| September 20, 2018 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
JLN Staff
The World Economic Forum issued a report "Building Block(chain)s for a Better Planet."~JJL
CQG Desktop Version 3.6 is out. Would it show my age if I said I used to use System One?~JJL
If you haven't seen Ray Dalio's thoughts about how our economy and country looks a lot like 1937, it is worth a look.~JK
Yesterday, pot stock Tilray went full Icarus. Trading was halted multiple times for volatility reasons after it soared from ~$150 to nearly $300, then erased all its gains. Fun times. See CNBC's As investors chase pot stocks rally, some show caution: 'This is just stupid time'. ~SD
According to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, there are more $100 bills in circulation than $1 bills.~SD
The difference between being a Republican or Democratic CFTC Commissioner:
Commissioner Rostin Behnam spoke at the Michigan Agri-Business Association 2018 Outlook Conference, Mackinac Island, Michigan while Republican Commissioner Brian Quintenz spoke at the Burgenstock Conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Either one is a great trip in my book.~JJL
A former Cboe trading floor messenger died earlier this week after collapsing on the plaza outside the Cboe in Chicago. I did not get a name, though one source used John. John reportedly suffered from emphysema and had other issues that sources said were related to his collapsing.~JJL
You can sponsor David Setters for London City Swim 2018. David is taking part in London City Swim 2018, which is raising funds for London City Swim Foundation (raising funds for MND Association and Stephen Hawking Foundation).~JJL
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Jamie Dimon says cyber warfare is the biggest risk to the financial system; The "biggest vulnerability" for the financial system is the threat of cyberattacks, J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon said on Thursday.
Ryan Browne - CNBC
Banks may be in sound condition post-Lehman Brothers, but the financial system could crack again if hit with a devastating cyber attack, J.P. Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon warned on Thursday.
/jlne.ws/2PSiS27
***** Luckily for Chicago there is a new organization putting on an event. The Global Cybersecurity Initiative will hold an event at IIT in Chicago on November 9 that will include a student hackathon to start the day. Contact me for more information.~JJL
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Your Network Has Been Hacked. You Have 72 Hours to Report It; Companies are scrambling to meet new regulations that require them to figure out what's going onÂquickly
Jeff Stone - WSJ
Multinational corporations are taking steps to more quickly detect and report data breaches, in part to avoid steep penalties under a sweeping set of regulations from the European Union. The magic number: 72 hours.
/jlne.ws/2DeKOfk
***** Includes quotes from OCC's Mark Morrison.~JJL
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Crypto Exchange Kraken Likens NY to a 'Controlling Ex'
Lily Katz - Bloomberg
New York's attorney general isn't happy with popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. The feeling is mutual. The state's legal chief said Tuesday that the San Francisco-based firm and two other digital-coin marketplaces may be operating illegally in New York. Kraken Chief Executive Officer Jesse Powell, known for his candid remarks on the internet, took to Twitter to express his displeasure.
/jlne.ws/2PP8UyQ
***** Rule number one, don't smart off to the cops. Stupid!~JJL
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BGC Partners Expands European Business with Hires Jörg Birkholz and Jürgen Tillmann
BGC Partners, Inc.
BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ :BGCP ) ("BGC Partners," "BGC" or "the Company"), a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets, today announced that Jörg Birkholz has joined the Firm as Senior Managing Director and Jürgen Tillmann as Managing Director, based in Frankfurt.
/jlne.ws/2PTp8qK
**** Anytime you can add a Jörg or Jürgen to help with European business, you are on the right track.~JJL
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Brexit explained by a three-year-old
BBC (VIDEO)
Confused by common markets? Baffled by Brexit? Then you need to speak to Nancy.
As negotiations rumble on before the UK's planned exit from the EU in March, you could be forgiven for feeling a bit flummoxed.
But three-year-old Nancy hopes to go one better than some experts and politicians, and has come up with answers to some burning questions.
/bbc.in/2xooQRK
**** As lucid an explanation as you are likely to find anywhere.~JB
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Tower of London is running out of ravens as Historic Palaces say shortage risks 'prophecy coming true'
Yohannes Lowe - The Telegraph
It is said that the Kingdom of England will fall if less than six ravens are kept in the Tower of London. According to King Charles II's infamous decree, if the birds leave the site, then its White Tower will crumble and the country will be plunged into chaos. Now, in order to make sure "the prophecy will never come to pass" , the tower will build its own breeding aviary to ensure that the current ravens survive.
