State Street has confirmed the launch of post-trade transaction cost analysis (TCA) for equities through its analytics software vendor BestX. BestX will now provide a post-trade TCA module for global equity markets, which will be accessible via its web interface and include data analysis, report configuration, and generation capabilities. State Street acquired the TCA specialist in 2018, when the analytics provider was focused on providing its platform to foreign exchange market participants. BestX has since expanded its analytics to fixed income trading due to increased demand from...

Goldman Sachs has confirmed it has expanded its product universe for the SIGMA X multilateral trading facility (MTF) to include emerging markets. According to a story in The Trade news, the investment bank said that it will incorporate emerging markets on the SIGMA X MTF and has recently gone live with the Czech Republic and Hungary as part of the expansion. With the new markets, SIGMA X MTF now offers trading in 3,100 instruments across 16 countries.

Refinitiv announced the acquisition of strategic assets from Advisor Software Inc. (ASI), adding functionalities to Refinitiv’s Wealth Management offering including enhanced digital advice capabilities and digital portfolio analysis. ASI’s technology is interoperable and cloud-enabled and will be integrated into the recently launched Refinitiv Digital Investor. ASI’s assets provide Refinitiv with a digital advice platform that enables tax-aware portfolio rebalancing, Monte Carlo-based progress-to-goal tracking, cash flow and portfolio analysis, investment modeling, and proposal...

Credit Suisse Group AG ’s new chief executive unveiled a plan to combine most of the Swiss lender’s trading and investment-banking businesses. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Thomas Gottstein said the move is aimed at freeing up cash to invest across Credit Suisse’s businesses but it doesn’t mark a fundamental shift in the bank’s ambitions. The new investment-banking arm will comprise the divisions previously known as investment banking and capital markets, global markets, and the Asia-Pacific markets business, which had operated separately before. 

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. announced plans to introduce periodic auctions – an innovative mechanism based on a model it first launched in Europe – for the trading of U.S. equities, subject to regulatory approval. With the planned launch of U.S. periodic auctions, Cboe aims to build on the success of its European offering and bring to the U.S. equity markets a new, intraday auction mechanism that delivers beneficial execution outcomes for all market participants. Cboe's new periodic auction, the first of its kind in the U.S., is designed to allow market participants to access...

FIF SEC Rule 606 Working Group - FIF announced the new Rule 606 Working Group Co-Chairs and reviewed the scenarios and follow-up questions to be presented to SEC T&M Staff, including the application of FAQ 12.02 (scope of Rule 606(a) obligations of executing brokers without customer order flow). FIF also reviewed a SEC Clarification which calls for Industry Members to add the rows for Market, Marketable Limit, Non-Marketable Limit, and Other Orders vetically to derive percentages, as mentioned in the rule text and the old FAQs. The group also discussed the percentage of orders -...

FIF would like to thank all those who attended the FIF CAT webinar on Thursday, July 23rd. Specific topics included interfirm linkage testing, production timelines, tools made available by FINRA CAT, Industry-centric challenges and operational enhancements.  Panelists included Shelly Bohlin, FINRA CAT; Josh Beaton, Morgan Stanley; Katie Madison, FINRA; Michael Brooks, Oppenheimer; and Gregg Berman, Citadel. Please find the recording of the webinar here.

As FIF's search for a new Director comes to a close, Andy White from Jordan & Jordan has stepped up to become the Interim Director of FIF until the final choice has been made. Andy is a Senior Compliance Executive at Jordan & Jordan and will bring a wealth of knowledge to our working group and committee calls during the next few weeks. As always, FIF will make sure to keep the community informed of any updates, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

US investment bank JP Morgan has hired a machine learning expert to deploy the technology across its investable indices business, according to a story in The Trade news. Fredrik Giertz has been appointed vice president in equity derivatives structuring at JP Morgan, having joined the bank last month in the newly-created role. Based within the investable index division at JP Morgan in London, Giertz will focus on growing and developing quantitative strategies that use machine learning techniques for the investment bank. He has several years’ experience in managing quantitative strategies,...