundesbank Executive Board member Andreas Dombret said an agreement should be reached to prevent Brexit from disrupting financial clearing services, which are currently dominated by firms in London.
/goo.gl/Ax79mY
Exchanges, OTC and Clearing
Euronext expands its federal model with the acquisition of the Irish Stock Exchange
Euronext
Today, Euronext announces the acquisition of 100% of The Irish Stock Exchange plc (“ISE”), for EUR137 million.
/goo.gl/y3qF6V
Payday for brokers as Irish Stock Exchange lands EUR158.8m Euronext deal; Deal allows both sides to position themselves for Brexit opportunities
Mac DÛnaill – The Irish Times
A group of Irish stockbrokers are set to share EUR158.8 million through a deal to sell the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) to Euronext, operator of the Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Brussels bourses.
/goo.gl/LuK3mg
Euronext buys Irish Stock Exchange in EUR137m Brexit driven deal; The acquisition aims to strongly position Euronext in a post-Brexit landscape.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
operator looks to strongly position itself in a post-Brexit environment.
/goo.gl/NKFuFg
BaFin approves Deutsche Bˆrse as ARM and APA
Deutsche Bˆrse Group
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has decided that the approved reporting mechanism (ARM) and the approved publication system (APA) of Deutsche Bˆrse AG fulfill all relevant requirements of MiFID II. Deutsche Bˆrse’s Regulatory Reporting Hub (RRH) will offer corresponding ARM and APA services as of 3 January 2018.
/goo.gl/8nqHDm
Trading Charity at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: acting and helping
Deutsche Bˆrse Group
Deutsche Bˆrse and specialists at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange are donating fees of 6 December to the Association Help for children with cancer Frankfurt eV and the Frankfurt Association for the fight against tumor diseases (FFBT) eV
/goo.gl/cfdbcb
LCH SwapAgent goes live with Cross-Currency Basis Swaps
LCH
Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank conduct the first Cross-Currency Basis Swap processed through LCH SwapAgent; ICAP acts as interdealer broker for the first brokered trade in LCH SwapAgent; Extends efficiencies and infrastructure of clearing to the non-cleared Cross-Currency Basis Swap market; 14 dealers have already confirmed their support for LCH SwapAgent
LCH SwapAgent, a service for the non-cleared derivatives market, today announced that it has processed its first Cross-Currency Basis Swap. The first trade was conducted between Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank and was a EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap. The trade was brokered by ICAP, which is part of TP ICAP group, and was processed through MarkitSERV.
/goo.gl/s5JCmT
LCH adds Belgian debt to repo clearing
Helen Bartholomew – Reuters
LCH has extended its repo clearing service to include Belgian government debt – part of an ongoing effort to enhance netting opportunities against existing cleared repo activities on the RepoClear platform.
reut.rs/2k7wNa3
HKEX Publishes Paper on Investor ID Model for Stock Connect Northbound Trading
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) today (Thursday) published an information paper on an investor identification (investor ID) model for northbound trading through its mutual stock market access programmes with the exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen (Stock Connect).
/goo.gl/Qu28tB
ICE Endex announces results of European gas storage auction for GasTerra
iCE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced the results of the ICE Endex gas storage auction held on November 29 2017, on behalf of GasTerra.
/goo.gl/HwvtAL
Latam Swaps: Trends in IRS and NDF Data
Tod Skarecky – Clarus Financial Technology
I last looked at Latam swaps back in February this year, with the focus on Interest Rate swaps. We learned that both BRL and MXN swaps had migrated to a primarily cleared market at CME. We also then looked at CME margin requirements for these swaps and noted they were more expensive than similar USD swaps.
/goo.gl/K4kx9C
Singapore Exchange Aims for Faster Trade Settlement Next Year
Abhishek Vishnoi – Bloomberg
Plans to cut city’s trade cycle to two days from three; Move will bring it line with U.S., Europe and Hong Kong
Singapore Exchange Ltd. plans to speed up clearing and settlement of securities to reduce systemic risks and bring the island nation’s market in line with global standards.
/goo.gl/Mh5TMC
Hong Kong stock exchange likely to allow weighted voting rights-CEO
Reuters Staff
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) is likely to allow weighted voting rights, its chief executive said, as the Asia financial hub’s exchange operator looks to attract more new economy companies to remain a global listings powerhouse.
