Top Headlines
Blackstone Weighs Sale of Thomson Reuters’s FXall Unit – Bloomberg
Blackstone Group, the soon-to-be owner of Thomson Reuters’ financial-and-risk arm, is weighing a sale of FXall, according to people familiar with the matter. The business could fetch more than $3 billion, said one of the people.
IHS Markit Cancels Derivatives Unit Sale – Buy-Side Technology (subscription)
IHS Markit has decided to take MarkitSERV, its post-trade processing business, off the market, weeks after the unit announced a major overhaul of its technology base, after failing to secure acceptable terms with potential acquirers.
Curbing the Costs of Uncleared Margin Rules – FOW (subscription)
The cost of doing business in the over-the-counter markets is set to soar for a significant number of buy side firms over the next two years.
LCH Group Names Bailey as Chairman – FX Week (subscription)
Marshall Bailey has been appointed chairman of LCH Group and an independent non-executive director of the board of directors at the London Stock Exchange Group, the majority-owner of LCH. Ruth Wandhöfer will also join the board.
Regulatory News
Banks to Ask EC for Delay of Benchmarks Rule – Risk.net (subscription)
A group of 21 banks tasked with helping the euro rates market move away from shaky Eonia and Euribor benchmarks is set to formally ask the European Commission for a delay to rules that could stop the benchmarks being used.
Industry Calls for 12-Fold Hike in Margin Threshold – Risk.net
A group of trade bodies is asking global regulators to raise the threshold at which counterparties must comply with the fifth and final wave of initial margin rules on non-cleared derivatives.
Wall Street Regulator Facing Cash Crunch Offers Staff Buyouts – Bloomberg
Facing a cash crunch, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission began telling workers last month that it would give eligible employees as much as $25,000 to leave, according to an email sent to staff.
Brexit and the City: A Barometer for London’s Financial Outlook – Reuters
With only six months until Britain is due to leave the European Union, the terms of its separation have yet to be decided, leaving critical questions over the long-term future of London as the bloc’s pre-eminent financial center.
Crypto News
Is the Golden Age of Crypto Already Over? – Profit & Loss
On September 18, at approximately 1:00pm Eastern, the golden age of cryptocurrencies came to an abrupt end. At that time, the Office of the New York Attorney General dropped a report on the operations of many major cryptocurrency exchanges that found serious faults with both specific firms and the industry as a whole.
Ripple Co-Founder’s Token Selloff Accelerates – The Wall Street Journal (subscription)
One of the co-founders of crypto startup Ripple holds billions of dollars’ worth of the company’s digital token, but his continuing sales of the token have dramatically risen over the past few weeks.
ICE’s Bakkt Reveals First Crypto Product as Physical Bitcoin Futures – Cointelegraph
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has confirmed that its Bakkt cryptocurrency platform’s first offering will take the form of physical Bitcoin futures.
Tokyo Whale Sells $230 Million of Bitcoin in Mt. Gox Wind-Down – Bloomberg
The trustee liquidating cryptocurrencies on behalf of defunct exchange Mt. Gox has offloaded another 25.98 billion yen ($230 million) of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
The Trouble With Cryptocurrency’s Viral Growth – The New York Times
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have lost over half their value so far in 2018, and more than that since late 2017. These virtual currencies have crashed before, but this time they seem in no hurry to gain back lost ground, largely because recent evidence has revealed problems with the new technology.
Company News
NEX TriOptima Unveils Initial Margin Compliance Tool – The Trade
The new tool will allow firms to calculate initial margin amounts, manage margin calls and resolve disputes, as thousands of buy-side firms are expected to come in-scope next year.
The CME Liquidity Tool allows traders to measure current and historical liquidity of CME Group futures products across asset classes, free of charge.
JP Morgan Expands Derivatives Clearing – Financial Standard
JP Morgan has become the first over the counter clearing participant to launch an agency clearing service through the ASX for AUD and NZD denominated derivatives.
Including support for concept-based cryptocurrency searches in the Selerity Context engine will provide more focused and relevant search results for institutional investors monitoring the crypto markets, officials say.
Market Savvy
Dollar Flat Before Fed Meeting; Investors Eye Outlook – Reuters
The dollar was flat on Wednesday before an expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike priced in by investors still on edge about a trade row between the United States and China.
Sterling Edges Lower But Brexit Hopes Keep Pound Supported – Reuters
The pound slipped on Wednesday as investors remained cautious about the ongoing negotiations between Britain and the EU on a Brexit deal and as broader currency markets waited for an expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike later in the day.
The Prospect of Higher Interest Rates is Lighting a Fire Under the Hong Kong Dollar – CNBC
A period of weakness for the Hong Kong dollar appears to be coming to an end, and that has investors watching.
Emerging Market Funds Avoid Asia Even as Bargains Appear – Bloomberg
For some emerging market funds, Asia’s beaten-down assets aren’t yet cheap enough. Portfolio managers aren’t rushing out their checkbooks to gain exposure to the fast-growing region, even as high-yielding currencies such as India’s rupee languish near record lows. Instead, they’re positioning for further weakness, with the US-China trade war and a strong dollar expected to remain persistent themes.