There are numerous everyday phrases that denigrate the simple act of talking. People like to say “talk is cheap”, or that someone might be “all talk and no action”. In the case of hedge fund traders, however, it’s the opposite. Talk is everything.  The typical day in the life of a hedge fund trader can involve a seemingly endless series of conversations with a huge variety of people. There are portfolio managers, investment relations executives, sell-side brokers and dealers, institutional investors, risk management, compliance – the list is long and...

Deutsche Bank AG picked Alexander Wynaendts, an outsider with experience in insurance and banking, to be its next chairman. He will succeed longtime chairman Paul Achleitner, who has led the company’s supervisory board for nearly decade. Mr. Wynaendts was the chief executive officer of Dutch insurer Aegon NV for 12 years through 2020. He began his career at lender ABN Amro NV, where he spent 13 years in private and investment banking in Amsterdam and London, Deutsche Bank said.

UBS named former Morgan Stanley President Colm Kelleher as its pick to succeed Axel Weber as chairman of the world’s biggest wealth manager when his mandate ends in April. Kelleher retired from his post at Morgan Stanley in 2019 after three decades at the U.S. investment bank, including as finance director during the global financial crisis, but stayed on as a special adviser. UBS has been keen to hire a chairman with investment banking experience to work closely with former ING boss Ralph Hamers, who became chief executive of Switzerland’s biggest bank last year and pledged...

Refinitiv has strengthened its partnership with financial software company NeoXam to provide market participants with greater choice and simplification over their data. Reference, pricing, ESG, regulatory and tax data sets will be provided by Refinitiv, while quality control and disseminating will be provided by NeoXam through its DataHub platform. According to NeoXam, its DataHub addresses the challenges associated with aggregating and managing vast amounts of reference and market data in order to accurately manage and report financial positions. Financial institutions will be able to...

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. announced the first phase of its futures and options initial margin methodology update from ICE Risk Model (IRM 1.0) to a Value-at-Risk (VaR)-based portfolio margining methodology, IRM 2.0. IRM 2.0 utilizes a Filtered Historical Simulation VaR approach that models the behavior of a portfolio, capturing all relationships and diversifying effects within a portfolio, rather than measuring risk on an instrument-by-instrument basis. The initial launch is planned for January 24, 2022, for ICE equity index futures contracts cleared at ICE Clear U.S., which includes...

State Street Corporation announced it has added pre-and post-trade optimization and margin analytics capabilities to its Collateral+ service. In partnership with Cassini Systems, a  provider of pre- and post-trade margin and collateral analytics for derivatives market participants, Collateral+ now offers an integrated, modular approach to optimization, which addresses collateral efficiency from multiple angles. First, it integrates collateral and funding impact into the front-office decision strategy ahead of the trades being placed. Through the addition of Cassini’s technology,...

FIF has scheduled its annual FIF CAT webinar for Thursday, December 7 at 4pm ET. Panel participants include Shelly Bohlin of FINRA CAT, Jon Kroeper of FINRA, Will Leahey of Refinitiv, and Mitvin Shah of Société Générale. In order to attend this webinar, please register here. If you have any questions, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   

FIF has created a new working group called the Securities Lending Transparency Working Group. This group will discuss and prepare a comment letter on the SEC’s November 18 rule proposal to create a new reporting system for securities lending. The reporting system, as proposed by the SEC, will apply to equities and bonds, including corporates, Treasuries, Agencies, asset and mortgage-backed securities, and municipal securities. The reporting system will include transaction and position reporting. In order to subscribe to this group, please either update your profile or email us at This email...

The Rule 606 Working Group will meet on Tuesday, November 23 at 11am ET to continue its discussion of a draft comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-35, “FINRA Requests Comment on Proposed Order Routing Disclosure Requirements for OTC Equity Securities and Potential Steps to Facilitate Investor Access to Current Order Routing Disclosures for NMS Securities.” The Working Group also will discuss supplemental information to be submitted to the SEC relating to options look-through.