Interactive Brokers expects to offer cryptocurrency trading by the end of the summer, Thomas Peterffy, the firm’s chairman and CEO revealed, according to a story in Blockworks news. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based brokerage firm conducts business in 135 markets worldwide and, along with its affiliates, executes about 3.3 million trades per day, according to its website. The firm reported in April that customer accounts rose 74% from the year-ago quarter to more than 1.3 million. Interactive Brokers started providing access to cryptocurrency when bitcoin futures began trading...

Utilizing distributed ledger technology (DLT) to better streamline and connect the private equity ecosystem and assets, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. released the latest evolution of its Private Market Hub platform, using Amazon Managed Blockchain from Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS). The updated platform, the industry's first deployment of blockchain technology for the private equity market, now has added connectivity to existing industry tools and technologies to help further automate workflows between front-, middle- and back-office functions providing a...

Cowen, the US broker-dealer, has partnered with PolySign to give clients access to cryptocurrency and digital assets. Cowen and PolySign launched a partnership in May 2021 to give the broker’s clients access to the new markets in a sign of increasing institutional acceptance of crypto and digital assets. Cowen also made a $25 million strategic investment in PolySign.

Rule 606 Working Group. The Rule 606 Working Group discussed issues and questions raised by FIF members relating to orders sent directly to an ATS, ATS matching with a single market maker, Rule 606(b)(3) requests from sub-accounts, and look-through for Rule 606(a) options reporting. Market Trends in Total Return Swaps vs Securities Lending. Josh Galper of Finadium presented to the Front and Back Office Committees on market trends in total return swaps vs. securities lending, including the impact of Archegos. FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group and CAT Committee. The CAT Tech Specs Working...

FIF is pleased to announce that TradeStation has joined the FIF Community. 

Execution and order management system provider FlexTrade has integrated the BMLL Data Feed into the FlexTRADER EMS. Data and analytics provider BMLL Technologies’ Level 3 equity data and analytics is designed to help financial institutions leverage the predictive nature of full depth order book data to accelerate their research, optimize their trading strategies and generate alpha. BMLL’s Data Feed is pre-computed from granular, Level 3 order book data and claims to provide market participants with actionable insights focused on market quality and execution performance as well as available...

Nasdaq has changed its opening auction to give institutional investors the opportunity to interact with retail flow as there has been a rise in retail participation in US equity markets. According to a story in MarketsMedia news, Chuck Mack, head of US equities at Nasdaq, said, “Asset managers want more access to retail liquidity and we are helping to solve that problem in the opening auction. Increasing the diversity in the ecosystem participating in the opening auction improves the quality of the market so it is a win-win for everyone.” He explained that the composition of...

Morgan Stanley is shifting some of its core workloads to Microsoft Corp.’s Azure cloud platform as part of a move to accelerate the modernization of its information technology environment. It is also working with Azure to roll out new cloud features that executives of the two companies said will benefit its clients and ultimately the highly regulated financial services industry. The partnership builds on several technology projects that began about two years ago according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. Morgan Stanley said it would move some compute-intensive...

Chinese regulators have approved a wealth-management joint venture between Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., as China further opens up its financial sector to foreign banks. Goldman’s asset-management arm will own 51% of the venture, and the remainder will be held by an ICBC wealth-management subsidiary, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. ICBC, one of China’s largest state-owned banks, said the venture will help it provide more diversified and professional wealth-management services and would improve the...