Top Headlines

The Buy Side and the Global Code: Patience Required – Profit & Loss

Talk to senior members of the Global FX Committee and one can discern a sense of exasperation when they are asked (probably for the tenth time that day) about the lack of buy side adoption of the FX Global Code.

A Look at Last Look – Profit & Loss

The coming to an end of the Axiom Investment Advisors’ class action against Deutsche Bank over last look highlights a few issues – specifically around the raft of legal actions taking place, a work stream of the Global FX Committee and the level of appropriate disclosures. 

CLS Settlement Will Migrate to New Platform in 2020 – FX Week (subscription)

The infrastructure provider will launch the new venue based on its own technology next year, with service migration planned for May 2020. 

Barclays Has Lost One of its Most Senior FX Technologists – eFinancialCareers

Edward (‘Ed’) Falinksi, one of the most senior FX technologists at Barclays, is understood to have left the bank. 

DTCC Outlines Ways to Better Mitigate Systemic Risk – FOW (subscription)

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation has identified areas for improvement in the markets’ monitoring of systemic risk.

London Loses Top Spot to New York in Financial Survey Due to Brexit – Reuters

New York has overtaken London as the world’s most attractive financial centre, a survey said on Wednesday, as Britain’s decision to leave the EU prompts banks to shift jobs out of the city to keep access to Europe’s single market.

CTAs Register Slight Gains in August – Profit & Loss

The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, indicates a 0.71% gain in August. Year-to-date, the Index has lost 1.43%. 

Regulatory News 

Second New CFTC Commissioner Sworn In – Profit & Loss

Dawn Stump has been sworn in to serve as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bernanke Admits Fed Made Mistakes Combating Crisis 10 Years Ago – Bloomberg

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged that policy makers made two critical errors fighting the financial crisis a decade ago.

RegTech’s Holy Grail – STP for Regulatory Reporting – Is Coming – Tabb Forum

While financial firms are still wrangling with legacy infrastructure and siloed data stores, the UK FCA’s ‘Digital Regulatory Reporting’ project aims to pave the way for a model-driven and machine-readable regulatory environment.

Regulatory Repo Data Collection Will Enhance SOFR: Sifma – FOW (subscription)

Products tied to SOFR may subsume most volume that is currently tied to US dollar Libor, according to Sifma.

Crypto News 

Crypto’s 80% Plunge is Now Worse Than the Dot-Com Crash – Bloomberg

The Great Crypto Crash of 2018 looks more and more like one for the record books. As virtual currencies plumbed new depths on Wednesday, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index extended its collapse from a January high to 80 percent.

New Report: 70% of Finance Execs Believe Cryptocurrency is Here to Stay – Forbes

A report released by consulting firm Greenwich Associates says that over 70% of institutional finance executives surveyed believe that cryptocurrency will have a place in the future of the industry.

Get Ready for Big Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Industry Opens a D.C. Lobbying Arm – The Washington Post

Tech veterans and a number of high-profile cryptocurrency companies are forming the Blockchain Association, the first fully fledged lobbying group in Washington representing entrepreneurs and investors who are building off the technology behind bitcoin.

Julius Baer to Launch Cryptocurrency Product – Finance Magnates

The firm has done a huge U-turn having previously disparaged cryptocurrency investment. 

Company News 

UBS: Responding to New Client Demands for FX Algos – The Trade

Michael Bichan, Global Head FX Distribution & Knowledge Network at UBS, talks about the evolution of its FX algo offering. 

NEX Regulatory Reporting Launches Australian Solution – Profit & Loss

NEX Regulatory Reporting has launched a new solution for derivatives transaction and position reporting under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s OTC derivatives trade reporting requirements.

NEX Markets: The Future of the EBS Suite – The Trade

Christian Codo, Senior Sales, Hedge Funds, NEX Markets talks about the EBS product suite and the key challenges it aims to solve. 

Bloomberg Unveils Online Portal for Normalized API Data – Inside Market Data (subscription)

The Enterprise Access Point portal will eliminate the need for Bloomberg Data License clients to normalize datasets in-house, officials say.

Allston Trading Selects Corvil – Corvil

Market maker Allston Trading has selected Corvil to provide visibility, analytics, and reporting to optimize its systems and infrastructure and to assure trading performance.

Nasdaq Clearing Declares Member in Default – FOW (subscription)

Nasdaq Clearing has turned to its default fund to cover losses after member default.

Japanese Corporates Boost Forex – Risk Quantum (subscription)

Japanese banks stepped up foreign exchange derivatives trading with non-financial customers in the first half of 2018, growing notional volumes by 5% to $829 billion – their highest since the end of 2012. Over the prior half-year period, volumes grew just 2%. 

Market Savvy 

China Can Put an End to Currency Manipulation – Financial Times (subscription)

Beijing’s interests are now aligning with those of its American rival.

Sterling Pauses Near One-Month Highs Before BoE Decision – Reuters

Sterling held steady near highs on Thursday before a monetary policy announcement later in the day, when the Bank of England looks almost certain to keep interest rates unchanged after raising them last month.

Dollar Drifts Up as Central Bank Troika Eyed – Reuters

The dollar drifted higher against a basket of its rivals on Thursday, above a two-week low plumbed in the previous session, as investors moved to the sidelines before a trio of central bank policy decisions.

Turkish Lira Slides Ahead of Crucial Central Bank Meeting – Financial Times (subscription)

The lira slid 1.5 per cent against the dollar late morning on Thursday after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan decried high interest rates as a “tool of exploitation”.

Emerging Market Sneeze Puts Developed World Immunity in Doubt – Bloomberg

As the sell-offs in Turkey and Argentina spread to other emerging markets, doubts that developed markets can retain their immunity are getting louder.