The OFR Repo Reporting Working Group will have its next call on Monday September 8 at 11 am ET. The Working Group will discuss a draft FIF letter to the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research (“OFR”) relating to the recent FAQ updates published by the OFR.

The next call for the TRF / ORF Working Group will be on Monday September 8 (time to be determined). The Working Group will discuss a draft supplemental FIF comment letter in response to the rule filing by FINRA to expand the TRF hours of operation.

The Section 31 Fees subgroup will have its next call on Monday September 15 at 3 pm ET. The subgroup will continue its discussion of enhancing the process for reconciliation of the FINRA Regulatory Transaction Fee. The subgroup will also discuss the handling of residual Section 31 fees. If you would like to participate in this discussion and are not a member of this subgroup, please send a note to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and we will include you in this discussion.

The Back Office Committee will have its next call on Thursday September 18 at 11 am ET to review applicable FICC, DTC, NSCC, SEC, MSRB, OCC, IRS and FINRA updates during the past month. The spotlight presenter will be Ian Springle of ICE, who will provide an update on the current status of the ICE Treasury Clearing application.  

SLATE and Short Sale Working Groups. FIF hosted a joint call for the SLATE and Short Sales / Reg SHO / Short Reporting Working Groups. Ignacio Sandoval of the Orrick law firm reviewed the recent decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to remand the Securities Loan Reporting and Short Position Reporting rules back to the SEC. The Working Groups discussed FIF submitting a letter to the SEC to request an extension of the compliance dates for both rules given the court’s decision. 24x7 Trading Working Group. The 24x7 Trading Working Group discussed the role of TRF reporting to reduce...

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has received regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate a new PISCES (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System) platform, a new type of private stock market. The PISCES Approval Notice approves the LSE to operate a PISCES as a sandbox entrant. In March 2024, the UK Government announced that PISCES transactions are exempt from stamp duty, therefore reducing the cost and simplifying transactions for investors. The LSE’s new platform is set to boost secondary market liquidity and drive growth and...

Columbia Threadneedle Investments announced that it has selected State Street Corporation as the service provider for a unified and outsourced global back office. State Street will provide fund accounting, administration and custody services for Columbia Threadneedle’s pooled funds, including ETFs, in the U.S. and Europe, drawing on State Street’s significant capabilities and broad industry experience. In North America, Columbia Threadneedle will transition and consolidate fund accounting, administration and custody services for its U.S. pooled funds and other fund ranges with State...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has partnered with Nasdaq to make use of the exchange’s Market Surveillance platform, in a bid to enhance market oversight.  The collaboration is set to support integrated monitoring across CFTC markets and provide scalable surveillance capabilities to promote market integrity. Additionally, the integration of Nasdaq’s surveillance technology suite is expected to provide sophisticated tools to help CFTC in addressing growth in traditional and new derivatives markets and products, with recent developments spanning the increasing...

The successful execution of the first fully electronic bilateral multi-asset package list trade has occurred between Citi and the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), facilitated by Tradeweb. This is the latest in various developments across the market when it comes to the evolution of bilateral trading. Where complexity has meant challenging workflows this far, execution is continuing to be streamlined, and risk reduced, to expand the capabilities of the strategy.  Liu, head of GBP rates trading and head of EMEA linear trading for franchise and strategy, Citi, said: “This...