Traders World

ICD To Begin Processing CDS in March

2009-03-06T22:29:00.000Z

IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE:ICE) ,today announced that ICE US Trust, LLC (ICE Trust), a New York limited liability trust company, will begin processing and clearing credit default swap (CDS) index transactions on March 9, 2009. Clearing of North American Markit CDX indexes is expected to be followed by liquid single-name CDS in the following months. ICE Trust has entered into an agreement with Markit to produce daily settlement prices required for mark-to-market pricing, margining and clearing.

ICE also announced the closing of its acquisition of The Clearing Corporation (TCC) on March 6, 2009. TCC developed the CDS risk management framework, operational processes and infrastructure for ICE Trust's clearing operations.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today issued an exemptive order permitting ICE Trust to clear CDS transactions. In December 2008, ICE Trust received approval from the New York State Banking Department (NYBD), and on March 5, 2009, the Superintendent of the NYBD issued the authorization certificate to ICE Trust to commence business as a regulated bank based in New York. These approvals, combined with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' approval received on March 4, mark the completion of the required regulatory reviews prior to the launch of ICE Trust.

"Regulatory approval allows ICE Trust to bring to market the most comprehensive range of CDS clearing and risk management services available today," said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Chairman and CEO of ICE. "ICE Trust has been designed to further enhance well-functioning CDS markets by reducing counterparty and systemic risks, and increasing transparency and capital efficiency in the CDS markets. ICE will continue to work closely with the Federal Reserve and other regulatory bodies in the U.S. and abroad in implementing risk management solutions for the vital credit markets."

"Robust counterparty risk management is a cornerstone to the success of privately negotiated derivatives and of the ISDA architecture," said Eraj Shirvani, ISDA Chairman and Head of Fixed Income for EMEA, Credit Suisse. "The development of options that deliver strength, flexibility and transparency to clearing and settlement are key to the evolution of CDS. We in the industry welcome solutions that help us achieve these goals."

Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS have supported the establishment of the clearing house for CDS transactions, and are the initial clearing members of ICE Trust. Each of these participants has completed a rigorous technical testing and validation process over the past several months. In addition, each member has made a significant contribution to establish the ICE Trust guaranty fund, which will continue to increase as positions are transferred into the clearing house.

TCC's risk management systems were developed internally based on a proprietary risk assessment methodology designed specifically for the CDS market, and have been reviewed and validated by Finance Concepts, an independent risk management consultancy, as part of the regulatory review process. TCC's methodology will be used by the clearing house to determine initial and variation margin requirements, guaranty fund requirements and official daily settlement prices.

Tower Group Completes CastlePoint

2009-02-05T22:29:00.000Z

Tower Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWGP) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of CastlePoint Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: CPHL) in a transaction valued at $531 million based on Tower’s current market price. Tower announced a definitive agreement to acquire CastlePoint on August 5, 2008. All closing conditions have been met.

With the close of the transaction, CastlePoint shares (NASDAQ: CPHL) will be delisted from the NASDAQ.

CSC DealRoom

2009-02-03T21:47:00.000Z

Corporation Service Company® (CSC), has released the CSC DealRoom. The CSC DealRoom enables clients to receive documents from CSC electronically into a customizable deal workspace, so they can collaborate with outside counsel, and manage, organize and close deals more efficiently.

The introduction of CSC's DealRoom follows the company's successful implementation of comprehensive matter management and electronic billing systems that provide collaboration tools and automatic integration of electronic service of process delivery.

The CSC DealRoom, available exclusively from CSC, delivers electronic images of client documents directly into a virtual deal workspace helping clients to manage and organize every phase of a deal from marketing to due diligence to closing. It is a highly secure environment set-up to manage critical data, tasks, and deal documents, and enables collaboration with associated parties using role-based access. Each CSC DealRoom has fully customized workflows, checklists, task assignments with alerts, along with comprehensive reporting and audit tools. The result is a streamlined and collaborative platform designed to help mitigate risk and reduce cost for clients throughout the deal process.

"CSC DealRoom is a logical extension of the corporate and legal services we perform for our clients," said Bruce R. Winn, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSC. "This expansion further demonstrates the winning combination of innovative technology and superior service that are the hallmark of CSC, and reflects our strategy to invest in services that address our clients' most critical business requirements over the long term."

The new CSC DealRoom ascribes to the emerging technology approach referred to as software as a service (SaaS) which delivers solutions via a network, most often the Web, which shifts the burden of getting and keeping an enterprise application up and running from the client to the vendor. This approach translates to several advantages for clients: faster implementation, easier access to current technology, and lower costs due to little to no need for IT involvement, expense, or resources.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing In Belgian Win

2009-02-02T22:31:00.005Z

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, the global leader in securities servicing,has been appointed by KBC, a Belgian bancassurance group, to provide U.S. equity trading services.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing will provide KBC with seamless trading across the complete lifecycle of a U.S equity trade, from order capture to execution in the market, affirmation/confirmation, clearing, settlement and reporting via the company's BNY ExecutionPlus platform.

BNY ExecutionPlus fully integrates BNY Mellon's market-leading, custody, clearing and settlement services with Pershing LLC's extensive global execution capabilities, allowing financial institutions based outside of the United States to execute and settle bank custody trades in the U.S. equity markets via a single instruction to purchase or sell. Pershing is a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.

BNY ExecutionPlus also provides clients with the ability to utilise Pershing's online brokerage platform, NetExchange Pro(R). NetExchange Pro enables investment professionals at financial organizations to access account information, quotes, investment research, news and other third-party content.

Luc Aspeslagh, Managing Director Securities Services at KBC Securities, said: "BNY ExecutionPlus allows us to address the operational risk associated with trading in the U.S. markets and by streamlining our trading process we in turn can provide our clients with the best possible services. It also offers clear economic advantages, as payment of a single, bundled commission that covers all transaction processing costs will clearly benefit our bottom line."

Nadine Chakar, Executive Vice-President and Head of Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, said: "BNY Mellon's world-class integrated custody capabilities and the power of Pershing's global execution and clearing platform together deliver a single, dynamic solution to those financial organisations seeking efficient and accurate technology to optimise the management of their investments. We are delighted to be working in partnership with KBC and we look forward to assisting them in implementing further efficiencies within their investment processes."

Frank La Salla, Managing Director of the global securities services group at Pershing, said: "This appointment further demonstrates The Bank of New York Mellon's ability to provide financial institutions with a comprehensive and seamless offering to help them meet their sophisticated trading and settlement needs. We remain fully committed to developing and delivering market-leading solutions to our clients as they look to grow their businesses in today's challenging capital markets environment."

2009-02-02T22:31:00.004Z

Forex Capital Markets LLC (www.fxcm.com) today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire certain assets of the U.S. retail forex business of Hotspot FXr LLC to further expand the liquidity offered via its Active Trader platform. Hotspot FXr's affiliate, Hotspot FXi LLC, will continue to offer its platform for institutional FX trading.

"Hotspot FXr is a major innovator in the field of fair and transparent pricing. While the retail clients of Hotspot FXr will be moving to a new platform, they will continue to receive pricing which is free of influences from the dealing desk," said Drew Niv, CEO of Forex Capital Markets (FXCM). "Every price is derived from a major bank and every trade is offset. FXCM and Hotspot FXr share the same fair pricing principles."

Hotspot FXr's retail forex business is a perfect fit with FXCM's focus on expanding its Active Trader Group. FXCM's Active Trader platform was developed to meet the needs of non-institutional traders exceeding $10 million in monthly volume. The Active Trader platform is revolutionary in the retail forex space, offering pricing transparency, with a five level display of market depth.
The deep liquidity available through FXCM's Active Trader platform derives from the firm's long standing liquidity relationships with many of the world's largest banks and financial institutions. The platform provides agency (no dealing desk) execution where all trades are offset, with FXCM taking no market risk. This enables FXCM to focus on obtaining competitive pricing and providing the best technology to its clients.

Dubai Completes Migration to CME Globex

2009-02-02T22:24:00.001Z

CME Group, and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME), an energy futures and commodities exchange based in the Middle East, announced today that they have successfully completed the migration of DME's contracts to the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform.

The successful transition enables the world's three crude oil benchmarks - WTI, Brent and Oman - to trade on the same platform alongside CME Group products across all major asset classes. The DME contracts will be accessible for trading beginning 18:00 EST on Sunday, February 1, equivalent to 03:00 Dubai and 07:00 Singapore on Monday, February 2. Clearing will continue to process through the NYMEX clearing house until it is integrated with CME Clearing.

Welcoming the move, Ahmad Sharaf, Chairman, DME, commented, "This migration is not only a strong step forward in the growth of the DME's existing contracts but is also a mark of the success that the DME has achieved in building robust contracts recognized and traded by leading industry participants. The visibility and reach offered by the CME Globex platform will dramatically increase the global exposure of both the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract, and the DME Oman Crude Oil Financial Contract, which also successfully migrated to the CME Globex platform on February 2."

"The transition of DME's contracts to CME Globex further represents the benefits of merging the NYMEX businesses with CME Group, not only increasing the distribution of the contracts to a global set of hedgers and investors, but also opening up new possibilities for arbitrage and other sophisticated trading strategies on a single, virtually 24-hour platform," said Terry Duffy, CME Group Executive Chairman. "These benefits are available to established users of our markets as well as the new participants we welcome along with the DME contracts."

DME CEO Thomas Leaver added, "The DME Crude Oil Futures Contract is recognized as the crude oil benchmark for the East of Suez region, and as such is increasingly used for efficient price risk management as well as affording arbitrage opportunities with the other crude oil pricing regions. This next step in our development will open the contract to a new and diverse set of market participants, and we will continue to work with our core stakeholders, strategic partners, and existing customers and traders to build on this momentum throughout 2009 to identify avenues of growth that will drive the DME to new heights."

ICE Exclusivity With Natural Gas Intelligence

2009-01-05T22:09:00.001Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , in accordance with the terms of its agreement with Intelligence Press, Inc. (IPI), ICE will have the exclusive right to license the natural gas indices published in the Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) newsletters for exchange settlement and clearing beginning May 1, 2009.

ICE contracts referencing NGI indices and delivery points do not require modification as the exclusivity period takes effect. Market participants with existing positions benchmarked to NGI data who wish to maintain their positions may transfer open interest to ICE using ICE's block trade capabilities.

In March 2007, ICE entered into a purchase and leaseback agreement with IPI for the exclusive right to license the NGI indices. IPI continues to collect, aggregate and publish prices in the wholesale natural gas market. In addition to providing daily and monthly spot price discovery for the industry, NGI's indices are used by ICE and other licensees for daily and monthly settlement and clearing, particularly in the Canadian, Midwest and California natural gas markets.

Corporation Service Company

2009-01-05T21:50:00.000Z

Corporation Service Company serves as a leading provider of legal and financial services for the world's largest companies, law firms, and financial institutions. Founded in 1899, CSC, a service company, remains dedicated to helping mitigate risk and reducing costs for our clients; while providing matter and deal management; corporate identity protection; corporate governance and compliance; and transactional support services. Our systems are fully integrated with our monitoring, workflow, compliance and reporting solutions. To learn more about CSC, and take advantage of our unique brand of service, visit www.cscglobal.com.

ICE to Start Clearing Agricultural Swaps

2009-01-03T22:04:00.000Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , an operator of regulated global futures exchanges and over-the- counter (OTC) markets, announced today that ICE Clear U.S.(TM) will begin clearing sugar, coffee and cocoa swap contracts on January 30, 2009.
As previously announced, the three contracts will be cleared by ICE Clear U.S. and will be cash-settled at expiration based on the settlement prices of the related traded futures contract. Qualifying swap agreements will be submitted to the Market Supervision department of ICE Futures U.S.(R), which will expedite the contracts for clearing.

The new cleared swaps are the first such contracts offered by ICE and are specifically designed to meet the needs of OTC market participants. ICE Clear U.S.'s September 2007 application to clear these swaps was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on December 12, 2008.

CME Launches Russian Oil Futures

2008-11-10T00:56:00.000Z

CME Group today announced that it will launch a Russian Export Blend Crude Oil (REBCO) financial futures contract, on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform and the ClearPort(R) electronic clearing and trading platform, beginning November 23 for trade date November 24.

The contract (commodity code: R2) will be financially settled based on Argus Media's Urals FOB Primorsk assessment. It will be listed for up to 48 consecutive months, beginning with the January 2009 contract.

Tradeweb Upgrades CDS Indices Marketplaces

2008-11-07T22:38:00.003Z

Tradeweb, upgraded its marketplaces in the U.S. and Europe for Credit Default Swap Indices. As a result, clients will be able to view real-time composite prices, and efficiently execute and process trades for the major CDS indices. The U.S. market is live, with Europe expected to launch in January 2009.

This initiative supports the goals voiced by financial regulators in recent weeks by providing increased price transparency, a marketplace for electronic trading and connectivity to relevant third parties for electronic processing and legal confirmation of CDS index trades.

The new marketplaces will benefit institutional clients by:

-- Providing access to the liquidity of leading CDS dealers;
-- Displaying real-time, indicative composite two-way pricing for the major U.S. and European CDS indices;
-- Providing connectivity to key third parties, including DTCC Deriv/SERV (and the Trade Information Warehouse), and order management systems where relevant;
-- Maintaining a full audit trail on all trades;
-- Electronically capturing trade details in real-time, using the Tradeweb API messaging service;
-- Providing access to AccountNet, Tradeweb's leading derivatives account database to maintain accurate settlement instructions and deliver electronic allocations to dealers.

