Top Headlines

Fired RBS Trader Says He Was ‘Scapegoat’ for FX fine – Reuters A former foreign exchange trader fired by Royal Bank of Scotland said he was a scapegoat and that the state-backed bank had “dishonestly contrived” his dismissal to divert attention from its own failings.

Euro-Area Inflation Rate Turns Negative as ECB Debates Stimulus – Bloomberg The euro area’s inflation rate unexpectedly turned negative in September for the first time in six months, adding pressure on the European Central Bank to bolster stimulus.

Shaky China, Asia Activity Surveys Leave World Outlook Vulnerable – Reuters Factories in Asia cut more jobs and throttled back output in September as domestic and export demand shrivelled.

China PBOC Allows Foreign Central Banks to Trade Onshore FX – Market News International The People’s Bank of China said late Wednesday that foreign central banks, sovereign wealth funds and international financial organizations will be allowed to trade foreign exchange in the onshore market.

Questions About Leak at Federal Reserve Escalate to Insider-Trading Probe – Wall Street Journal (subscription) Firm at center of probe says it is a media organization with special legal protections.

Greenwich Associates Examines the Widely Varying Views on Blockchain and Wall Street – Traders Magazine Can bitcoin and the blockchain be mutually exclusive? Or are they forever inextricably linked?

Regulatory News

FSB’s Cautious Welcome for Benchmark Reform Progress – Profit & Loss The foreign exchange industry has made “welcome progress” in implementing reforms to the benchmark fixing process.

Eurocrat Whisperer Must Offer Meatier Slice of Market Reform – FT.Com (subscription) Lord Hill’s ideas all very Anglo-Saxon and thus very un-European.

EU Weighs Regulatory Burden, Unveils Capital-Markets Boost – Bloomberg The European Commission will assess the collective impact of more than 40 pieces of regulation adopted in the wake of the financial crisis.

Company News

R5FX Goes Live with Latam FX Trading – Profit & Loss Emerging markets trading platform R5FX has added Latin American trading to its platform with live trading now available in Brazilian real, Chilean peso and Colombian peso.

TraderMade Unveils FXQuest – Profit & Loss Tradermade Systems has launched FXQuest, a subscription, cloud-based technology platform that gives clients the ability to retrieve reliable, accurate information on more than four decades of foreign exchange data.

Northern Trust Launches Buy Side FX Product – Profit & Loss Northern Trust has launched CompleteFX, a stand-alone FX product for investment managers that offers outsourced FX processing and execution services.

Market Savvy  

Bearishness Towards Yuan, Rupee Ebbs; Rises for Other Asian Currencies: poll – Reuters Investors increased bearish bets on most emerging Asian currencies in the last two weeks after Federal Reserve officials kept open the possibility of an interest rate hike in 2015.

After Rough Quarter, Investors Buckle Up – Wall Street Journal (subscription) More large price swings are expected heading into a month that is associated with market tumult.

Morning MoneyBeat Europe: European Bulls in View – Wall Street Journal (subscription) The new quarter seems to have already attracted its share of bulls in Europe, with the region’s stock markets extending Wednesday’s gains in early trade after the Dow closed sharply higher.

FX Volumes Decline During September at Both HotspotFX and FastMatch – Finance Magnates Without the same type of sharp volatility in equities that was seen in August, FX volumes were lower during September at HotspotFX.

Press Releases

CFTC Orders Deutsche Bank AG to Pay a $2.5 Million Civil Monetary Penalty  – CFTC CFTC finds that Deutsche Bank did not diligently address and correct errors until after bank was notified of CFTC investigation

Orca SMT FX Trade Execution Interface Enters Beta Phase – Profit & Loss Orca SMT, the new FX pricing, execution and management interface designed for use by foreign exchange salespeople, has announced its beta launch.

Industry Events

• SEFCON VI, 26 October in New York, NY
• Forex Magnates’ London Summit, 2-3 November in London, UK
• FIA Expo 2015, 3-5 November, in Chicago, IL
• Profit & Loss Shanghai, 12 November in Shanghai, China
• Profit & Loss Singapore, 19 November in Singapore
• 11th Annual FIA Asia Derivatives Conference, 8-10 December in Singapore

Top Headlines

Traders Flee Emerging Markets at Fastest Pace since 2008 – Bloomberg Investors have pulled $40 billion out of developing economies in the third quarter, fleeing emerging markets at the fastest pace since the height of the global financial crisis. Read More

Top Headlines

IMF Report: Exchange Rates Still Matter for Trade – Profit & Loss Exchange rate movements still have sizable effects on exports and imports, according to new research from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Read More

Top Headlines

Some Euro Zone Banks Don’t Comply with Governance Standards: ECB’s Lautenschlaeger – Reuters The European Central Bank has found that a number of banks under its watch do not comply with international governance best practices an ECB executive board member said on Monday.&amp Read More

Top Headlines

Industry Warns Over Failure to Reach EU-US Deal on Derivatives – Reuters
Failure by European Union and US regulators to iron out differences in their derivatives rules would prompt “catastrophic” attempts by market users to pull out from American clearing houses, a senior industry official has warned.

• O’Malia: US Margin Splits ‘Very Difficult’ for OTC Market – Risk Magazine (subscription)

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Top Headlines

Thomson Reuters Joins FXPA
The Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA) is pleased to announce the addition of Thomson Reuters as a Full Member. “As a leading independent provider of FX transaction venues, Thomson Reuters actively supports cross-industry initiatives such as FXPA to ensure a sound, liquid, transparent and competitive FX market. Now more than ever, transparency and fairness are values that need to be upheld by everyone in the FX industry. Working closely with the FXPA group, Thomson Reuters will continue its work to help the industry raise standards across all areas of the market,” says Phil Weisberg, global head of FX, Thomson Reuters. The addition of Thomson Reuters brings to 23 the number of institutional members now part of FXPA. To find out how you can support the FX industry through education, research and advocacy, visit our website at www.fxpa.wpengine.com, become an institutional member, and sign up for our newsletter, FXPA globalFXsource.

Regulators Should Scale Back Rules to Improve Liquidity Conditions – Profit & Loss (subscription)
Too many people view the last year or so as being an outlier when it comes to market volatility, when in reality it can just as easily be argued that it was actually the previous seven years that were the problem. The growing issue of sporadic liquidity, which is concerning some in authority, is a direct reflection of regulation imposed by their peers – and in some cases by their own organisations.
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Top Headlines

Former FX Traders Take Banks to Court; Legal Cases Continue to Mount – Profit & Loss As former RBS FX trader, Ian Drysdale, and former HSBC FX trader, Serge Sarramegna, seek to challenge their dismissals in the UK courts, the number of legal cases being brought against banks shows no signs of abating. Read More