For this week only, at the request of FIF members, the FIF CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group will meet at 1pm ET instead of 2 pm ET on Wednesday March 30. The reason for the scheduling change this week is that the House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing at 2pm ET on March 30 to discuss the exchanges' role in the changing economy.

FIF Front Office Committee. The FIF Front Office Committee reviewed applicable updates and notices from the SEC, FINRA, FINRA CAT and the equity and option exchanges. The spotlight presenter for the meeting was Tim Sargent of CalcGuard, who discussed global trade data aggregation. Find the March Agenda here. FIF CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group. The CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group reviewed draft comments and questions for FINRA CAT relating to the OPT handlingInstructions value, FAQ B24 (ALO, OPO and STP handlingInstructions), FAQ D27 (reporting for DMA and Sponsored...

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. announced the appointment of Stephen Berte as President of its BIDS Trading unit, effective April 4, 2022.  Mr. Berte is joining BIDS from Tourmaline Partners, where he was a Managing Director and founded and led its Boston office. Mr. Berte started his career in equity trading with Standard Life Investments in Boston. Cboe completed its acquisition of BIDS Trading in December 2020. The 2020 acquisition followed Cboe and BIDS Trading's successful block trading collaboration in Europe, which began in 2016 with the creation of Cboe LIS, now...

The digital assets trading unit at Goldman Sachs has made the first-ever over-the-counter (OTC) crypto transaction in the form of a bitcoin non-deliverable option, according to a story in The Block news and an announcement by its partner Galaxy Digital. The company says this is the first OTC crypto transaction by a major bank in the US and could be seen as a sign of maturity of the asset class in the eyes of institutional players. 

Financial services firm Cowen has launched a digital-asset division as it seeks to lead US banks in the growing segment. Called Cowen Digital, the Connecticut-based unit offers cryptocurrency trading for institutional investors, as well as custody solutions via Cowen’s partnership with PolySign’s Standard Custody and Trust Company. Cowen partnered with PolySign last May to offer its clients easier access to crypto. Dan Charney, co-president of the bank, said in a statement that Cowen Digital has been trading crypto on behalf of its clients for several months. The division is...

IPC, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for the global financial markets, announced an expansion of its electronic trading portfolio with the launch of Connexus ALPHA. This solution enables market participants to connect to key global liquidity venues through ultra-low latency optimized point-to-point optical fiber connections. Connexus ALPHA is a high-performance cloud edge solution that is integrated with the Connexus Cloud platform, IPC’s flagship multi-cloud platform for the global financial markets, an ecosystem that...

Part 8 of the FIF webinar series on the Market Data Infrastructure Rule will take place on March 29 at 4pm ET. Panelists will discuss the February 24 SEC response to the participant’s November 5 filing, additional comment letters submitted to the SEC and thoughts on the way forward from here. The panel will also discuss the Plan Governance and lawsuits status. FIF will be announcing the panelists in the coming days. Click here to register.

The FIF Front Office Committee will meet on Tuesday March 22 at 11am ET to review applicable updates and notices from the SEC, FINRA, FINRA CAT and the equity and option exchanges. The spotlight presenter for the meeting will be Tim Sargent of CalcGuard, who will discuss reducing the cost and complexity of trading data management for investment managers and broker-dealers. 

The FIF Short Sales/Reg SHO/Short Interest Reporting Working Group will meet on Tuesday March 29, 2022 at 3pm ET to review and provide feedback on a first draft of a comment letter on the SEC’s recent proposal to mandate a new buy to cover order marker.