These CDS Index marketplaces offer a broad level of commitment from the major dealers, sophisticated new trading protocols for institutional clients and real-time pricing to provide a high degree of market transparency. They demonstrate Tradeweb's ability to evolve the electronic trading environment to meet changing market needs.

The markets will provide a new trading protocol, "Request-for-Market," in addition to enhanced "Request-for-Quote" functionality, pioneered by Tradeweb in the late-1990s. RFM allows a client to request a two-sided market and negotiate interactively with a single dealer, while RFQ allows clients to request a price from up to four dealers simultaneously.
"We have been working with the buy-side and supporting dealers for months to bring an enhanced electronic marketplace for trading CDS indices. Especially given the current market turmoil, we are confident that Tradeweb's inherent transparency and efficiency for OTC markets will provide a compelling trading mechanism for the market," said Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb.
"As one of the leading CDS dealers, we are keen to provide solutions that allow our clients to trade more effectively. We support the growth of electronic trading as it provides for a more efficient marketplace and look forward to using Tradeweb as a distribution channel for better servicing our clients in the CDS market," said Eraj Shirvani, Head of European Credit at Credit Suisse and Chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

"We are proud to support CDS index trading on the Tradeweb platform," said Rob Milam, Managing Director, Head of North American High Grade Credit Trading at J.P. Morgan. "It will allow us to expand our client service and provide another efficient trading and settlement process."

"We believe the liquidity that clients will find on Tradeweb will prove to be very compelling, and the capabilities for automated trade booking will benefit all market participants," said Brian Walter, Managing Director, Head of U.S. Credit Index Trading at UBS.

"Tradeweb has successfully introduced greater transparency and efficiency to the fixed income and derivatives markets over the past decade," said Vic Simone, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs and Chairman of Tradeweb. "It makes sense that they are leading the way in providing the same kind of benefits to the CDS market."

2008-11-07T00:00:00.000Z

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) , the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets bonds and other types of fixed-income securities, today announced total monthly trading volume for October 2008 of $13.3 billion, consisting of $7.3 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $2.4 billion in eurobond volume, and $3.6 billion in other volume.

This data can be accessed on MarketAxess' website at www.marketaxess.com.

Monthly volume updates are posted in the Investor Relations section of the website on or before the tenth business day of each month. The data provide current month and historical volume totals on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

Liquidnet To Open Singapore Office

2008-11-06T01:43:00.001Z

Liquidnet is to open an office in Singapore in November 2008 amid surging interest in the region among its buy-side membership. Liquidnet currently has 109 members signed on to trade Asia-Pacific equities on its platform (as of 31/07/08) which gives institutional investors a protected venue to make large trades without attracting price-altering attention. The office is Liquidnet's fourth in the region after Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney.

"Member interest in Singapore and all of Asia has grown stronger as the global markets have become more challenging," said David Klinger, managing director of Liquidnet Asia. "Buy-side investors representing millions of individual investors are expressing an even greater need in these shifting markets to trade large blocks of Asian stock quickly to preserve the conviction of their trading decisions. That is where we add great value."

Liquidnet already provides trading in Singapore. During the third quarter of 2008, the average value of a trade in Singapore equities in Liquidnet was S$1.8 million.

Greg Henry will manage the office and report directly to David Klinger. Henry was most recently responsible for portfolio trading operations at Liquidnet in New York. He joined the firm in July 2004 having previously worked with Fidelity Capital Market Services, Investment Technology Group Inc. and Instinet Inc.

ICE Completes Derivatives Transition

2008-11-05T23:00:00.002Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , has successfully transitioned its energy futures and OTC markets to ICE Clear Europe(TM). On the morning of November 3, 2008, 100 percent of open positions, or 28.5 million contract sides, were transferred from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe. The total margin requirement now managed by ICE Clear Europe for these novated positions is approximately $16.5 billion. ICE Clear Europe launched with 44 member firms.

"We want to take the opportunity to express our gratitude to members of the clearing community who have supported our transition over the course of the past year and a half," said Paul Swann, President of ICE Clear Europe. "We will continue to work closely with market participants to expand ICE Clear Europe and to offer additional benefits to our clearing firms and customers. Our next steps will be to respond to the enormous demand for additional cleared energy contracts."

"ICE Clear Europe will allow us to introduce new cleared OTC and futures contracts in our energy markets in the coming weeks and months," added David Peniket, President and Chief Operating Officer of ICE Futures Europe. "The coordinated effort by our clearing members, customers and employees to launch the first new derivatives clearing house in the U.K. will result in more products and services for the broader trading community."

"We believe ICE's commitment to clearing is demonstrated by the collaborative nature of the development of ICE Clear Europe," said ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher. "Integrated clearing, in particular, plays a central role in risk management and in the sound operation of global markets, especially in today's volatile environment. We will strive to bring further innovative risk management solutions to the global marketplace."

As the first new major clearing house in London in over a century, ICE Clear Europe was formed to provide clearing services to the global energy markets for over-the-counter and European futures transactions executed on ICE's electronic platform. ICE Clear Europe will enable the efficient development of new cleared markets to support the risk management needs of customers, with the capability to offer similar services to an expanded range of asset classes.

Belzberg Technologies 2008 Q3

2008-11-05T00:00:00.000Z

Belzberg Technologies Inc. (TSX -BLZ), a provider of technology-based equity and options trading services, announced today that in the third quarter ended September 30, 2008 the net loss was $0.3 million including a previously announced unusual pre-tax trading error of $0.8 million. Net earnings in the same quarter last year were $1.8 million.

Total revenue for the third quarter increased 13% to $11.0 million versus $9.7 million in the same year-ago period. Diluted loss per share for the third quarter was ($0.02) per share as compared to earnings of $0.12 per share in the same year-ago period.

BNY ConvergEx On Pension Fund Leverage

2008-11-04T23:12:00.001Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC, has created a new solution that enables small and medium-sized pension funds to leverage the benefits of international asset reallocation opportunities.

Through its global transition management business, ConvergEx has created a new clearing solution that gives small and medium sized pension fund clients investing in commingled funds the ability to use transition management to make changes in investment strategy. ConvergEx's global clearing arrangements allow it to offer efficient global trading and settlement to those clients without their own global clearing and settlement framework in place.

"As the recent uncertainty in the equity markets has demonstrated, having access to a multitude of markets and asset classes is essential when seeking enhanced returns, beating benchmarks, or simply staying above water," stated Carey S. Pack, Chief Executive Officer, BNY ConvergEx Execution Solutions. "This is another prime example of ConvergEx's ongoing commitment to creating unique solutions to the increasingly sophisticated demands of our global transition management clients."

Kal Bassily, CFA, Managing Director and Global Head of BNY ConvergEx Group's global transition management business, commented, "Clients who lack the ability to trade and settle their portfolios in non-US securities are exposed to greater risk during the transition process if the trade involves a large cash funding component. We have created a unique remedy to this problem by allowing small and medium-sized pension funds to participate in transitions as they never have before, while both expanding the breadth of opportunities available to them during changes in investment strategy and increasing our ability to hedge and mitigate risk."

ConvergEx's global transition management business recently received eleven "Best in Class" rankings in Plan Sponsor Magazine's 2008 Transition Management Survey, including wins for best in Pre-Trade, best in Execution, best in Post-Trade and best in Organization & Support, as well as a sweep of the Endowments, Foundations, and Nonprofits category.
With a dedicated team of professionals worldwide, ConvergEx's experience, global capabilities and dedicated expertise help to provide clients with a customized transition strategy that can preserve assets, minimize market impact, manage risk and minimize cost.

Belzberg Technologoies

2008-11-04T01:46:00.000Z

Belzberg Technologies Inc. is a provider of technology-based brokerage services, trading equities and options through Electronic Brokerage Systems, Belzberg Technologies' wholly owned broker-dealer. Electronic Brokerage Systems is a member of most North American stock exchanges, options exchanges and clearing organizations, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, CBOE, NSCC and OCC. Using Belzberg's suite of integrated trading tools and network connectivity, Belzberg's customers have direct access to all North American equities and options markets. The firm's client-base includes over 200 leading U.S and international brokerage houses and financial institutions. Belzberg Technologies is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (Ticker-BLZ) - additional information is available at www.belzberg.com.

Misys In Pakistan Win

2008-11-04T00:40:00.000Z

AlBaraka Islamic Bank has announced that it has selected Misys Equation and Misys Trade Innovation for implementation across its 20 branches in Pakistan. The new contract builds on a number of previous contracts with the AlBaraka Banking Group (ABG) and Misys across Africa and the Middle East.

Shafqaat Ahmed, AlBaraka Islamic Bank's Country Head Pakistan said, "As part of our growth strategy involving conversion of our Pakistan Operations into an Islamic Bank registered in Pakistan, paving the way for significantly enhancing our branch network and customer outreach, AlBaraka Islamic Bank in Pakistan has chosen Misys Equation as its new banking system. This will support its growth and diversification and would provide us a common banking system platform with our parent company, AlBaraka Banking Group, Bahrain and subsidiary banking companies spread over 12 countries. AlBaraka Islamic Bank's choice of Misys Equation is based on Misys' ability and strength to fully support AlBaraka's Islamic Banking needs, its strong risk management and compliance policies and its need for strong parameterisation attributes in a system, to support the bank's ongoing efforts aimed at innovative new product development."

Tradeweb Completes Hilliard Farber Acquisition

2008-11-03T23:17:00.002Z

Tradeweb, a leading over-the-counter, online marketplace, announced today that it is has completed the acquisition of Hilliard Farber, an inter-dealer voice brokerage for mortgage-related and other U.S. securities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Tradeweb additionally plans to launch an electronic inter-dealer platform for pass-through mortgage-backed securities in early 2009, complementing Hilliard Farber's voice offering.

The formation of an inter-dealer business is a natural extension for Tradeweb, which has played a pioneering role in developing electronic customer-to-dealer trading of debt securities and derivatives since 1998. Hilliard Farber provides extensive voice broking experience and expertise, as well as an extensive network of trading desk relationships, off which Tradeweb can leverage its decade of leadership in electronic trading to build a broader inter-dealer business.
Hilliard Farber was one of the first inter-dealer brokers to trade mortgage-backed securities, when it opened a mid-town Manhattan office in 1975. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest boutique brokers.

Hilliard Farber's brokers will continue to operate under the Hilliard Farber brand, and will offer voice broking in all their current markets, including U.S. Treasury securities, repurchase agreements, as well as specialty mortgage products: pass-through mortgage-backed securities, adjustable-rate mortgages and specified pools.

"Tradeweb is strongly positioned to develop an inter-dealer business," said Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb. "Our relationships with the dealers date back to the roots of e-trading; our expertise at building markets has been thoroughly tested; and we have a proven track record of delivering greater efficiency to both institutional clients and dealers."

"Hill provides a strong foundation on which we can build our inter-dealer business," said Billy Hult, President of Tradeweb, who will now oversee Hill Farber and Tradeweb's electronic inter-dealer markets. "Its extensive brokerage experience, combined with Tradeweb's reputation in the electronic markets, promises to deliver a powerful offering to the dealer community."
"Tradeweb was a logical choice as we examined the strategic options for the business. It has a proven ability to create liquid and efficient electronic markets," said Hilliard Farber, founder and owner of the company.

BNY ConvergEx Tops NYSE Euronex Broker Volume

2008-11-03T22:42:00.001Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC, today announced that it was ranked number one in the NYSE Euronext Broker Volume Top 10 from October 1st through October 21st 2008.

Over the past year ConvergEx has quickly moved from being consistently ranked in the top 10 of all firms in NYSE Euronext trading, to a top 5 ranking at the end of the third quarter, to a number one ranking for the period mentioned above. This rapid increase in volume can be attributed to ConvergEx's agency model, which has allowed it to put the needs of its clients first and maintain a position of strength during this period of unprecedented market volatility.

As trading volatility surged around the world over the last several months, significant growth was attained in both the number and type of new client wins, even as the complexity and degree of difficulty of the trades being executed greatly increased. The NYSE Euronext Broker Volume Top 10 provides a way to identify the leaders in equity orderflow and lists the top 10 NYSE member firms by volume.

Joseph M. Velli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BNY ConvergEx Group, commented, "ConvergEx's ability to thrive in this unstable and challenging trading environment is a direct result of a unique agency trading model that combines advanced execution technology with the skill of our sales traders. Clients have realized that this model allows us to focus solely on their investment objectives, and better positions us to be their partner for the long term."

LiquidPoint

2008-11-03T22:34:00.000Z

LiquidPoint, based in Chicago and a member of BNY ConvergEx Group, is an agency-based registered broker-dealer that specializes in derivatives execution management technology and brokerage services for listed options and equities. LiquidPoint provides a total solution for today's dynamic and diverse trading requirements, combining sophisticated trading tools with its commitment to superior order execution services and focused customer support.

LiquidPoint Claims Options Trading Record

2008-11-03T22:31:00.000Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC today announced that LiquidPoint routed and/or executed a record 84.6 million options contracts for the month of October 2008. This represented LiquidPoint's highest volume ever recorded in one month, surpassing September 2008 as the previous record month and bringing its year-to-date options contract total to 631 million.