bit.ly/2xoq3Zi
***** Time to move the Baltimore Ravens to London?~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
It was crypto Tuesday yesterday, with the top two stories on the New York crack down on Kraken and others. Bloomberg's CME's Crypto Partners Get Called Out by New York Regulators was first, followed by Crypto exchanges like Coinbase criticized in New York State Attorney General report from Quartz. Third was Coindesk's Trading Legend Don Wilson: Asian Demand High for Bitcoin Futures
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MarketsWiki Stats
132,593,003 pages viewed; 23,281 pages; 215,020 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| Lead Stories | Fortunes Made and Lost on Weed in Wildest Single Day of Trading
Courtney Dentch and Elena Popina - Bloomberg
Tilray ends whipsaw session higher after wiping out 94% gain; Pot stock trading halted five times for volatility triggers
In perhaps the wildest day yet for the nascent Weed Inc., shares in Tilray took a ride reminiscent of the Bitcoin craze and even the height of the dot-com bubble.
/jlne.ws/2PRkzwO
**Also, read the FT's Reefer Madness story, and Meet The Marijuana Millionaires from Bloomberg.
Danske Chairman Says 'Large' Part of $234 Billion Is Suspicious
Frances Schwartzkopff and Peter Levring - Bloomberg
CEO Borgen will step down for his role in laundering case; Bank says close to half of Estonian accounts were deemed risky
The chairman of Danske Bank A/S now says that a "large" part of the $234 billion that flowed through a tiny Estonian unit at the center of a money laundering scandal may need to be treated as suspicious transactions.
/jlne.ws/2PSmNMn
Coinbase denies trading cryptocurrencies for its own benefit; A report from the New York Attorney General stated that almost twenty percent of executed volume" on Coinbase's platform was attributable to its own trading.
Arjun Kharpal - CNBC
Cryptocurrency firm Coinbase has denied engaging in proprietary trading after the New York Attorney General said that almost 20 percent of transactions on its platform were attributable to the company.
/jlne.ws/2PMtUGe
Howard Lutnick, Now a Billionaire, Bets Own Fortune on Bold Growth Plan
Tom Metcalf and Sonali Basak - Bloomberg
Cantor CEO on journey to become finance's 'biggest little guy'; He has tightened his grip and owns about 60% of the company
It has been seventeen 9/11s since Howard Lutnick watched the Twin Towers fall. Grief has mellowed. Old recriminations have quieted.
/jlne.ws/2xtpRb6
The Hype Around Pot Stocks Is Catching Up to the Crypto Craze
Lily Katz and Brandon Kochkodin - Bloomberg
Crypto stocks were all the rage last year, until they weren't. Will cannabis companies meet the same fate? Shares of Tilray Inc. have rallied more than 1,000 percent since the Canadian pot firm went public in July, leaving some of the most hyped digital-currency companies in the dust. By comparison, Riot Blockchain Inc. only surged around 400 percent after the former machinery maker for the biotech industry ditched its old name, Bioptix Inc., in October.
/jlne.ws/2PRj7KS
HSBC global banking and markets memo to CEO
Lianna Brinded and Julia La Roche - Yahoo Finance
A group of unnamed investment bankers at HSBC (HSBC) who say they work within the Global Banking and Markets division launched a scathing attack on their group boss urging the bank to oust him, according to a memo seen by Yahoo Finance.
/yhoo.it/2Dfkwd3
Crypto Exchange Begins Hiring Spree in Europe and Asia
Nour Al Ali - Bloomberg
CFO says fiat-crypto exchange to go operational next month; Company looks to hire more than 50 people in Malta for Europe
One of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by traded volume is aiming to hire staff across Asia and Europe despite heightened regulatory scrutiny and a market crash that has seen the value of digital assets plummeting. Binance wants to hire for roles in Singapore, as well as 50 new employees in its headquarters in Malta. The year-ol
/jlne.ws/2PSoDNh
***** One has the wonder what ethics training is like on Malta.~JJL
CFTC fines Bank of America $30 million in latest USD ISDAFIX settlement; The charges against Bank of America marks the ninth CFTC enforcement action against major investment banks related to ISDAFIX rigging.
Hayley McDowell - The Trade
Bank of America has become the latest major investment bank to settle charges for manipulating the USD ISDAFIX benchmark and will pay a $30 million penalty.
/jlne.ws/2xrObdn
Investment Association targets diversity with female board appointments; With the appointment of four buy-side executives to the board at the Investment Association, female representation has almost doubled.
Hayley McDowell - The Trade
The UK's asset management trade body has expanded its board of directors with the appointment of four executives from leading buy-side firms, almost doubling its female board representation.
