The FIF Rule 606 Working Group will meet on Thursday, July 29, 2021 at 11 am ET to provide an update on FIF’s recent discussions with the SEC staff. In June, FIF submitted to the SEC staff a request for written guidance relating to the Rule 606 reporting of options routing, the Rule 606 reporting of various ATS scenarios, and the Rule 606 definition of customer. FIF and the SEC staff discussed this letter during a call on July 19, 2021. During the July 19 call, the SEC staff requested that FIF submit in writing detailed scenarios relating to options routing. On the July 29 call, Working...

On Tuesday, July 27 at 11 am ET, Professor James Angel of the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business will present to the FIF Front Office Committee his views on the recommendations for the SEC’s regulation of short selling published by Better Markets.

On July 22, 2021, FIF sent a survey to FIF members requesting feedback on the reporting of accountHolderType in CAT Allocation events in place of reporting TIDType. FIF requests that FIF members provide their responses to the survey by the end-of-day on Friday, July 30.

On July 16, 2021, FIF members participated on a call with SEC staff to discuss Rule 605 for options. This call was requested by the SEC staff, who are considering the expansion of Rule 605 to cover options. The next meeting of the FIF Rule 605 Working Group will be scheduled for the week of August 2.

During June, FINRA published Regulatory Notice 21-19, “Short Interest Position Reporting Enhancements and Other Changes Related to Short Sale Reporting”. The FIF Reg SHO/Short Interest Reporting Working Group is working on a comment letter on this regulatory proposal. FINRA recently extended the due date for comments from August 5 to September 30, 2021.

FIF Reg SHO/Short Interest Reporting Working Group. The Working Group continued its discussion of FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-19, “Short Interest Position Reporting Enhancements and Other Changes Related to Short Sale Reporting”. The Working Group started its review of an initial draft of an FIF comment letter on the rule proposal. FIF Back Office Committee. On July 22, speakers from the DTCC and the committee co-chairs went over rule notices from the DTCC, OCC, FINRA, SEC and more. Please find the meeting materials here.  FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group. The CAT Tech Specs Working...

State Street Corporation announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Mercatus, Inc., a front-and-middle-office solutions and data management provider for private market managers. The transaction is expected to be completed in September subject to customary closing conditions. In connection with the acquisition, the company will launch its State Street AlphaSM for Private Markets solution which will allow institutional investors to fully manage the entire lifecycle of their infrastructure, private equity, real estate, private debt and fund of funds investments through a fully...

Fidelity International has invested in a cloud-based data platform that will see the FinTech firm drive the asset manager’s data strategy following a long-standing partnership. According to a story in The TRADE news, FINBOURNE received a strategic investment from the venture capital business at Fidelity, known as Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, in a recent funding round with other undisclosed investors. Fidelity will now adopt FINBOURNE’s LUSID platform, which the asset manager developed in partnership with the platform provider, HSBC Securities Services and hedge fund Atlana...

Broadridge Financial is to use OpenFin’s operating system for financial desktops for its new digital workspace solution according to a story in Desk news. The tool is designed to support asset managers using Broadridge’s portfolio and order management system, giving them componentised apps with configurable layouts and more easily used workflows. Traders and portfolio managers will be able to manage their desktop real estate more efficiently and thereby increase productivity by reducing the effort and time navigating across multiple windows and screens. Notifications will also keep users up...