LiquidPoint's October volume represents an increase of 54.8% compared to October 2007, while the overall volume of the U.S. options industry increased approximately 28.7% over the same period, according to transaction volume data obtained from the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).

"The fact that we were able to achieve record volumes while overall options volume has grown to a less dramatic degree is a great testament to the strength and reliability of our options execution technology," commented Anthony J. Saliba, Chief Executive Officer, LiquidPoint. "Clients continue to recognize the advantages of ConvergEx's independent agency trading model, especially as an oasis of calm during this period of extreme volatility in the markets."

October Options Figures

2008-11-03T10:56:00.000Z

375 million contracts changed hands in October according to the Options Industry Council (OIC), representing a 28.75 percent increase over October 2007 and 1.4 million contracts more than the previous monthly volume record set in September. Average daily volume for the month was 16,344,995 contracts, also up 28.75 from the same period last year.

On October 20, year-to-date volume reached three billion contracts for the first time in history. It took 203 trading days to reach this milestone. Total options volume reached two billion contracts for the third time ever on July 22, taking only 140 trading days to reach that mark. The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) reported October year-to-date volume stood at 3,116,322,848 contracts, an increase of 34.63 percent compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date daily volume is averaging 14,699,636 contracts, compared to 11,022,807 contracts at the same point in 2007.

Equity options saw 336,805,246 contracts traded, 25.54 percent higher than October 2007. Year-to-date equity options volume is 2,857,938,960 contracts, up 36.70 percent over the same point last year. Daily equity options volume averaged 14,643,706 contracts per day in October, an increase of 25.54 percent over the same month last year.

Trading Jargon Today

2008-11-02T22:27:00.000Z

Actimize
A provider of transactional risk management software for the financial services industry and a NICE Systems company.
CEP
Complex Event Processing
CFIUS
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
Examines national interest issues and is part of the US Treasury Department
FTEN
A provider of advanced risk-management technology to hedge funds.
Janus Capital Group
A large asset manager that focuses on equities.
KX Systems
A provider of high-speed data management solutions.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
Investment vehicles owned by national governments
Tabb Group
Financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets.

TABB Group

2008-11-02T22:02:00.001Z

TABB Group is a financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets. Founded in 2003 and based on the methodology of "first-person knowledge," TABB Group analyzes and quantifies the investing value chain from the fiduciary, investment manager, broker, exchange and custodian.

ICE and The Clearing Corporation CDS Agreement

2008-11-02T21:47:00.002Z

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and The Clearing Corporation (TCC), today announced new agreements intended to advance their previously announced joint global clearing solution for Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Together with nine of the major global investment banks who are dealers in the CDS markets, ICE and TCC have entered into memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to develop a joint global clearing solution and to effect the acquisition of TCC by ICE.

Under the terms of the new agreements, ICE will acquire TCC and will form ICE US Trust (ICE Trust), a New York limited purpose trust company and subsidiary of ICE, with the support of Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS. As previously announced, ICE and TCC continue to work closely with regulators, other market participants and industry groups to develop a comprehensive central counterparty clearing solution for the CDS market. This customized solution is currently undergoing final testing in preparation for launch.

"ICE has been a long-time believer in the value that clearing brings to market participants, and we've demonstrated that belief by creating innovative clearing and risk management solutions in both the futures and the over-the-counter markets," said ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher. "We have made a commitment to developing a market structure that reduces risk and increases transparency and capital efficiency in these important global markets, first through our acquisition of Creditex, and now through our planned acquisition of The Clearing Corporation. Both of these organizations have demonstrated strong dedication to the CDS community."

"TCC has served as a credit intermediary in a broad range of markets since 1925, and the CDS market represents an excellent opportunity to apply our expertise," said Kevin R. McClear, Chief Operating Officer of TCC. "Our work over the last two years has laid a strong foundation for a market-based solution that will significantly reduce counterparty risk and is intended to address applicable regulatory requirements."

The Boards of Directors of ICE and TCC have approved the MOUs, specific terms of which have not been disclosed at this time. The transaction is subject to the receipt of required government approvals. The parties will work toward receiving the necessary governmental approvals while working to execute definitive documents during the fourth quarter of 2008, by which time they expect to begin clearing CDS transactions through ICE Trust. Post-transaction TCC will continue to support its existing clearing customers.

Equities Trading

2008-10-31T23:17:00.001Z

ABCDS
A credit default swap based on an Asset-Backed Security itself based on relatively risky home equity loans (U.S.) In effect a type of insurance against default on the underlying ABS.
Advantest
Supplier of automatic test equipment to the semiconductor industry. Advantest's SoC, logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its North American subsidiary in 1982 and its European subsidiary in 1984. More information is available at www.advantest.com.
Arbitrage
Simultaneous sale and purchase of identical or equivalent financial instruments or commodity futures to benefit from a discrepancy in their prices.
At-the-money
Occurs if the strike price of the option is equal to the market price of underlying security.
Beauchamp
A platform to manage complex portfolios and satisfy investor and regulatory requirements. Supplied by Linedata
Capped-Style Option
Option with an established profit cap. The cap price is equal to the option's strike price plus a cap interval for a call option or the strike price minus a cap interval for a put option. Exercised automatically when the underlying security closes above or below the cap price, depending on whether it is a call or a put.
Common Criteria
Set of strict predefined requirements for security.
Compliance Hub
Post-trade automation derivative products. Examples are credit and equity swaps. Communicator Inc.
Covered Call Option Writing
Trading strategy involving simultaneously selling call options and owning an equivalent position in the underlying security. The reverse is to sells a put option and shorting the underlying security.
Equiduct
Multilateral trading facility majority owned by Borse Berlin and Burgundy. Nordic equities markets are the main target.
EquiLend
EquiLend is a provider of trading services for the securities finance industry. With its robust suite of automated trading tools, EquiLend enables its clients to scale their businesses with great efficiency on a global basis in all securities finance markets. Used by borrowers and lenders throughout the world, the EquiLend platform automates formerly manual trading and post-trade processes.
EVCA
Equity and Venture Capital Association
Fidessa Next Phase of European Multi-Asset Strategy
Fidessa group plc (LSE:FDSA), a leading global provider of multi-asset trading systems, market data and global connectivity solutions, has added an enhanced multi-asset, pre-trade risk module for account-based trading across equities, futures and contracts for difference (CFDs) to its European sell-side trading platform. The move marks the latest phase in Fidessa’s comprehensive multi-asset strategy, and is a direct response to increasing asset convergence seen in both the US and Europe.
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.
Directive from the U.S. Federal Government requiring all Federal employees and contractors be issued with a uniform card by October 2006 for access to facilities and computer systems.
Human Resource Management
Support activity in the value chain analysis. Included are recruitment, hiring, training, development, and compensation of all personnel required for the entity or company.
Initial Performance Bond
Also known as "Initial Margin". Funds required when a futures position is opened.
International Accounting Standards No.19
Accounting standard requiring listed companies account for the financial condition of their pension funds on the balance sheet, particularly in the case of defined pension pension schemes.
LEAPS
Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities
Liquidnet
Electronic marketplace that facilitates institutional equities trading for asset management firms worldwide.
Livedoor
Japanese company at the centre of a corporate governance scandal. Can be seen as the equivalent of World-Com or Enron as it is used as evidence of the need for a Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley type legislation on internal controls over financial reporting.
Margin Requirement for Options
Amount an uncovered (naked) option writer is required to deposit and maintain to cover a position. Calculated
Market Timing
US illegal practice of trading in mutual fund companies after the daily fixed pric, profiting from knowledg of subsequent market moves that had not been in the price.
Marketplace Rules 4310(c)(4)
NASDAQ rule requiring companies to have a $1 share price to remain on the market.
NYSE Euronext
Parent company of exchanges including New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest cash equities market; Euronext, the Eurozone's largest cash equities market; Liffe, Europe's leading derivatives exchange by value of trading; and NYSE Arca Options, one of the fastest growing U.S. options trading platforms.
NYSE Euronext Advanced Trading Equities in a Box
NYSE Euronext Advanced Trading Solutions, a world leader in low latency trading technology and division of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today announced an innovative software based solution that has the capability to comfortably handle 10 major US equities feeds on a single server with potential headroom of 3x current market peak capacity.
Physical Controls
A type of control activity. They involve the physical security of assets. They ensure adequate safeguards over access to assets and records.
Private Equity Intelligence
Research group specialising in the private equity arena.
Quadriserv Investors
Quadriserv, Inc. today announced the addition of Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, LLLP, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group, LLP, and Round Table Partners to its investor ranks. These investing partners join existing institutional investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Merrill Lynch and Renaissance Technologies, LLC to fund the ongoing development and commercialization of Quadriserv’s innovative securities lending platform.
Rule enforced by the SEC requiring U.S. to make available to the public that they make to securities analysts. If the disclosure is intentional the release has to be simultaneous. Unintentional disclosure has to be made available to the public within 24 hours.
RFID
Radio Frequency Identification
Section 104
Section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring the PCAOB to inspect registered public accounting firms on a regular basis
Section 302
Section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requiring a certification to accompany each quarterly and annual report filed with the SEC.
Seibu Railway Co.
Japanese company at the centre of a corporate governance scandal. Can be seen as the equivalent of World-Com or Enron as it is used as evidence of the need for a Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley type legislation on internal controls over financial reporting.
SFAS 123R
FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123, Share-Based Payment. Requires companies to recognize compensation paid in the form of employee stock options as a cost in their financial statements.
Statement No. 123R
FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123, Share-Based Payment. Requires companies to recognize compensation paid in the form of employee stock options as a cost in their financial statements.
Information, data or a device to which an end-user or other device requires access
Terra Firma
UK private equity firm.
Tervela
Founded in 2004, Tervela delivers the next-generation communications infrastructure -- the message network -- designed and engineered to exceed the information dissemination and processing requirements of the world's most demanding financial services institutions. Addressing the challenges of market volume, volatility and visibility, Tervela invented the message switch to enable investment banks, hedge funds, exchanges and other data-intensive organizations to deliver consistent, outstanding and predictable performance -- even in the most demanding market conditions. The company is funded by Goldman Sachs, Sigma Partners, Acartha Group and North Hill Ventures. For more information, please visit http://www.tervela.com/.

New Trading Stuff

2008-10-31T23:07:00.000Z

SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM).
From Saxo Bank, offered to clients and partners the platform allows a user, with either an iPhone(TM) or an iPod Touch(TM), to stay updated with the markets, view their account status, and fully manage their positions and orders across multiple asset classes.
Liquidnet
Electronic marketplace that facilitates institutional equities trading for asset management firms worldwide.
PIMCO
Asset management subsidiary of Allianz Global Investors, a subsidiary of the Munich-based Allianz Group, a leading global insurance company.

Saxo Bank Launches Mobile Trading

2008-10-31T21:47:00.001Z

Saxo Bank has released SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM). Offered to clients and partners the platform allows a user, with either an iPhone(TM) or an iPod Touch(TM), to stay updated with the markets, view their account status, and fully manage their positions and orders across multiple asset classes.

SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM) enables clients to trade wherever they are, using the familiar and easy to navigate interface, allowing for convenient access to their portfolios.

Increasing investor sophistication combined with highly mobile lifestyles has meant that individual investors and traders are even more in need of accessing their portfolios on the go. The introduction of SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM) follows the successful launch in May this year of SaxoWebTrader 2 and SaxoMobileTrader 2, the mobility-enhancing version of Saxo Bank's multi-asset class trading platform SaxoTrader.

"When commuting to work, out to lunch or just away from your desk our mobile services allow traders to always be connected to our full suite of products. The latest addition to our range of trading technologies further empowers our clients, whenever they need it and wherever they are" says Julius Heslet, Product Manager for SaxoWebTrader.

SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM) as well as the recently launched SaxoMobileTrader for BlackBerry(TM) reflect the growing smart mobile device market. According to consulting and market analysis firm Canalys' Smart Mobile Device Analysis 2007, smart mobile device shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53 percent from 2006 levels.

"We are witnessing a massive increase in the demand for smart phones and wireless handhelds. This is a trend we believe will continue to drive the development of mobile trading. With SaxoMobileTrader for iPhone(TM) complementing our recently launched SaxoMobileTrader for BlackBerry(TM), we now cover the largest segments of the smart phone market", says Julius Heslet.

Liquidnet

2008-10-31T00:00:00.000Z

Liquidnet is an electronic marketplace that facilitates institutional equities trading for asset management firms worldwide. By giving buy-side traders a first look at a global natural liquidity pool of more than 7.98 billion shares per day of liquidity on average, Liquidnet consolidates and delivers the institutional equities market directly to the desktops of 535 buy-side trading firms. Institutional investors use the Liquidnet marketplace to enhance the quality and speed of trade execution, gain price improvement for their trades, and, ultimately, lower overall trading costs. Launched in 2001, Liquidnet now trades in 30 equity markets across five continents. Liquidnet is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney. Additional company information is available online at www.liquidnet.com.