/jlne.ws/2xpw347
For E*Trade, Not Selling Itself May Be 'Hard to Justify'
David Marino-Nachison - Barron's
Come on, somebody: Buy E*Trade Financial(ETFC)! That's the short version of Wednesday's note from Jefferies' Daniel Fannon, who set a "buy" rating on shares of the online broker. "We view the current valuation as attractive for the core business," he wrote, "while the financial and strategic benefits as a takeout candidate remain intact."
/jlne.ws/2xpRxhe
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Cboe expands equities trading with Polish, Hungarian and Czech stocks; Trading in Polish, Hungarian and Czech stocks will be available on Cboe Europe from 5 November pending regulatory approval.
Hayley McDowell - The Trade
Cboe Europe has confirmed plans to expand its coverage with the launch of trading in Polish, Hungarian and Czech securities.
/jlne.ws/2xmWqYg
Cboe Europe Plans to Launch Equities Trading in Three New Markets
Cboe
Cboe Europe to expand access to securities listed in Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic; Trading for these new markets expected to commence on 5th November 2018; More than 6,000 securities across 18 markets will be available for trading on Cboe Europe via one platform
Cboe Europe, the region's largest equities exchange operator, today announced it will expand its coverage to 18 markets across Europe with the planned launch of trading in Polish, Hungarian and Czech securities beginning 5th November 2018, pending regulatory review.
/jlne.ws/2xoqenq
Default at Nasdaq Clearing
Amir Khwaja - Clarus Financial Technology
Last week's default at Nasdaq Clearing in the power market, generated a lot of press, both because member defaults are few and far between events at CCPs and the fact that it coincided with the ten year anniversary of the Lehman's bankruptcy.
/goo.gl/ZX7JQy
CFTC Revokes FBOT Registration at the Request of ICE Futures Canada, Inc.
CFTC
At the request of the ICE Futures Canada, Inc. (IFCA), a foreign board of trade (FBOT), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an order revoking its FBOT registration.
/jlne.ws/2Db1GDS
Institutional Digital Asset Exchange Seed CX Welcomes John Hart as Its New Chief Information Officer
GlobeNewswire
Seed CX, which through its subsidiaries offers a licensed exchange for institutional trading and settlement of spot digital asset products and plans to offer a market for CFTC-regulated digital asset derivatives, announced today that John Hart would be joining the company as Chief Information Officer. Hart joins Seed CX with decades of experience designing, building and operating high-performance, scalable financial markets and exchange infrastructure.
/goo.gl/Hsk1B9
JPMorgan has weighed in on one of the biggest debates tearing apart Wall Street, and it's 'like an 800 pound gorilla wading in'
Frank Chaparro, Contributor - Business Insider
A Wall Street giant is getting into the ring of one of the biggest fights tearing apart Wall Street and it's picked a surprising side to support.
/jlne.ws/2PSp5eB
Thomas Laux: "Ten years after Lehman, we are much better prepared"
Eurex
The tenth anniversary of the biggest financial market shock in the history of the global economy is now upon us: the Lehman bankruptcy completely changed the world of banks, exchanges, clearing houses and their regulators. In this interview, Thomas Laux, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Risk Officer at Eurex Clearing, talks about the approach of Eurex Clearing during the Lehman crisis and which lessons the clearing house learned from it
/jlne.ws/2xpNOQv
Collateral management: Exclusion of unsecured bank bonds following changes in European Central Bank's eligibility criteria
Eurex
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced in a press release that it will exclude senior unsecured bank bonds from its eligibility list after 31 December 2018.
/jlne.ws/2xpN3qU
SGX welcomes Lion Futures as Derivatives Trading Member
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today welcomed Lion Futures Limited as a Trading Member of its derivatives market.
/jlne.ws/2xpObLa
OSE and TSE Impose Disciplinary Action against Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd.
JPX
Osaka Exchange, Inc. has taken disciplinary action against Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. as indicated below, pursuant to the provisions of Rule 42, Paragraph 1 of its Trading Participant Regulations and has requested the Company to submit a business improvement report pursuant to the provisions of Rule 17, Paragraph 1 of the same Regulations.
/jlne.ws/2xpjyVU
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Financial apps gain fans by helping users handle their money; New tools can help limit spending and even make suggestions on loans
Owen Walker - FT
When John Penberthy-Smith convinced his student daughter to download a financial planning tool, he hoped to pick up some insights into the way millennials use technology to save more money.
