Nasdaq Inc. said it will ask regulators to let it give thinly-traded companies that list on its main U.S. stock exchange a choice as to whether their shares can be traded on other exchanges, with the aim of making it easier for investors to buy their stock, according to a story in Reuters news. There are 13 U.S. stock exchanges and currently, regardless of where a company is listed, its shares trade on all of them; they also trade on around 40 private broker-run trading venues. Critics say this fragments trading activity, making it more difficult for buyers and sellers to find each other....

Intercontinental Exchange announced that ICE Futures Europe plans to launch a new three-month, cash-settled futures contract based on the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) rate on June 1, 2018 (subject to relevant regulatory approvals). The launch follows the introduction of the ICE One Month SONIA futures contract on December 1, 2017 and complements ICE’s range of interest rate futures and options contracts, which span multiple currencies (EUR, GBP, CHF and USD) and tenors.

Nasdaq Inc. has announced that Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is the first exchange customer in Asia to successfully deploy Nasdaq SMARTS Market Surveillance’s latest machine learning and participant relationship discovery technology across its equity market, enhancing its capabilities to safeguard market integrity, and better protect investors. Nasdaq has worked with HKEX’s Market Surveillance team in implementing machine learning to analyze unusual trading activities and their subsequent categorization by surveillance analysts. The aim of these algorithms...

IHS Markit, a world leader in information, analytics and solutions, announced it acquired DeriveXperts, a provider of valuation services for OTC derivatives and other complex financial securities. The acquisition complements and enhances the existing derivatives data and valuations businesses at IHS Markit. “IHS Markit strives to be the best source of independent valuations of OTC derivatives and other complex financial assets and this expansion shows our commitment to providing customers with exceptional coverage and quality,” said Gianluca Biagini, managing director for...

Nasdaq, Inc. announced the successful completion of the sale of its Public Relations Solutions and Digital Media Services businesses to West Corporation, a global provider in technology-enabled services, for approximately $335 million. Through a multi-year partnership with West, Nasdaq will continue to provide eligible Nasdaq-listed clients with access to public relations, webcasting, and webhosting products and services as part of the terms of the transaction.

FIF will be forming a subgroup to help address the cybersecurity controls around the CAT Repository.  If you would like to join this subgroup, please contact the program office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Tuesday, April 17th, FIF and a contingent of FIF Members traveled to Washington D.C. to discuss our alternate implementation approach on CAT with the SEC Division of Trading and Markets.  We will discuss the takeaways of this meeting on our full CAT Working Group call on Wednesday, April 25 at 2pm est. 

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. and Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) announced that the Taiwan Stock Market has achieved 100 percent e-voting for shareholder meetings. This milestone brings with it increased transparency for annual general meetings for shareholders in Taiwan and enhanced corporate governance. Achieving 100 percent e-voting follows an August 2014 agreement between Broadridge and TDCC to establish direct links between Broadridge’s global proxy service and the Taiwan bourse’s then newly adopted electronic voting system, StockVote. This...

DTCC-Euroclear Global Collateral Ltd (GlobalCollateral), a joint venture of Euroclear and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and NEX, a financial technology company at the center of the global markets, announced a new partnership to streamline and improve OTC derivatives margin call processes. As a new member of the GlobalCollateral Partner Program, NEX is currently working to link its triResolve Margin web-based collateral management solution with GlobalCollateral’s Margin Transit Utility (MTU) to provide mutual clients with a centralized view across margin call...