The Back Office Committee will have its next call on Tuesday February 18 at 2 pm ET to review applicable FICC, DTC, NSCC, SEC, MSRB, OCC, IRS and FINRA updates during the past month.

The next call for the SEC Rule 606 and FINRA Rule 6470 Working Group will be on Tuesday February 18 at 3 pm ET. The Working Group will discuss a draft FIF letter to the SEC and FINRA on SEC Rule 606(a) and the implementation of FINRA Rule 6470.

FIF has scheduled the next call for the SLATE Working Group for Thursday February 20 at 11 am ET. The Working Group will continue its discussion of the SEC approval of the FINRA rule filing for SLATE and current open interpretive issues. The Working Group will also continue its discussion of the January 24 blog by Robert Cook, President and CEO of FINRA, titled “Implementing the SEC’s Securities Lending Reporting Requirements.”

Short Position Reporting. The FIF Short Sales / Reg SHO / Short Position Reporting Working Group continued its discussion of the implementation of short position reporting. The Working Group discussed identifying Threshold A and Threshold B securities, the January 30 updates to the Form SHO Technical Specifications, a rejection received by a firm when reporting two securities with the same issuer and class name and different CUSIPs, reporting for January 9, and the jurisdictional scope of reporting. Rule 605 Working Group. The Rule 605 Working Group continued its discussion of the...

Bloomberg has gone live with a new US Treasury (UST) algorithmic dealer offering, providing buy-side clients with access to pools of liquidity usually available only on dealer-to-dealer trading platforms.  The first trade using the offering was completed between Morgan Stanley and a leading buy-side firm according to a story in The Trade news.  Bloomberg’s new UST dealer algos have also received support from Citi, JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets, with additional dealers expected to join the solution this year.  The solution allows clients to access the algo...

Communication and markets technology business Symphony has partnered with Broadridge Financial Solutions with the aim of streamlining communication between asset managers and their executing brokers. According to a story in The Trade news, Symphony’s messaging technology will be integrated into the NYFIX Matching platform. The secure messaging platform is set to enable compliance, transparency, and streamlined resolution of post-trade discrepancies. Brad Levy, chief executive of Symphony, said: “As the financial industry advances towards workflow digitization, it has become...

Cboe Global Markets has become the latest exchange to move to expand its trading hours for US equities, moving to a 24-hour model for five days a week. The decision relates to the exchange’s US equities business on its Cboe EDGX Equities Exchange (EDGX) and is currently awaiting regulatory approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Cboe said the move followed “growing global customer demand” for expanded trading hours in the asset class. As part of the expansion, all listed NMS stocks will become available for trading on EDGX for 24 hours Monday through Friday. “We...

StoneX has completed its acquisition of Paris-based fixed income brokerage firm, Octo Finances, as the firm seeks to bolster its presence in the asset class, according to a story in The Trade news. The deal was first announced last September and will see StoneX further enhance its fixed income offering and reach across Europe. Octo Finances specializes in bond and convertible sales, debt capital markets, and credit research, serving clients including banks, insurance companies, private debt funds, mutual funds, and private wealth managers. 

On January 28, FIF submitted its ninth letter to the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research (“OFR”) on the reporting of non-centrally cleared bilateral repos. FIF would like to thank the members of the OFR Reporting Working Group for their contributions in the drafting of this letter.