/jlne.ws/2MIgkSi
New York State Department of Financial Services Challenges OCC Authority on Fintech Charters
Lexology
On July 31, 2018, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced its decision (the Fintech Charter Decision) to begin accepting applications from financial technology (fintech) companies for special purpose national bank charters.1 The OCC has indicated it will not grant a charter to a fintech company that wishes to accept deposits or engage in fiduciary activities (for business plans that involve purely fiduciary activities, a limited purpose trust charter may provide an alternative vehicle). The Fintech Charter Decision is discussed in greater detail in a prior Sidley Banking and Financial Services Update.2
bit.ly/2xreTD7
This COO Is Changing FinTech Culture
Stephanie MacConnell - Forbes
Tina Hsiao is COO at WePay, a Silicon Valley payments company recently acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase. As COO, Hsiao wears many hats including the head of risk management, HR, and technical account management. Hsiao has been credited with helping to create a positive and inclusive culture at the company, in an industry and location wrought with a dearth of diversity and grueling expectations.
bit.ly/2xs6orz
African fintech startups innovate, boost financial inclusion
Yomi Kazeem - Quartz
It is hard to miss news of the several funding rounds recently raised by fintech startups in Africa.
After pulling in almost a third of total funding raised by startups on the continent in 2017, the hot streak for African fintech businesses has continued this year. Among recent big-ticket deals in 2018, Cellulant, a digital payments solution company, raised $47.5 million in one of the largest Series C rounds for a solely Africa-focused venture-funded company.
bit.ly/2xr3TWq
Fintech investors back applications to improve industry efficiency
Sean Allocca - Financial Planning
A good chunk of the money being invested in wealth management and banking technology is going toward funding artificial intelligence-driven tools.
But forget the popular concept of conversational, British-voiced computers, chatbots or even cute robot assistants greeting customers at branches; the applications that investors want in on are focused on improving operational efficiency.
bit.ly/2xpNAZF
EBANX: The Brazilian Fintech Who Wants To Lead The Cross-Border Online Payments Market
Angelica Mari - Forbes
E-commerce is expected to gather pace in Latin America in the next few years and Brazilian online payments fintech EBANX wants to capitalize on the trend, by bridging the transactional gap between international businesses and consumers in the region.
bit.ly/2xpN0ve
Powerful Crowdsourcing Technology Enhances Bankruptcy Prediction; CreditRiskMonitor Reveals Unique Insights into Supplier Financial Performance
CreditRiskMonitor
CreditRiskMonitor (OTCQX: CRMZ) is helping financial, supply chain and credit professionals by providing them with unique and powerful ways to make better business decisions. As a web-based publisher of financial information, CreditRiskMonitor's breakthrough crowdsourcing technology provides insights into thousands of large public corporations.
/jlne.ws/2Df6W9l
QuantHouse and Enyx introduce FPGA-accelerated market data as a service
QuantHouse
QuantHouse, the leading independent global provider of end-to-end systematic trading solutions including innovative market data services, algo trading platform and infrastructure solutions, today welcomed Enyx to the qh API ecosystem. The addition of Enyx, the premier provider of low-latency, FPGA-based market data and order execution systems, provides trading firms with immediate access to a high performance, FPGA accelerated end-to-end market data service.
/goo.gl/yXVXc7
Is Python the New Excel?
Rob Garfield, FINCAD - TABB Forum
Over the last few decades, having good Excel skills has been of paramount importance within the financial industry, almost regardless of your role. What we are now observing is that this paradigm is shifting at a rapid pace with Python becoming the tool of choice for financial industry participants. I dare say that Python is becoming the new Excel.
/goo.gl/BpBbeL
The Changing Use of Structured Data: Examples from around the World
Mohini Singh - CFA Institute Market Integrity Insights
My latest paper, Data and Technology: How Information Is Consumed in the New Age, takes a deep dive into how structured data (i.e., machine readable data) contained in regulatory filings in the form of XBRL (a type of structured data) is being consumed by investors and analysts. But, as XBRL International reports, XBRL is not used just for reporting to securities regulators. Possible uses for XBRL include reporting to lenders, tax authorities, and other regulating bodies. The following examples illustrate some ways in which structured data are consumed.
/cfa.is/2ppBYBv
Nucleus195 Launches Global Distribution Research Platform; Investors Can Find and Buy Research Across Developed, Emerging and Frontier Markets
Nucleus195
Nucleus195 today launched its investment research and management platform, allowing investors to have one centralized location for all their investment research needs.
/jlne.ws/2DcXnrx
Anova Technologies Appoints Joe Hilt as Vice President of Sales and Marketing; Industry Veteran Will Lead Business Growth and Global Expansion Strategies as the Company Prepares for the Introduction of New Products to the Financial Services Industry
Anova Technologies
Anova Technologies, a global connectivity and market data provider to the financial services industry, announces today the appointment of industry veteran and thought leader, Joe Hilt, as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In this position, Mr. Hilt will direct Anova's sales teams to achieve revenue objectives as well as manage commercial relationships to ensure profitability. Moreover, he will help drive Anova's soon-to-be-announced global market expansion and new financial services product rollouts, among other responsibilities.
