Regulators in the US and Europe are stepping up investigations into dark pool activity, market abuse and manipulation of financial benchmarks following a spate of damaging incidents in recent months. Tougher regulatory oversight could have a significant impact on all three areas, according to a new report by financial services technology provider SunGard.
Deutsche Bank has poached Scott Marcar, previously at RBS, to head up its IT infrastructure as the bank prepares to ramp up competition against its rivals.
Regulators in Europe and the US are struggling to get to grips with trades that appear to be travelling back in time. Led by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, new efforts are underway to synchronise time, with the help of atomic clocks.
Trading rules in the US are giving dark pools an unfair advantage over exchanges and could be damaging liquidity, according to a new report by the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre.
Mobile payments provider LoopPay has secured funding from global payments firm Visa as it pioneers a technology that capitalises on the installed base of magnetic stripe-reader point-of-sale systems rather than NFC, which is the current favourite in mobile payment circles.
Commissioner Scott O’Malia of the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission has called for continuing international co-operation on market surveillance and warned that current oversight mechanisms are flawed in terms of the data they collect and the way that they analyse it.
Canadian ‘challenger’ exchange Aequitas, which plans to favour long-term investors by discouraging HFT, has chosen a trading engine and several other tools from MillenniumIT, the Sri Lanka-based technology company owned by the London stock Exchange.
Pre-trade risk and post-trade processing specialist Traiana has launched a new version of its CreditLink tool for credit derivatives, which it says will help buy-side firms to trade on swap execution facilities.
ICAP has launched a swap execution facility in the UK, as part of a push to dominate both the European and the US OTC derivatives markets as they are brought under new regulation.
US clearing body the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is pushing a move to shorten the settlement cycle for the US markets to T+2, claiming support from industry bodies and firms including JP Morgan.
One of the central characters featured in Michael Lewis’ controversial book Flash Boys, has added fuel to the fire of debate over high frequency trading by claiming that in a market with less HFT, average order sizes would get larger and long-term investors would benefit.
When the US Federal Reserve Banks asked for comments on improving the US payments system, the tech industry and merchants said “let’s go” while the incumbents said “whoa, not so fast” …
Perseus Telecom has launched what it claims is the first ‘trans-Atlantic’ microwave route between New York and Frankfurt, for use by banks, market makers, proprietary trading firms and other market participants.
BNP Paribas Securities Services has launched a reporting tool for investment banks, which it says will help them cope with tough new financial regulations by better monitoring their intraday liquidity.
After many years of struggle, Mexicans may be about to snatch the crown of Latin America’s most promising financial services market from their Portuguese-speaking cousins in Brazil.
Cross-border payments company Earthport has launched two new routes into Mexico and Colombia, as part of a drive to open up Latin America for faster, more efficient and transparent payments.
Canadians are in a hurry to get rid of their cash – at least as a method of payment, nor are they content with the contactless tap-and-go cards currently in use; they are anxious to replace cards with contactless smartphone technology, writes Aaron Rosland, senior economic counsellor for the Government of Ontario, Canada.
The Dodd-Frank Act launched the acronym SEF into the alphabet soup of modern capital markets, After three years of repeated discussions, consultations, submissions and furious wrangling, Swap Execution Facilities finally come into operation this week.
More than 125,000 online gambling accounts were created in less than a month, according to New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. As one of three states where online gambling is now legal, the Garden State presents significant opportunity for digital wallet providers.
Switzerland’s SIX Financial Information has begun delivering FATCA tax information to the US Inland Revenue Service, ahead of the controversial extraterritorial tax’s reporting deadline in July.
US bank PNC has linked its invoice automation platform to OB10, the global e-invoicing network run by specialist firm Tungsten Corporation, in a deal that the bank says will help its commercial customers by making payments faster and improving the quality of payments data. PNC Bank is the first commercial bank in the US to […]
How employees are using their accounts can have a dramatic impact on an employer’s overall HSA strategy and benefit plan. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the enabling legislation for HSAs, the industry, employers and brokers/agents all have the opportunity to move HSAs forward with the use of insightful reporting and analytical tools.
Paybefore chats with First Data’s Ben Love to get some insight into the company’s recent moves, as well as the future of payments.
A new Canadian stock exchange aimed at retail and long-term investors is planning its debut next year, offering a service designed to curb high-frequency trading and support capital raising.
San Francisco startup offers merchants a data-driven business insights platform that does the heavy lifting for them.
Reforms to the way derivatives trade in the US and Europe are causing a conflict between consumer desire for bespoke solutions and regulatory attempts at standardisation – and the self-inflicted panic as the deadline approaches indicates the cost may be too high, according to a panel of senior capital markets representatives speaking at an event organised by the Futures and Options Association in London on Tuesday.
Most banks are still not ready for the arrival of Swap Execution Facilities, the new category of trading venues created by the Dodd-Frank act in the US to handle OTC derivatives. Worse still, market participants are almost universally negative about SEFs, according to a new paper by research house GreySpark Partners.
Barclays has been fined $3.75 million by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for its failure to keep electronic records, including emails and instant messages, which are required by law. The failure is the latest in a string of recent fines for the bank.
Electronic fixed income trading, one of the last major asset classes traded by humans, could take a big step forward when a new Nasdaq OMX dark pool trading venue goes live next year.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won’t issue its proposed rules for GPR prepaid cards until May of 2014, according to the agency’s updated rulemaking agenda.
Credit Agricole CIB has signed an outsourcing deal with Genpact, in which the technology firm will help the bank by providing its IT development and maintenance, production support, infrastructure management and user support in the US.
The latest version of the telco-backed Isis mobile wallet service has been launched across the US, following 18 months of testing in Texas and Utah by owners AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.
New OCC guidance reminds financial institutions that third-party oversight is where it’s at.
The high double-digit growth numbers in prepaid fall to single digits as the industry faces regulatory uncertainty and a sluggish economic recovery.
Jon Sarvis has been named CEO of TMG Financial Services (TMGFS), a Des Moines, Iowa-based payments solutions provider.
ProPay, a merchant services provider and TSYS company, recently was recognized as the top online payment service by merchants participating in the EcommerceBytes awards survey.
Payveris, a Wethersfield, Conn.-based online and mobile payments company, has expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of industry veterans Rich Pelikan and Mickey Goldwasser.
A surprisingly high proportion of US banks are still not prepared to comply with Dodd-Frank’s regulations on swaps, despite the impending arrival of mandatory trading on swap execution facilities, according to Charley Rich, vice president of product management at tech firm Nastel.
Amid big transit rollouts in Chicago and Salt Lake City, Las Vegas is getting in on the action with a new pilot program enabling transit riders to pay bus fares with a tap.
Pharmacy giant will soon find out if its suite of financial services is just what the doctor ordered for the millions of unbanked and underbanked consumers in the U.S.
