Ten EU Countries Agree on Aspects of a Financial Transaction Tax

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Top Headlines

Ten EU Countries Agree on Aspects of a Financial-Transaction Tax – Reuters Ten euro zone countries agreed on Tuesday on some aspects of a harmonized tax on financial transactions and gave themselves until the middle of next year to reach agreement on remaining issues, including tax rates, the group said in a statement.  

Overseas Investors Driving HKEx Derivatives Market – The Trade News Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited has announced its derivatives trading has grown largely due to overseas investors and exchange participants.  

Central Bankers Explore Response to Bitcoin: Their Own Digital Cash – Wall Street Journal (subscription) Transformation could cut costs while raising security concerns.

Swiss National Bank Keeps Record-Low Rate, Says Franc Overvalued – Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank left interest rates at a record low and maintained its pledge to intervene if needed to push back against pressure on the “significantly overvalued” franc.

Rand Plunges in Longest Losing Streak in Two Years as Nene Fired – Bloomberg The rand fell for a sixth day in the longest streak of losses since November 2013, stocks slid and bond prices tumbled the most on record after South African President Jacob Zuma fired Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.

 

 

Regulatory News

Clearing Houses and Exchanges Face New Cyber Rules – E Financial News The Network Information Security Directive was agreed by negotiators from the European Commission, Council and Parliament on December 8, following a proposal put forward by the EC in 2013.

DTCC Applauds US Changes to Information Sharing – Profit & Loss The Depository Trust& Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has issued a statement commending the US government’s action in strengthening global information sharing.

Basel Committee ‘Will Move’ to More Sensitive Leverage Ratio – Risk The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision will consult early next year on the way the leverage ratio is calculated, it was claimed at a conference in Singapore today (December 9), with regulators set to propose a switch to a more risk-sensitive approach that could lighten the overall capital burden.

 

 

Company News

Rabobank to Cut 9,000 More Jobs and Shrink Balance Sheet – Financial Times (subscription) Dutch lender Rabobank is cutting another 9,000 jobs, shrinking its balance sheet by €150bn and refocusing on domestic lending in another bid to silence questions about its viability.

SmartStream Agrees Terms with Data Companies – Profit & Loss SmartStream says that Euromoney Tradedata, Exchange Data International, Interactive Data Corp, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Six Financial Information and Thomson Reuters have established agreements allowing its Reference Data Utility (RDU) to process their data on behalf of mutual customers.

Pragma and MarketFactory Complete Client Integration – Profit & Loss Pragma Securities and MarketFactory have completed the integration of a mutual global bank client of the two firms.

 

 

Market Savvy  

Dollar Slips as Exporter Currencies Find Relief After Oil Rout – Bloomberg The dollar fell for the first time in four days as a commodity selloff moderated, boosting the currencies of some resource-exporting nations.

Is $50 Billion the Price of Repo Safety? – Wall Street Journal (subscription) A clearinghouse operator wants credit commitments from banks and trading firms.

 

 

Press Releases

Tradermade Systems Ltd. Launches FX Navigator Powered by TraderMade – CBS Tradermade Systems Ltd., a provider of real-time market data and proprietary analytics software to central banks, leading corporations, financial institutions and individual traders, today announced the launch of FX Navigator powered by TraderMade, an institutional-grade analytical tool for foreign exchange traders that aims to further enhance user experience.

 

 

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