/jlne.ws/2PLBW20
At This High-Tech Farm, the Boss Is an AI-Powered Algorithm; Bowery Farming says its proprietary software can top the intuition of a seasoned farmer.
Aki Ito - Bloomberg
Each morning when she gets to work at Bowery Farming Inc., Katie Morich changes into a clean uniform, puts on a hairnet and cleans her hands with sanitizer. Then she consults a computer monitor displaying all the tasks she needs to accomplish that day. The to-do list's author isn't human; it's a piece of proprietary software that uses reams of data collected at the indoor farm to make important decisions: how much to water each plant, the intensity of light required, when to harvest and so forth. In short, Morich and her fellow human farmers do what the computer tells them to do.
/jlne.ws/2xokWZ6
BSO and Hoptroff Partner on Time-Stamping Service
Hamad Ali - Waters Technology
Network and hosting provider BSO has announced a partnership with synchronization specialist Hoptroff to offer a platform for timestamping trades to within ten microseconds, an integrated platform it calls "time-as-a-service."
/jlne.ws/2xpIigS
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Global standard for cryptocurrency anti-money laundering to be agreed
Janina Conboye and Hannah Murphy - FT
The global anti-money laundering task force has said it is closer to establishing a worldwide set of standards to apply to virtual currencies.
/jlne.ws/2POZJ16
Cryptocurrency mining attacks using leaked NSA hacking tools are still highly active a year later
Zack Whittaker - Tech Crunch
It's been over a year since highly classified exploits built by the National Security Agency were stolen and published online. One of the tools, dubbed EternalBlue, can covertly break into almost any Windows machine around the world. It didn't take long for hackers to start using the exploits to run ransomware on thousands of computers, grinding hospitals and businesses to a halt.
/goo.gl/q5Xc76
Crypto Exchange Zaif Hacked In $60 Million, 6,000 Bitcoin Theft
Wolfie Zhao - Coindesk
Yet another Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked with a loss of total 6.7 billion yen, or $60 million worth of cryptocurrency, including 6,000 bitcoin.
/goo.gl/9i7P9i
Japan Lost $540 Million to Crypto Hacks in First Half of 2018
Daniel Palmer - Coindesk
After news broke yesterday of yet another hack of a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, the country's police authority has released figures revealing the rise in such attacks this year.
According to a report from The Asahi Shimbun Thursday, the National Police Agency (NPA) has released data for the first six months of 2018 that reveal cyberattacks on crypto wallets and platforms tripled over the same period last year.
bit.ly/2xoPb2c
Commodity Traders, Major Banks Back New Blockchain Platform
Stan Higgins - Coindesk
A group of commodity traders and financial institutions have unveiled a new blockchain venture. The banks involved in the new platform, dubbed Komgo SA, include ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Citi, Crédit Agricole, MUFG Bank and Societe Generale, among others. The project has attracted a notable list of trading firms, including Koch Supply & Trading and Mercuria, as well as energy giant Shell and inspection firm SGS.
/goo.gl/1e5rYf
Top Ten US Bank Joins Ripple Blockchain RippleNet for Cross-Border Payments
CCN
PNC Bank, the 9th largest bank in the United States by assets, has joined Ripple's enterprise blockchain network RippleNet in what is a noteworthy addition for the San Francisco-based fintech. With over $380 billion in assets, Pittsburg-based PNC Financial Services Group has become the latest member to join RippleNet, a global payments network of over 100 institutions including banks, payment providers, remittance forwarders and operators among other financial institutions to enable near-instant money transfers with on-demand liquidity and end-to-end tracking on a blockchain.
/goo.gl/dfKzZm
Leading UK Port Operator Seeks to Improve Shipping Logistics via Blockchain
Ana Berman - Cointelegraph
UK's leading port operator, Associated British Ports (ABP), has signed an agreement with digital logistics enabler Marine Transport International to develop blockchain use for port logistics, Dry Bulk magazine reports Wednesday, September 19.
/goo.gl/Fa3vft
Australian regulator cracks down on misleading digital coin offerings
Reuters
Australia's corporate watchdog said on Thursday it was stepping up scrutiny on "misleading" initial coin offerings (ICOs)targeted at retail investors while adding it has already acted against several such proposals.
