FXPA Elects Officers

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FXPA Elects Officers
The Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA) held elections yesterday for its first permanent Board of Directors and Officers. The new FXPA Executive Committee includes: Chair Eric Busay, Portfolio Manager, CalPERS; Vice Chair Adam Cooper, Senior Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer of Citadel; Treasurer Sean Tully, Senior Managing Director, Financial and OTC Products, CME Group; and Secretary William K. Goodbody, Jr, Managing Director, COO and Head of Sales of Hotspot.

Euro, Stocks Wary Ahead of Crunch Greece Meeting – Reuters
European stocks and the euro fell on Wednesday while the dollar edged higher as euro zone meetings on the Greek debt crisis threatened to give rise to confusion rather than clarity.

NY Financial Regulator Sends Subpoenas in FX Probes – Sources – Reuters
New York’s financial regulator has sent subpoenas to Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas and Societe General, expanding its probe into the possible rigging of foreign exchange rates through computer programs.

Danes Scrap Bill Auction as Peg Pressures Mount – Financial Times (subscription)
Denmark decided to accept no offers at a three-month bill auction today as the country battles to stem gushing inflows from investors speculating that a long-standing krone peg to the euro could be scrapped.

Renminbi Clearance in Australia Crucial as Chinese Firms Keen on Yuan Settlement: RBA – International Business Times
The launch of the Bank of China (Sydney) as an official RMB clearing bank is a crucial step as renminbi settlement of China-Australia trade is set to increase, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said.

Risk Recycling Issues Stall China FX Option Market – Risk News (subscription)
A significant relaxation in the rules around Chinese corporates’ use of foreign exchange options last year has not driven a material increase in volumes as limited risk recycling opportunities for dealers mean pricing is still high.

Venezuela Announces New Currency System, Large Devaluation Seen – Reuters
Venezuela has launched a new foreign exchange platform that will likely devalue the bolivar heavily in efforts to bolster state coffers amid tumbling oil revenue, but risk a spike in already soaring inflation.

Currency Warriors Get Boost at G-20 Meeting – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The world’s top finance leaders on Tuesday in effect backed currency depreciation as a tool for promoting growth by signalling strong support for aggressive easy-money policies aimed at boosting the fragile global economy.

 

 

Regulatory News

CFTC Commissioner Questions NDF Mandate suitability – FX Week (subscription)
Christopher Giancarlo, a commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has said that he has concerns over whether non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) should be traded on swap execution facilities in the same way other asset classes have been mandated to following clearing determinations.

Icap’s Spencer Backs Giancarlo’s DFA Reform – FOW (subscription)
Michael Spencer, the chief executive of Icap, has thrown his weight behind a controversial plan by a commissioner of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to roll-back the US Dodd­ Frank Act. Spencer said Christopher Giancarlo’s proposal “provided good illumination” and “slight tweaking of the Dodd-Frank act would be a good thing as it has bifurcated the market”.

CFTC Issues Time-Limited No-Action Relief from Electronic Reporting Requirements in the OCR Final Rule
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight has issued a no-action letter that provides additional time for reporting parties to comply with certain reporting requirements of the ownership and control final rule, which includes the electronic submission of trader identification and market participant data on new and updated reporting forms.

FSB Chair’s Letter to G20 on Financial Reforms – Finishing the Post-Crisis Agenda and Moving Forward
A letter from the FSB Chair to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors ahead of their meeting in Istanbul in February 2015 sets out the FSB’s work programme for the year ahead, with a particular focus on reforms to OTC derivative markets.

House Committee Calls on Fed to Change Leverage Ratio – Risk News (subscription)
The US House Committee on Agriculture has called on the Federal Reserve to reduce the capital requirements futures commission merchants (FCMs) face when clearing derivatives trades on behalf of customers, arguing the costs could dissuade companies from hedging and undermine the post-crisis push to clear more derivatives.

Banks May Have Overplayed Their Hand Fighting Wall Street Regulation – Bloomberg
Wall Street lobbied aggressively and succeeded late last year in persuading lawmakers to roll back rules for the $700 trillion derivatives market. Instead of generating momentum for further changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, the victory sparked a populist uprising among Democrats that’s had wide-ranging consequences.

 

 

Company News

Icap: ‘Leaner’ But Still Focused on FX, Says CEO – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The Swissie shakeup contributed to one of EBS’s best months since February 2013, Icap’s chief executive said in a call with journalists. “We are heavily focused on the FX market,” he said.

Moscow Exchange Aims to Boost Cross-Border Flow – FOW (subscription)
The Moscow Exchange hopes to boost cross-­border trading by offering connectivity to the world’s top financial centres through TMX Atrium’s global infrastructure.

India’s NCDEX Picks MilleniumIT Infrastructure – Waters Technology
India’s National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) announced it will use London Stock Exchange Group’s MilleniumIT’s core technology for its derivatives and spot market segments.

 

 

Market Savvy  

The Shuttering of China?
Financial Times
This is gonna be speculative, so bear with us. It’s the idea that China will — as more and more capital threatens to flow out of the country — start to shut its doors and look inwards once again. We’ve already written about China’s huge capital outflow in the last quarter of 2014 and have been banging on about the end of the China carry trade for a while now. But the idea that China might actually pull back from the world in a more deliberate fashion is far more dramatic and relies on the acceptance of two main things.

 

 

Press Releases

Gain Capital Announces Monthly Metrics for January 2015
Average daily institutional volume at Gain Capital was $21.5 billion in January 2015, an increase of 16.4% from December 2014 and a decrease of 4.7% from January 2014.

 

 

Industry Events