The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) has appointed Rosa Armesto as its new director general, effective 1 July 2024.
Armesto, who has been the deputy director general of FESE since 2018, will replace Rainer Riess who has been FESE director general since 2014. Riess will continue to serve as senior advisor to FESE until the end of 2024 to ensure a smooth transition.
Rosa Armesto, director general, FESE
On her new appointment, Armesto said: “I look forward to working with the FESE Board, the FESE team and our members to advance the interests of European exchanges and to support the development of a fair, transparent and efficient capital markets union in Europe. I also want to thank Rainer for his trust and guidance during the time we worked together.”
FESE president Petr Koblic said: “We are delighted to welcome Rosa Armesto as the new director general of FESE. She has proven to be a great asset to our organisation and has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our industry. We are confident that she will lead FESE with vision and dedication and will continue to promote the vital role of exchanges in financing the European economy.
“We also want to express our sincere gratitude to Rainer Riess for his outstanding contribution to FESE over the past decade. Under his leadership, FESE has strengthened its position as the voice of European exchanges, and he has contributed to the development of a sound and competitive capital markets union in Europe. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Moreover, we welcome the Bratislava Stock Exchange as a full member, broadening our membership to cover all 27 member states of the European Union and beyond.”
The FESE general assembly also elected the following FESE board members for a 3-year term: Niels Brab, chief regulatory officer at Deutsche Börse; Ian Cornwall, head of market structure at SIX Group; and Tomasz Bardziulowski, CEO of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The general assembly also ratified the nomination of Ludovic Aigrot, vice president, head of government relations Europe, Nasdaq as the new FESE management committee chair.
BMLL has partnered with INQDATA to provide access to the most “complete and accurate” historical market data within the kdb+ environment.
The pair said the offering will enhance performance and lower the cost of infrastructure ownership for market participants, by removing the need to commit additional data science infrastructure and resources.
Paul Humphrey, CEO, BMLL
BMLL CEO Paul Humphrey said: “The level of sophistication across capital markets is constantly increasing, and with it, the demand for high-quality data to understand market behaviour and maintain a competitive edge. This partnership is about making our data available where our clients want it, and in the format that they want.
“Market participants are now able to derive insights by accessing the complete BMLL API library and quantitative analysis tooling within their environment. They no longer need to dedicate precious time, budget and resources to data engineering and infrastructure. Instead, they can focus on conducting large-scale quantitative and market microstructure analyses to enhance trading outcomes,” Humphrey added.
Theodore Voegt, CEO of INQDATA, added: “Our combined services provide market participants with the necessary tooling to access high-quality historical market data and analytics as well as data management and distribution to enhance decision-making and unlock new opportunities for customers. Users can generate insights and pursue opportunities without the need to commit additional infrastructure and resources, accelerating return on investment and reducing the overall cost of ownership.”
Combining BMLL datasets with INQDATA technology enables users, such as data scientists and application developers, to access and explore granular historical market data and analytics derived from Level 3 Data. They can accelerate their speed to insights and better understand trading behaviours, allowing them to optimise trading strategies and test new markets at unprecedented speed. In addition, they gain a deeper understanding of the cost of execution and increase the development speed and efficacy of their quantitative models.
The partnership will bring together BMLL’s data collection, cleansing, curation and analytics generation and INQDATA’s data ingestion, storage, management and distribution capabilities to provide market participants with access to complete, reliable historical market data within their environment, without the engineering requirements to reformat.
Users can leverage the combined, scalable cloud architecture of BMLL and INQDATA on demand to conduct large-scale quantitative and market microstructure analysis.
L to R: Jan Lim, Azila Abdul Aziz, Yulia Kuksina [Markets Media] and Edwin Lee, of Kenanga Futures.
An interview with Azila Abdul Aziz, CEO and Executive Director & Head of Listed Derivatives at Kenanga Futures, and Women in Finance Awards Advisory Board Member.
FINBOURNE Technology has expanded its partnership with Taskize, integrating the data management platform’s exception resolution solution to improve clients’ IBOR and ABOR calculations.
Taskize’s solution connects people and processes across organisations, the company explained, allowing users to prioritise and resolve IBOR and ABOR post-trade exceptions. This will reduce risk and human error, accelerate resolution times and ultimately improve operational efficiency and staff capacity, FINBOURNE stated.
The announcement follows the integration of Taskize into FINBOURNE’s LUSID platform in 2021. This latest capability is available through FINBOURNE’s Horizon programme, which allows users to integrate and connect to external technology and data sources within LUSID.