/jlne.ws/2PPNKQO
Fidelity Investments To Announce Cryptocurrency, Blockchain Products By 2018-End
Ranjitha Shastry - IBTimes.com
Speaking at the 2018 edition of Boston Fintech Week, CEO of investment firm Fidelity Investments, Abigail Johnson, revealed Friday that a team at Fidelity are working on certain blockchain and cryptocurrency related products and services. The details of the products might be announced by the end of 2018.
/jlne.ws/2PTKswd
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trump Just Keeps Underestimating China; His trade war is moseying right into the country's intensely nationalist mood.
Mark Gongloff - Bloomberg
It has been more than seven months - or roughly 700,000 years in pre-2016 units of time - since President Donald Trump declared "trade wars are good, and easy to win." We are closer than ever to getting a real test of that theory.
/jlne.ws/2PRvMgT
Trump Told Spanish Minister a Sahara Wall Could Stop Migrants
Charles Penty - Bloomberg
Foreign Minister relays Trump comments at lunch in Madrid; Sahara wall 'is not a solution,' Foreign Minister Borrell says
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested building a wall across the Sahara as a means to help solve the European migration crisis, Spain's Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said.
/jlne.ws/2PQie5m
Inside a Failed Silicon Valley Attempt to Reinvent Politics; Win the Future set out to reinvigorate the Democratic Party. Instead it built a quiz app.
Joshua Brustein - Bloomberg
The comedian Samantha Bee kicked off the new season of her TBS show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, last week by introducing a smartphone trivia app designed to spark voter registration. Bee copped to being a tech novice, and laid out her insecurities about her first product launch in a media preview. "We don't have a clue if it's going to succeed or fail," she admitted from the stage.
/jlne.ws/2xlANHV
The FBI Is Quietly Asserting Its Independence From Trump
Chris Strohm - Bloomberg
Bureau to push redactions in Trump's declassification order; White House would have to order FBI probe of Kavanaugh claims
The FBI is quietly asserting independence after President Donald Trump moved this week to pull the agency into two of the most heated political controversies of his tenure.
/jlne.ws/2xpLhGg
Trump says OPEC 'monopoly' must get prices down
Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump linked American support for Middle Eastern countries to oil prices on Thursday as he again urged OPEC to lower prices.
/jlne.ws/2xy9MBh
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Regulator reopens probe into Danske Bank scandal; Shareholder group criticises law firm's investigation of money-laundering case as 'complete nonsense'
Richard Milne, Nordic Correspondent - FT
Denmark's financial regulator has reopened its investigation into Danske Bank to look at whether top management should face legal action amid a mounting outcry into the lender's own probe into its huge money-laundering scandal.
/jlne.ws/2xqHl7W
CFTC Orders Futures Trader and Trading Firm to Pay $2.3 Million in Penalties for Cross-Market and Single-Market Spoofing and Manipulative Scheme
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued two orders today filing and settling charges against Victory Asset, Inc. (Victory) and Michael D. Franko for spoofingÂbidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before executionÂand for the use of a manipulative scheme. The scheme involved both domestic and international markets and occurred from at least May 2013 to July 2014 (the Relevant Period). One aspect of scheme involved cross-market spoofingÂi.e., spoofing in one market to benefit a position in another market, where the price of the two markets is generally correlated, particularly in the short term. Franko is a trader who resides in New Jersey.
/goo.gl/BWwKnf
CFTC Orders Bank of America, N.A. to Pay $30 Million Penalty for Attempted Manipulation and False Reporting of U.S. Dollar ISDAFIX Benchmark Swap Rates
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) today issued an Order filing and settling charges against Bank of America, N.A. (Bank of America or the Bank) for attempted manipulation of the ISDAFIX benchmark and requiring Bank of America to pay a $30 million civil monetary penalty.
/goo.gl/MD2HzQ
Derivatives analytics firm urges pension funds and asset managers to plan for initial margin rules
Beverly Chandler - Hedgeweek
Post-financial crisis regulatory changes in derivatives trading have forced change on how pension funds and large asset managers conduct their business, according to Maxime Jeanniard du Dot, the COO of derivatives analytics firm OpenGamma.
/goo.gl/QSoUUG
SEC Provides Regulatory Relief and Assistance for Hurricane Victims
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it is providing regulatory relief to publicly traded companies, investment companies, accountants, transfer agents, municipal advisors and others affected by Hurricane Florence. The loss of property, power, transportation, and mail delivery due to the hurricane poses challenges for some individuals and entities that are required to provide information to the SEC and shareholders.
/goo.gl/X69FsC
SEC Shuts Down $345 Million Fraud and Obtains Asset Freeze
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it has obtained a court order halting an ongoing Ponzi-like scheme that raised more than $345 million from over 230 investors across the U.S. The SEC also obtained an emergency asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver.