Tradeweb

2008-10-30T23:19:00.000Z

Tradeweb is a leading over-the-counter, multi-asset class online marketplace, and a pioneer in the development of electronic trading and trade processing. The company provides services in the fixed income, derivative, and equity markets to clients in more than 50 countries. Since 1998, Tradeweb has operated a global trading network, which harnesses the distribution of the major investment banks with over 2,000 institutional clients. With its expansion into the equity markets, Tradeweb is leveraging AutEx, the industry leader for 40 years in providing indications of interests, and Tradeweb Routing Network, a global FIX network with more than 7,000 connections to over 750 firms. Tradeweb is owned by Thomson Reuters and nine leading global dealers.

PIMCO Launches Global Multi-Asset Fund

2008-10-30T22:59:00.000Z

PIMCO has launched the PIMCO Global Multi-Asset Fund ("GMAF"), the firm's new asset allocation mutual fund. GMAF is managed by a team led by Co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed A. El-Erian and that also includes Vineer Bhansali, a managing director and head of the portfolio management analytics group, and Curtis Mewbourne, a managing director and generalist portfolio manager.

"Transformations in global economic and financial conditions are challenging traditional asset allocation products," said Mr. El-Erian. "When we began developing this fund early this year, we recognized that ongoing market developments and economic transformations would impact the future set of investor opportunities, and also involve a new and significant configuration of risks. The current financial crisis illustrates this recognition and underscores the need to provide clients with an expanded universe of investment solutions."

"The Global Multi-Asset Fund is designed to tap into PIMCO's complete views across risk exposures and asset classes, both in the U.S. and abroad. It is an important part of the firm's continued evolution as a provider of global investment solutions for clients," Mr. El-Erian added.

NYSE and SunGard

2008-10-30T00:07:00.001Z

The NYSE, a subsidiary of NYSE Euronext (NYX), is providing market data, news and alerting capabilities for NYSE listed companies through its NYSE Market Access Center(SM) using data management solutions jointly developed with SunGard. NYSE's Market Access Center Alerts provide real-time access to trading information and news driving today's dynamic markets. The service uses SunGard's Fame real-time data feed, charting and reporting capabilities, news management system and a new complex alerting system to deliver results to issuers' wireless devices. SunGard also provided consulting services including project management, requirements analysis, and change management; integration expertise in terms of connectivity and ASP delivery, user acceptance testing and final launch.

Joseph Mecane, executive vice president of NYSE Euronext, said, "NYSE's market information tools are a key component of our value proposition to listed companies and this is a significant enhancement to our growing suite of services. We chose SunGard as our partner due to its experience and expertise which has helped us to launch NYSE Market Access Center Alerts. With Fame, we are able to deliver relevant, complex alerting to busy investor relations and chief financial officers with the flexibility to incorporate additional data sources in the future."

For NYSE, SunGard's Fame delivers results based on real-time pricing data from North American exchanges and news from Dow Jones Newswires to NYSE's issuers' desktops and wireless devices. Fame's new complex alerting capability goes beyond 'new news' and 'limit quote' alerts to provide customizable alarm triggers and delivery. It maps news to the movement of prices and volumes on securities and, as customized by the user, provides updates on stock rating changes, earnings announcements, merger and acquisition activity and companies added or removed from major indices. Fame's market data, news and alerting capabilities provided to NYSE are fully hosted by SunGard, helping NYSE reduce maintenance and support, ensure 24/7 availability, and meet time-to-market objectives on new offerings.

Developed using SunGard's Common Services Architecture (CSA)*, Fame can be deployed as an end-to-end data management solution or as individual components for real-time and time series market data, historical financial data management, desktop solutions, data delivery via HTML, XML or dynamic Java-based content, analytical modelling tools, and managed data services.
Janet Crowley, general manager of SunGard's Fame business unit, said, "SunGard's financial data solutions provide a solid foundation for NYSE's expanded service offerings and sustained leadership in market intelligence services. Through consolidated feeds and flexible delivery methods, SunGard helps NYSE to focus on enhancing the end-user experience by providing timely, unique and customized information, and actionable alerts based on a meaningful combination of market events."

Exchanges Jargon

2008-10-30T00:00:00.000Z

American-Style Option
Option contract which can be excercised at any time between the purchase date and the expiration date. Most commonly exchange-traded option in the U.S.
CME
Formerly Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Largest derivatives exchange, built through mergers with CBOT and NYMEX.
2) Bilateral agreement between buyer and seller (parties) of a futures or options on futures transaction. Defined by the exchange.
Cox, Christopher
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Confirmed in 2005.
Donaldson, William
Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
ETF
Exchange-Traded Fund
Floor Broker
Licensed member of an Exchange, who is paid a fee for executing orders for Clearing Members or their customers.
Floor Trader
Also known as a "local". Exchange member who only trades for his own account.
FTSE All-Share
Index covering all the shares irrespective of size on the main London Stock Exchange
Futures
All contracts covering purchase and sale of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery on a commodity futures exchange.
Futures Commission Agent
Engages in soliciting or accepting handling orders for the purchase or sale of futures contracts , subject to the rules of a futures exchange and, who, in connection with solicitation or acceptance or orders, accepts any money or securities to margin any resulting trades or contracts. Can be a firm or person.
FXall
Foreign exchange platform
Hang Seng
Benchmark index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Kopsi
Benchmark index of the Seoul Stock Exchange
Nikkei 225
Benchmark index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
NYSE
New York Stock Exchange
NYSE Euronext
Parent company of exchanges including New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest cash equities market; Euronext, the Eurozone's largest cash equities market; Liffe, Europe's leading derivatives exchange by value of trading; and NYSE Arca Options, one of the fastest growing U.S. options trading platforms.
Options Industry Council
An industry cooperative funded by the American Stock Exchange, Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ Options Market, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, NYSE Arca, and The Options Clearing Corporation.
SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission.
TietoEnator and SEB Enskilda
SEB Enskilda has selected TietoEnator’s capital market solution ProBroker to manage the company’s trading operation at the Oslo Stock Exchange. SEB Enskilda is the largest broker dealer at the Oslo Stock Exchange in terms of number of transactions as well as volumes. The implementation project has been running since vinter 2008 and 1st September SEB Enskilda went sucessfully into production with their new trading clearing and settlement solution.
TOCOM
Tokyo Commodity Exchange
TSE
Tokyo Stock Exchange
TTT Moneycorp Real-time Messaging
SMA Financial, SWIFT Regional partner for UK, Eire and Channel Islands today announced that TTT Moneycorp (Moneycorp), the leading international foreign exchange and payments specialist, has moved to real-time message processing over the SWIFT network using MQ Series.To cope with rapidly expanding business volumes and to automate its payment, banking and treasury services, Moneycorp initially implemented the SMA Bureau Service to send payment messages over the secure SWIFT network.

Trading Terms

2008-10-29T22:34:00.000Z

Xforex
Currency trading firm
EIN
Distributor of digital news
NYFIX
Electronic trading solutions vendor. NYFIX Marketplace is a global community of trading counterparties utilizing innovative services that optimize the business of trading.
NYFIX Marketplace
NYFIX Marketplace is a global community of trading counterparties utilizing innovative services that optimize the business of trading. NYFIX Millennium(R) provides the NYFIX Marketplace with new methods of accessing liquidity
Ambit
Banking solution suite for retail, commercial and private banks.
CME
Formerly Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Largest derivatives exchange, built through mergers with CBOT and NYMEX.
BNP Paribus
This French-based banking group holds key positions in three major segments: Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Management & Services and Retail Banking. Present throughout Europe in all of its business lines, the bank's two domestic markets in retail banking are France and Italy. BNP Paribas also has a significant presence in the United States and strong positions in Asia and the emerging markets.
Geneos Wealth Management
Broker/dealer headquartered in Denver, CO, providing financial and estate-planning services through a select network of registered representatives.

Currency Magazine Launched

2008-10-29T21:13:00.001Z

EIN News, and the currency trading firm Xforex have entered into an advertising agreement to provide more extensive up-to-the-minute news about currency exchange and other aspects of the world of international finance.

The recent market turmoil has triggered a substantial increase in currency trading and, at the same time, a rising need for alternative sources of breaking financial news.

According to Xforex spokesman Mark Leigh, market interest in foreign currency trading rises in times of unrest. "Most people don't give a second thought to foreign currency until markets collapse. Once that happens, everyone wants to get in on the action," Leigh said. "Though there are bound to be losses, it is actually in these shaky times when many dramatic profits are made."

The French Press Agency (AFP) reported last week that recent financial events have "people flocking to the Internet for the latest money news along with tips on how to salvage investments." EIN News' financial publications have seen a significant rise in subscriptions. EIN News portal Finance Industry Today experienced a 500% increase in traffic during the month of September. Responding to this demand, EIN News recently launched FOREX Trading News Today to fill an important gap in financial news coverage.

EIN News was established in Central Europe in 1995, and through the years has built more than 200,000 individual topic news feeds organized within 50 news sites. The company has launched the well-known "Russia Today" brand and opened internet news access to China with "Inside China Today." Offering a unique combination of human editing and proprietary scanning software, EIN News won Europe's coveted Momentum Award as the most innovative internet company on the continent. Serving thousands of customers daily, the company distributes its feeds via email or mobile news alerts, online and other channels such as Newsfeedmaker.com.

For more information: www.einnews.info

MarketAxess Q3 Results

2008-10-29T01:10:00.000Z

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) , the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets bonds and other types of fixed-income securities, today announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Total revenues for the third quarter of 2008 increased 2.2% to $22.7 million, compared to $22.2 million for the third quarter of 2007. Pre-tax income for the third quarter of 2008 was $2.1 million, compared to $3.6 million for the third quarter of 2007, a decrease of 42.4%. Net income for the third quarter of 2008 totaled $1.5 million, or $0.04 per share on a diluted basis, compared to $2.4 million, or $0.7 per share on a diluted basis, for the third quarter of 2007.

For the third quarter of 2008, pre-tax margin was 9.3%, compared to 16.4% for the third quarter of 2007.

"Credit market turbulence reached new heights in the third quarter, increasing our focus on innovative solutions to restore secondary market liquidity," said Richard M. McVey, chairman and chief executive officer of MarketAxess. "Our first step was the addition of 21 new dealers to the platform during the past quarter to augment liquidity sources for institutional investors on the system. We are also developing technology and trading solutions to increase the breadth of potential counterparties available to all system participants. While short term results are likely to be uneven, our strong cash flow and balance sheet allow us to make essential investments to improve the functioning of the corporate bond and credit default swap markets."

Third Quarter Results
Total revenue for the third quarter of 2008 increased 2.2% to $22.7 million, compared to $22.2 million for the third quarter of 2007. Commission revenue totaled $17.2 million on total trading volume of $49.0 billion, compared to $19.0 million in commission revenue on total trading volume of $75.7 billion for the third quarter of 2007.

U.S. high-grade corporate bond commissions decreased 10.1% to $10.8 million on trading volume of $27.5 billion for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $12.0 million in commissions on trading volume of $39.9 billion for the third quarter of 2007. U.S. high-grade fixed-rate and floating-rate bond trading volume totaled $24.4 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively, compared to $31.2 billion and $6.1 billion, respectively, in the third quarter of 2007. Total U.S. high-grade trading volume includes single-dealer inquiries of $1.4 billion and $2.6 billion for the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2007, respectively. Effective September 1, 2008, single-dealer inquiry trades are being reported within U.S. high-grade fixed-rate and floating-rate bond trading volume. U.S. high-grade trading volume as a percentage of FINRA's high-grade TRACE trading volume decreased to an estimated 6.4%, compared to an estimated 7.8% for the third quarter of 2007.

2008-10-29T00:09:00.000Z

NYSE Euronext (NYX) operates the world's leading and most liquid exchange group, and seeks to provide the highest levels of quality, customer choice and innovation. Its family of exchanges, located in six countries, includes the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest cash equities market; Euronext, the Eurozone's largest cash equities market; Liffe, Europe's leading derivatives exchange by value of trading; and NYSE Arca Options, one of the fastest growing U.S. options trading platforms. NYSE Euronext offers a diverse array of financial products and services for issuers, investors and financial institutions in cash equities, options and derivatives, ETFs, bonds, market data, and commercial technology solutions. As the world's largest exchange group by number of listings and market capitalization, NYSE Euronext is home to over 6,400 listed issues representing a combined $26.7 / euro 17.1 trillion (as of June 30, 2008) in total global market capitalization, more than four times that of any other exchange group. NYSE Euronext's equity exchanges transact an average daily trading value of approximately $157.0 /euro 102.7 billion (as of June 30, 2008), which represents more than one-third of the world's cash equities trading. NYSE Euronext is part of the S&P 500 index and the only exchange operator in the S&P 100 index. For more information and free real-time stock prices for all NYSE-listed securities, please visit www.nyx.com.

CME Revenues Increase 20% Earnings Down 16%

2008-10-29T00:03:00.001Z

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) today reported total GAAP revenues increased 20 percent to $681 million, and GAAP operating income increased 22 percent to $421 million. Net income for the third quarter was $169 million, down 16 percent versus the prior year due primarily to an income tax adjustment and other non-core items. Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis were $2.81. The 2008 GAAP results reflect the operations of both Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Board of Trade of the City of Chicago (CBOT), as well as the results of NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYMEX) after August 22, 2008 when the acquisition closed.