/goo.gl/CFZD1o
Bitcoin Mania: Even Grandma Wants In on the Action; The digital currency has gone from tech curiosity to mainstream topic, leading its value to jump more than 10-fold in 2017
Peter Rudegeair and Akane Otani – WSJ
Rita Scott’s grandson convinced her in mid-November to get in on the latest investing sensation and buy bitcoin. “I thought it was a big coin,” the 70-year-old said. “I didn’t even know what it was, a piece of coin? Why would I invest in a piece of coin?”
/goo.gl/w6sFM9
Dark pool trader Liquidnet pledges more AI use to boost portfolio performance; ‘We’ve evolved from being a simple dark pool operator into a global fintech player,’ says Seth Merrin, Liquidnet’s CEO and founder, boosted by its recent acquisition of Otas Technologies
Karen Yeung – South China Morning Post
Officials at Liquidnet say the US-based institutional “dark pool” trading operator has pledged to make even greater use of artificial intelligence in future, to provide more analytical information and increase the use of computer power to improve client portfolio performance.
/goo.gl/kqhgVN
Xavier Rolet’s replacement at the London Stock Exchange: Runners and riders
Jasper Jolly – City AM
Xavier Rolet is a tough act to follow: a strong strategic hand on the tiller at one of the City’s central financial institutions.
/goo.gl/NxXk3z
Alex Brummer: Day of long knives at the London Stock Exchange could not have come at a worse moment
Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail
Only Mark Carney and the Bank of England come out of the boardroom brawl at the London Stock Exchange with credit. The Bank has been keeping a close eye on the LSE ever since the disastrous merger with Deutsche Boerse was unveiled a year ago.
/goo.gl/GsszyW
China’s Dalian Exchange launches 24 single futures price indexes -media
Reuters Staff
China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange launched 24 single futures price indexes on traded agricultural and industrial products, state-backed media cnstock.com reported on Wednesday, citing the bourse, a step to boost China’s commodity derivatives market and attract private capital to futures trading.
/goo.gl/P5bTMd
Japan Exchange Group: Construction Of New Secondary Data Center
JPX
Japan Exchange Group, Inc. (JPX) has advancing discussions on the construction of a new secondary data center (backup center) based on the “Second Report of the Technical Committee on Exchange Transactions” published by the BCP Forum on April 20, 2017. JPX hereby announces its decision to build the new secondary data center in a location that is at a greater distance from the main data center to prevent simultaneous disruption in the event of disaster.
/goo.gl/hJdxb6
NEX’s Spencer Sees a ‘Long Way Down’ for Bitcoin After $20,000
Joe Easton – Bloomberg
NEX Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael Spencer, one of London’s best-known financial figures, said he sees bitcoin perhaps reaching $20,000 “but at some point it is going to go back — a hell of a long way back — down.”
/goo.gl/XQbdCp
World’s largest interdealer broker TP Icap grabs rival Coex Partners
Lucy White – City AM
Brokerage giant TP Icap, which was formed just last year in a £1.28bn deal, has hoovered up smaller Marylebone-based rival Coex Partners.
/goo.gl/xTaVhW
Board of the London Stock Exchange accuses activist fund of sabotaging Rolet’s succession
Lucy White – City AM
Xavier Rolet this morning said he will step down immediately (Source: Getty)
The board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has today accused activist hedge fund TCI of “damaging” the bourse’s reputation, through its efforts to reinstate outgoing boss Xavier Rolet.
/goo.gl/GkPSri
Fintech
Japan’s bitcoin exchange bitFlyer launches in the US; New York State Department of Financial Services grants virtual currency license to bitFlyer USA
Automated Trader
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has approved the application of bitFlyer USA for a virtual currency license. With the new DFS license, bitFlyer USA is approved to offer an online digital currency exchange and trading platform as well as provide custodial wallet services for the Bitcoin digital currency.
/goo.gl/nd3yHH
Bitcoin Goes to the Big Four: PwC Accepts First Digital-Currency Payment; PricewaterhouseCoopers said the payment for its advisory services was its first in a virtual currency
Steven Russolillo – WSJ
Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said it accepted a payment in bitcoin for its advisory services, its first in a virtual currency.
