AFX has formed a strategic alliance with Citi in which the Bank will join the American Financial Exchange (AFX). According to a story in MarketsMedia news, Citi will also engage in position hedging using AMERIBOR futures and provide market-making in AMERIBOR interest rate swaps. AFX is an electronic exchange for direct lending and borrowing for American banks and financial institutions. AFX also facilitates the determination of a market-based interest rate benchmark called the American Interbank Offered Rate (AMERIBOR). AMERIBOR has been independently reviewed and reaffirmed to adhere to...

Liquidnet, an institutional trading and equities network, said it has activated and started onboarding trading clients to its recently established Dublin-based multilateral trading facility (MTF). Liquidnet began preparations to open an EEA-based presence as a post-Brexit base of operations in early 2017. The Dublin MTF, which will act as an agency broker, also received Central Bank of Ireland authorization as an investment firm under the MiFID II. Liquidnet and other companies running trading venues such as multilateral-trading facilities are establishing European bases ahead of the UK’s...

The data and analytics division at Virtu Financial has launched a reporting aggregation service on its analytics platform that allows users to analyze data from brokers via a single access point. The new service aims to help market participants manage the increased levels of data that brokers are now required to publish under Rule 606 from the Securities and Exchanges Commission. Rule 606 requires broker-dealers that route client orders in equities and option securities to publish quarterly reports that provide a general overview of their routing practices. The reports are...

S&P Global Inc. agreed to acquire IHS Markit Ltd. for about $44 billion, the companies said, a landmark deal that would combine two of the largest providers of data to Wall Street. The all-stock deal, whose price tag includes $4.8 billion of net debt, is the largest of the year by that measure according to the Wall Street Journal. The deal would combine one of the oldest names in financial markets with a relative newcomer. S&P traces its roots to an 1860 compendium of information for railroad investors and is best known for its bond ratings and its stock-market...

FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group and FIF CAT Committee. FIF submitted comments and questions to FINRA CAT relating to notification of late filings, CND, CSC, CMC and STOPF handling instructions, allocation event timestamps and other issues. FIF CAT CAIS Working Group. FIF prepared the initial draft of a comment letter to the SEC relating to the CAT CAIS reporting requirements and distributed the draft to the FIF CAT CAIS Working Group members. FIF Data & Technology Committee. FIF Members were treated to two spotlight presentations from Charles Schwab on Fractional Shares and...

FIF will feature the following spotlight presentations on upcoming Committee and Working Group calls: FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs (Thursday December 3 at 1 pm ET). FIF has scheduled a call for the Back Office Committee to focus on the recent SEC no-action letter relating to FPL programs (programs in which broker-dealers borrow fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers). Nihal Patel from the Cadwalader law firm will provide background on the rule proposal. To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or...

FIF will be hosting two webinars during December: On Tuesday December 8th at 2 pm ET, Julian Rainero and Bill Barbera of the Schulte Roth & Zabel law firm will present on the recent SEC Government Securities ATS rule proposal with James Dolan of Luminex as moderator. The rule proposal also impacts existing ATSs. On Monday December 14th at 4 pm ET, FIF will host a year-end CAT Webinar sponsored by Refinitiv. Will Leahey of Refinitiv will be the moderator for the panel. The panelists will include Shelly Bohlin of FINRA CAT, Christopher Bok of OTC Markets, Doug Craig of ION Group,...

Bank of America has become the first authorized participant to implement the new FIX API for the ETF ecosystem from US exchange group ICE, according to a story in The Trade news. ICE launched its FIX API for the ICE ETF Hub in February this year, allowing authorized participants to connect to the ETF platform for managing create/redeem orders in a more automated way.  The adoption of the API provides Bank of America with an electronic workflow between its order management system and platforms of ETF issuers.

Refinitiv and trading technology provider Quodd Financial have teamed up to launch a multi-asset order management system (OMS) solution for banks and brokers. The system will cover front- to middle-office services including pre-trade risk, order routing and order management, algorithmic trading, smart order routing, middle-office, trade reporting, and analytics. The OMS solution will be available to clients in Asia, Europe, and the US, and is powered by Refinitiv’s data feed solutions.