Pro forma non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in the third quarter were $4.13. All pro forma results reflect the operations of both CME Group Inc. and NYMEX, as if they were combined for all periods reported. Additionally, third-quarter 2008 pro forma non-GAAP results exclude a net impact of $76 million of merger-related and other items, which are listed in detail in Table 1. Total revenues increased six percent to $787 million and total operating expenses decreased three percent compared with the same period last year at $269 million. A strong rate per contract and continued focus on expense discipline helped the company reach third-quarter operating income of $518 million, an increase of 11 percent from $468 million for the year-ago period, and its second highest pro forma operating margin ever, at 66 percent. Operating margin is defined as operating income as a percentage of total revenues. Pro forma net income was $278 million for third-quarter 2008. Pro forma measures do not replace and are not a substitute for GAAP financial results. They are provided to improve overall understanding of current financial performance and to provide a meaningful comparison with prior periods. A full reconciliation of these pro forma results is included with the attached financial statements.

"CME Group's record quarterly volumes in our E-mini and FX complexes in the third quarter highlight the diversity and strength of our product base," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "We are focused on continued innovation across our product lines and our technology and to that end are very excited about the strategic opportunities offered by the completion of the NYMEX acquisition. NYMEX's energy and metals products, as well as the ClearPort over-the-counter clearing platform, provide additional ways for our customers to manage risk during even the most challenging market conditions. By combining these offerings with the extensive distribution and strong international presence established by CME, we look forward to ongoing growth in these globally significant products."

BNP Paribus Boosts Hedge Fund Service Team

2008-10-29T00:01:00.000Z

BNP Paribas has created a multi-asset, hedge fund client service team. The team will be a single point of entry for Hedge Funds for all inquiry, will leverage the bank's capabilities and will focus on operational efficiencies.

The team will be headed globally by John Polivko, based in New York and reporting locally to Jean-Patrick Kaiser, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, and globally to Bernard Gavgani, Equity and Commodity derivatives COO and François Freyeisen, Fixed Income COO.

John recently joined the firm from Merrill Lynch where he was in charge of the client service organization for Prime Brokerage and more recently worked in financing sales. Prior to Merrill Lynch, John spent 7 years as a Managing Director at Bears Stearns in Prime Brokerage.

In addition, we are pleased to announce the appointments of regional managers who will report directly to John Polivko.
Victoria Baker has been named regional head of the Americas and will also be based in New York. Victoria has been with BNP Paribas for ten years and was most recently responsible for Fixed Income client services.

Neil Spice has been appointed regional head of EMEA, based in London. Neil formerly managed the Fixed Income client service team at BNP Paribas in London. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Neil spent 3 years at BONY and his previous experience includes: Deutsche Bank, Merita Bank and Prudential Bache Forex.

Jacqueline Man becomes regional head of hedge fund client service based in Hong Kong. Jackie was formerly responsible for client services in Asia for SCOPE (Secondary Client Offering Post-Trade, EQD) for BNP Paribas. Jacqueline joined the firm 4 years ago. Prior to BNP Paribas, she spent 7 years at Merrill Lynch in Asia.

Ambit Payments Now on Sungard

2008-10-29T00:00:00.000Z

SunGard has packaged its Ambit Payments solution together with Sun Microsystems' software and hardware to deliver a pre-tested and pre-configured solution for corporate payments. The new solution, Ambit Corporate Payments Express, will be offered as an "off-the-shelf" solution that will help banks capture new corporate payments and cash management services business (www.sungard.com/ambit).

Ambit Corporate Payments Express will offer banks a cash management and payments solution for corporate services, which can scale easily as more clients are acquired and more users are needed. A SOX-compliant white-labelled solution, it is designed to help provide secure payments processing, support multiple formats, payments and instruments, and help achieve ease of integration and connection. Banks will be able to offer corporate clients a global payments service that will help streamline the processing and management of payments and account statements, improve visibility into payment streams and cash flows, and manage the complexity of connectivity with internal and external systems - including SWIFT.

The solution will be deployed on selected Sun SPARC Enterprise CMT servers with CoolThreads technology. It will also be deployed on Intel Xeon Sun Fire x64 server platforms running Solaris Cluster technology in combination with GlassFish (standards-based Java EE), Java CAPS Financial EAI and the MySQL database servers. Sun systems with CoolThreads technology will help customers tackle the demands of secure Web-scale computing while helping to reduce space and energy consumption.

Ambreesh Khanna, global head of financial services at Sun Microsystems, commented: "By leveraging Sun's technology, SunGard has created a unique pre-packaged corporate payments solution. We expect that Ambit Corporate Payments Express will help banks improve time-to-market and reduce risk as the solution has been tested, benchmarked and pre-configured. The solution's underlying infrastructure software and hardware stack has been optimized for performance, allowing banks to host a maximum number of corporate clients on a single configuration, helping to improve total cost-of-ownership."

Kevin Ferguson, senior vice president, business development for SunGard's banks and corporation business, said: "In today's volatile climate, corporations are focused on improving their liquidity management and are relying on their bank to provide the appropriate services. Additionally, banks are looking to capture new corporate customers by entering new areas. They must therefore be able to offer payment services that assist with automation, process optimization and international expansion. Ambit Corporate Payments Express will help banks offer these services quickly and efficiently."

Forex Jargon

2008-10-28T23:48:00.000Z

Advanced Trader
FX trading, charting, Java-based, no re-qoutes or re-confirmations, complex orders including contingency orders, analysis, tick-by-tick tradable price feed, real-time margin and position monitoring, From http://www.ac-markets.com
Arbitrage
Simultaneous sale and purchase of identical or equivalent financial instruments or commodity futures to benefit from a discrepancy in their prices.
Bank Of England
UK Central Bank
Bank Of Japan
Japan's Central Bank
Contract
1) Unit of trading for a financial or commodity future.
2) Bilateral agreement between buyer and seller (parties) of a futures or options on futures transaction. Defined by the exchange.
ECB
European Central Bank
Fiserv
provider of technology solutions for the financial and insurance industries.
FXall
Foreign exchange platform
Samurai Bond
A yen bond from a foreign company issued in Japan
SaxoWebTrader
Online FX trading tool from Saxo Bank, Features: advanced charting and analysis, Trade 160+ FX crosses including gold and silver pairs, 6000+ CFDs and 11000+ stocks, dealer access, research from Saxo, real-time prices, account summary and portfolio performance

Forex Trading Tools

2008-10-28T23:29:00.002Z

SaxoWebTrader
Online FX trading tool from Saxo Bank, Features: advanced charting and analysis, Trade 160+ FX crosses including gold and silver pairs, 6000+ CFDs and 11000+ stocks, dealer access, research from Saxo, real-time prices, account summary and portfolio performance

Advanced Trader
FX trading, charting, Java-based, no re-qoutes or re-confirmations, complex orders including contingency orders, analysis, tick-by-tick tradable price feed, real-time margin and position monitoring, From http://www.ac-markets.com

Forex Trading Tools

2008-10-28T23:29:00.000Z

SaxoWebTrader

2008-10-28T23:24:00.001Z

Geneos Wealth Management Enhances Trading Platform

2008-10-28T22:25:00.001Z

Geneos Wealth Management, Inc. (Geneos), a Denver-based broker/dealer serving financial advisors, today announced major enhancements to its industry-leading technology platform.

The latest version of the Web-based Geneos application -- Nexus 2.0 -- automates many of the tasks associated with an independent financial advisor's business, including account opening, compliance, and reporting. A fully open architecture platform, Nexus 2.0 enables its users to manage data in multiple formats and applications and allows comprehensive paperless document imaging.

"What makes Nexus 2.0 unique is the innovation in its design and function," said Dean Rager, Senior Vice President for Geneos. "Our streamlined software development methodology provides for a very rich application that delivers more features and functionality than ever."

The Web-based system allows reps to access information virtually anywhere, and its paperless data environment provides efficiencies and flexibility in reporting, business approval, and compliance processing. Nexus 2.0 also incorporates direct input from reps -- key reporting has been in conjunction with advisors -- to create a suite of services that are adaptable to broker needs. "Nexus 2.0 is a rep's fully customized office -- available anywhere," said Rager.

By bringing together technologies such as Rich Internet Application (RIA) programming techniques and XML interfaces, Nexus 2.0 is a full-fledged technology platform designed to be nimble and agile in a fast-changing compliance environment. Nexus, which has won several industry awards, including the "Run Smarter Award" from Laserfiche, is able to meet rigorous auditing and regulatory mandates with a transparent solution for tracking and managing data.

In addition, Nexus 2.0 incorporates straight-through processing, which virtually eliminates faxing and cuts printing and mailing costs and audit preparation time. Nexus 2.0 also provides all client data to its clearing firm partners, Pershing and National Financial, in a single easy-to-use interface.

"The robustness of Nexus 2.0 can only be made possible by developers with years of experience in the Independent Broker/Dealer industry," said Geneos President and CEO Russ Diachok. "In line with the definition of its own name, Nexus 2.0 can be the core or center of an independent advisor's technology strategy."

While more than 70 different reports available in the full version of Nexus 2.0, Geneos allows its representatives the ability to pick and choose the components that best suit their independent practice. "There's no comparing Nexus 2.0's data power over any other competing system," said Rager, "but the system can exist in many different forms. There is no paying for things you don't need with Nexus 2.0."

Radar Logic Signs With Barclays Capital

2008-10-28T02:20:00.001Z

Radar Logic Incorporated (www.radarlogic.com) announced today that it has signed a license agreement with Barclays Capital, its seventh licensing agreement with Wall Street firms. These agreements enable the initiation of trading in derivative instruments and financial products based on Radar Logic's Residential Property Index™, or RPX™. The RPX enables users to trade residential property prices in 25 MSAs nationwide in addition to a composite index based on those 25 cities.

"We are very pleased to have Barclays Capital join our existing dealer group as interest and activity in RPX as an asset class continues to grow globally," said Michael Feder, CEO of Radar Logic. "Barclays Capital is an outstanding institution and we welcome them to this exciting product."

Radar Logic uses innovative, proprietary modeling techniques to create Daily Prices derived from the actual prices paid for U.S. residential real estate. Investment and derivative opportunities based on these prices, in the RPX, are expected to surpass $2 billion in volume traded by the end of the year.

2008-10-28T00:01:00.000Z

CME Group, today announced that it will launch European style options on the European gasoil bullet swaps futures contract and average price options on the European gasoil calendar swaps futures contract, on ClearPort(R) and the New York energy trading floor, beginning November 2 for trade date November 3.

The European style gasoil options contract (commodity code: F8) will be listed for 36 consecutive months, beginning with the November 2008 contract. The bullet swap contract expires one day before the gasoil futures contract.

The average price gasoil options contract (commodity code: F7) will be listed for the balance of the current year, plus each calendar month for the following two years.

Both contracts will be 1,000 metric tons in size with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.01 per metric ton. There will be 20 strike prices in intervals of $5.00 per metric tons above and below the at-the-money strike price.

CME Group Announces Gas And Plastics Futures

2008-10-28T00:00:00.000Z

CME Group, today announced that it will launch five new natural gas liquids swaps futures contracts and two plastics futures contracts on ClearPort(R), beginning November 2 for trade date November 3.

The natural gas liquids swaps contracts and their commodity codes are: Conway propane (OPIS) (W1); Mont Belvieu natural gasoline (OPIS) (W3); Mont Belvieu ethane (OPIS) (W8); Mont Belvieu isobutene (OPIS) (Y2); and Mont Belvieu normal butane (OPIS) (Z2). These contracts will be cash-settled using OPIS assessments. They will be listed for 36 consecutive months, beginning with the November 2008 contract, and will be 42,000 gallons in size.

The plastics futures contracts and their commodity codes are: polypropylene (P1) and polyethylene (P6). The contracts will be listed for 24 consecutive months, beginning with the January 2009 contract, and will be 47,000 pounds in size. They will feature physical delivery in Houston.

For more information, please visit http://www.nymex.com/.

BoNY Mellon Launches 30 GDR Sub-Indices and Indices

2008-10-27T00:01:00.000Z

The Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) has launched The Bank of New York Mellon GDR IndexSM and 30 global depositary receipt (GDR) subindices. The Bank of New York Mellon GDR Index comprises all GDRs traded on the London Stock Exchange. The new subindices include one market, six regional and 23 country GDR indices. The Bank of New York Mellon's GDR indices serve as benchmarking tools for investors and intermediaries to track the GDR market and to benchmark specific GDR holdings.

The company also has launched a broader composite index, The Bank of New York Mellon DR IndexSM, which combines The Bank of New York Mellon GDR Index and The Bank of New York Mellon ADR Index(R). Accordingly, The Bank of New York Mellon DR Index includes all American depositary receipts (ADRs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and NASDAQ, as well as all GDRs that trade on the London Stock Exchange.

Also launched were one market, four regional and eight country subindices of The Bank of New York Mellon DR Index. The 14 new DR indices join the bank's established DR indices -- The Bank of New York Mellon Russia Select DR Index, The Bank of New York Mellon Frontier Select DR Index, and The Bank of New York Mellon New Frontier DR Index.

"With investor appetite for international investing and diversification on the rise, we are pleased to introduce the world's most comprehensive suite of GDR indices," said Michael Cole-Fontayn, chief executive officer of The Bank of New York Mellon's Depositary Receipt Division. "These indices bring GDR investors a refined tool for effectively assessing their holdings and serve as a complementary addition to our ADR index family."