/goo.gl/oj3XB8
Barchart Launches Weekly Commodities Insights Report Series
Barchart.com
Barchart, a leading provider of market data and financial technology, announces the launch of the cmdtyInsights Commodities Weekly report series. The publication is directed at professional traders, analysts, marketers, and end-users participating in the physical and exchange traded commodity markets.
/goo.gl/YqU9Ks
Europe draws in nearly half of funds raised via initial coin offerings – report
Jamillah Knowles – Reuters
Nearly half of the cash that has poured into newly issued cryptocurrencies in recent years has been raised in Europe, research published on Thursday showed.
/goo.gl/CqKbWW
Bitcoin’s price is collapsing and people can’t trade because 2 big exchanges have crashed
Becky Peterson – Business Insider
Two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase and Gemini, crashed on Wednesday morning, making it impossible for many users to buy or sell digital currency; Coinbase said it saw “all-time-high traffic” that contributed to system outages; Bitcoin fell to about $9,000 on Wednesday after surging earlier to over $11,000.
Bitcoin on Wednesday dropped to about $9,200, from an all-time high of about $11,400, after many users found themselves locked out of two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the US.
/goo.gl/2Jd7x5
Bitcoin Is Sucking All the Oxygen
Tim Culpan – Bloomberg
With all this love for bitcoin, spare a thought for the little guy.Despite a plethora of new coins coming online in the past year, and the emergence of ethereum as an alternative cryptocurrency, bitcoin is still sucking up most of the oxygen.
/goo.gl/19kXk1
The 11 biggest names in cryptocurrency right now
Daniel Roberts – Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency has arguably never been hotter than it is right now. In November, the price of bitcoin topped $10,000 for the first time and is up about 1,000% this year, ethereum hit $500 for the first time and is up more than 5,000% this year, and litecoin hit $100 for the first time and is up more than 2,000% this year, to name just three of the highest market-cap digital coins.
/goo.gl/wNGi3x
This Is What Could Pop the Bitcoin Bubble
Luke Kawa – Bloomberg
Bitcoin and bubble have become virtually synonymous in the minds of many skeptics during this year’s breathtaking rally. While the digital currency has defied doomsday prophesies, there’s a number of ways this party could end badly for the swelling ranks of bulls.
/goo.gl/pYPXTV
Billions in bitcoins have been lost or deleted
Frank Chung – NY Post
Alex could have been a millionaire. In late 2009, when the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin was still in its infancy and a single PC could “mine” a few coins in a day, the self-described technology enthusiast “got into it just for fun”
/goo.gl/NnauTX
Politics
A moment of truth for our country’s financial future
Alan Simpson and Erksine Bowles – Washington Post
Seven years and almost $7 trillion in new debt ago, we released a bipartisan package of tax and spending reforms as co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. At the time, we declared that the era of deficit denial was over. Sadly, the debate on tax reform in the House and Senate suggests deficit denial is not only back but also stronger than ever. Yet the fundamental fiscal challenges we identified in 2010 remain.
wapo.st/2BwYMEm
Trump Ran for the ‘Forgotten.’ Then He Forgot Them.
Robert Kuttner – NY Times
How does President Trump continue to pass for an economic populist even as his policies and appointees are those of an economic royalist? The Republican tax plans he supports are a prime example: They favor corporations and upper-bracket individuals and rely on the long-discredited “trickle down” theory to offer benefits to workers.
/goo.gl/GzYnUV
Donald Trump is ‘trying to humiliate’ Theresa May with late night tweets
Independent
/goo.gl/Pngifg
SEC Nominees Face Delay as Democratic Senator Puts Up Roadblock; Sen. Tammy Baldwin says she needs answers on activist investors, stock buybacks before agreeing to fast-track votes
Dave Michaels – WSJ
A Democratic senator says she won’t agree to quickly confirm two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission until they outline their views on whether regulators should rein in activist investors, stock buybacks and executive pay.
/goo.gl/Qa49LZ
London Mayor: Trump Not Welcome After Retweeting ‘Vile’ Group
Kitty Donaldson and Thomas Penny – Bloomberg
May Urged to Cancel Proposed State Visit Hosted by Queen; U.K Lawmakers Call on Trump to Delete His Twitter Account
Donald Trump is persona non grata in Britain. Ever since Theresa May extended an invitation to the president to come visit the Queen, he has rankled the nation with his off-the-cuff comments about terror attacks in Britain and now with his latest provocation: the sharing of far-right videos and the lashing out against the prime minister for telling him he was wrong.
