The next call for the TRACE Working Group will be on Thursday February 1 at 11 am ET. The agenda for the call will be to review and discuss the first draft of an FIF comment letter on (i) the January 11 rule filing by FINRA to reduce to one minute the TRACE reporting timeframe for securities that are currently subject to a fifteen-minute reporting timeframe and (ii) the parallel rule filing by the MSRB on January 12. 

The FIF CAT Monthly Update Working Group call for February will be on Thursday February 1 at 2 pm ET. The Working Group will review guidance and updates from the CAT Plan Participants and FINRA CAT on CAT Transaction Reporting, CAT CAIS and CAT billing reporting during the prior month. The Working Group will also review the current areas of focus for FIF members and the current open issues for CAT Transaction Reporting, CAT CAIS reporting and CAT billing.

On January 11 FIF hosted a call to review a digest of rules recently adopted or proposed by the SEC and FINRA. FIF has scheduled a call for Thursday February 1 at 3 pm ET to continue this review. The January 11 call focused on rulemaking relating to Technology, Operations and Finance; and Equities. The February 1 call will focus on rulemaking in the following areas, time permitting: Options; Fixed Income; Security-Based Swaps; Multiple Asset Classes; and Compliance and Proceedings. FIF has invited the members of the Compliance and Surveillance Working Group and the SEC FINRA Regulations...

The next call for the FIF Tax Information Reporting Working Group will be on Thursday February 8 at 3 pm ET. Representatives from Wolters Kluwer will discuss tax considerations for trading Bitcoin ETFs.

During the week of January 22, 2024, an FIF member received document requests from the SEC and FINRA examination groups relating to the NextBridge Hydrocarbons and Meta Materials reorganization. The FIF member is interested to know if other FIF members have received similar document requests. Please send any responses to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. FIF will update all members that respond on the number of firms that have received inquiries. FIF will maintain the anonymity of all responses.

FIF T+1 and Trade-Date Allocations Subgroup. The subgroup discussed issues and questions from FIF members relating to implementation of the requirements for T+1 settlement (amended SEC Rule 15c6-1) and trade-date allocation, confirmation and affirmation (new SEC Rule 15c6-2) that will take effect on May 28. FIF Digital Assets Working Group. The Working Group discussed the disclosure requirements for digital assets and applicable exemptions. The Working Group discussed the requirements of SEC Rule 15c2-11 (Publication or submission of quotations without specified information) as applied...

Catherine Clay has just finished her first 100 days in the newly created role of global head of derivatives at Cboe Global Markets. According to a story in MarketsMedia news, the first 40 days of Clay’s 100-day plan were a listening tour which involved sitting in client meetings and internal stakeholder meetings, which Clay described as, “just being a sponge. Part of my listening tour took me to other parts of the globe, and the resounding message that I heard was an appetite to get access to the US derivative markets. There is a lot of pent-up demand to participate in the uniquely US...

Bloomberg terminal users got a research boost recently according to a story in Institutional Investor magazine: summaries and analysis of company performance written by artificial intelligence. Some users were testing the beta version of Bloomberg’s first generative AI tool last quarter. Bloomberg is rolling it out to all users now. The summaries are designed to help analysts save time absorbing earnings data and transcripts by highlighting key points. They will be available immediately for companies in the Russell 1000 and the top 1000 companies in Europe. The 400 Bloomberg Intelligence...

Blue Ocean Technologies, a capital markets fintech leader in global afterhours trading, and MEMX, a market operator founded by a diverse group of participants to benefit all investors, announced they have reached an agreement for a technology partnership. As part of the arrangement, MEMX will provide BOT its market-as-a-service trading system to operate the Blue Ocean ATS global trading platform. The technology will be implemented by the end of Q1 2024. Licensing the same technology that powers MEMX's US equity and options exchanges, market technology clients can quickly launch new market...