These new GDR and DR index families complement The Bank of New York Mellon's well-established ADR index family, which includes The Bank of New York Mellon ADR Index and 56 ADR subindices. The Bank of New York Mellon ADR Index is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

The Bank of New York Mellon GDR Index, The Bank of New York DR Index and their subindices are capitalization-weighted and calculated on a continuous basis throughout the trading day. They are adjusted for free-float using Dow Jones' methodology. The Bank of New York Mellon GDR Index is accessible on Reuters and Bloomberg at "BKGDR" and on Reuters Station at "&BGDR." The Bank of New York Mellon DR Index is accessible on Reuters and Bloomberg at "BKDRX" and on Reuters Station at "&BDRX." The bank's GDR and DR index families are accessible at bnymellondrindex.com and through the bank's DR website bnymellon.com/dr. The bank's ADR indices are accessible at adrindex.com.

The Bank of New York Mellon acts as depositary for more than 1,300 sponsored American and global depositary receipt programs, acting in partnership with leading companies from 64 countries. With an unrivaled commitment to helping securities issuers succeed in the world's rapidly evolving financial markets, the Company delivers the industry's most comprehensive suite of integrated depositary receipt, corporate trust and stock transfer services. Additional information is available at bnymellon.com/dr.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. The company is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $22.4 trillion in assets under custody and administration, approximately $1.1 trillion in assets under management and services approximately $12 trillion in outstanding debt. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

Bank of Commerce Q3 Results

2008-10-27T00:00:00.000Z

Patrick J. Moty, President & CEO of Bank of Commerce Holdings (NASDAQ:BOCH) , a $650 million financial services holding company, and parent company of Redding Bank of Commerce(TM), Roseville Bank of Commerce(TM), Sutter Bank of Commerce(TM) and Bank of Commerce Mortgage(TM) today announced third quarter 2008 operating results. Bank of Commerce Holdings' net income was $717,000 for the third quarter 2008 compared with $1,331,000 for the third quarter of 2007 down $614,000 or 46%.

Diluted earnings per common share was $0.08 for the third quarter 2008 compared to $0.15 for the third quarter of 2007.
Year-to-date net income was $2,853,000 compared to $4,418,000 in the prior year, down $1,565,000 or 35.4%. Year-to-date diluted earnings per common share were $0.33 compared to $0.49 in the prior year, a decrease of 33%. Year-to-date return on average assets and return on average common equity were 0.58% and 8.11%, respectively, compared with 1.01% and 13.02%, respectively, for the same period in 2007. The Company's results for the third quarter of 2008 declined due to higher provisioning for loan losses and compression in the margin.

The allowance for loan and lease losses, including unfunded commitments, totaled $6.1 million at September 30, 2008 compared to $8.2 million at December 31, 2007 and $5.1 million at September 30, 2007. The Company's allowance for loan losses was 1.20% of total loans at September 30, 2008 and 1.09% at September 30, 2007.

CME Expands With Turkish Lira

2008-10-22T23:10:00.001+01:00

CME Group will augment its portfolio of emerging markets currencies products with the introduction of Turkish lira futures contracts denominated in both U.S. dollars (TRY/USD) and in euros (TRY/EUR). The new contracts will trade exclusively on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform and are currently scheduled to begin trading in the first quarter of January, 2009.

"We see emerging markets currencies, such as the Turkish lira, as another component in growing our FX business around the world. As Turkey continues its development within the global economy, the lira contract will be a key plank in our growing emerging markets currency products range," said Derek Sammann, CME Group Managing Director of FX Products. "Overall CME Group FX volumes achieved new record highs in September, averaging 835,000 contracts per day, up 32 percent on September 2007, which was a record average daily notional value of $111 billion, up 41 percent."

In the last 12 months, volumes in CME Group's top four emerging markets currencies -- the Russian ruble, Mexican peso, South African rand and Chinese renminbi -- have grown an average of 152 percent. Individually, volumes in the renminbi rose 234 percent, the ruble 178 percent, the rand 141 percent and the peso 56 percent.

CME Group Turkish lira futures are designed to serve global customers by expanding liquidity in this growing currency.

RTS Realtime And Shinyoung In Korean Connectivity

2008-10-22T22:31:00.000+01:00

RTS Realtime Systems Group (RTS), a leading trading solutions provider, and Shinyoung Securities Company Ltd., a leading brokerage firm in Korea, announced today that they have signed an agreement to provide direct market access (DMA) to the Korea Exchange, the third largest derivatives exchange globally by volume. Under the agreement, RTS is able to offer its clients access to the KOSPI index options, the leading exchange-traded derivative contract by volume, as well as KOSPI 200 index futures and the underlying cash markets.

Henk Huitema, RTS Managing Director, Asia Pacific, said: "We have been steadily increasing our connectivity and presence in Asia as our clients' interest in the region continues to grow. We are especially pleased to join with Shinyoung in offering our clients high-speed, low latency access to the rapidly growing Korea Exchange and its enormously popular futures and options contracts. We look forward to offering more connectivity and our RTD Tango algorithmic trading solution throughout the Asia Pacific region."

Said Ike Lee, Head of Sales, Shinyoung Securities: "We believe that RTS is one of the most efficient and fastest channels for non-Kospi traders to get into the Korean market. We strive to provide our customers with the best solutions to help them maintain their competitive edge."

RTS clients using the RTD Realtime Trading Desktop can price, trade and quote on over 100 exchanges worldwide. RTD Tango is an event-based automated algorithmic trading system, enabling users to code, deploy and test thousands of trading strategies simultaneously. Since its inception in 2005, RTD Tango has been widely used by the brokerage and proprietary trading community across the globe.

Bank of America Executive Change

2008-10-22T12:53:00.000+01:00

Bank of America today announced the Global Banking, Securities and Wealth Management leadership team that will be in place once the combination with Merrill Lynch & Co. is complete.

Greg Fleming, currently president and chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch, will head Global Corporate and Investment Banking, which will include commercial banking. He will operate from New York. David Darnell, currently president of Global
Commercial Banking, will continue as head of Global Commercial Banking reporting to Fleming. He will operate from Charlotte.

Tom Montag, currently global head of Sales and Trading at Merrill Lynch, will be head of Global Markets which includes sales, trading and research. He will operate from New York. Capital Markets will report to both Montag and Fleming.

Peter Kraus, executive vice president of Global Strategy at Merrill Lynch, has decided to leave the company after the merger to pursue other opportunities. "While at Merrill Lynch Peter provided valuable insight and advice to me and the team. We know he will be successful in whatever he pursues and wish him well," Thain said.

Keith Banks, president of Global Wealth and Investment Management at Bank of America, will be head of U.S. Trust and Columbia Management. He will operate from New York.

Bob McCann, vice chairman and president, Global Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch, will be head of the combined financial advisor organization. He will operate from New York.

The leader of Global Wealth and Investment Management will be determined in the future as the company works to define the target environment through the transition process.

Cathy Bessant, president of Global Product Solutions at Bank of America, will be head of Global Product Solutions for the combined companies. She will operate from Charlotte.

Jim Kelly, Business Executive-Technology and Operations at Bank of America, will head technology and operations support for all of Thain's businesses. He will operate from Charlotte.

"With these talented individuals and others who will be announced as we move forward I am more than ever convinced that we will be the world's premier financial services company," Thain said.

Shoreline Trading Award

2008-10-22T12:19:00.001+01:00

Shoreline Trading Group LLC a multi-prime brokerage and agency execution services to emerging and established asset managers, announced today that it was ranked as the Number 2 prime broker in its category in Alpha Magazine's 4th Annual Alpha Awards for Hedge Fund Service Providers. The awards are based on a comprehensive survey of hedge fund managers. The ranking in the survey is a first for Shoreline, reflecting its rapid growth relative to entrenched firms and proving the value to clients of its boutique approach to multi-prime brokerage.

In the context of the global market crisis, the award recognizes the confidence that asset managers have in Shoreline's ability to deliver its boutique business model: focused on accessing multiple prime brokerage firms through a single relationship and providing high quality customer service to its clients. Recognizing the fiduciary and operational risk requirements that funds have for multiple prime brokerage relationships, Shoreline introduces its accounts to the clearing and custody services of Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, JP Morgan Securities, Credit Suisse Securities Corp, and Fortis Securities. To facilitate these services, Shoreline provides hedge funds, institutions, and professional traders with trade execution platforms and turnkey back office solutions.

Said Michael Murray, Shoreline Partner: "In navigating today's turbulent global market conditions, asset managers require both expertise and experience. The recognition and confidence that hedge funds have placed in Shoreline through the Alpha Award confirms the successful efforts we've made to service our clients since 1996, and we are grateful to them. Our franchise has been built by a comprehensive focus on client service and a commitment to providing our clients with the various multi-prime brokerage and agency execution tools they require. Our clients, regardless of size, will continue to receive boutique, best-of-breed, world-class service, guidance, and insight to help them navigate the challenges and volatility of today's environment, to increase assets under management, and to improve alpha."

DebtX and KEMA to Sell Real Estate Loans

2008-10-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

DebtX, an online marketplace for commercial loans, and KEMA, a boutique investment banking firm, today announced they have signed a multi-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to sell commercial real estate loans at http://www.debtx.com/.

Operating as KDX Ventures (KDX), DebtX and KEMA will help HUD sell certain of its multifamily and healthcare portfolio loans. The loans were primarily assigned to HUD after default by a borrower or co-insuring lender. The first sale under the agreement is expected to be executed in early 2009.

"DebtX and KEMA are a proven team with complementary skill sets that will enable HUD to maximize recoveries from the sale of HUD-held loans," said DebtX CEO Kingsley Greenland. "We're pleased to work again with HUD to help the agency implement its loan sale strategy."

The contract announced today is HUD's most recent engagement of DebtX and KEMA. In 2005, DebtX and KEMA collaborated to sell a loan portfolio totaling approximately $300 million.

"The agreement between HUD and KDX enables the agency to obtain all valuation, due diligence, and loan sale services from a single and tightly integrated advisor," said KEMA President Kirk Michel. "This integrated approach, along with KEMA's local presence in Washington D.C., will enable KDX to efficiently and expeditiously sell loans within the scope of the agency's mission."

KDX Ventures was created under The U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Mentor-Protege program, which is designed to enhance the capability of 8(a) participants to compete more successfully for federal government contracts. The program encourages private-sector relationships and expands SBA's efforts to identify and respond to the developmental needs of 8(a) clients.

In addition to HUD, DebtX signed a five-year agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in December 2007 to sell loans in receivership. DebtX is currently engaged to sell more than $424 million in loans from two FDIC receiverships. The first of these portfolios bids on Nov. 10.

With more than 4,000 registered and approved investors and approximately 300 financial institutions selling through its exchange, DebtX operates the world's largest and most liquid online marketplace for loans. DebtX works with financial institutions to sell Commercial & Industrial (C&I), Commercial Real Estate (CRE), residential and consumer loans. DebtX is based in Boston, with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Frankfurt, Germany.

Jack Henry Webcast

2008-10-22T00:00:00.000+01:00

Jack Henry & Associates will host a live Webcast of its first quarter fiscal 2009 earnings conference call on November 5, 2008. The press release announcing first quarter earnings will be issued after market-close on November 4, 2008.

The live Webcast, which will begin at 7:45 a.m. Central (8:45 a.m. Eastern), can be accessed on the Jack Henry Web site at http://www.jackhenry.com/. Please log-on 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call. An archived replay of the quarterly earnings call will be available on http://www.jackhenry.com/ approximately one hour after the live call.

Capnetix Upgrades Fundix

2008-10-21T22:31:00.003+01:00

Capnetix is pleased to announce the latest release of its flagship Fundix™ product which contains a number of features specifically targeted at addressing the regulatory complexities and rising costs associated with managing transfer agency and related fund administration activities.

Built on a state-of-the-art web architecture (SaaS 2.0) Fundix™ centralizes all processing effectively removing the hurdles often associated with implementing transactional systems resulting in a faster time to ROI. With its’ built-in workflow capability Fundix™ reduces bottlenecks and increases visibility in processing daily activities such as daily NAV calculations and tax/dividend processing. Funds can be brought on-line in a matter of days and most importantly Fundix™ is designed to scale based on your processing requirements and growth curve regardless of the size of your firm’s assets under management.

“In this increasingly complex financial and regulatory environment investment management companies are finding themselves struggling to ensure business transparency while trying to maintain a competitive edge in terms of both service and cost.” said Charlie Peppler, CEO of Capnetix. “Capnetix is very excited about this release of Fundix™ which we believe will help companies gain the upper-hand in managing these considerable challenges.”

Key features found within the latest release of Fundix™ include:

• Support for both currency and unit specific trades.

• Flexible browsing of all active trades, allowing final review before processing.

• Configurable dividend handling (including dividend reinvestment or cash payout).

• Form driven fund setup, including name, CUSIP, precision for price and unit calculations, and election of pricing algorithm.

• Configurable fee calculations and pricing algorithms.

• Inventory of off-the-shelf reports for trade confirmations, account value history, price reports, month end reports.

