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Malta Stock Exchange Signs Xetra Contract With Deutsche Börse
November 3, 2011--The Malta Stock Exchange is going to use Xetra – Deutsche Börse Group’s fully electronic trading system. Probably from mid 2012, Deutsche Börse will organize trading in equities listed on the Malta Stock Exchange. Both parties signed a minimum 5-year contract on 24 October.
“We are delighted to be providing the Malta Stock Exchange with one of the fastest and most reliable trading systems in the world,” said Frank Gerstenschläger, member of the Deutsche Börse Executive Board and responsible for the Xetra business area. “Trading participants in Malta are now connected to a fully electronic network of 4,500 traders in 18 countries.”
"We are looking forward to becoming a participant exchange on the XETRA platform in mid-2012, which we believe will open up new opportunities for international expansion not only for the exchange itself but also for its members, issuers and investors in line with the MSE's on-going strategy," said Ms Eileen V Muscat, CEO of the MSE.
Cash market trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange has been based on Xetra technology since November 1999. The Irish Stock Exchange has been operated with Xetra since 2000, the Bulgarian since 2008 and the Ljubljana Stock Exchange in Slovenia since 2010. The Eurex subsidiary Eurex Bonds and the European Energy Exchange also use the Xetra trading system. The Shanghai Stock Exchange uses Xetra as the basis for its New Generation Trading System introduced at the start of 2010.
Deutsche Börse Group’s global liquidity provider Clearstream integrated Malta into its settlement network in April as the last country in the euro zone. The settlement link provides international investors with access to Maltese securities.
UK official holdings of international reserves October 2011
November 3, 2011--This monthly press notice shows details of movements in October in the UK’s official holdings of international reserves, which consist of gold, foreign currency assets and International Monetary Fund assets. These reserves are maintained primarily so that the UK Government’s reserves could be used to intervene to support Sterling, or the Bank of England’s reserves could be used to support the Bank’s monetary policy objectives.
If such interventions were to occur, then they would be shown and explained in this release. The Background note at the end of this release explains more about the reserves, and about these statistics.
In summary this month’s release shows that, in October 2011:
No intervention operations were undertaken.
Movements in reserves and levels of reserves were as follows:
Monthly turnover of more than EUR 7.7 billion at Boerse Stuttgart
November 2, 2011--Boerse Stuttgart's order book statistics show that its turnover reached more than EUR 7.7 billion in October 2011. The figures show that during the first 10 months of this year trading volumes at Boerse Stuttgart were higher than in the whole year of 2010. In total turnover from January to October 2011 was 22 percent up year-on-year.
Most of the turnover was accounted for by securitised derivatives. The transaction volume in this segment was more than EUR 3.8 billion. With trading volumes of almost EUR 2.3 billion, trading in leverage products was significantly higher than in investment products where monthly turnover was just short of EUR 1.6 billion.
Trading volumes in debt instruments showed a strong growth year-on-year with turnover up by more than 20 percent. In October 2011 turnover in this segment amounted to around EUR 2.3 billion. As in the previous month, in particular German government bonds (Bunds) met with strong investor demand. Turnover in these products was up yet again, rising to more than EUR 883 million. This is equivalent to a growth of almost 35 percent in comparison with the previous month. In addition, trading in euro-denominated government bonds rose by more than 6 percent.
FSA publishes review of firms' structured product design processes and proposes new guidance on retail product development
November 2, 2011--The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today introduced further guidance for firms when developing new structured products which they want to market to consumers.
The FSA assessed seven major providers of structured products, responsible for approximately 50% of structured products in the UK retail market by volume and value. The review was conducted between November 2010 and May 2011 and found that while there had been some improvements, weaknesses remain in the way firms are designing and approving structured products - increasing the risk to consumers. Firms tended to focus on their own commercial interests rather than consumer needs.
Following this review, the FSA is publishing guidance that firms should consider when designing structured products and dealing with the after sales process. Much of the guidance is also relevant to other retail products.
Firms should:
identify the target audience and then design products that meet that audience's needs;
pre-test new products to ensure they are capable of delivering fair outcomes for the target audience;
ensure a robust product approval process is in place for new products; and
monitor the progress of a product throughout its life cycle. Further and more detailed actions for firms are outlined with the publication. The guidance is open for consultation until 11th January 2012.
Deutsche Börse Selects Juniper Networks As Technology Provider For 10 Gbit/S Trading And Market Data Connections
November 2, 2011--Deutsche Börse has chosen Juniper Networks as the technology provider for the new 10 Gbit/s network for clients of Deutsche Börse Group's co-location service.
