The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG) announced that they are jointly developing a new class of publicly traded assets called Natural Asset Companies, or NACs. NACs are sustainable enterprises that hold the rights to ecosystem services produced by natural, working or hybrid lands. On a global basis, natural assets produce an estimated $125 trillion annually in ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity and clean water. According to a story in MarketsMedia news, the formidable output underscores the financial potential of an asset class...

HSBC has launched an interactive analytics portal within its single dealer platform that aims to help traders monitor the execution performance of FX algorithms in-flight. Known as eRisk Analytics, the portal was designed amid increasing complexity and fragmentation of FX markets. It will offer various key metrics to clients, including volatility, volume, market depth, spread and news events across deliverable, frontier and NDF currency pairs within the Evolve trading platform. The investment bank said clients can observe algo performance on an absolute level in terms of price and fill, but...

Broadridge Financial Solutions has completed the first fixed income trades for its sponsored General Collateral (GC) service via its post-trade processing solution in conjunction with DTCC and BNY Mellon. Through DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC), the newly launched sponsored GC service will enable sponsored members to transact tri-party repo activity with their sponsoring members on a general collateral basis. The Broadridge functionality expands the current fixed income footprint developed for the FICC’s sponsored service which began with sponsored repo in 2018. Sponsored...

Global electronic brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group is teaming up with Paxos to enable crypto trading. Interactive Brokers' clients can now trade and custody Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash through Paxos. The assets will be accessible alongside traditional assets through a single interface. For now, the services are only available to U.S. residents with individual or joint accounts. In its announcement, Interactive Brokers said there are plans to launch crypto trading to other client bases, including Financial Advisors, and those outside the U.S.

Nasdaq Inc. is lending its market technology to the sports-betting industry, allowing users to get in and out of wagers the same way they trade stocks. Fintech company Sporttrade Inc. will use software from New York-based Nasdaq to oversee its sports betting and trading platform, the companies said. The cloud-based software, used by 2,300 companies across the finance industry, will help monitor sports bets to identify irregularities and unusual trading behavior. Sporttrade bills itself as the first regulated sports-betting exchange in U.S. history, and is led by a team with sports-wagering...

Data and Technology Committee: On Wednesday, September 29 at 10am ET, the FIF Data and Technology Committee will be treated to a spotlight presentation from Cboe's Angelo Evangelou who will discuss a new paper from Cboe Global Markets that focuses on Targeted Equity Market Structure Reform and its recommendations in updating certain rules and regulations.

The SEC staff have advised FIF that the SEC is considering the expansion of Rule 605 to cover options. The SEC staff have requested input from FIF on this topic. The FIF Rule 605 Working Group is working on a set of recommendations relating to Rule 605 for options. The next meeting for this Working Group will be scheduled for the week of September 27.

On September 23, 2021 at 11am ET, the FIF Short Sales/Reg SHO/Short Interest Reporting Working Group will discuss any final changes to the draft FIF 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”. The Working Group also will review draft requests for interpretive guidance relating to Short Interest Reporting.

FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group. The CAT Tech Specs Working Group reviewed the Phase 2d change relating to symbol validation in Allocation events. The Working Group discussed issues and questions from FIF members relating to file format, the limitation on file size, the reporting of MEOMR events, the removal of the J3 and SR handlingInstructions, using Order Modification events for the cancel of the remaining shares of an order, the reporting of representative orders, and scenarios where one side is manual and the other side is electronic. The Working Group continued its discussion of...