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Monday, March 31

LiquidityHub Shuts Down

by Sean Sprackling on Mon 31 Mar 2008 12:43 BST

LiquidityHub (see earlier article) announced late on friday that they are to shut down after only 5 months of trading. The multi-distributor, multi-dealer liquidity aggregator for fixed income markets that was backed by 16 dealer-banks was meant to compete with the likes of Tradeweb by streaming Fixed Income and Swap prices from both Reuters and Bloomberg to facilitate liquidity distribution.

However in a short statement released just before end of trading on Friday, LiquidityHub says it will "cease electronic trading operations from close of business today...the decision has been taken due to recent market conditions which have called into question the current scalability of the LiquidityHub model".

There have been rumours circulating for some time that take-up of the service has been poor and that banks' support for the platform was less than satisfactory. Last year many of the banks involved in the LiquidityHub venture - including Goldman ... more »

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T Zero launches Novations +

by Sean Sprackling on Mon 31 Mar 2008 10:54 BST

London & New York, March 28, 2008 – T-Zero, the most widely adopted credit derivative affirmation platform, has released its next generation ‘Novations+TM’ processing technology. The new technology is fully integrated with the DTCC Trade Warehouse and directly addresses the new industry commitments announced by the Operations Management Group (OMG).

The launch of Novations+ also comes amid renewed calls from U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and from regulators, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for additional scale, automation and standardization in credit derivative processing.

Novations+ functionality enables buy-side and sell-side market participants to achieve 2008 novation targets set by the OMG to submit novation requests via an electronic platform rather than via email. Additionally, the new technology allows the credit derivative industry to scale novation processing by providing system-to-system connectivity, interoperability and automation for even the most complex novation operations involving prime brokers and fund allocations. ... more »

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Friday, March 28

SIFMA’s Asset Management Group to Play Key Role in Meeting 2008 Goals

by Sean Sprackling on Fri 28 Mar 2008 12:46 GMT

New York, NY, March 27, 2008 – The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA’s) Asset Management Group (AMG) is part of a letter of agreement that was signed by the senior managers of 17 major derivatives dealers (Major Dealers). The agreement serves as an update to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other regulators and outlines goals, strategies and major benchmarks toward the continued improvement and streamlining of operational efficiency within the credit and equities derivatives markets.

This agreement is a continuation of the work of the Operations Management Group (OMG) that is tasked with leading fundamental change in front-to-back processes across Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has taken the lead in improving operations and efficiency in the derivatives market which is important to its overall scaling up and growth.

“SIFMA and AMG are committed to advancing true operational ... more »

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Thursday, March 27

Liffe to create LiffeClear

by Sean Sprackling on Thu 27 Mar 2008 11:25 GMT

New central clearing counterparty

Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Paris, New York, Tuesday 25 March 2008 – Liffe, the international derivatives market of NYSE Euronext (NYX), has announced that, following approval from the board of LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd, it is to negotiate a new contract with LCH.Clearnet that will enable it to manage its London clearing operations directly.

Liffe’s proposal will create a new central counterparty, LiffeClear, for the exchange, with LCH.Clearnet continuing to provide important risk management and guarantee functions for the market. As a result Liffe will be able to develop further its service to customers and compete on a level footing with other futures exchanges that own their own clearing houses.

Hugh Freedberg, Group Executive Vice President and Head of Global Derivatives at NYSE Euronext said: “I am very pleased that the board of LCH.Clearnet has agreed to this important change. The direct relationship that ... more »

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Wednesday, March 26

Eurex to Launch Derivatives on DivDAX and Further German Equity Options

by Sean Sprackling on Wed 26 Mar 2008 18:17 GMT

DivDAX® products start as of 14 April / Five new equity options on MDAX® stocks launched as of 25 March

26 Mar 2008

International derivatives exchange Eurex will expand its product range in the area of equity index derivatives with futures and options on the DivDAX index. The new product will be available from 14 April 2008. In offering the additional index product, Eurex continues to expand its German index derivatives product range, currently consisting of DAX®, MDAX® and TecDAX® futures and options.
The DivDAX® index comprises 15 DAX constituents with the highest dividend yield. The index was introduced by Deutsche Börse in March 2005. The composition of DivDAX is reviewed once a year in September, based on the latest paid dividends. Components are capped at 10 percent. The index is weighted according to market capitalization. DivDAX returns have outperformed those of DAX in each of the last eight years. ... more »

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