On September 30, members of the FIF Rule 606 Working Group met with the staff of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets to discuss the challenges with Rule 606 look-though for options. The next meeting of the FIF Rule 606 Working Group is scheduled for Thursday October 14 at 10am ET. During this meeting, Working Group members will review a draft request for exemptive relief relating to options look-through to be submitted by FIF to the SEC. Working Group members also will discuss Rule 606 reporting for multi-leg orders and FINRA’s recent Regulatory Notice 21-35, which proposes to extend...

Because of the large number of issues that the CAIS Working Group is currently reviewing, FIF has scheduled an additional CAIS call for Monday October 11 at 11am ET. This call will focus on the continuing review of the most recent updates to the Full CAIS Reporting Scenarios. This call is in addition to the standing Wednesday and Friday CAIS Working Group calls.

MayStreet, the market data technology and content provider, announced the expansion of its Market Data Lake product, adding full support for all U.S. Equity Options data feeds. The additions, which augment the firm’s long-standing provision of the OPRA feed, will see MayStreet’s U.S. Equity Options coverage to include depth, complex, and auction feeds.

LiquidityDirect clients are now able to seamlessly invest cash in commercial paper (CP) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while also being able to leverage a new search application that introduces Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings onto the portal. The addition of these new investment options and ESG analytics represents the next step in the expansion of LiquidityDirect, BNY Mellon's short-end investments platform, to deliver a range of liquidity management and investment choices across the short end of the curve.

HSBC has launched a new Risk Advisory tool that leverages Google Cloud technology to harvest data points to allow its traders and risk managers to mitigate potential risk. The new tool allows the bank’s traders and risk managers to run “what if” scenarios intraday to assess the necessary capital requirements to cushion any potential ratings downgrades and default risk of corporate bonds among other credit products. As the market continues its migration to more sustainable forms of investment, HSBC confirmed that its risk development team had plans to adapt the tool later down the line in a...

FlexTrade, the multi-asset execution and order management system provider, and IHS Markit, the analytics and solutions provider to buy- and sell-side firms, are integrating IHS Markit’s pre-trade transaction cost analysis (TCA) data into FlexTRADER EMS. The firms cite the ever-increasing demand from buy-side trading teams for more efficient workflows, interoperable data for improved, informed trading decisions, and a seamless user experience across their front office technology ecosystem. The IHS Markit impact model can been adopted by trading desks to support traders’ insight into their...

Itiviti, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.’s provider of flexible, cross-asset trading solutions covering the full trade lifecycle, announced the integration of its NYFIX Matching solution with the portfolio, order and investment management system from Broadridge. In a story in Trader’s Magazine, Ray Tierney, President of Itiviti says, “Now, less than six months after being acquired by Broadridge, Itiviti can deliver our automated NYFIX Matching solution for trade allocation, confirmation and affirmation to a far greater number of clients, helping them save money and expedite trade...

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) issued a new white paper, “Making the U.S. Treasury Market Safer for All Participants: How FICC’s Open Access Model Promotes Central Clearing,” that explores how to advance central clearing around U.S. Treasury transactions. The latest paper from DTCC’s subsidiary, Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC), describes how FICC’s long-standing “open-access” approach provides the flexibility necessary to allow a wide variety of market participants to access central clearing, while also ensuring impartiality and fairness. It also compares...

On September 29, 2021, FIF submitted a comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-19, “FINRA Requests Comment on Short Interest Position Reporting Enhancements and Other Changes Related to Short Sale Reporting”. FIF would like to thank the members of the FIF Short Sales/Reg SHO/Short Interest Reporting Working Group for their participation and input in the drafting of the comment letter.