The FIF Rule 605 Working Group met on July 29, 2021 to discuss FIF’s July 16, 2021 call with the SEC staff relating to Rule 605 for options. The July 16 call was requested by the SEC staff, who are considering the expansion of Rule 605 to cover options. FIF will be sending a survey to FIF members this week requesting feedback on next steps for FIF relating to this topic.

An FIF member that is a clearing firm has requested that FIF schedule a sub-group call to discuss CAIS reporting by clearing firms for accounts that are not active. FIF has scheduled this call for Tuesday, August 3 at 2 pm ET. If you would like to participate on this call, please send a request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

FIF Data and Technology Committee. On Wednesday, July 28, Cboe gave an overview of the options industry today, and introdruced their new data and access solutions (DnA). Please find the spotlight presentation and the FIF monthly stats here: meeting materials  /   full capacity statistics report FIF Front Office Committee. On Tuesday, July 27, Jim Angel from Georgetown University came on as a guest speaker discussing his views on the recommendations for the SEC’s regulation of short selling published by Better Markets. Please find this month's Front Office...

A Northern Trust survey found that 98% of buy-side firms are using data science or planning to pursue it to optimize performance in the next two years according to a story in The TRADE news. Of the 300 global asset management firms across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa surveyed, 98% of them were already using or planning on using data science and decision support tools to optimize their performance. The survey also found that while almost half of the respondents said they had a system to measure decision-making and data inputs, just 12% said they used a...

Bloomberg has rolled out a daily credit risk indicator tool aimed at providing firms with early warnings on rating downgrades and defaults ahead of traditional analysis according to a story in The TRADE news. Known as Market-Implied Probability Default (MIPD), the indicator incorporates Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing (BVAL) to estimate fixed income market sentiment and reacts to changing market and issuer conditions. Bloomberg said MIPD, which is available to Enterprise Data and Bloomberg Terminal clients globally, was developed to help firms anticipate credit deterioration in order to...

Cboe Europe has received approval from the Dutch regulator to operate its new European derivatives market from September 6, 2021, after confirming plans to launch earlier this year. The regulatory approval from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) means Cboe Europe Derivatives is now authorized to operate for equity index futures and options. Its EuroCCP subsidiary, which will provide clearing services for the venue, has also been granted approval by the Central Bank of the Netherlands (DNB) to clear the equity derivatives. The exchange is expected to launch this September...

State Street is partnering with Lukka Inc., a provider of middle- and back-office crypto software, for the fund-administration services, State Street said in a statement. Lukka also will provide State Street’s private-fund clients with data to support valuation services. Last month, State Street created a new division, State Street Digital, led by Nadine Chakar, to expand the firm’s services for crypto, central bank digital currencies, blockchain and the tokenization of securities.

HSBC has joined the cross-currency swap service offered by IHS Markit and the CLS FX settlement platform, CLSSettlement. According to The TRADE news, the service combines CLS’s payment-versus-payment settlement with IHS Markit’s trade confirmation system, MarkitSERV, allowing members to send cross-currency swaps into CLSSettlement for settlement. Cross-currency swap flows are then multilaterally netted against all other FX transactions in CLSSettlement for liquidity optimisation. IHS Markit and CLS said increasing the flow of cross-currency swaps to the CLSSettlement service was in response...

To enhance its global asset management clients’ decision-making processes through data visualization and analysis, Broadridge Financial Solutions announced it will work with Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, to enable clients to seamlessly consolidate and analyze trading and portfolio data in the cloud in a way they couldn’t before. Snowflake’s integrated data platform provides customers with data storage, processing and analytics solutions in the cloud. Enhancing Broadridge’s trading and portfolio management solution with Snowflake technology will enable Broadridge clients to bring...