Is Barnier the anti-McCreevy?

Word has it – from respectable sources – that Michel Barnier, the incoming Internal Markets Commissioner, thinks Stock Exchanges should be part of the national infrastructure. Hmm. In some eyes, an exchange should assist with the creation of an orderly market. You can certainly put a case for MiFID creating a disorderly market. Outgoing Commissioner Charlie [...]

Death of the Bourse

The announcement that the London Stock Exchange is in talks to buy Turquoise signals the death of the Bourse. Tied to the Exchange’s departure from the Federation of European Exchanges, it suggests a seismic shift in strategy. FESE has been campaigning for a level playing field of regulation to be run across exchanges, multi-lateral trading [...]

The (Readable) History of Euroclear in Settlement

In the continuing drive to stay ahead of the markets and technology, it’s hard to remember what the front office of financial services looked like 20 years ago, never mind the back office infrastructure.             In Plumbers and Visionaries, Peter Norman writes the history of securities settlement and Europe’s financial markets, a project sponsored by [...]

Why the Futures Industry Will Hold Onto its CFTC Regulator

In the US, the futures exchanges in Chicago and New York have their own regulator…the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And despite the fact they have moved into financial instruments in a big way that dwarfs pork bellies, they are beyond the purview of the SEC. In Congress, they fall under agriculture committees, and you can [...]

Spring is in the air

Despite the gloom and doom, the beat goes on this side of the pond. Plans are in the works to start an electronic futures exchange, known as Four Seasons, to rival the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Among those said to be backing the platform are Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Citadel Investment, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, [...]