/jlne.ws/2xoAxYO
SEC sues U.S. breast-implant company's ex-CEO after stock dive
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday sued the founder and former chief executive of Sientra Inc (SIEN.O) for fraudulently concealing problems with his company's breast and other implants as it was raising $61.4 million in a public stock offering.
/reut.rs/2Db00Kg
Financial firms must join AFCA now
ASIC
ASIC warns all Australian financial services licensees, Australian credit licensees, authorised credit representatives and superannuation trustees that they must join the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) now if they have not already done so.
/jlne.ws/2xpiSQm
ASIC acts against misleading Initial Coin Offerings and crypto-asset funds targeted at retail investors
ASIC
ASIC has taken action to stop several proposed initial coin offerings or token-generation events (together, ICOs), targeting retail investors.
/jlne.ws/2xy93A3
ASIC reports on climate risk disclosure by Australia's listed companies
ASIC
An ASIC report on climate risk disclosure by Australia's listed companies has found more can be done to improve consistency in disclosure practices across listed companies, with very limited climate risk disclosure outside of the top-200 companies.
/jlne.ws/2xrfcOh
STEVEN MAIJOOR ADDRESSES GLOBAL INNOVATION INSTITUTE ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CAPITAL MARKETS
ESMA
The Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Steven Maijoor, has delivered a keynote speech on financial technology - New technologies within and beyond capital markets - at the AFME/Euromoney Global Innovation Institute conference in Paris today.
/jlne.ws/2xmX8Vq
Beware of Stock Fraud in the Wake of Hurricane Florence
FINRA
It may not be possible to predict when the next natural disaster will take place. What you can count on is that when it happens, scammers will try to take advantage of the situation. The tips below will help you protect yourself at any time.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | What sector overhaul means for tech stocks, Wall Street
Alden Bentley - Reuters
The most significant changes to Wall Street's broad industry sectors since 1999 will take effect Monday, reclassifying many of the hot growth companies that have been nearly synonymous with the "tech" rally that has fueled the stock bull market.
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Do Institutional Investors Suppress Competition?
Vito J. Racanelli - Barron's
Can institutional investing have anticompetitive effects? I'm still not convinced.
The idea, known as the common-ownership theory, received another airing at a panel debate at the Harvard Club Monday. As Barron's recently wrote, the model is based on studies of airlines and banks that suggest when groups of big investors such as index or mutual funds hold material equity stakes in several companies in the same industry, they can foster behavior such as consumer price increases that improves the profits of the companies they own.
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Are We Headed For A Passive Index Meltdown?
Frank Holmes - Forbes
Without Googling, try to guess who said the following quote: "If everybody indexed, the only word you could use is chaos, catastrophe. The markets would fail."
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Pot Stocks Bring Out the Worst in Investors; Fear of missing out leads market commentary.
Robert Burgess - Bloomberg
More than a few commentators are talking about how the rally in marijuana stocks has officially become a bubble. Just take a look at Canadian cannabis company Tilray Inc., whose shares about doubled on Wednesday to $300 each before a series of trading halts late in the day sent the stock back down to around $200. Time will tell whether this is a bubble, but all the ingredients are in place.
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Aurora Cannabis Stock Trading Suspended on Robinhood Because Demand Grew Too, Um, High
Kevin Kelleher - Fortune
Robinhood, the no-fee stock trading app, has been one of the bigger success stories in the fintech space, but the startup is facing problems handling an even hotter trend: the cannabis industry.
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | 'Running for the exit': How cross-border bank lending fell
Neeltje van Horen - Bank of England Blog
Cross-border bank lending fell dramatically in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers' failure as funding constraints forced banks to reduce their foreign exposures. While this decline was partly driven by lower demand for international bank credit, it was substantially aggravated by a retrenchment of international banks from cross-border lending. But banks did not cut their cross-border lending in a uniform manner. Instead, they reallocated their foreign portfolios towards countries that were geographically close, in which they had more experience, in which they had close connections with domestic banks or in which they operated a subsidiary.
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Goldman Regains Commodities Top Spot in Tie With Banking Rivals
Jack Farchy - Bloomberg
Lender shares first place with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan; Banks' combined commodities income rose 38% from year ago
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. regained its top spot in commodities in the first half of 2018, but had to share that position with rivals Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to research group Coalition Development Ltd.
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Goldman Sachs passes Citigroup in investment bank rankings; Rebound fuelled by revenue from fixed income and banking
Stephen Morris in London and Laura Noonan in New York - FT
Goldman Sachs has vaulted past Citigroup to reclaim the second spot in the benchmark ranking of the world's biggest investment banks by revenue, setting the scene for Lloyd Blankfein to bow out of the Wall Street giant on a high note.