United Software Extends BankVal

2008-10-21T22:23:00.001+01:00

Unified Software has extended its BankVal range to provide new capabilities with BankVal UK v2 and a brand new product in the shape of BankVal Server.

Unified Software successfully pioneered BankVal UK in 2003, as the first web service solution to the bank validation problem. The software has proved to be a great success with a range of customers, including BT, RSPB and Greenpeace.

BankVal UK validates bank account details before they are submitted to the BACS payment network, ensuring Direct Debit and Credit payments work first time. Customers can therefore save time and money spent on correcting rejected payments.

BankVal v2 has been enhanced to cater for the new UK Faster Payments system (FPS). FPS is the new electronic payments network which processes financial transactions in hours rather than days.

George Barron, Managing Director at Unified Software comments:

“The £300m Faster Payments Service (FPS) was launched in May 2008 by 13 top banks and our enhanced product sits perfectly with the way the market is progressing. Since the focus of FPS is on speed, validation is more important than ever before. Customers now rely on being able to make payments in near real time, but invalid data will prevent this from happening, BankVal UK v2 is a successful and cost effective solution to this. FPS aims to benefit businesses by improving cash flow and allowing for improved financial management to the benefit of businesses both large and small.”

True to its values of providing unrivalled customer service, Unified Software has also launched BankVal Server. This new development offers businesses a bank account validation system that can be hosted using their internal IT infrastructure, thus providing greater flexibility within the businesses existing systems.

Offering the same functionality as the existing BankVal range, BankVal Server is hosted on a customer’s own computer systems and can be deployed as a conventional application or as a web service. George commented: “Through pioneering BankVal throughout the UK and abroad, we have an excellent understanding of our customer’s needs. We feel that launching BankVal UK Server offers an alternative for those businesses that prefer to keep all management systems in house.”

NumeriX and NxR2 Try Valuing Credit Instruments

2008-10-21T22:18:00.001+01:00

NumeriX and R2 Financial Technologies, today announced the availability of NxR2, the first solution of its kind designed to enable easier and more accurate pricing and valuation of the complete spectrum of cash and synthetic credit instruments. The application provides consistent valuation and risk analytics for credit products, which incorporate detailed information at the collateral level for credit derivatives and structured finance transactions.

In 2008, NumeriX and R2 made a conscious decision to combine their expertise in pricing analytics and risk management to develop the tools necessary to find transparency in an opaque market. As the credit markets continue to be mired in uncertainty, it is only through technological innovation that can connect best-of-breed data sources with advanced analytics that market participants will achieve the level of granularity and transparency needed to make more informed decisions about new investments and existing credit portfolios.

“The credit crisis has highlighted the need for transparency on the contents and structure of these complex securities, as well as for effective valuation and risk methodologies”, said Dr. Dan Rosen, CEO at R2. “Our vision is to provide packaged advanced analytics with detailed credit data, scenario capabilities, productivity and reporting tools, in order to perform reliable valuations, and understand the key underlying risks and concentrations in structured credit portfolios and strategies. This will allow business users to make better investment decisions and discriminate between securities, as well as manage their risk, and satisfy regulatory requirements.”

NxR2 is a Windows-based application allowing investors to gain a greater understanding of their portfolios. NxR2 provides full connectivity to the world-class data providers specializing in the credit markets: Bloomberg, Markit and Intex. By integrating Bloomberg and Markit’s pricing data alongside Intex’s deal libraries and cash-flow generation functionality, NumeriX has developed the most comprehensive and transparent valuation and risk analytic solution. In addition, its open interface and design allow the effective integration of other generic cash-flow libraries and credit data.

Capabilities and features of NxR2 include:

• Advanced pricing and risk analytics, including the detailed, integrated valuation of Cash and Synthetic CDOs and scenario generation, with the ability to set assumptions at the desired level of granularity.

• Immediate access to trade-ready information with complete instrument coverage including ABSs/RMBS/CMBS, cash CDOs (CLO, CBO, ABS CDO), synthetic CDOs and CDS Indices, bespoke CDOs, as well as single-name credit products, including CDSs, loans and bonds.

• Real-time pricing, cash-flow and exposure reports, as well as sensitivity analytics, enabling transparent and informed investment decisions.

• An effective work-flow and productivity tool to price and profile investment strategies, giving the buy-side comprehensive data management.

• Advanced pricing analytics powered by NumeriX 7.

“We recognized the lack of readily-available tools for traders to accurately price structured credit products,” said Steven R. O’Hanlon, President and Chief Operating Officer at NumeriX. “NxR2 brings greater understanding of the market for credit derivative products and structured finance by providing the tools to credit investors and dealers to more effectively manage the risk exposure of these products.”

Ambit

2008-10-21T21:41:00.001+01:00

Ambit is a banking solution suite for retail, commercial and private banks. It provides banking professionals with solutions that support front-, middle- and back-office operations, as well as solutions for financial management, risk and compliance. Ambit helps banks improve customer service management, streamline business processes, comply with regulations and capture growth opportunities.

S1 Corporate Banking Update Released

2008-10-20T22:47:00.002+01:00

S1 Enterprise, has made available a new release of S1 Corporate Banking that encompasses an array of user customizable and international online cash management capabilities including: a new Interactive Information Reporting solution that offers user-defined data manipulation so banks can provide their large corporate customers the ability to tailor the user experience to their individual needs, and a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based Global Payments Framework that will enable banks to more easily implement new high and low value payment types worldwide.

Interactive Information Reporting allows users to customize the appearance of their prior day and current day report information, execute advanced data aggregation and complex calculations, and perform advanced sorting and filtering of account information. In addition, a new Business Dashboard leverages the latest in Web 2.0 technologies to provide "drag and drop" widgets for immediate access to the most relevant data and functions. Users have access to account balance metrics, reporting and transaction capabilities, items needing immediate attention, and shortcuts to transaction initiation functions. Users can enjoy a unique online experience as their customizations to Interactive Information Reporting and Business Dashboard can be saved.

The Global Payments Framework allows S1 Enterprise and its customers to easily add new country specific payment methods. Based on SOA principles, the Global Payments Framework supports open standards based web services, enabling maximum flexibility and ensuring technology alignment with current and emerging standards. Additionally, AJAX and context sensitive Java-Help were implemented to leverage an enhanced user experience. Other key features of the new S1 Corporate Banking solution include asynchronous export, integration of SWIFT-reported data, eReport usability upgrades, and IAT payments.

Finally, extensive modifications were incorporated to facilitate multi-locale, multilingual installations.

"With this release, we have taken significant steps to execute on our SOA strategy. Additionally, our Interactive Information Reporting and Business Dashboard capabilities leverage the newest technologies to provide innovative solutions for banks who want to provide a user-centric customer experience," says Fred Dumas, General Manager, S1 Treasury Online Group. "Leading institutions such as Comerica Bank and Zions Bancorporation will be the first banks to leverage the new S1 Corporate Banking application."

KEMA

2008-10-20T22:43:00.000+01:00

KEMA is a boutique financial advisory firm that assists clients in the management and disposition of real estate loans, commercial loans and other corporate assets. KEMA is a minority-owned business, a U.S. Small Business Administration 8(a) certified firm, and a certified Historically Underutilized Business by the North Carolina Department of Administration. KEMA is headquartered in Hillsborough, NC and maintains satellite offices in Washington, D.C. and New York. For more information, contact, 919.644.0430 or visit http://www.kemaadvisors.com/.

DebtX

2008-10-20T22:40:00.000+01:00

DebtX is one of the world's leading full-service loan sale advisors for commercial, consumer and specialty finance debt. DebtX helps commercial banks, insurance companies, investment banks, government sponsored enterprises and other institutions increase profitability and reduce risk by offering comprehensive loan sale advisory services that create liquidity in an institution's loan portfolio. DebtX operates the largest marketplace of buyers and sellers of commercial loans and offers a variety of innovative information and technology services. DXMark(R) is the first objective valuation of commercial real estate portfolios based on actual secondary market loan sales. DXOpen(R) is a family of deal management products used by syndication and agency services professionals to distribute and administer their syndicated or participated loans.

Scotiabank Electronic Banking Launched

2008-10-20T12:44:00.000+01:00

Scotiabank's Global Transaction Banking (GTB) division today announced the launch of ScotiaGlobal electronic banking, an integrated, online cash management tool. Also announced is the availability of a new Integrated Payments service through ScotiaConnect electronic banking.

ScotiaGlobal offers GTB clients who operate their business across the NAFTA region access to real-time information on their Scotiabank accounts in Canada, the US and Mexico. Through a single sign-on to ScotiaGlobal, clients can also access their ScotiaConnect and Scotia En Linea services to manage their electronic cash management and payments across the region.
"Customers are demanding truly integrated global cash management solutions and ScotiaGlobal brings them that through a single platform," said Alice Eastman, Senior Vice-President Cash Management and Payment Services, Global Transaction Banking, Scotiabank. "ScotiaGlobal offers GTB clients a platform that is easy to access and convenient so they can manage their business banking across the NAFTA region from one centralized location."

ScotiaGlobal also includes links to other Scotiabank international online banking platforms along with trade finance and foreign exchange services. In addition, valuable content on interest rates and economic reports are available for clients who conduct business globally.

Today, GTB also launched Integrated Payments through ScotiaConnect. The Integrated Payments service streamlines the process of multiple collections and disbursements, improving cash flow and reducing expenses. Integrated Payments also allows clients to conveniently view, approve and delete Electronic Fund Transfers and Automated Clearing House payments online through ScotiaConnect.

"We understand that our clients work in complex organizations with multiple points of payment, and the ability to have approvals for multiple transaction types in an integrated platform will create a more efficient payables function," said Ms. Eastman. "The Integrated Payments system will also serve as a solution for our clients who currently don't have approval mechanisms in their own systems or who have a high volume of transactions."

Commerce Bank Implements OBS Online Messenger

2008-10-20T10:30:00.000+01:00

Commerce Bank, the principal subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. a $17 billion, Missouri-based regional bank holding company, has successfully implemented the OBS Online Messenger Alerts service to provide clients with full detail of their incoming and outgoing wires.

Long time OBS customer Commerce Bank leveraged the highly flexible Online Messenger platform to roll out additional event-based multi-channel reporting to meet the growing needs of the business banking market. This service extends traditional online information reporting to both the email and text message channels.

"With the new service, Commerce customers are among the first in the banking industry to receive encrypted messages
containing detail of their wire transactions - considered much more useful than simple notifications that a wire has been received," said Bruce Bienhoff, vice president, Product Development, Commerce Bank.

"Wire notifications add real-time reporting to traditional Treasury Management products and services," says Joe Spatarella, OBS vice president of Sales and Marketing. "In the current volatile environment, up-to-the- minute information about transactions is a requirement for funds management and control."

First Tennessee Implements OBS Online Messenge

2008-10-20T02:41:00.000+01:00

First Tennessee Bank has implemented the OBS Online Messenger system with the introduction of automated file delivery services for commercial and small business customers.

The bank's Online Messenger rollout plan includes a package with simple file mapping and data integration features for small business owners eliminating the need to format files to bank specifications.

"With the new OBS Secure File Transfer Service, our customers no longer need to write cumbersome scripts to transmit a file. In addition, when another copy of a file is needed, the customer can activate the request online versus having to call into the customer support area," said Nanette Crocker, SVP, First Tennessee Bank.

According to Crocker, the file mapping feature enables the bank to expand its Positive Pay customer base since small businesses can now send simple spreadsheet formats that are systematically converted to the bank's required file layout.

"Leveraging the tools utilized by a small company enables Treasury Management services to meet the needs of the business banking market," says Joe Spatarella, OBS vice president of Sales and Marketing. "Features that enable secure file transfer with a straight-forward 'browse and attach' approach remove complexity and cost of entry barriers to service and resulting revenue growth."

ING to Unload Taiwan Insurance Business

2008-10-20T02:22:00.000+01:00

ING announced today that it has reached an agreement with Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd. ("Fubon Financial Holding"), a leading diversified Taiwanese financial services company, to sell its Taiwanese life insurance business for a consideration equivalent to USD 600 million (EUR 447 million). The divestment is in line with ING's strategy to actively manage its portfolio of businesses, allocating capital to those businesses that generate the highest return.

ING will be paid in shares and subordinated debt securities of Fubon Financial Holding. Upon closing of the transaction ING will be a 5% shareholder of Fubon Financial Holding, which represents a value of approximately EUR 165 million based on the closing price of Friday 17 October, 2008.

Listed on the Taipei Stock Exchange, Fubon Financial Holding is the third largest financial services company in Taiwan with strong positions in banking, life and general insurance, asset management and securities business. The transaction will transform Fubon's life insurance business creating the second largest player in the market with leading positions in both tied agency and bancassurance.

The transaction will result in a book loss of EUR 427 million post tax. While it has a marginal impact on the spare leverage of ING Group, it will significantly reduce the economic capital attributed to insurance. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

"ING is committed to realising its growth ambitions in Asia and will continue to assess opportunities that will allow us to accelerate that growth", said Hans van der Noordaa, ING's Executive Board member responsible for Insurance Asia/Pacific. "In addition to our 5% shareholding in Fubon, we remain committed to the Taiwanese market through our funds management, real estate and wholesale banking activities".

