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August
The Warsaw Stock Exchange has chosen NYSE Euronext as its strategic partner for all software development. The first joint project will be to develop the WSE’s new trading engine.
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Matthew Martens has become chief litigation counsel in the SEC’s division of enforcement.
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Reform of the EU’s derivatives markets moved forward in June when the European Commission published a consultation paper asking for feedback from the market on four specific topics.
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Derivatives specialists in London have been digesting the June 16 announcement of radical changes to the UK’s regulatory structure, due by 2012.
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July
Allan Mendelowitz, of the Committee to Establish the National Institute of Finance, has called the Dodd-Frank Act’s provision for transaction data monitoring “a tribute to the power of American democracy”.
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The enlarged role for clearing houses likely to be included in planned EU legislation on derivatives could lead to conflicts of interest, two London trade associations have warned the European Commission.
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The US Senate opened a new chapter in financial markets history yesterday afternoon by passing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by 60 votes to 39.
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Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said yesterday (July 15) that the Dodd-Frank bill becoming law will not herald the end of financial reform in the US.
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The US Senate yesterday morning voted through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by 60 votes to 38, allowing it to defeat a Republican filibuster.
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It’s lucky the cavalry happened to be passing. Deputies O’Malia and Dunn were sound asleep when Cantor and Veriana’s Knockabout Hollywood Carnival rolled into town and tried to pitch its tents in the main square.
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The Securities and Exchange Board of India said this week that it was halving the minimum margins that exchanges require of traders in Indian single stock futures and options.
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The Dodd-Frank Act still includes watered-down versions of the Volcker Rule and the Lincoln Amendment, both of which seek to limit deposit-taking banks’ engagement in riskier activities, often involving derivatives.
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The UK Financial Services Authority has fined and banned PVM Oil Futures’ rogue trader Steve Perkins, nearly a year to the day after his late night alcohol-fuelled trading caused a brief spike in the price of Brent crude oil.
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June
US legislation to force banks to spin out their swaps desks would raise costs for derivatives users and could disrupt cross-border business, according to Anthony Belchambers, chief executive of the FOA.
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Provisions in the Wall Street Reform Act which force banks to post more margin for derivatives trades and spin off some swap dealing activities will have unforeseen consequences, a lawyer has warned.
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Asking the SEC and CFTC to cooperate on new derivatives rules sounds like a great idea. But Philip McBride Johnson has a word of warning. The two see eye to eye about as much as Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.
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There was muted celebration on Wall Street on Friday as amendments backed by Blanche Lincoln and Paul Volcker to the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act were weakened by compromise clauses.
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The Warsaw Stock Exchange looks to have won its long-fought battle with Polish regulators to allow the short selling of stocks.
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Derivatives specialists in London were today digesting the news of a radically changed UK regulatory structure, due to be introduced by 2012.
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The CFTC has approved Media Derivatives' application for derivatives on box office revenues. However, two CFTC commissioners, Bart Chilton and Jill Sommers, disagreed with the decision and issued dissenting opinions.
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US equity exchanges will begin today (Friday June 11) implementing new circuit breaker rules, designed to prevent a repeat of the May 6 ‘flash crash’.
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Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, have written to the head of the European Commission calling for tougher controls on financial speculation.
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The conference committee that will negotiate the reconciliation of the financial reform bills passed by the US House of Representatives and Senate met for the first time yesterday (Thursday June 10).
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Despite the enormous numbers of derivatives being traded on China’s exchanges, the authorities are intent on establishing secure, non-speculative markets than on promoting volume growth. Colin Packham reports.
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The two main US financial markets regulators — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission — have created a joint advisory committee on emerging regulatory issues.
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Gerald Hodgkins has been promoted to associate director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of enforcement.
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Promoters of film futures exchanges no doubt have the best of motives. But they have not managed to make the case that box office futures are workable – or desirable.
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May
You can almost hear the inertia – it’s like the grinding of heavy, rusty machinery.
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Germany’s short selling ban could be replaced by tougher regulation which would ban speculation on currency derivatives and would restrict the use of equity futures to go short.
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Allan Mendelowitz, head of Ce-Nif, has urged US legislators not to water down proposals contained within the Senate’s Wall Street Reform Act which would mandate data monitoring of all financial transactions.
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China has confirmed that it will allow Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors to trade the China Financial Futures Exchange’s CSI 300 equity index futures.
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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission initiated a public hearing yesterday (May 19) into the feasibility of futures and binary options linked to movie box office receipts.
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The US Senate passed the Wall Street Reform Bill last night, taking the lead among developed nations in addressing the causes of the financial crisis and giving Democrats victory in perhaps the hardest battle in their campaign to strengthen financial regulation.
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Paul Volcker, the veteran US central banker, is confident that the ‘Volcker Rule’ forbidding commercial banks from proprietary trading will be passed into law in the US.