Gus Sekhon, head of product at FINBOURNE Technology, commented: “For our clients, the ability to configure and control complex workflows on the platform is a given; the next challenge is reducing resolution times for intraday breaks in their book of record and this enhanced integration with Taskize does just that, freeing up staff to focus on other tasks.”
James Pike, interim CEO of Taskize, added:” Asset managers’ operations teams are at full capacity and cannot afford to be inefficient in their approach to exception resolution. Greater interoperability of post-trade platforms is essential to enabling staff to do more with their time, and the data generated will be invaluable to senior management’s strategic decision-making.”
Video highlights from the 6th annual WIFAA ceremony held on May 16th 2024 in Singapore. Winners included women execs from BlackRock, Citi, Nasdaq, SGX Group, Virtu Financial, and other top firms.
Kuldip Takhar, head of UK institutional business development, Amundi
Amundi has appointed Kuldip Takhar as head of UK institutional business development.
Takhar has more than a decade of industry experience and joins Amundi from Lazard Asset management, where he has been head of institutional sales and relationships for close to three years.
The majority of his career has been spent at BlackRock, working on institutional sales and relationship management as part of the strategic client team.
Dagmar Kamber Borens, head of global markets for continental Europe, State Street Bank International
State Street has appointed Dagmar Kamber Borens as head of global markets for continental Europe at State Street Bank International.
Based in Zurich, she reports to Anthony Bisegna, head of State Street Global Markets, and Andreas Przewloka, CEO of State Street Bank International.
In the role, Borens is responsible for executing the firm’s global markets strategy across the region, working with internal stakeholders in the global markets and investments services divisions to drive revenue and client traction. She will also maintain and develop relationships with clients, industry bodies and regulators in the region, State Street said.
Borens has more than two decades of industry experience, and has been with State Street since 2021. She joined the firm as country head of Switzerland, later becoming head of the depository bank business in Germany and taking on overall management of the investment services business in the Netherlands, Austria and the Nordics.
Before joining State Street, Borens was managing director and chief operating officer of the Swiss Universal Bank and Credit Suisse. The majority of her career has been spent with UBS, where she held senior roles including group managing director for APAC and group chief financial officer for UBS AG.
Commenting on her appointment, Borens said: “European institutions and investors are facing challenging times, and are more than ever seeking partnerships to help them reach their goals. Deepening our client relationships while continuing to drive an innovative approach to developing client solutions is integral to our ability to help European clients continue to meet their growth ambitions in a volatile environment.
“I am excited to be taking on these new responsibilities at a time of significant growth for the business across an important region, and look forward to working with existing and new clients to meet their evolving needs.”
Przewloka added: “Dagmar’s vast experience in developing and nurturing client relationships will be integral to helping our ambitions to expand across Europe. Her career experience and progress in building our business in Switzerland makes her an ideal candidate to assume the role of powering our growth in the wider region.”
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has provided a five-point reform plan to revitalise the securitisation market in the EU.
The combined measures should increase both supply and demand for product, the association said, advocating for increased risk sensitivity within the bank prudential framework, an adjustment to how securitisation is treated within the liquidity coverage ratio and the revitalisation of demand from the insurance sector.
Also recommended is the introduction of proportionality for investors conducting regulatory due diligence, along with the fine-tuning of regulatory reporting requirements and a simplification of simple, transparent and standardised (STS) criteria for traditional and synthetic securitisations.
AFME emphasises the importance of maintaining existing securitisation safeguards put in place to prevent the proliferation of high leverage products under the label of securitisation.
Securitisation can be used in a number of ways to support growth and strategic objectives in the EU, the paper says, including enhancing competitiveness and providing an alternative source of funding for European companies.
It can also be used to provide long-term credit to underserved wholesale and consumer market segments, the association continued, help support the green and digital transitions and offer an alternative asset class to serve EU-based savers and investors.
Other benefits include enabling non-performing exposure (NPE) portfolios to be sold to non-bank investors who specialised in distressed debt assets, and providing a way for the European economy to use capital markets to their full potential rather than relying on financing through banks’ balance sheets. AFME adds that it will allow banks to lend more to the real economy, releasing capital and transferring credit risk through significant bank transfer outside the banking sector.
Commenting on the release, Adam Farkas, chief executive of AFME, said: “In recent months, we have been encouraged by the recognition shown by European policymakers of the vitally important role that securitisation can play in order for Europe to remain competitive and to be economically prosperous.
“We look forward to engaging with the European policy community and market participants to address and resolve current regulatory hurdles and support the return of a healthy securitisation market able to deliver the significant funding needs of Europe over the coming years.”
