Virtu Financial and MarketAxess Holdings, each a leader in electronic trading and analytics, announced exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers Charles Schwab Investment Management and WisdomTree Asset Management as new clients of Virtu’s eNAV ETF analytics tool enhanced with MarketAxess’ Composite+, an AI-powered algorithmic pricing engine for corporate and emerging market bonds. Rolled-out in Q1 2020, Virtu’s eNAV ETF analytics tool offers real-time transparency for ETF valuations by calculating the bid and ask prices of ETFs based on their underlying components and/or proxy assets....

Goldman Sachs will launch its SIGMA X multilateral trading facility (MTF) in Paris to continue servicing European clients post-Brexit. Goldman Sachs said it will launch SIGMA X Europe MTF before January 4th next year and it will be available alongside its UK-based SIGMA X MTF. The Paris venue will include its dark pool and periodic auction order book. The move will allow the investment bank’s clients within the European Union to continue accessing liquidity post-Brexit. Goldman Sachs added that the SIGMA X Europe MTF will launch with European symbols across 15 markets as the UK-based venue...

FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group and FIF CAT Committee. The FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group reviewed and discussed updates to the Reporting Scenarios issued by FINRA CAT on November 6, including updated scenarios relating to RFQs, floor broker trading, trailing stop orders and allocations. The Working Group reviewed items where additional information is required in the Technical Specifications and Reporting Scenarios documents. The Working Group discussed CAT rejections of orders for a new option series received prior to the first day of trading. The Working Group reviewed comments and...

FIF will feature the following spotlight presentations on upcoming Committee and Working Group calls: FIF Front Office Committee (Monday November 30 at 11 am ET). Chris Bok of OTC Markets will discuss FINRA’s proposal to retire the OTCBB and enhance oversight of OTC equity markets. FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs (Thursday December 3 at 1 pm ET). FIF will schedule 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...

FIF will be hosting two webinars during December: On Tuesday December 8th at 2 pm, Julian Rainero and Bill Barbera of the Schulte Roth law firm will host a webinar on the recent SEC Government Securities ATS rule proposal with James Dolan of Luminex as moderator. On Monday December 14th at 4 pm, FIF will host an end-of-the-year CAT webinar sponsored by Refinitiv. We will be sending out additional details in the coming days.

Bank of America has become the first authorized participant to implement the new FIX API for the ETF ecosystem from US exchange group ICE. 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. 

In a bid to entice institutional investors and large financial services firms to the digital asset market, crypto tax services and data provider Lukka has teamed up with IHS Markit to provide its data products to Wall Street. Lukka, best known for its retail crypto tax business, said the partnership would allow it to redistribute its data through IHS Markit. Hence, Lukka's crypto data will join more than 23 million market data points that exist on IHS Markit's platform, which focuses on a range of assets from credit default swaps to municipal bonds. More than 160 crypto-native...

Nasdaq and Verafin, an industry pioneer in anti-financial crime management solutions, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Nasdaq to acquire Verafin for US$2.75 billion in cash, subject to customary adjustments. The agreement will combine Verafin’s suite of anti-financial crime management products with Nasdaq’s regulatory technology to create a global SaaS leader. Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador and founded in 2003, Verafin provides more than 2,000 financial institutions in North...

Wells Fargo has partnered with FinTech firm HPR to provide a new-look electronic trading platform for quantitative hedge funds clients. The partnership will see the bank’s quantitative prime services division adopt HPR’s Unimus platform, which will include the use of its ultra-low latency direct market access (DMA) and pre-trade risk management solutions, to provide Wells Fargo’s hedge fund clients with custom trading solutions. The new trading platform is the latest enhancement Wells Fargo has made to its prime brokerage division, such as the roll out of new capabilities to its agency...