/goo.gl/WGgnB7
Regulation
CFTC Hits SchoolofTrade Fraudsters with $5 Million Fine
Aziz Abdel-Qadar – Finance Magnates
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it ?obtained a federal court order requiring Joseph Dufresne and Megan Renkow and their company to pay nearly $5 million in disgorgement and penalties for fraudulently marketing their trading educational program. ?
/goo.gl/AxfucE
Bond dealers RegTech spending tops $20 billion; New report finds RegTech spend will bring about compliance checks and improve tools for sales traders.
Hayley McDowell – The Trade
Fixed income dealers are now spending up to $20 billion on regulatory technology (RegTech) a year, according to research.
/goo.gl/FGH4A1
ASIC reports on cyber resilience assessments of financial markets firms
ASIC
An ASIC report on the cyber resilience of over 100 firms operating across Australia’s financial markets has shown a growing understanding of cyber risks, but there is still some progress to be made.
/goo.gl/C4jtzv
ASIC overview of licensing and professional registration – July 2016 to June 2017
ASIC
ASIC has today reported on its approach to and assessment of licence applications and professional registrations for the period July 2016 to June 2017.
/goo.gl/2zCSyV
ECB, ESMA and FSMA seek participants for Euro Risk-Free Rates Working Group
ESMA
The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a call for expressions of interest to participate in the Working Group on Euro Risk-Free Rates for the euro area. The call is also issued on behalf of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), and the European Commission.
/goo.gl/HC5aXF
ESMA publishes MiFID compliance function peer review results
ESMA
MIFID – INVESTOR PROTECTIONSUPERVISORY CONVERGENCE
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published the results of its Peer Review on the Guidelines on certain aspects of the compliance function under MiFID (Guidelines). The Guidelines cover national competent authorities (NCAs) supervision of investment firms’ compliance functions, particularly how those functions carry out risk assessments, monitor compliance obligations, report to senior management and fulfil their advisory role.
/goo.gl/AiFkRv
Purchase FINRA E-Learning Courses and Library Subscriptions
FINRA
FINRA’s e-learning library and individual courses offer training on a range of compliance topics, including anti-money laundering, variable annuities and ethics.
/goo.gl/KsASYf
FCA commences civil proceedings in relation to alleged misleading statements on pension investments
FCA UK
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has commenced civil proceedings against Avacade Limited (in liquidation), trading as Avacade Investment Options, and Alexandra Associates (U.K.) Limited, trading as Avacade Future Solutions, and against Craig Lummis, Lee Lummis and Raymond Fox.
/goo.gl/1UeJTk
PPI campaign response update; We publish PPI campaign response data during months when we have had live advertising.
FCA UK
This data shows the numbers visiting our website, calling our helpline and contacting us on social media. The data provides useful insight into how many people our campaign has prompted to find out more about PPI via FCA channels. It also shows how satisfied they were with the services we provided.
/goo.gl/fxxgaH
Investing and Trading
Index IDEA: A tale of 16 markets
FTSE Russell Blog
When viewed from the eyes of an astronaut, the world may look very similar from country-to-county, continent-to-continent. And, similarly, when viewed through the lens of a broad global or regional index, individual countries may lose some of their distinct characteristics.
bit.ly/2BxRiRI
Navigating the Financial Side of a Relationship
Maria Teresa Hart – NY Times
Couples can fight about anything, it’s just a fact of relationships. But arguments about money have a tendency to be particularly toxic, since they’re layered with deep emotional and personal history.
/goo.gl/D4Ra9S
Lawsuit questions conduct of Madoff victims’ lawyer
Jonathan Stempel – Reuters
A new lawsuit accuses a lawyer representing hundreds of victims defrauded by Bernard Madoff of cheating her own clients through overbilling, discouraging settlements and having conflicts of interest.
/goo.gl/JPqMev
Bitcoin is ‘digital gold’ for millennials and could reach the ‘$100,000 range,’ says strategist Tom Lee
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. – CNBC
Bitcoin is essentially “digital gold” for millennials, and the cryptocurrency could easily achieve the $100,000 range, Wall Street strategist Tom Lee told CNBC on Wednesday.