With effect from 12 December 2011, Deutsche Börse will be using Juniper Networks' powerful technology to significantly reduce the network run-time for Eurex derivatives market and Xetra cash market co-location clients and thus further increase liquidity on Eurex and Xetra. The International Securities Exchange also plans to use Juniper Networks to support customer co-location in its data centres.
Default processing of clearing member MF Global UK Limited completed
Safety measures of the clearinghouse proved to be effective/ Closing of open positions finalized/ Clearing Fund has not been utilized
November 2, 2011--Eurex Clearing, Europe’s leading clearing house, has successfully wound down its clearing member MF Global UK Limited (MF Global). MF Global had entered Special Administration Regime on Monday evening, 31 October 2011, as confirmed by the responsible UK regulatory body, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). According to its clearing conditions, Eurex Clearing terminated the clearing agreement with MF Global on 1 November 2011.
The termination triggered the
liquidation of corresponding positions at Eurex Clearing by way of market transactions; the exposure was at all times fully covered by collateral placed by MF Global. At no time there was a need to draw on the Clearing Fund.
”The implemented safeguards of Eurex Clearing have again proven to be effective, and underline our high standards in risk management. In this critical situation, Eurex Clearing directly mitigated counterparty risks, thus contributing to the integrity and stability of markets”, said Thomas Book, member of the Eurex Executive Board, responsible for clearing.
MF Global was licensed as a Clearing Member for the markets Eurex Exchange, Eurex Repo, European Energy Exchange, Xetra and Irish Stock Exchange.
Europe scrambles to deflect panic after shock Greek move
November 1, 2011--Europe's big two, France and Germany, called emergency talks Tuesday as angry EU leaders scrambled to ward off financial mayhem in the wake of the Greek prime minister's shock referendum call.
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks Wednesday "with the European institutions and the IMF as well as a meeting with the Greek side," a Franco-German statement said.
Regulators could focus on ETFs after UBS losses
November 1, 2011--Regulators could take some time to change the rules surrounding the exchange-traded products involved in the UBS rogue-trading losses, but banks might see an impact soon in capital terms
Investigations continue into the rogue-trading loss earlier this year at UBS. The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (Finma) remain quiet about the progress of their joint inquiry into the apparently unauthorised trades that lost the Swiss bank a total of $2.3 billion. The parallel internal inquiry commissioned by UBS itself, led by senior independent director David Sidwell, and assisted by two other UBS directors – former Swiss Re chief financial officer Ann Godbehere, who acted as interim chief financial officer at Northern Rock after it was nationalised, and Joseph Yam, formerly head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority – may not report for months.
Turnover on Xetra increases by 12 percent in October
Transactions on Xetra up by 34 percent
November 1, 2011--Order book turnover on Xetra and the Xetra Frankfurt specialist trading stood at €109.5 billion in October – an increase by 9.6 percent year-on-year (October 2010: €99.9 billion).
Of the €109.5 billion, €104.6 billion were attributable to Xetra (+12 percent y-o-y, October 2010: €93.5 billion). €4.9 billion were attributable to the Xetra Frankfurt specialist trading, a 23 percent decrease y-o-y (October 2010: €6.4 billion). Order book turnover on Tradegate Exchange* totalled €2.8 billion in October.
In equities, turnover reached €90.3 billion on Deutsche Börse’s cash markets (Xetra: €88.3 billion, Xetra Frankfurt specialist trading: €2.0 billion). Turnover in bonds was €1.5 billion, and in structured products on Scoach €2.1 billion. Order book turnover in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) amounted to €15.6 billion.
A total of 21.4 million transactions were executed on Xetra in October, an increase of 34 percent y-o-y (October 2010: 15.9 million).
The DAX security with the highest turnover in October was Deutsche Bank AG at €6.6 billion. Continental AG led the MDAX equities at €772.5 million, while Derby Cycle AG topped the SDAX equity index with €62.6 million, and Aixtron SE headed TecDAX with €305.7 million. The ETF with the highest turnover on Xetra was iShares DAX with €2.8 billion.
Further details are available online in Deutsche Börse’s cash market statistics at www.deutsche-boerse.com. For a pan-European comparison of trading locations, see the statistics provided by the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) at www.fese.be.
Italy Bonds Slide, Premium to Bunds at Record, on Greece Concern
November 1, 2011--Italian bonds led declines in the securities issued by Europe’s most indebted nations after a Greek plan to hold a referendum on its international bailout added to concern the region’s financial turmoil will deepen.
Italy and France’s 10-year borrowing costs climbed to the highest levels relative to benchmark German bunds since before the creation of the euro in 1999. Bund yields fell the most on record, with the securities outperforming all their euro-area peers, as investors sought the safest assets. Greek two-year yields climbed to a record high 87.28 percent as members of the nation’s ruling party called for Prime Minister George Papandreou to resign.
