Discount brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. announced that Chief Executive Tim Hockey will leave the company in February 2020. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Hockey said he and the board agreed it was the right time for a transition. He will stay in his role while the board conducts its search for his successor. Mr. Hockey joined TD Ameritrade in January 2016 from TD Bank Group, where he spent 32 years. During his tenure as TD Ameritrade’s CEO, he oversaw the integration of Scottrade Financial Services Inc. in a $4 billion deal that joined two of the biggest...

In a recent story by The Wall Street Journal, Morgan Stanley is offering its 3.2 million wealth-management customers an encrypted platform where they can store financial documents and share them with the bank more securely than faxing, emailing or mailing information. The Digital Vault employs technology from Box Inc., an online content-management and file-sharing service for businesses. The infrastructure of the Digital Vault is based on Box Platform, which allows customers and third-party developers to create custom applications in the cloud, without building and maintaining their own...

In one of the biggest bets yet on data as a new source of growth for global exchange operators, the London Stock Exchange Group PLC confirmed advanced talks to buy financial-information and terminal business Refinitiv Holdings Ltd. from a Blackstone Group Inc.-led consortium for almost $15 billion. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Refinitiv would give LSE access to its array of data and analytical tools such as the Eikon financial-data terminal and other products that are used by more than 40,000 customers, including brokerage firms, institutional investors, governments and...

FINRA will be joining the FIF Front Office Committee on Tuesday, July 23 @ 4:00pm to provide a spotlight topic on the recently published joint SEC/FINRA statement on Broker-Dealer custody of digital asset securities.  If you are not a member of the Front Office Committee and would like to join, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

On July 17, 2019, FIF submitted a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission responding to the Commission’s request for comment on the current EBS request/response process.  FIF’s comments focused on our response to the 1) recommendations intended to improve the current EBS reporting process; 2) provide feedback on the accuracy of the Commission’s estimation of the volume of EBS requests disseminated to firms; and 3) CAT as a potential solution.  Please find the full text of the comment letter here.  

FIF EBS Working Group - FIF updated a revised draft of an EBS comment letter by providing additional detail on the current time and resource burden required by broker-dealers to meet EBS reporting obligations. FIF also eliminated references to current issues with EBS and added additional detail on using CAT data to perform much of the market surveillance currently achieved through EBS.  FIF submitted the comment letter to the SEC on Wednesday, July 17. FIF Back Office Committee -  FIF was joined by DTCC Staff on considerations firms should be aware of leading up to...

State Street has promoted one of its most senior global services executives to head of the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) business. Jorg Ambrosius, an 18-year veteran of State Street, will succeed Liz Nolan who was named head of State Street’s global delivery team earlier this year, where she will be managing its global operations and infrastructure. According to The Trade news, as head of State Street for EMEA, Ambrosius will be responsible for all business activities in the region including driving strategy, leading client engagement, overseeing risk management, and...

Nasdaq Inc. and the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) have signed a new agreement to extend their market technology relationship. According to a story in MarketsMedia, Nasdaq will continue providing ISX with matching engine and central securities depository (CSD) technology. “By upgrading to the latest Nasdaq technology, ISX will be joining a community of exchanges deploying high-end, multi-asset trading technology that complies with international standards,” said Michèle Carlsson, Managing Director, Nasdaq in the Middle East and Africa. This new agreement marks the next chapter...

Deutsche Bank announced in a statement that Neal Pawar will take on the senior role based in New York in early September and will also become a member of the group management committee. He will report to Bernd Leukert, who is also due to start a new role at the bank in September, leading technology, data and innovation across the business. According to a story in The Trade news, Pawar joins Deutsche Bank from AQR Capital where he was formerly chief technology officer and principal. Prior to AQR, he was a managing director and chief information officer at UBS Wealth Management based in...