Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. announced that it has launched 10 new Nature-Based Solutions Carbon Credit futures contracts, providing a carbon credit futures contract portfolio which allows market participants to buy, sell and hedge carbon credits from 2016 out to 2030. With the addition of the 10 new contracts to the existing 2016 to 2020 nature-based solutions future, ICE now offers 11 carbon credit futures, each covering a fixed period of five years, from January to December from 2016 to 2030. Each futures contract has its own set of expiries which are outlined in each contract...

Miami International Holdings, Inc., owner of Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC, MIAX PEARL, LLC, MIAX Emerald, LLC, Minneapolis Grain Exchange, LLC and The Bermuda Stock Exchange and T3 Index jointly announced the launch of two new ConvexityShares exchange traded funds developed to provide investors with access to a new product designed to manage volatility exposure. ConvexityShares ETFs offer exposure to SPDR S&P 500 ETF volatility and track the SPIKES Futures Short-Term Index, which uses input prices of the front two SPIKES Futures contracts to measure a...

On August 2, TD Bank announced the acquisition of Cowen in an all-cash $1.3bn transaction. The Canadian bank said TD Securities will accelerate its long-term growth strategy in the US by acquiring a high-quality and rapidly growing investment bank with highly complementary products and services. According to a story in Markets Media news, the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. The combined business will then be known as TD Cowen, a division of TD Securities, and will be headed by Jeffrey Solomon, currently chair & chief executive of Cowen. Bharat Masrani, group...

The next call for the FIF OTC Options Reporting Working Group will be on Monday August 15 at 11 am ET. The Working Group will continue its review of a draft FIF comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 22-14, “OTC Options Reporting: FINRA Requests Comment on Proposed Trade Reporting Requirements for Over-The-Counter Options Transactions”. If you would like to be added to this Working Group, please update your profile or send a note to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Back Office Committee will have its next call on Tuesday August 16 at 11 am ET to review applicable FICC, DTC, NSCC, SEC, MSRB, OCC, IRS and FINRA updates during the past month. The spotlight presenter will be Renuka Gupta of OASIS Pro Markets, who will discuss The Potential for Blockchain in Settlement.  

The Front Office Committee will have its next call on Tuesday August 23 at 11 am ET to review applicable updates and notices from the SEC, FINRA, FINRA CAT and the equity and option exchanges.

The Data and Technology Committee will have its next call on Wednesday August 24 at 10 am ET to review capacity, latency and volume data for the prior month for the equity, options, currency, crypto and futures markets. The spotlight presenter will be John Owens of IPC, who will discuss Maximizing Infrastructure Performance for Rising Market Data Volumes.

The next call for the TRACE Working Group will be on Thursday August 25 at 10 am ET. The Working Group will review and discuss the recent SEC approval of FINRA’s rule filing to require TRACE reporting for trades in foreign sovereign bonds. The Working Group also will review the first draft of an FIF comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 22-17 and MSRB Notice 2022-07, which propose to reduce to one minute the timeframe for reporting trades in corporate, agency and muni bonds.

FIF OTC Options Reporting Working Group. The OTC Options Reporting Working Group reviewed the first draft of an FIF comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 22-14, “OTC Options Reporting: FINRA Requests Comment on Proposed Trade Reporting Requirements for Over-The-Counter Options Transactions”.    FIF TRACE Working Group. The Working Group discussed a recent update from FINRA on TRACE reporting for Covered Depository Institutions. The Working Group reviewed a request from FINRA and the MSRB for a discussion on collecting pre-trade information for fixed income securities. The...