Shaun Baddeley, head of securitisation at the association, added: “As policy makers have come to acknowledge the valuable role that securitisation can play, there is increasing recognition that the combined effect of certain provisions within both the EU Securitisation Regulation and the EU Bank and Insurance Prudential Capital Frameworks have disincentivised EU investors and limited utility of the product as a funding tool by EU issuers. This consensus has grown in regard to the contribution securitisation can make to financing EU growth.”
Finalists of this year’s European Markets Choice Awards.
The winners will be announced on the evening of Wednesday, 3rd July at a glittering dinner at London’s Waldorf Hilton. We are anticipating a large audience, safe in the knowledge that the US markets will be closed the following day and, for the UK guests, a politics-free zone ahead of polling in the UK general election!
The editors reserve the right to make changes, so there is still time, if you have any last minute additions or suggestions, to have your say here.
The finalists are:
KEY INFLUENCER IN EQUITY MARKETS
Simon Steward (Capital)
Chris McConville (Kepler)
Simon Mason (SIX)
BEST LIQUIDITY PROVIDER (EQUITIES)
Barclays
Optiver
Goldman Sachs
BEST LIQUIDITY PROVIDER (EUROPEAN FIXED INCOME)
J.P. Morgan
Jane Street
BNP Paribas
BEST ELECTRONIC FI TRADING
J.P. Morgan
Bank of America
Jefferies
BEST ELECTRONIC EQUITIES TRADING
Barclays
Kepler Cheuvreux
Goldman Sachs
BEST EQUITY INVESTMENT HOUSE
Baillie Gifford
Federated Hermes
Nordea
BEST BUY-SIDE EQUITIES TRADING TEAM
Capital Group
Fidelity International
Millennium
BEST BUY-SIDE FIXED INCOME TRADING TEAM
Fidelity International
Man Group
M&G Investments
BEST SELL-SIDE EQUITIES TRADING DESK
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
HSBC
BEST SELL-SIDE FIXED INCOME TRADING DESK
Bank of America
Barclays
UBS
BEST EM TRADING FIRM
Jefferies
Erste Group
UniCredit
BEST IPO / PLACEMENT FIRM
Primary Portal
Aquis
LSEG
Euronext
BEST BOND ISSUANCE FIRM
Bloomberg
S&P Investor Access
NowCM
BEST MARKET STRUCTURE SUPPORT (SELL SIDE)
Barclays
BOE/BIS
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
BEST EQUITY E/OMS
Virtu
Instinet
FlexTrade
BEST OTC INSTRUMENT E/OMS
Bloomberg
CRD
Aladdin
BEST LISTED DERIVATIVES E/OMS
Trading Technologies
Bloomberg
Virtu
BEST FI EXECUTION OPTIMISATION PROVIDER
BestX
Propellant Digital
Glimpse Markets
BEST TOOL FOR TRADING EFFICIENCY
Bloomberg’s FIGI
FIX Protocol
Genesis Global
Rapid Addition
BEST FI MARKET DATA PROVIDER
MarketAxess Trax
Tradeweb
Neptune
BEST EQUITY MARKET DATA PROVIDER
LSEG
BMLL Technologies
Big XYT
BEST EQUITY MARKET ANALYTICS PROVIDER
Virtu
Abel Noser
LSEG
BEST MARKET OPERATOR (OTC INSTRUMENTS)
MarketAxess
Tradeweb
MTS Markets
BEST MARKET OPERATOR (LISTED SECURITIES)
Eurex
Cboe Global Markets
LSEG
BEST USE OF AI IN INVESTMENT/TRADING
Bloomberg
LTX (a Broadridge Company)
Saphyre
BEST MARKET SURVEILLANCE / REGTECH PROVIDER
Eventus
S3
Nasdaq
MARKETS RECOGNITION AWARD (INDIVIDUAL)
Matt Coupe (FIX)
Sergio Ermottis (UBS)
Chris McConville (Kepler)
BEST OUTSOURCED TRADING OFFERING
Amundi Intermédiation
UBS
Marex
BEST RETAIL FIXED INCOME HUB OR PLATFORM
Intesa Sanpaolo
LSE Retail Bonds
PrimaryBid
Could Monday’s market chaos lead to a more effective industry solution to market outages? The halting of trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that occurred on Monday had a domino effect, rippling out across a number of exchanges, dark pools and alternative trading systems (ATSs) in the US. The NYSE halt was reportedly the result of issues with limit up/limit down price bands related to a new software release on the consolidated tape.
The Consolidated Tape Association (CTA), which oversees the dissemination of real-time trade and quote information in NYSE listed securities, operates the Security Information Processor (SIP), which links the US markets by processing and consolidating all protected bid/ask quotes and trades from every trading venue into a single, easily consumed data feed.
