Russian broker Otkritie has gone live with the first phase of a new project to bolster its London and Moscow front and back office operations, including collateral management, replacing in-house systems with Calypso platforms.
Poland’s Warsaw Stock Exchange has been added to TMX Atrium’s trading infrastructure, one week after the exchange switched to its new UTP trading system built by NYSE Technologies.
Discontent with regulation cast a cloud over delegates on the first day of the TradeTech conference in London, as senior industry executives pondered on the politicisation of the debate and the perceived failure of regulators to deliver efficient markets.
Regulators in the UK are concerned that some European governments will force through regulations that will close off legitimate market practices such as algorithmic trading because they do not fully understand the markets, said a panellist at the TradeTech event in London. Tim Rowe, head of the trading platforms and settlement team at the UK’s […]
Russian broker Otkritie has chosen financial technology company SunGard to help launch a new direct market access service that should make it easier for investors to access Russia’s capital markets.
Bankers can seem a little bit schizophrenic when it comes to regulation – much of the time they complain about the sheer weight of the regulatory burden they face, but at other times they talk of regulation as an opportunity. It could well be that as they have finally realised regulation – and plenty of it – is inevitable, some banks have decided to make a virtue out of it.
The world is embracing digital technology in every area of economic and social activity, including those that appeared impossible to convert to a digital format completely, such as payments.
Anti-Money Laundering systems and controls continue to make news in the wake of the high profile failures of 2012. On 5 February, the proposal for the updated EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive was finally released. The proposal imposes a number of new requirements significantly increasing the scope and volume of firms’ KYC processes likely to be required by 2014.
Technology company NCR has introduced contactless ATMs in Poland that allow customers to withdraw cash without inserting a card, through a joint project with MasterCard and ING Bank Slaski.
Dutch bank ING has appointed Ron van Kemenade as its new CIO. Van Kemenade has 20 years of experience in the financial services and online sectors. Previously CIO of ING in the Netherlands, the promotion will see him CIO for the entire ING Bank. Van Kemenade joined ING in 2003 as Internet manager at Postbank […]
Benchmark manipulation and fallout from it is not new news, but the global drive to regulate benchmarks is. Europe has made the first move to controlling benchmark manipulation but global co-ordination is needed to create an approach that works for everyone.
Nordic bank Alandsbanken has chosen risk management tools from SunGard, which it says will help the bank to comply with new financial regulations. SunGard’s Ambit Risk and Ambit Performance products will be used by the bank to manage interest rate and liquidity risk and help the bank keep track of its balance sheet.
European payment processor Equens plans to offer a number of services to the Dutch business community to support them in the migration to Single Euro Payments Area formats
Banks in the UK and Ireland need to adjust to changing consumer behaviour as customers cut back on the amount of time they spend banking online and visiting bank branches, according to new research by Accenture.
Danish bank Ringkjøbing Landbobank has adopted a corporate actions tool from SmartStream Technologies, which it says should increase levels of automation and lead to a more efficient service for customers.
New rules and regulations for financial benchmarks following the Libor scandal will come into effect next Monday, says the Financial Services Authority, and will follow the recommendations of the Wheatley Review.
Russia’s Moscow Exchange has begun its migration to T+2 settlement, marking a significant milestone in the exchange’s efforts to attract international investors.
The shift to SEPA offers significant benefits to businesses – from lower bank fees on euro payments and direct debits to opportunities to streamline processes.
The European Central Bank says that the speed of adopion of direct debits in line with the Single Euro Payments Area standards is “unacceptable” and urged regulators and payment service providers to make greater efforts to push the instrument or risk damaging the reputation of the scheme.
As Europe’s new EMIR derivatives regulation takes hold, senior buy-side representatives have warned that new rules including EMIR and Basel III might actually exacerbate risks rather than reduce them.
Major global banks have praised the FinTech Innovation Lab London, a project which partners senior bank executives with startup companies, for helping to energise the development of innovative new products in financial services, at an investor day presentation in London City Hall this morning.
As one of the world’s leading financial centres, geographically well-positioned between America and the Far East, London is very much a global city. It is perhaps unsurprising then that it also attracts businesses looking to provide financial services worldwide.
PKO Bank Polski has added a mobile payment service that covers all payment situations using the Mobile Everywhere platform from Stockholm-based Accumulate.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced a new product intended to help clients migrate to mandatory SEPA standards. Called the RBS SEPA Accelerator, the product has a feature that allows a corporate implementing the SEPA XML file format to independently initiate, monitor and amend file testing, validation and end-to-end simulation. This ensures that a corporate can self-test its SEPA readiness.
Structural reforms and overhauls of financial infrastructures are intended to turn Moscow into an international financial centre, but there is still a long way to go.
SEPA solutions specialist Sentenial has completed its planned investment in the Benelux Region with the opening of a fully-supported operational office in Amsterdam and the relocation and expansion of its Brussels office.
The imposition of a financial transaction tax in Italy on Friday has prompted condemnation from senior financial market observers, who are warning that the new rules could tip Europe into a liquidity drought that will damage banks and asset managers, punish traditional market participants and encourage a slide away from equities towards other asset classes.
German clearing and settlement business Clearstream has opened a new link to Russia’s CSD, the National Settlement Depository, that should allow customers based in the west to trade and settle Russian OFZ treasury bonds more easily.
Russian broker Renaissance Capital has built a cross-margining tool for the Moscow FX and derivatives markets Micex Selt and Forts, and the London Stock Exchange’s international order book.
The Luxembourg Stock Exchange is cooperating with IT support company Altus to develop a market infrastructure for European investment funds, which constitute a large part of the Luxembourg economy.
Payments specialist Sentenial has hired former Logica CGI sales director Jean-Pierre Arens to head up its efforts in France, as the Irish firm expands its ambitions across Europe.
Poland’s Warsaw Stock Exchange has set a date for its migration onto NYSE Euronext’s UTP trading system.
Dutch bank Rabobank is to sell its asset management business Robeco to Japanese financial services group Orix for €1.9 billion.
A new start-up bank from Finland plans to open across Europe, using an online-only service that it says will redefine what it means to have a bank account.
Speed is becoming less of a competitive advantage for exchanges as regulation and the need to support long-term investors comes to the fore, according to Christian Katz, chief executive at SIX Swiss Exchange.
London’s financial sector jobs market continues to be depressed, with the number of new jobs on the market down 18% on this time last year, and the number of people looking for jobs down 26%.
Russian asset manager Alfa Capital has implemented SDX, SuperDerivatives real-time cross-asset front office system, for its structured products business.
Danish bank Jyske Bank has gone live with corporate actions technology from SmartStream.
Polish clearing house KPDW CCP has deployed technology from Nasdaq OMX to help it meet the European Commission’s new EMIR rules on OTC derivatives. Under EMIR, the majority of OTC derivatives will have to be centrally cleared via central counterparties. The rules are intended to reduce systemic risks in financial markets by removing the possibility […]
Euroclear Bank has begun clearing and settlement for Russian ruble-denominated OFZ government bonds – a market worth US$100 billion, according to figures provided by Baring Asset Management.
