The DTCC announced the appointment of Matthew Stauffer as Managing Director and head of Institutional Trade Processing, effective June 30, 2017. In this role, Mr. Stauffer will be responsible for integrating DTCC’s middle office trade processing solutions, including the Omgeo suite of solutions, Trade Support Services (TSS) and the GMEI Utility, as well as leading new product development. He will report to Timothy Keady, Managing Director and Head of DTCC Solutions. Mr. Stauffer previously served as CEO of Clarient Global, LLC, a partnership DTCC launched in 2014 with six founder...

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF U.S. FINANCIAL DEREGULATION? Join our webcast on Wednesday, June 21 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time REGISTER Deregulation of the U.S. financial industry is at the top of U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda, but the list of objectives is crowded and beset by political challenges. Uncertainty over the prospects for change has left the industry struggling in anticipation of a new regulatory environment even as it continues working...

Thesys, the CAT Plan Processor has released the CAT Participant Technical Specifications, if you have not reviewed them as of yet, find them here.  FIF will review the spec during the next working group meeting and respond to the Plan Processor/Operating Committee as necessary.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email the program office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Euronext announced the acquisition of c.90% of FastMatch, Inc. for $153 million initial cash consideration. FastMatch’s management will remain invested with a c.10% interest, with minority rights. Closing is subject to regulatory and anti-trust approvals, and is expected to occur in Q3 of 2017. This transaction establishes Euronext’s presence in the FX segment and diversifies Euronext’s product line. Since it was established in 2012 by Credit Suisse and FXCM, FastMatch has been able to establish a sizeable position in the ECN space. As of Q1 2017, FastMatch generated $5.8m...

Twitter Inc. has found its first partner for its push into around-the-clock streaming television: Bloomberg. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, the social-media company is joining forces with the global financial news outlet to create a service that will stream news, produced solely for Twitter, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The channel, which has yet to be named and is expected to begin operations this fall, won’t simply rebroadcast footage from Bloomberg’s existing television operation, but will be made up of live news reporting from the news...

According to The Trade news service, BNP Paribas has invested $63 million in a messaging and communications platform. Symphony Communications Services will use the funds to move forward with expansion plans and drive growth in its current and new markets. The service is used as a replacement for traditional email and voice systems to communicate securely both internally and externally. The firm raised a total of $170 million in 2014, with $66 million coming from a consortium of financial institutions including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit...

Neptune, the Fixed Income network for real-time “axe” indications, announced the addition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch to its network. With BAML, Neptune now has 22 banks signed to participate on the network, with 19 live. The Neptune network provides a venue for investors to consume the high-quality bond axes/inventory data from their most trusted Bank counterparts.  This enables institutional investors to be more effective and targeted when looking to execute large size orders in products such as corporate and emerging market bonds. Bank of America Merrill Lynch...

Standard Chartered Bank announced its intent to join Thomson Reuters Org ID regional managed service solution for Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence in South Africa. Standard Chartered Bank has made the decision to join the African KYC managed service, which Thomson Reuters launched in July 2016 with partner banks Barclays Africa, Rand Merchant Bank (a division of FirstRand Bank) and Standard Bank of South Africa. Standard Chartered Bank is expected to go live towards the end of the quarter. Thomson Reuters has built out operational hubs in Johannesburg and Cape Town, augmenting...

Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, announced its acquisition of OTAS Technologies, an analytics platform that delivers market intelligence and context directly to institutional traders and portfolio managers. The institutional trading landscape is changing rapidly as new regulations have firmly shifted responsibility for achieving and justifying best execution to the buy side. This can be a complicated process due to differing and changing market structures around the world, real-time market dynamics, market fragmentation, and varying liquidity profiles. To help traders...