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The Futures Industry Association has urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to withdraw its proposal to introduce position limits on US energy derivatives trading.
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LCH.Clearnet SA has migrated all its 56 members to the BT Radianz Shared Market Infrastructure. The migration took more than six months. The clearing house also plans to roll out BT Radianz to 68 members of LCH.Clearnet Ltd and five other partner organisations by May.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission is to investigate exemptions employed by mutual and exchange-traded funds in their use of derivatives because of what it calls the increased complexity of the instruments employed.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has told US market participants to ensure that they comply with position limits on significant price discovery contracts at all times during the day, rather than just at the end of the day.
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A snapshot of derivatives-related measures - FOW summarises the key points in Senator Dodd's bill.
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Vincent Cable, the Liberal Democrat shadow Chancellor, has said the exchange-traded futures industry serves as a model of transparency for the effective running of financial markets.
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April
Several leading Wall Street firms have written to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, urging it not to go ahead with plans to set position limits for speculative energy futures trading.
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Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia, has said he would delay his attempt to introduce a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme until 2013, because of political opposition.
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India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has approved the introduction of the country’s first currency option, a rupee/ US dollar contract.
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The Reserve Bank of India is revisiting a draft policy on credit default swaps, issued in 2007 but never implemented.
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Islamic finance specialists gave a cautious welcome to the new ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut (Hedging) Master Agreement for Islamic derivatives, announced on March 1 by the two bodies that prepared it: the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the International Islamic Financial Market.
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The costs of surveillance and compliance systems for brokers, exchanges and multilateral trading facilities are expected to reach Eu185m by 2012, according to a report by Tabb Group, the research firm.
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Philip McBride Johnson argued in a recent comment article against ELX Futures’ desire to use exchange of futures for futures. Here, Neal Wolkoff, chief executive of ELX Futures, responds to that article.
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March
The battle between CME Group and ELX Futures over exchange of futures for futures should not be happening, argues Philip McBride Johnson. ELX is simply trying to free-ride on CME’s liquidity.
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John Damgard’s letter campaigning against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's proposed position limits on speculative energy trading contains the familiar arguments against controls on speculation.
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If the authorities compel clearing of OTC derivatives, they will be making a big mistake, argues Ruben Lee. The policy is likely to create problems, rather than solve them.
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Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in a speech to the European Parliament’s that reform of the way over-the-counter derivatives are regulated must be “comprehensive and international”.
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Argentina’s leading futures exchanges, the Mercado a Término de Buenos Aires and Rosario Futures Exchange, are holding talks on a possible merger, FOW has learned.
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The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has today published two reports designed to improve understanding of how collateral is used to mitigate credit risk in the over the counter derivative markets.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recommended that ICE Futures US should expand its regulatory oversight team after concluding that its compliance team was under “notable strain”.
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The European Commission will revise internet security guidelines following cyber attacks on the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) registries in January.
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Xtrakter, the post trade reporting service, has gained the approval of the UK Financial Services Authority for regulatory reporting of exchange traded derivatives, using alternative instrument identifiers (AII).
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The Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved in principle the introduction of physically delivered equity derivatives.
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Francis Lim, chief executive officer and president of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) stepped down on February 15 — two months earlier than scheduled.
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Two senior US Securities and Exchange Commission staff — Daniel Gallagher and Frederic Firestone — have left to join private law firms.
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The CFTC, which oversees most US futures and options, could receive an extra $93m, or 55% of its present annual budget of $168.8m, which would bring its total funding to $261m. The SEC, which regulates all derivatives linked to securities, could be given a budget of $1.13bn in 2011.
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Neal Wolkoff, chief executive of ELX Futures, has written to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission asking it to force CME Group to accept US Treasury futures trades opened at ELX.
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The Monetary Authority of Singapore has proposed that futures and options brokerages would have to ensure that retail customers have sufficient understanding of derivatives before they can execute transactions.
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February
Bankers support a global tax on banking? Next you’ll be saying turkeys are voting for Christmas. But that was the headline on Davos – and no wonder.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange will delay the launch of its new C2 options exchange platform until the second half of the year, until the US Securities and Exchange Commission has completed its review of flash trading.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s long-awaited announcement on January 14 of a new policy on controlling energy speculation was greeted in the market with quiet relief and satisfaction.
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The Futures and Options Association formed a new advocacy body in January, the FOA European Industry Council, to lobby regulators and politicians.
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Singapore Mercantile Exchange, the fledgling commodities bourse, received in-principle regulatory clearance from the Singaporean markets regulator in early December. It hopes to begin trading in the first quarter. The bourse, which completed go-live testing in October, had hoped to launch before the end of 2009
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Intense work is going on towards a new edition of the ISDA standard definitions for OTC equity derivatives. Sapient's Nick Fry and Ed Osbaldestin urge the market to do better than the last time.