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Clearinghouse LCH Plans to Take Gold as Collateral .
October 6, 2011--LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. plans to begin accepting gold bullion as collateral by the end of the month amid growing demand from banks eager to depart from their traditional reliance on cash and government bonds to cover margin requirements.
The move follows similar steps from a number of exchanges and banks to increase the use of gold as an acceptable deposit, reinforcing the precious metal's allure as an alternative currency.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
Flow Traders Set Up First Specialised ETF Sales Trading Desk in Asia
October 6, 2011--Meeting the increased demand from institutional investors in Asia for access to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Flow Traders Asia has set up a Sales Trading desk focused solely on ETFs. The specialised sales trading team will provide professional investors (e.g. long-only investors, hedge funds, private banks, sovereign wealth funds) with highly competitive 2-way OTC bid-ask prices and liquidity for over 95% of all ETFs listed in Asia, Europe and US*. Counterparties will also benefit from Flow Traders’ experienced execution strategies for trading ETFs and unbiased product knowledge.
Martijn Schuijt, MD of Flow Traders Asia Commented: “The set-up of the specialised ETF sales trading desk in Singapore is a natural development of our already successful market making business, and it shows our dedication to the growth of the ETF business in Asia. Now Asian investors can tap into the liquidity pool already taken advantage of by the largest European investors.”
Source: Flow Traders
DBoerse-NYSE defend merger as EU sends concerns
October 6, 2011--Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext defended their proposed merger Wednesday, as they received the EU Competition Commission's letter of concerns about the deal.
The Frankfurt and New York exchange operators said they had received the official "Statement of Objections", calling it "a normal step" that set out the EU commission's "provisional position" that "does not prejudge the final outcome of the case."
"We continue to strongly believe that our combination provides substantial capital and cost savings to users; advances the goal of a unified, liquid EU capital market for raising money and managing risk; and does not materially alter the competitive landscape," the two said in a statement.
The proposed merger has sparked controversy in the US because it would hand over the 221-year-old New York Stock Exchange to foreign owners and create a powerful force in 24-hour global trading of shares and derivatives.
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Source: AFP
Semeta: financial transaction tax for more revenue and changed trading practices
October 6, 2011--An EU financial transaction tax could raise €57 billion per year, Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta told leading Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs on Thursday, a week after the Commission presented its proposals for such a tax. Mr Semeta shrugged off the reticence shown by some, telling MEPs that no tax proposal had ever received Member States' immediate full support and that company flight would not be the "major pattern" because tax regimes alone do not determine location.
Mr Semeta told MEPs that it was time to make the financial sector contribute more and at the same time reduce risky practices. Speaking specifically about the contentious practice of high-frequency trading, Mr Semeta also said that a financial transaction tax could force firms to rethink this model of trading since it would be the practice most targeted by the tax.
The debate saw wide divisions, notably between British Conservatives and some Liberals on one side and Greens and Socialists on the other.
A clash of ideas
Kay Swinburne (ECR, UK) argued against the tax, warning of "putting the EU financial centre in jeopardy" as firms leave to other parts of the world which would not be imposing such a tax. Olle Schmidt (ALDE, SE) feared for the future of Sweden's financial services, arguing that it would be such smaller financial centres that would suffer, rather than London's better- established one.
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Source: European Parliament
Exchange Council backs planned merger of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext
Opportunity for real economy to widen its access to global capital markets/Positive effects on stability and transparency expected
October 6, 2011--The Exchange Council of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange has discussed the planned merger of Deutsche Börse with the New York Stock Exchange in an additional meeting.
Particular attention was given to various legal and economic studies and their conclusions. The focus of the meeting related to stock exchange legislation and macroeconomic issues concerning the merger. The Exchange Council is convinced of a positive outcome of the exchange supervisory authority’s shareholder control procedure.
The Exchange Council anticipates the merger will bring benefits for the real economy, ranging from greater access to global capital markets to optimised cross-border trading. Germany as a financial centre will also strengthen its ties to major international financial centres in the U.S. and Europe.