/goo.gl/QbiwND
Investors Are Trying to Learn Things About Companies; But amateurs will still be at a disadvantage.
Matt Levine – Bloomberg
“Insider trading is not about fairness,” I often say; “it’s about theft.” It’s not a crime to know things that other people do not know, and to trade on your knowledge. In fact it is good. In fact it is the point of securities markets, or a point of them anyway: Society wants capital to flow to good projects and not to bad ones, and so we encourage people to work hard to get information about which projects are good and which are bad, and to buy the good ones and sell the bad ones.
/goo.gl/hJdTj4
Electricity Prices Plummet as Gas, Wind Gain Traction and Demand Stalls; Texas is a microcosm of pressures facing power generators; ‘It’s too late’ for coal
Erin Ailworth and Russell Gold – WSJ
The rapid rise of wind and natural gas as sources of electricity is roiling U.S. power markets, forcing more companies to close older generating plants.
/goo.gl/tWRK1f
Institutions
Fidelity Customers Blocked from Accounts by ‘Tech Issue’ on Website – MoneyBeat
Chris Dieterich and Sarah Krouse – WSJ
A technical error at Fidelity Investments on Wednesday morning blocked millions of customers from their online brokerage accounts.
For more than two hours, attempts to log in were met with an error message telling users that access to their accounts was “temporarily unavailable.” Around noon, an alert atop the website said that the issue had been resolved and urged investors to “please try again.”
on.wsj.com/2Bz7l1I
Credit Suisse Spares a Thought for Shareholders
Lionel Laurent – Bloomberg
Months after tapping shareholders for cash to bolster their creaking balance sheets, Europe’s investment banks are lining up to present themselves as brimming with excess cash. Some are even starting to talk about dividends and buybacks — heart-warming Christmas promises that not all may be able to keep.
/goo.gl/NGCxjB
Britain’s Oldest Investment Funds Are Going Back to Basics
Lukanyo Mnyanda – Bloomberg
‘There’s going to be a lot of wild cards,’ one manager says; Debt is out and Australian wine or Mexican airports are in
It’s a brave new world in global politics, but it’s back to basics at some of Britain’s oldest investment funds.
/goo.gl/EC7zZH
Credit Suisse vows to return 50% of profits to shareholders by 2019
Ralph Atkins, Laura Noonan – FT
Credit Suisse has vowed to give half its profits back to shareholders after the Swiss bank said its restructuring programme was on track and unveiled fresh cost cutting plans through to 2020.
/goo.gl/vv59sH
Regions
India Restores Faith in Capitalism; Handling bankruptcies right is key to reviving the credibility of India Inc.
Mihir Sharma – Bloomberg
According to one of India’s most respected bankers, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — a mammoth sale of distressed assets, some $40 billion in the first round. Much could go wrong, of course, especially given that so many powerful interests have so much money at stake in the process. Fortunately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has stumbled in some of its biggest policy moves recently, appears to be handling this particular challenge with both agility and a sense of urgency. That mindset should now be carried over into other parts of the reform agenda.
/goo.gl/zLmwYh
Analyst bemoans China’s bond market rout to Jay Chou’s tunes, and strikes a chord with traders
Zheng Yangpeng – South China Morning Post
November had been the worst month in two years for Chinese bond traders, as a rout in the country’s market for sovereign debt and corporate notes caused transactions to shrink, reduced their fee income and even put jobs at risk.
/goo.gl/LHiRcu
Russia Plans First Sale of Yuan Bonds, Tapping Chinese Investors for Funds; Issuance of about $1 billion in dim-sum bonds could happen as early as next week
Manju Dalal and Saumya Vaishampayan – WSJ
Russia is planning to sell yuan-denominated sovereign bonds for the first time, as it looks to Chinese investors as a new source of funding during a period of strained relations with Western nations.
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The ongoing bitcoin boom is drawing Indian investors like never before
Nupur Anand – Quartz
Even conservative Indian investors can’t seem to resist the bitcoin price boom.