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Liberia probes disappearance of $100m in central bank money; African nation launches 'national security' investigation and bars officials from travelling
David Pilling, Africa Editor - FT
Liberia is investigating the disappearance of more than $100m of newly printed bank notes intended for the central bank in a possible fraud worth 5 per cent of the impoverished west African country's gross domestic product.
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Danske Shows Banks Still Miss the Usual Suspects; Danish bank's suspicious flows were large and should have stood out
Paul J. Davies - WSJ
Some money laundering is highly sophisticated and difficult to track through multiple countries, offshore centers and anonymous shell companies. Some, like the more than $230 billion in dubious flows that have emerged at Danske Bank of Denmark, is worryingly simple.
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Under fire Danske Bank faces fresh money laundering inquiry
Teis Jensen - Reuters
Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO) faced a new Danish money laundering inquiry on Thursday as political anger spread over a scandal involving 200 billion euros ($234 billion) in payments, many of which were suspicious, through Estonia.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Liberia loses $104 mln in central bank cash, bans 15 from foreign travel
Alphonso Toweh and James Giahyue - Reuters
Fifteen Liberians, including the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are banned from leaving the country while the government investigates the whereabouts of $104 million in missing cash intended for the central bank, the government said.
bit.ly/2Df4cJf
Jack Ma Says He Can't Create 1 Million U.S. Jobs After All
Lulu Yilun Chen - Bloomberg
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma said his promise to create 1 million jobs in the U.S. is impossible to fulfill because of the U.S.-China trade war, a setback in one high-profile effort for deeper cooperation between the world's two largest economies.
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Two Australian banks among six targeted by fake apps: security firm
Paulina Duran - Reuters via Business Insider
Customers of six banks including two of Australia's largest lenders have had their personal details stolen by fake banking apps on the Google Play store, an internet security firm said.
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Florence Flooding Hits North Carolina Hog Farms Hard; More than 5,000 animals have died and dozens of waste lagoons have overflowed
Kris Maher and Ben Kesling - WSJ
Floodwaters have caused the worst damage to North Carolina's hog farms in nearly two decades, with more than 5,000 animals dying and several dozen waste lagoons releasing pollutants into waterways.
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UK ruling sets stage for Ukraine-Russia 'odious debt' battle; Legal dispute over default opens door for courts to revisit the behaviour of sovereigns
Robin Wigglesworth in New York and Kate Allen in London - FT
Geopolitical tensions will take centre stage in London's law courts after a legal ruling opened the door to a case that could have major implications for the sovereign debt markets.
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| Brexit | | Financials stories regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union | EU leaders keep up pressure on May to take Brexit deal
Gabriela Baczynska, Francois Murphy and Alastair Macdonald - Reuters
EU leaders lined up on Thursday to tell Theresa May she needs to give guarantees on the Irish border before they will grant her the Brexit deal the prime minister wants to avoid Britain crashing out of the bloc.
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Merkel and Macron Sound Gloomy on Brexit as U.K. Disappointed
Ian Wishart and Tim Ross - Bloomberg
Germany and France, the European Union's two most powerful countries, struck a downbeat tone about the prospect of a Brexit deal, as the two sides failed to come up with proposals to break the deadlock.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May gave her EU counterparts a 10-minute speech over dinner on Wednesday night, in which she asked them for concessions to get a deal over the line. As leaders arrived for their meeting in Salzburg on Thursday, they signaled an unwillingness to move.
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A people's vote on Brexit can happen - here's how
Hugo Dixon - The Guardian
When Theresa May says MPs will have the choice between her Brexit deal and crashing out of the EU with no deal, as she did this week in her Panorama interview, she is being neither honest nor democratic. After all, it is parliament, not the prime minister, who is sovereign - and MPs could well decide to ask the people whether they still want to quit the EU.
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Oaktree's Howard Marks says Brexit makes UK too risky to invest in
Mark Vandevelde - Financial Times
A billionaire investor who made his fortune buying the debt of failing companies believes that uncertainty surrounding Brexit has made it too unsafe to invest in Britain.
Howard Marks, who founded Oaktree Capital Management to capitalise on market dislocations caused by economic downturns, told the Financial Times that he was unwilling to risk the disastrous losses that could come if the UK botched its departure from the EU.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Cargill buys Konspol, sizable poultry business in Poland; The deal includes a feed mill, five farms and two processing facilities.
Kristen Leigh Painter Star Tribune
Cargill Inc. is expanding its poultry interests in Europe through the purchase of a major Polish chicken producer.
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