The Exchange Council has no objections that even after the merger German or European regulation will exclusively continue to be applied to the companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In the view of the Exchange Council, the merger will contribute to a more secure, stable and better-regulated financial system in Europe. It will provide more efficiency and transparency at all of the trading venues of the combined company, and strengthen the international influence of European supervisory authorities on matters pertaining to financial infrastructure, particularly in times of crisis. This will make the merged company the global benchmark for transparency and regulation.
Source: Deutsche Börse
Monthly turnover of more than EUR 8.6 billion at Boerse Stuttgart
Following August’s record figures, September statistics show year-on-year increase in turnover in almost all asset classes
October 6, 2011--Boerse Stuttgart’s order book statistics show its turnover was more than EUR 8.6 billion in September 2011, bringing trading volumes back in line with the level achieved in the months prior to August’s volatile markets.
The total turnover for the first nine months of the year was just under EUR 87 billion, about 25 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2010.
Securitised derivatives accounted for most of the turnover. The transaction volume in this asset class totalled almost EUR 4.8 billion in September. Leverage products accounted for almost EUR 2.8 billion of the turnover, while investment products contributed EUR 2 billion. Turnover in securitised derivatives over the first nine months of the year was up around 23 percent year-on-year, at more than EUR 45 billion.
The trading volume for debt instruments in September was more than EUR 2 billion, just slightly below the turnover for September 2010. The volume of debt instruments traded since the beginning of the year was more than EUR 23 billion in total, around 18 percent higher than in the same period of 2010. At more than 150 percent, the growth in German government bonds (Bunds) trading was particularly strong.
Equities trading accounted for around EUR 878 million of Boerse Stuttgart’s total turnover in September. The turnover for the first nine months of 2011 was up almost 44 percent year-on-year. The trend in German equities trading was particularly positive; since the beginning of the year trading in this area is up almost 53 percent to EUR 8 billion in total.
At about EUR 776 million, turnover in ETFs and ETCs in September 2011 was more than double that recorded in September 2010. The total turnover in investment fund units was more than EUR 873 million.
Source: Boerse Stuttgart
ESMA publishes the responses received to the Consultation on the Guidelines on systems and controls in a highly automated trading environment for trading platforms, investment firms and competent authorities
October 6, 2011--ESMA has published the responses received to the Consultation on the Guidelines on systems and controls in a highly automated trading environment for trading platforms,
investment firms and competent authorities.
view responses
Source: ESMA
SIX Swiss Exchange: Key Statistics For September 2011 - ETF segment of SIX Swiss Exchange continues to grow and eclipses previous record year 2010 after three quarters already
October 6, 2011--The growth of SIX Swiss Exchange's ETF segment is uninterrupted: by the end of September 2011, the figures of the previous record year 2010 have already been surpassed. While turnover rose to CHF 79'221 million (2010: CHF 71'676 million), a total of 762'936 transactions were concluded in Q3 2011 (2010: 696'579).
Considerably more trades compared with the prior-year period
Across all trading segments, growth in turnover since the beginning of the year rose by 1.2 % to CHF 931'070 million and the number of trades increased by 16 % to 30'877'307 compared with the same period of 2010. Here too, the ETF segment is the driving force, with growth rates of over 50 % in both areas.
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Source: SIX Swiss Exchange
Warning of unintended outcomes of Tobin tax
October 5, 2011--When José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, proposed introducing a tax on financial transactions in Europe, it was clear whom he had in his sights.
“It’s a question of fairness,” he said as he unveiled the proposal in Strasbourg last week. “It is time for the financial sector to make a contribution back to society”.
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Source: FT.com
UK official holdings of international reserves September 2011
October 5, 2011--This monthly press notice shows details of movements in September 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 September 2011:
No intervention operations were undertaken. Movements in reserves and levels of reserves were as follows:
view UK official holdings of international reserves September 2011
Source: HM Treasury
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