EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 20 May 2010
FOA CEO Anthony Belchambers said he opposes a global tax on derivatives transactions. German Chancellor Merkel said she would work to build support for a global tax on financial markets."What Germany will have to decide is will we go it alone, and will the Swedish experience have any warnings in doing that," Belchambers said.
US Senator Chris Dodd withdrew an proposed amendment to spin off banks’ derivatives trading desks.
DB1 indicated that Germany’s ban on naked short-selling is “not beneficial” and is “inconsistent procedures in European countries regarding short selling bans are not beneficial for the financial center Germany. Outside Germany, naked short selling is still authorized and thus possible. This is opposed to the intended level playing field in Europe,” a company statement read.
NYX CEO Duncan Niederauer said circuit breakers “need to be applied to all equity markets, not just some of the markets."
Citadel and Knight experienced breakdowns during market plunge on May 6, according to WSJ. Citadel ceased taking orders in several securities and Knight experienced delays in less than 1% of the orders handled.
NASDAQ OMX UK electricity market, N2EX, will charge no annual clearing membership fee and will provide a 50% reduction to the annual trading membership fee for 2010. This will apply to all members joining N2EX before 1 September 2010 as well as to all existing members. The primary objective of N2EX is to open up the UK wholesale markets to a wider spectrum of participants.
TMX: The Montréal Exchange will start listing serial and quarterly mid-curve options on BAX futures on May 21.
London Metal Exchange started cash trading in molybdenum and cobalt contracts. “Initial trading is encouraging and suggests the market is positively engaging with the new contracts,” said Chris Evans, Head of Business Development.
NZX announced the resignation of Geoff Brown as Head of Market Products.
Hellenic Exchanges approved a €0.22 dividend relating to 2009 earnings.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Market for Alternative Investment, the Bond Electronic Exchange and Thailand Futures Exchange will be closed for the rest of week after the main stock exchange building was set on fire by protesters yesterday.
Citi launched a new collateral management service offering exposure monitoring, margin calling, collateral optimization and rehypothecation. The company appointed Rajen Shah as head of the new service; he previously served as product executive-global custody at JPMorgan.
MF Global reported GAAP EPS loss of -$0.78 on net revenues of $240.5 mn (-4.2% Q/Q; -6.3% Y/Y) and expenses of $357 mn (+40.1% Q/Q; +2.1% Y/Y) including severance costs and the acceleration of previously granted sign-on bonus and other retention payments of $29.1 mn. The company will review its compensation structure, including the elimination of future service requirements on the majority of previously granted sign-on bonuses and other retention payments which will result in a one-time write-off of upfront compensation expense; a global hiring freeze; set compensation targets; reduce workforce by 10 to 15% in 2Q10 and other indicatives.
Compagnie Financiere Tradition acquired a 45% stake in Finarbit for an undisclosed amount. Tradition's Swiss subsidiary and Finarbit will collaborate on an operational level to further develop both companies' Swiss based operations.
MasterCard reached a settlement with Heartland Payment Systems in connection with Heartland’s previously announced data security breach. Under the agreement Heartland will fund up to $41.4 mn of “alternative recovery offers” that will be made to eligible MasterCard card issuers to settle their claims.
JP Morgan Asset Manager launched the Asian Infrastructure & Related Resources Opportunity Fund invest in toll roads and other transportation assets as well as power generation and other infrastructure projects in Asia. The fund raised $858.6 mn in seed money.
IVZ: Powershares will launch the International Corporate Bond Portfolio ETF.
EFG International opened two Representative Offices in Uruguay, in the cities of Montevideo and Punta del Este, headed by Mara Mattozo. Ms. Mattozo has over 25 years of experience in private banking with American Express Bank and Banque Nationale de Paris.
GFI was upgraded to "Outperform" from "Market Perform" at KBW. Target price was maintained at $8.
BGC Partners was upgraded to "Outperform" from "Market Perform" at KBW. Target price was raised to $8 from $7.
The CFTC’s technology advisory commission will meet on July 14 to discuss issues in high-frequency trading such as equal access to co-location.
The Polish National Depository for Securities appointed KDPW_CLEARPOOL as transaction settlement guarantor.
Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com