Charles Schwab said the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division has closed its investigation of the company's proposed acquisition of TD Ameritrade.  The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, with integration likely to take between 18 and 36 months, Schwab said. The proposed merger attracted regulators' scrutiny because of the firms' dominant positions in the industry and their direct contact with individual investors.

Goldman Sachs has said it saw a record trade of $24.1 million executed on its SIGMA X multilateral trading facility (MTF) periodic auction last month, according to a story in The Trade News. The trade was executed on 27 May in Deutsche Telekom AG within a single auction call, and the trade size increased from $1.7 million at the auction initiation stage to $24.1 million at auction uncross.  Goldman Sachs added that SIGMA X MTF is increasingly seeing auctions result in large in scale (LIS) sized trades as members leverage the liquidity signals available in its market data feed. The...

FIF will host a CAT roundtable on Wednesday, June 17 from 3:00pm-4:30pm et.  The roundtable discussion will focus upon remaining Phase 2a and Phase 2b challenges (i.e. interfirm linkage and error repair), testing, resource management, guidance focued on Phase 2c, Phase 2d, and Phase 2e best practice guidance.  Panelists will include representatives from from FINRA CAT, OMS Vendors, Service Bureaus, and CAT Reporters.  To register for the webinar, please click here.

  FIF Front Office Committee - Please find this month's Front Office Committee agenda here;  FIF Order Routing Transparency Working Group - The group reviewed the draft Comment Letter Requesting that the Commission publish a Concept Release based upon the FIF Rule 605 Modernization Recommendations, including review of the intended scope of the content. The group also worked through EQ-based enhancement recommendations.  FIF Data & Technology Committee - The meeting featured a spotlight topic by CME's Chief Economist, Blu Putnam, on Gauging the Evolution of...

FIF will host a CAT roundtable on Wednesday, June 17 from 3:00pm-4:30pm et.  The roundtable discussion will focus upon remaining Phase 2a and Phase 2b challenges (i.e. interfirm linkage and error repair), testing, resource management, guidance focued on Phase 2c, Phase 2d, and Phase 2e best practice guidance.  Panelists will include representatives from from FINRA CAT, OMS Vendors, Service Bureaus, and CAT Reporters.  To register for the webinar, please click here.

The revamped version of www.fif.com is now live! FIF would especially like to thank our members who provifde feedback and insight during the redesign process.  Please take a moment to explore our new site and send any feedback via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

OpenGamma, a margin optimization provider, announced its collaboration with IHS Markit, a leader in information, analytics, and solutions, to help mutual clients reduce the cost of margin management. The offering will unite OpenGamma’s pre-trade margin analytics with IHS Markit’s post-trade derivatives calculation service, providing end-to-end support for in-scope entities. The post-trade calculations extend from IHS Markit’s Portfolio Valuations business as well as CDS pricing and bank consensus data for illiquid derivatives. 

Northern Trust has partnered with BlackRock to create an end-to-end investment ecosystem for both its asset manager and allocator clients that will encompass everything from trading services and operations to data insights and analytics. According to a story in The Trade news, the launch of ‘Whole Office’, an open architecture strategy, is aimed at providing clients with services at all points of the investment lifecycle through a combination of proprietary services and partnerships. The link will provide clients with increased efficiency, interoperability, and transparency across the...

Virtu Financial has launched interlisted conditional orders via POSIT Alert Canada, allowing traders to access cross-border block liquidity across U.S. and Canadian securities. The interlisted conditional orders, which can be accessed via the Virtu Frontier algo suite is designed to boost block liquidity in POSIT Alert Canada for  interlisted securities. By tapping U.S. algo flow trading in USD, algos U.S.-based handling orders for the interlisted securities can now send a conditional order to POSIT Alert Canada, and the firm’s FX technology will represent the Canadian ticker in the...