Top Headlines

New York Fed Publishes Policy on Confidential Market Information – Profit & Loss

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has taken the step of publishing a statement detailing how it handles confidential information from foreign exchange and Treasury market participants.

Flash Event: Easy Route is to Blame Algos (opinion) – Profit & Loss

There is nothing like a flash event to get people excitedand for news outlets to dust off and update the old “blame the algos” stories for publication. Equally, there are members of our industry of a ‘certain’ generation who are quick to jump on the bandwagon with the rejoinder “It wasn’t like that before the machines”. As a member of that certain generation I can assure readers that it is utter nonsense.

Banks Raise Bets on Prime Broking for Struggling Hedge Funds – Financial Times

Big banks are throwing extra resources into prime broking, betting on their embattled hedge fund clients to provide a much-needed revenue boost as other areas falter.

Fed is Unlikely to Raise Rates in Next Months, Minutes Show – The Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Federal Reserve officials signaled they are unlikely to raise interest rates for at least a few months while they assess the impact of recent market volatility on the US economy.

Happy New Year, Here’s Your Nasty New Brexit Contract – eFinancialCareers

That didn’t take long. With most people in the City only back at work this week after the Christmas break, banks are already handing out new contracts asking staff to move to Europe because of Brexit. In some cases, recipients have only been given a few days to sign, or not.

Regulatory News

MiFID II Research Rules Could Spur Further Mergers on the Buy-Side – The Trade

The impact of rules related to research payments for investment management firms under Europe’s MiFID II regulation will likely see further consolidation on the buy-side, consultancy Deloitte has said.

Swedish Regulator Investigates Clearing Safeguards – GlobalCapital (subscription)

Swedish markets regulator Finansinspektionen has called for lawmaker-backed resolution plans for clearing houses, in the wake of a default at Nasdaq Clearing last September.

Brexit Barriers to UK CCPs Persist: Isda – Global Investor (subscription)

The EU insolvency regime may affect EU firms’ ability to remain clearing members of UK CCPs.

European Benchmark Transition Faces Hurdle – Markets Media

The low volume of cleared swaps based on Eonia, the euro overnight index average rate, may make it difficult to transition to a new risk-free interest rate based on actual transactions as required by regulators.

Crypto News

European Banking Authority Calls for Pan-EU Rules on Crypto Assets – Financial Times

The European Commission has its work cut out after an official report concluded that the patchwork of different rules across the European Union covering crypto-assets could be exploited, and consumers could be failed by a lack of regulations.

ESMA: Crypto Platforms Should Trade under MiFID II Rules – The Trade

Platforms trading crypto-assets that qualify as financia instruments should be subject to the rules, but ESMA has advised a bespoke regime be implemented for firms trading crypto-assets outside of the MiFID scope.

Central Banks Remain Cautious on Digital Currencies: BIS – Profit & Loss

A survey of central banks by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) finds that while a majority are collaboratively looking at the implications of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), indeed many have reached the stage of considering practical issues, they are proceeding cautiously with few reporting plans to actually issue a digital currency in the short or medium term. 

Putting a Blockchain Wrapper on the Financial System – Bloomberg

If you think the crypto ecosystem is good, then bring the rest of finance into that system – even if it’s not particularly crypto-y on its own.

Company News

LCH Touts First Cross-Currency Swap Compression – Profit & Loss

For the first time, trades registered in LCH’s SwapAgent service were successfully compressed in TriOptima’s multilateral USD/EUR cross-currency swap compression cycle.

Refinitiv’s Tradeweb Is Said to File Confidentially for US IPO – Bloomberg

Refinitiv, the financial data firm co-owned by the Blackstone Group and Thomson Reuters, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering of its Tradeweb Markets business, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg Has Reached $10 billion in Annual Revenue and Some Insiders are Ecstatic About the Special Payout They’re About to Receive – Business Insider

Bloomberg, the financial data and information company, brought in record revenue in 2018, surpassing $10 billion for the first time, according to insiders who were informed by senior management.

Market Savvy

Sterling Dips as Possibility of UK General Election Grows – Reuters

Sterling hit a one-week low against the euro and dipped against the dollar on Thursday after British Prime Minister Theresa May lost two Brexit-related votes in two days, fuelling speculation she will soon face a general election.

Dollar Slips on Fed Pause Bets, Trade Optimism – Reuters

The dollar on Thursday languished near a 3-month low on signs the Federal Reserve may soon pause its interest rate tightening cycle.

Renminbi Firms to 5-Month High as Dollar Loses Ground in Asia – Financial Times

China’s currency strengthened to its firmest level against the dollar in more than 150 days on Thursday as the greenback continued losing ground to a number of currencies in the Asia Pacific region.