Tsipras Resigns, Paving Way for Snap Greek Election

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Top Headlines

Tsipras Resigns, Paving Way for Snap Greek Election – Reuters
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections after seven months in office in which he fought Greece’s creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in. Government officials said the aim was to hold the election on Sept. 20, with Tsipras seeking to crush a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal public support for the bailout program, Greece’s third since 2010, that he negotiated.


Dealers Saw Lower Chances of September Rate Increase in July Survey – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The Federal Reserve’s primary dealers in July assigned a slightly lower probability to the central bank picking September for the first increase in benchmark short-term interest rates than they had in June, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Thursday.

Yuan Bearish bets at Five-Year High; Asia FX Outlook Worsens – Reuters
Bearish bets on the Chinese yuan hit their largest in more than five years after a surprise devaluation of the currency, while the outlook on emerging Asian currencies in the past two weeks deteriorated to its worst in years, a Reuters poll shows.

10 Currencies That May Follow Tenge in Tumble Triggered by China – Bloomberg
On most days, Kazakhstan finds itself in the backwaters of financial markets. Yet, it’s this central Asian nation that has delivered the latest shock to global currency trading.

Libor MDL Judge Throws Unprepared Lawyer Out Of Court – Law360
The Manhattan federal judge overseeing sprawling civil antitrust multi-district litigation tied to banks’ gaming of the London Interbank Offered Rate was on the hunt for weak cases on Thursday, thinning the herd by throwing one plaintiff and her woefully unprepared lawyer out of court and leaving other claims on life support.

Bitcoin Technology Finds New Uses in Finance – Operational Risk & Regulation (subscription)
Bitcoin has yet to overturn the world’s financial system, as its creators promised. But although the crypto-based currency remains a minority interest, banks and other financial companies are looking more closely at the blockchain technology behind it, combining the open-source code with adaptations aimed at satisfying compliance obligations.

 

Regulatory News

Fifth of Issued LEIs Have Lapsed, Data Provider Says – Operational Risk & Regulation (subscription)
Four years after the Financial Stability Board and the Group of 20 threw their weight behind establishing a global system of legal entity identifiers (LEIs), hundreds of thousands have been issued around the world, but a fifth of them have not been renewed and that share is rising, according to entity data provider Alacra.

CLOB Execution – the New Norm? – FOW (subscription)
The mandatory introduction of swap execution facilities (SEFs) in the US in 2013 sparked a substantial shift in the structure and manner in which OTC derivatives were traded. Almost two years on, trading volumes on SEFs continue to grow substantially as compliance headaches subside. But now a new debate rages on: what is the most effective method of trade execution in such a diverse and complex market?

Corporates Fear End to Emir’s Hedge Exemption – Risk Magazine (subscription)
Corporate treasurers are protesting against proposals that would end the exemption their hedges enjoy in European swaps market reforms, potentially forcing them to clear many of their over-the-counter trades and post margin on non-cleared trades.

 

Company News

Barclays Must Face US Class Action over Libor – Reuters
Barclays shareholders who accused the British bank in a lawsuit of inflating its stock price by manipulating the interest rate known as Libor may pursue their case as a class action, a US judge ruled on Thursday.

Nasdaq: Our Plans with the Blockchain – Financial News (subscription)
Nasdaq became one of the first big financial institutions to embrace the technology behind bitcoin when it announced in May that it planned to use the blockchain to run its Private Market.

P&L Talk Series with Darryl Hooker – Profit & Loss
Darryl Hooker, co-head of EBS BrokerTec Market, talks to Profit & Loss about why EBS has placed a major strategic focus on CNH and who he’s betting on to become the CNH offshore centre of choice.

Deutsche Bank Weighs Biggest Overhaul Since Ackermann – Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG co-Chief Executive Officer John Cryan is considering the biggest overhaul of the lender’s management structure in more than a decade, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Dacharan’s Flagship FX Hedge Fund up 24%, Shut to New Money – Reuters
Swiss systematic hedge fund Dacharan Advisory’s flagship currency fund is up 24% year to date and has been closed to new money since May, its co-founder told Reuters on Thursday.

Head of failed Bitcoin Exchange Faces Theft Charges in Japan – South China Morning Post
Japanese police will re-arrest the CEO of collapsed bitcoin exchange MtGox on theft allegations, as he faces questions over the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the virtual currency.

 

Market Savvy  

Dollar Bulls Gore Emerging Markets as Euro Stops Fearing the Fed
Bloomberg
Dollar bulls betting the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in 2015 are shifting their attention to selling emerging market currencies, as the euro and yen rally from losses earlier in the year.

Markets Mull RMB Devaluation and Fed Policy Link
Euromoney
After a dovish statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this week, there is a disconnect between economists’ views that September is the likely start of the US monetary tightening cycle versus traders who are punting on a delay.

Q&A: How Volatile are China’s Markets?
Financial Times (subscription)
It has become a running joke over the past week that devaluing its currency was the best thing China did to stop people talking about its wild share market. And that the best way to stop people talking about devaluing the currency was to get people talking about the share market. Mission accomplished.

New Zealand Firms Raise FX Hedging Amid Elevated Uncertainty
FX Week (subscription)
New Zealand-based small businesses have upped their foreign exchange hedging activity over the past six months, spurred on by increased volatility in the Kiwi dollar and an uncertain economic outlook in the country. The findings come from a biannual survey of 413 business owners and treasurers in New Zealand, carried out by East & Partners’ (E&P) New Zealand Business FX programme.

Africa Is Running Out of Options as China to Kazakhstan Devalue
Bloomberg
Currency devaluations from Kazakhstan to China are heaping pressure on African central banks to relinquish control of their exchange rates as they run down reserves faster than any other region.

 

Press Releases

Further Evidence That New Rules Could Threaten Market Liquidity in Europe – FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPRA)
A preliminary research report by three professors at the Toulouse School of Economics has raised concerns over the impact impending regulations could have on market liquidity. The researchers used data from Euronext to investigate the behaviour of liquidity suppliers during the Greek crisis of 2010. Their initial findings demonstrate that all firms using high frequency trading technology continued to provide liquidity in the markets during the 2010 crash, even when slower liquidity providers had ceased.

 

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