The SIP disseminates and calculates critical regulatory information including the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) and Limit Up Limit Down (LULD) price bands among other important information such as short sale restriction and regulatory halts. Many alternative trading venues use SIP to price their trades. And when this is dysfunctional, it can have a ripple effect.
Larry Tabb, Bloomberg Intelligence (photo courtesy Bridget Badore).
Larry Tabb, head of market structure research at Bloomberg, explains: “When the SIP has problems, it becomes hard, if not impossible to execute at the right price. Now these ATSs may not just use the SIP to price, they may use a combination of direct feeds and the SIP, but if a major component of your pricing feed goes then, same as above, it may impact how you price dark midpoint orders.
“As for only using the SIP, given the time delays inherent in the distribution of the SIP, I am not sure that is the best way to price orders, but, using it as a component, is probably the right strategy.”
Monday’s events have seen calls for better communication from exchanges when trading halts occur, with an emphasis on leveraging FIX to inform market participants.
Venues react
A NYSE spokesperson told GT: “After the market opened on the morning of 3 June, 2024, a technical issue involving industry-wide price bands published by the Consolidated Tape Association’s Securities Information Processor triggered “limit-up/limit down” trading halts on up to 40 symbols listed on NYSE Group exchanges. Shortly before noon, the issue was resolved and trading in the impacted stocks resumed. The NYSE is reviewing potentially impacted trades.”
Trading halts on the NYSE are disseminated in real-time on the firm’s market data feeds, which clients/market participants receive. They are also published on a dedicated trading halts webpage.
The CTA also issued a statement regarding the incident on Monday: “Between 9:30 a.m. and 10:27 a.m., CTA experienced an issue with limit up/limit down price bands that may have been related to a new software release. To resolve the issue, CTA failed over to the secondary data centre, which operates on the previous version of the software. The following symbols that were subject to trading pauses on CTA between 9:30 a.m. and 10:27 a.m. were potentially impacted by erroneous price bands due to this software release: CTA SIP Symbol LULD Halt June 3 2024 – Corrected.”
Joe Saluzzi, partner and co-founder, Themis Trading
“In other words, CTA had a software glitch that changed the LULD price bands in more than 40 securities,” Joe Saluzzi, partner and co-founder at Themis Trading, said.
Saluzzi said that it was his understanding that the CTA sent out erroneous price bands, which were far away from the accurate price bands, for over 40 stocks, which caused brokers to cancel orders once the message hit their data feeds, essentially wiping out the limit order book in the affected stocks.
“Even though the limit books were wiped in some stocks, these stocks were not halted until trades started occurring at the new LULD prices for at least 15 seconds (this is the way the LULD rules are set up to work),” Saluzzi explained in a Themis Thoughts.
GT understands that due to the fact the NYSE had to halt trading, this caused the dark pools and ATS that quote prices from NYSE to go down as well.
“IEX determined that the quotes were not updating due to a latent software defect that impacted its SIP Publisher application responsible for disseminating quote information to the CTA SIP for symbol range A through D,” said the firm. However, according to a confirmation from an IEX spokesperson, there was subsequently an additional software defect within the IEX platform following the fail over to secondary after the original NYSE glitch. “IEX Technology is currently in the process of updating system code to address the issue. In the meantime, IEX’s failover procedure has been augmented to address this situation until the software fix is developed, tested, and deployed,” the firm told GT.
Industry sources suggest that the bigger issue is that this situation could easily be resolved much faster in the future, if a message was sent out on FIX to inform market participants. However, there are some exchanges that have historically blocked/opposed this, GT understands.
A solution?
Jim Kaye, executive director, FIX Trading Community, told GT that FIX is working on a solution to the market outage communication issue
Jim Kaye, executive director, FIX Trading Community
“The timing is completely unrelated to the US equities outage, and though outages of any kind are obviously not desirable, they are inevitable. Also, each one is different and provides us with another case study for us to test our design against.
“One thing our work has highlighted, and this recent example confirms, is that an outage can occur anywhere in ‘the system’ and impact any other part of ‘the system’. Here ‘the system’ could be anything from an actual IT system to a venue or market participant, to a market, to the entire financial ecosystem. Here, a market data issue impacts trading in several US shares which no doubt had a knock-on effect on derivatives, other shares, markets, possibly even other asset classes.
“Communication needs to come from any part of the system to, potentially, any other part of the system. It needs to be timely. And the really hard part is it needs to be honest and accurate. ‘Honest’ means if you aren’t quite sure what’s going on (often the case in the early stages of an outage), say so. Accurate means you need to be 100% sure of your facts and communicate them clearly,” Kaye added.
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Finalists of this year’s European Markets Choice Awards.
