Top Headlines
Barclays Migrates Equities to BARX – Profit & Loss
Barclays has added equities to BARX and announced that it will now function as the bank’s cross-asset electronic trading platform.
SocGen Appoints Sylvain Cartier as Head of Fixed Income and Currencies – Reuters
Societe Generale has appointed Sylvain Cartier as its new head of fixed income and currencies as part of a restructuring in its corporate and investment banking arm. Cartier was previously head of global markets for the Americas. He will be replaced by Hatem Mustapha, another SocGen banker.
Regulator Urges Post-Brexit Deal for City of London – Financial Times (subscription)
There is frustration in the City that the financial services sector has been neglected by the government in its Brexit negotiations, prompting many big employers in London to shift resources overseas.
Regulatory News
Swaps Data: IM Grows in Listed and OTC Markets – Risk.net
The fourth quarter of 2018 was a time for soul searching at the world’s largest clearing houses, as margin models were called into question in the wake of a €114 million loss at Nasdaq Commodities.
Bank regulators, under pressure from the banks and Republican lawmakers, are considering easing rules that require large lenders to set aside cash as a cushion against the risk of certain derivatives trades going bad.
US-China Trade Talks to Resume Despite Trump’s Tariff Threat – The New York Times
China’s top trade negotiator is heading to Washington for two days of trade talks, despite President Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods.
Australia: Banking Misconduct Drives Search for RegTech Remedies – Regulation Asia
Australia may emerge as a world-leader in RegTech adoption as a remedy to banking culture and misconduct issues.
Crypto News
Crypto Exchange Binance Says Hackers Stole $40m of Bitcoin – Financial Times (subscription)
Binance, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, said hackers had stolen about $40m worth of bitcoin from its platform.
D.C. Sources Discuss What’s Holding Up ErisX and Bakkt Approvals – The Block
As ever in crypto, regulators and exchanges are writing the rules as they go, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is taking no chances in writing its blueprint. Another issue is that crypto license-applications are reportedly paying insufficient attention to the regulators’ requests.
Bitcoin Bounds Toward $6,000 as More Institutions Embrace Tokens – Bloomberg (subscription)
Bitcoin climbed to a fresh 2019 high, approaching the $6,000 level for the first time since November on most cryptocurrency exchanges.
Company News
Digital Reasoning Unveils Hosted Cloud Solution – Profit & Loss
Digital Reasoning has announced the availability of a managed hosted version of its conduct surveillance solution on Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.
BNY Mellon Adds Margin Calculation Tools – Profit & Loss
BNY Mellon has incorporated AcadiaSoft’s initial margin risk suite of tools for margin calculation, reconciliation and messaging into its collateral service offering.
DTCC Proposes Several Enhancements to Increase US Treasury Clearing – The Trade
DTCC has made a number of proposed changes to its US fixed income clearing house in order to stem the flow of US Treasury trading away from the bilateral market.
Sifma Rolls Out Bulk Transfer Plan – WatersTechnology (subscription)
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), along with industry firms and clearing companies like the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., has launched the Bulk Transfer Initiative to standardize the process of moving customer accounts when a broker-dealer collapses.
Fintech Firm Joins Wholesale FX Competition – FX Week (subscription)
A Hong Kong-based financial technology startup is hiring engineers to build a foreign exchange pricing engine, joining the competition to offer wholesale FX to businesses. The cross-border payments company, Airwallex, is the latest tech startup to challenge banks and multi-dealer platforms.
Market Savvy
Sterling Falls on Barren Brexit Talks, Pressure on PM May – Reuters
Sterling fell on Wednesday as Brexit negotiations lumbered on with little sign of a breakthrough and concern grew about a challenge to Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership.
Yen Firms at Six-Week High Before China-US Trade Talks – Reuters
The Japanese yen rallied to a six-week high against the dollar on Wednesday as growing concerns about the trade dispute between China and the US prompted investors to take shelter in perceived safe-haven assets.
- The Japanese Yen May Soon Break Out of its Trading Range – Financial Times (subscription)
- A $400 Billion Wave of Japanese Cash May Be Heading Overseas – Bloomberg (subscription)
Foreign-Currency Deposits are Driving Turkey’s Lira Woes – Financial Times (subscription)
While Turkish authorities blame the weakness of the lira on sinister foreign influences, a large part of the damage comes from a more local source: the growing fondness among the country’s companies and savers for foreign-currency deposits.