UK Review May Form Template for Wider Market Reform

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Top Headlines

UK Review May Form Template for Wider Market Reform – Profit & Loss (free story)
The significance of the UK’s Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR) appears to be increasingly capturing the wider attention of global markets and regulators, with notably heightened interest around the submission of responses to the latest consultation process, which closed last Friday (30 January).

GFI Shareholders Reject CME Deal – Profit & Loss (free story)
GFI shareholders have voted against the proposed deal for CME Group to acquire the firm, leaving it open to a potential hostile takeover from BGC Partners.

Currency War Claims Another Casualty: Denmark – BloombergView
After half a decade of growing ever sleepier, the currency market has started the year with its most volatile period since 2011. As the victims of the Swiss franc detonation lick their wounds, Denmark is battling to avoid its krone becoming the next victim of the global currency wars.

EBS Unveils New Single Screen Platform for Full Trading Suite – Profit & Loss(free story)
Icap’s EBS is rolling out a fully integrated new trading platform, allowing a single screen view of all the liquidity pools and products in its growing portfolio.

JP Morgan Confirms $99.5 Million Settlement for FX Manipulation – Profit & Loss (free story)
JP Morgan has confirmed the news, reported on 7 January by Profit & Loss, that it has agreed to pay $99.5 million to settle a US antitrust litigation lawsuit that accuses 12 major banks of manipulating the FX market.

Russian Central Bank Says Sells $5 Million on Forex Market on 29 January –Reuters
The Russian central bank said on Monday it had sold $5 million worth of foreign exchange on 29 January on behalf of the finance ministry. It did not make any interventions on its own account.

Prime of Prime Providers See Growth Despite SNB Fallout – FX Week (subscription)
Credit provision to smaller firms is increasingly becoming the domain of PoPs, but the focus will shift to pre-trade risk management.

BoE Spent $4.4 Million on Lawyers for Currency-Rigging Probe – Bloomberg
The Bank of England spent £2.93 million ($4.4 million) on an eight-month investigation into what its staff knew about manipulation in the foreign-exchange market.

China Boosts Cross-Border FX Pay System – the China Post
A pilot programme for cross-border foreign exchange payments will be expanded to support the development of cross-border e-commerce and limit the risks associated with online payments involving foreign currencies, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced on Thursday.

Regulatory News

Giancarlo Proposes US Swaps Regulatory Reform – Profit & Loss (free story)
Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a whitepaper calling for reforms to US swaps trading rules.

President Likely to Seek Increased Funding for Sec, CFTC
Later today, President Obama is set to unveil his FY 2016 Budget. As in previous years, we anticipate that President Obama will seek increased funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) than was allocated by Congress for this fiscal year.

Danish Regulator Demands Details on Saxo Bank Swiss Franc Trades – WallStreet Journal (subscription)
Denmark’s financial services regulator on Friday ordered Saxo Bank to hand over details of its handling of Swiss franc trades amid chaotic moves in the currency earlier this month.

FTT Launch Agreed for 2016 – EurActiv France
EU states involved in the development of a Financial Transaction Tax have set a target launch date of 1 January 2016. Greece was the only participant not to sign the agreement.

Company News

Thomson Reuters Finds Conduct Risk Focus Expected to Increase – Profit & Loss (free story)
Thomson Reuters claims that managing and mitigating conduct risk continues to be one of the highest regulatory priorities, yet financial services firms remain unclear about what conduct risk is and how to address it.

Citigroup Removed its Swiss Franc Hedge at the Worst Possible Time –Bloomberg
Citigroup’s loss on a surge in the Swiss franc this month was exacerbated by the bank’s decision to let protections against currency swings lapse a week earlier, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Guggenheim Considering Launching Currency-Hedged ETFs – Reuters
Guggenheim Investments is considering launching one or more currency-hedged exchange-traded funds, one of the hottest and most sought-after financial products the last few months.

Alpari UK to Disintegrate Group as Buyers Refuse $25 Million Offer – Forex Magnates
Alpari UK will not be moving forward as a complete business entity any more. The KPMG Special Administration team promised to try and sell the insolvent brokerage as a whole unit and preserve the jobs of its employees – but both of these attempts have failed.

FastMatch Launches New Buy-Side Execution Service – Profit & Loss (free story)
FastMatch has launched its new Agency FX service, which aims to offer buy side clients a unique pool of liquidity and trading tools to save their investors’ money on FX execution.

Hotspot FX Sees Volumes Slow in Second Half of January Despite Swiss Franc Bump – LeapRate
Hotspot FX January volumes came in at $34.3 billion ADV. But despite a record volumes day thrown in, volumes slowed in the second half of the month.

FXCM Pro Sale Update: Price Discussions Now in $70-$90 Million Range –LeapRate
Following on from news last week that FXCM is well along with the planned sale of its institutional FX brokerage arm FXCMPro, the amounts being discussed are now somewhat lower than originally reported.

FXDD Voluntarily Withdraws as an IB in the US – LeapRate
FXDD Global, an online FX trading firm, has announced that its affiliate company FXDD US has applied to the National Futures Association (NFA) to withdraw its introducing broker (IB) license in the US, reflecting the brand’s focus on expanding its international operations and serving retail and institutional traders in countries outside of the US.

Market Savvy  

Currencies Supported on Stretched Technicals, Chatter
LMAX
While Friday’s weaker than expected US GDP data has taken a little out of the US dollar’s momentum, the setbacks aren’t anything to write home about, with the buck still firmly in the driver’s seat. Still, currencies are supported a bit in the early week on stretched technicals and chatter relating to a Greek deal and new SNB floor.

Press Releases

targit GmBH Partners With Misys to Implement Solutions for Trading Systems and Risk Management in Central Europe
Misys, a financial software company, has signed an agreement with targit GmBH to become a member of the InFusion Partner Programme. targit will focus on supporting the operations of financial institutions, implementing trading systems and risk management utilising solutions from Misys.

Industry Events