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Europe’s Longest-Serving Bank Chief Isn’t a Bitcoin Believer
Boris Groendahl and Guy Johnson – Bloomberg
Europe’s longest-serving bank chief isn’t a bitcoin believer. Andreas Treichl, the 65-year-old chief executive officer of Austria’s biggest lender, Erste Group Bank AG, says that his kids think he’s “really stupid” when it comes to cryptocurrencies. “They think they could have made a lot of money and I didn’t allow them to invest in it,” Treichl said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
/goo.gl/2yjTo8
Aberdeen Finds an Easier Place to Make Money and It’s Not China
Anna Edwards, Manus Cranny and Nupur Acharya – Bloomberg
Asia’s most expensive stock market is getting more love. While China remains a “huge opportunity,” it is India that takes the crown of the favorite emerging market for Standard Life Aberdeen Ltd., which held 670 billion pounds ($902 billion) in group assets at the end of June.
/goo.gl/kUW6n5
India cracks down on ‘promoter’ era of impunity; Swaggering behaviour of influential corporate figures highlights India’s bad loan crisis
Simon Mundy in Mumbai – FT
Billionaire tycoon Sajjan Jindal was in celebratory spirits last week, hitting Twitter with a string of posts extolling a new tightening of India’s corporate insolvency regime.
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China’s people moved by the markets rather than party diktats; A lucrative service sector has challenged central planners’ hopes of controlling labour
Lucy Hornby in Beijing – FT
Planned economies attempt to control not only the “commanding heights” of industry but also the movement of their people. The transformation of China’s economy into the powerhouse it is today came about only after Chinese were allowed to leave subsistence farms for factories and cities.
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Is China’s Central Bank Losing Its Monetary-Policy Mojo?; The gap between policy and market interest rates is widening, throwing up challenges for the PBOC
Shen Hong – WSJ
A widening gap between official and market interest rates in China is making it harder for Beijing to use a key policy tool to manage the world’s second-largest economy.
/goo.gl/Cu8Zex
Brexit
Brexit Cost Rises as Britain Retreats on Divorce Demands
Stephen Castle – NY Times
The proposition that Britain could have its cake and eat it during Brexit, as the foreign secretary Boris Johnson once said, was always dismissed as a fiction by opponents. On Wednesday, it was quietly interred by the government as it capitulated on the amount it will have to pay for a divorce settlement.
/goo.gl/FPGj9d
Migration Falls After Brexit Vote as EU Nationals Shun U.K.
Andrew Atkinson and Kitty Donaldson – Bloomberg
Net migration from EU accounts for three quarters of decline; Businesses say loss of foreign workers will harm U.K. economy
Net migration to the U.K. dropped by a record 106,000 in the year following the Brexit referendum as European Union nationals arrived in fewer numbers, a trend welcomed by some lawmakers and deplored by businesses.
/goo.gl/BWco3h
Record $19 Billion of Investment Suggests Europe Tech Is Doing Fine; But Brexit worries are significant in Atomico’s annual report on the state of the European tech industry
Nate Lanxon – Bloomberg
European startups are on pace to collect a record $19 billion from investors this year, despite concerns the U.K.’s departure from the European Union will weigh on the region’s technology industry, according to an annual report by the London-based venture capital firm Atomico.
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Miscellaneous
Where Chicago Isn’t the Second City; Trains arrive on time, and the subway has 4G. This is the power of public investment.
William A. Galston – WSJ
Years of congressional dysfunction have shifted power into the executive branch, independent agencies and the courts. This horizontal shift has been accompanied by a vertical one, as states and localities take on greater responsibilities.
/goo.gl/e9Ts1A
Can Markets Save the West’s Most Controversial Bird?; A group of states are experimenting with cap-and-trade conservation.
Daniel Rothberg – Bloomberg
Agee Smith’s Cottonwood Ranch is tucked away in rural Nevada, about 450 miles from Las Vegas and not far from the Idaho border. The area is prime habitat for the greater sage grouse, an imperiled bird found in 11 western states. The male grouse is known for his eccentric mating danceóinvolving strutting, chest puffing and the inflation of two yellow air sacs on his neck.
/goo.gl/6edxbt
Farmers’ Bin Doors Are Locked, The Carry is Everything
By Ashley Davenport – Farm Journal
It might be pretty easy to turn your attention away from the markets as the holidays approach and more time is spent with family and friends, traveling or shopping. However, there could be a holiday market rally soon.
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