ING started its life insurance operations in Taiwan in 1987. After ING Group's acquisition of Aetna's international operations in 2001, ING merged its local life business with Aetna's life insurance operations in Taiwan. ING is also active in Taiwan through ING Funds, which comprises onshore and offshore fund management operations, ING Real Estate Investment Management and ING Wholesale Banking, its corporate and investment banking arm.

Commerce Bank

2008-10-20T00:38:00.000+01:00

Commerce Bank, N.A. is a subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBSH) , a $17 billion regional bank holding company. For more than 140 years, Commerce Bank has been meeting the financial services needs of individuals and businesses. Commerce Bank provides a diversified line of financial services, including business and personal banking, wealth management and estate planning and investments through its subsidiary and affiliated companies. Commerce Bank currently operates in approximately 350 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado. Commerce Bancshares also has operating subsidiaries involved in mortgage banking, leasing, credit-related insurance, venture capital and real estate activities.

ICE Moving from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe

2008-10-16T23:47:00.001+01:00

ICE Clear Europe is to transition all of ICE Futures Europe(TM) and ICE over-the-counter (OTC) trading positions from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe as of Monday, November 3, 2008.

The transition preparations will occur over the weekend of November 1-2. Since the earlier planned transition date of September 15, the CPS system developed for ICE Clear Europe has been used by LCH.Clearnet, representing the completion of a key phase of the technical transition. The final transition of funds and positions was delayed due to the default of a clearing member firm in September.

Since its recognition by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on May 12, 2008, ICE Clear Europe has received membership applications from 47 clearing firms and the transfer of 100% of the open positions established at ICE Futures Europe and ICE OTC from LCH to ICE Clear Europe has been facilitated (effective at transition). Under the active oversight of the FSA, ICE Clear Europe has worked diligently with clearing members and third-party systems providers to complete the transition plan. The existing futures and OTC clearing arrangements between ICE and LCH will remain in effect until the transition is complete.

Huntington Bancshares 2008 Q3

2008-10-16T22:25:00.001+01:00

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (Nasdaq: HBAN; www.huntington.com) reported 2008 third quarter net income of $115.2 million, or $0.28 per common share. This compared with net income of $101.4 million, or $0.25 per common share, in the 2008 second quarter and $138.2 million, or $0.38 per common share, in the year-ago quarter.

Huntington also revised its 2008 full-year reported earnings target to $1.12-$1.16 per common share. This is down from the previously targeted amount of $1.25-$1.35 per common share. The decline reflects an assumed continuation of economic deterioration in our markets, the more volatile and more competitive funding environment, and lower market-related fee income.

PacWest Bancorp 2008 Q3 Awardss

2008-10-16T02:36:00.000+01:00

PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) today announced net operating earnings for the third quarter of 2008 of $9.6 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, compared to net operating earnings of $12.8 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008. The decrease in net operating earnings for the third quarter of 2008 compared to the second quarter of 2008 is due mainly to a higher credit loss provision. Net operating earnings for the second quarter do not include charges for the goodwill write-off, a legal settlement and reorganization costs; there were no such charges in the third quarter of 2008. When these items are included, the net loss for the second quarter of 2008 was $474.5 million, or $17.47 per diluted share.

Net operating earnings for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, were $24.6 million, or $0.90 per diluted share, compared to net operating earnings of $74.0 million, or $2.55 per diluted share, for same period of 2007. The decrease in net operating earnings was due mainly to lower net interest income and higher credit loss provisions. Net operating earnings for the periods do not include charges for goodwill write-offs, a 2008 legal settlement and reorganization costs. When these items are included, the net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2008 was $737.7 million, or $27.15 per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $73.3 million, or $2.53 per diluted share, for the same period of 2007.

Blue Rive Bancshares 2008 Q3 Results

2008-10-16T01:39:00.000+01:00

Blue River Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:BRBI.OB) (BULLETIN BOARD: BRBI.OB) today announced consolidated net income of $96,000 for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. This net income compares to consolidated net income from continuing operations for the same period of 2007 of $1,136,000. Fully diluted earnings per share were $.03 for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 and $.33 from continuing operations for the same period in 2007. Weighted average outstanding shares (fully diluted) were 3,187,320, as of September 30, 2008, compared to 3,459,787 shares at the end of the same quarter of 2007. Net interest income from continuing operations before loan loss provision for the three months ended September 30, 2008 was $1,810,000 as compared to $1,332,000 for the same period of 2007.

Non-interest income from continuing operations was $139,000 for the three months ended September 30,2008 compared to $1,832,000 for the same period of 2007. The change is primarily the result of the sale of the Paramount charter of $1,688,000 in the third quarter of 2007.

The loan loss provision from continuing operations was $402,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2008 versus $21,000 for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. In addition to providing for an increase in outstanding loans from continued operations at SCB Bank, the specific reserves were increased by $349,000 related to three single family homes and a commercial loan, all located in Kentucky.

Non-interest expense from continuing operations increased to $1,386,000 for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared to $1,304,000 for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. This increase is primarily the result of increased salary expenses, FDIC insurance premiums and expenses related to the collection of loans.

National Penn Bancshares Call

2008-10-16T01:34:00.000+01:00

National Penn Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPBC) announced today that it plans to release its 3rd Quarter 2008 earnings on Thursday, October 23, 2008, at 9 a.m. Eastern time.

The related earnings webcast will be broadcast live over the Internet on October 23rd at 1 p.m. Eastern time. National Penn Bancshares presenters will be Glenn E. Moyer, president and CEO; Scott V. Fainor, senior executive vice president and COO; and Michael R. Reinhard, CFO. Michelle H. Debkowski, corporate secretary and investor relations officer, will serve as moderator.

Blackhawk Bancorp 2008 Q3 Results

2008-10-16T01:19:00.000+01:00

Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc. (OTC:BHWB) (BULLETIN BOARD: BHWB) today announced improved financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Net income rose to $755,000, or $0.35 per fully diluted share, compared with $645,000, or $0.29 per diluted share in third quarter 2007. Net income for the first nine months of the year rose to $2,164,000, or $1.00 per fully diluted share, compared with $1,728,000, or $0.77 per diluted share for the same period in 2007. Total assets increased to $486.3 million as of September 30, 2008 compared with $464.7 million at year end 2007.

"By following a disciplined and focused approach to our business we're continuing to grow and improve performance," said Rick Bastian, president and CEO. "The strength of our core earnings has produced record earnings while, at the same time, we increased our reserve for bad debts," he added. Blackhawk's solid performance reflects an improved net interest margin and balance sheet growth. "Up to this point we've avoided major issues, but as the effects of the big bank problems and a weaker economy trickle down, we expect to feel some impact," said Bastian.

Monarch Financial Q3 Results

2008-10-16T00:46:00.000+01:00

Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNRK) , the bank holding company for Monarch Bank, reported greatly improved third quarter net income and record year to date net income. Net income was $772,333 for the third quarter of 2008, up 146.4% from the third quarter of 2007 when net income was $313,461. For the first nine months of 2008 net income was a record $2,667,561 compared to $2,027,044 for the same period in 2007, a 31.6% increase. Diluted earnings for the third quarter were $0.14 per share, compared to $0.06 the previous year, a 133.3% increase. Year-to-date 2008 diluted earnings per share were $0.51, compared to $0.40 the previous year, a 27.5% increase.

"In the midst of a global financial crisis Monarch continues to perform well in our core lines of business of community banking, mortgage lending, and investment and insurance sales. While the marketplace continues to be extremely challenging for our company and our clients, we are pleased to grow revenues, profits and improve our balance sheet despite this environment. Turmoil among several of our local competitors proved positive, as it drove many substantial deposit clients to Monarch in search of a safe and sound bank," stated William 'Tree' Rountree, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have been aggressive in dealing with non-performing assets and in building up our reserve for potential losses, which we feel is very prudent at this time. Like just about all banks, Monarch reported a higher level of non-performing assets this quarter, and we have aggressively charged-off any expected deficiency balances in these assets. We remain focused on building a strong company which we think will further differentiate us from the competition in these difficult economic times".

PNC Financial Services 2008 Q3

2008-10-16T00:23:00.000+01:00

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) today reported net income of $248 million, or $.71 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2008 compared with net income of $407 million, or $1.19 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2007 and net income of $505 million, or $1.45 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008.

For the first nine months of 2008, the company earned net income of $1.13 billion, or $3.24 per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.29 billion, or $3.85 per diluted share, for the first nine months of 2007.

Sovereign Cancels Earnings Call

2008-10-16T00:04:00.000+01:00

Due to Banco Santander's announcement on October 13, 2008 that it will acquire Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. and to Sovereign's pre-earnings press release issued on October 13, 2008, Sovereign will not be holding its regular quarterly earnings conference call and webcast, originally scheduled for October 22, 2008.

Preferred Bank

2008-10-16T00:01:00.001+01:00

Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) , today announced plans to release its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 at the close of the market on Thursday, October 23, 2008. In conjunction with the release, management will host a conference call that day at 5:00 p.m. Eastern (2:00 p.m. Pacific). The call will be simultaneously broadcast over the Internet.

Interested participants and investors may access the conference call by dialing 877-326-9970 (domestic) or 303-205-0066 (international). There will also be a live webcast of the call available at the Investor Relations section of Preferred Bank's web site at http://www.preferredbank.com/. Web participants are encouraged to go to the web site at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download and install any necessary audio software.

BoNY Mellon Q3 Results

2008-10-16T00:01:00.000+01:00

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK) today reported income from continuing operations of $305 million, or $0.26 per share, in the third quarter of 2008. This compares to income from continuing operations of $642 million, or $0.56 per share, in the third quarter of 2007 and $302 million, or $0.26 per share, in the second quarter of 2008.

Capitol Bancorp Restructure

2008-10-16T00:00:00.000+01:00

Capitol Bancorp reported today a major restructure of its 13 bank Michigan operation and an aggressive initiative to meet the significantly weakened condition of the Michigan market. First, Capitol will undertake three mergers of Michigan banks, reducing the number from 13 to 9 separate banking institutions. Second, Capitol, driven by its strong balance sheet, has accelerated the identification and resolution of weakened credits held by various banks, primarily in the Michigan market.

Capitol reported a third quarter net loss of $32.5 million and assets exceeding $5.4 billion. The net loss per diluted share for the quarter was $1.90, in contrast to earnings of $0.35 per diluted share reported in the third quarter of 2007.

Capitol's Chairman and CEO Joseph D. Reid said, "Capitol's core capital ratios remain strong following these actions in spite of the current state of the financial markets in general. The most recently reported leverage, tier 1 and total risk-based capital ratios of 12.4%, 13.4% and 14.6%, respectively, demonstrate the strength of our balance sheet. In light of current economic conditions in Michigan, where approximately 60 percent of our nonperforming loans are situated, we have re-evaluated our potential exposure and put in place a plan to address potential troubled Michigan assets."

Financial Technologies Acquires Audit Control and Expertise Global

2008-10-15T23:51:00.000+01:00

Financial Technologies (India) Ltd has acquired a significant equity stake in UK-based Audit Control & Expertise Global Limited (ACE) Group, a global credit support organisation providing collateral control, field audits, inspection, monitoring and financial structuring services in the commodity trade and finance sector.

"The E3C (Enhanced Credit Commodity Control) technology of ACE is a robust technology for banks to mitigate performance risks and secure transactions in credit finance for commodities. It will further strengthen our robust portfolio of technology IP based solutions for global financial markets," said Dewang Neralla, Financial Technologies' co-founder and director.
ACE has offices in 26 countries across the globe with operations in Africa, Europe, and the Far East. ACE provides collateral management and other credit support services across 2,000 different warehouses in more than 50 countries.

"With the acquisition, Financial Technologies can now enable financial institutions to effectively monitor and control trading assets throughout the supply chain - from the raw commodity stage through to the sale of finished goods. Our services will enable institutions to secure the completion of their asset conversion cycle," said Lamon Rutten, joint managing director, MCX, and MD/CEO-designate of ACE post-acquisition.

Andre Soumah, Chairman of ACE, said: "The acquisition by Financial Technologies will boost ACE's ability to give a technologically advanced credit support service to the many banks and commodity companies who are its principal clients. Furthermore, by opening up opportunities to work with Financial Technologies' major warehousing and collateral management venture, NBHC, it gives ACE access to the huge Indian import-export trade, where collateral management services are in a stage of infancy. Financial Technologies is eminently positioned to harness the tremendous potential that lies unutilised in India, where they are already a leader in the commodity markets."

Shoreline Trading Group

2008-10-15T22:24:00.000+01:00

Shoreline Trading Group, founded in 1996, and with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Santa Monica is a leading provider of Prime Brokerage and Agency Execution. We are proud to offer the custody, execution, clearing and reporting services of Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse Securities and Fortis Securities.

Knight Capital Derivatives Platform

2008-10-14T22:44:00.001+01:00

Knight Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NITE) today introduced NetDelta(TM), an electronic settlement platform for the credit derivatives market. NetDelta addresses market infrastructure inefficiencies and underlying risks inherent in OTC derivatives by providing buy- and sell-side firms with comprehensive, real-time solutions for entering, maintaining and exiting new positions. NetDelta will also be able to reduce counterparty risk for existing positions in the near future.

"NetDelta was designed to address unnecessary counterparty risk, balance sheet inefficiencies, settlement lags, valuation issues and a lack of liquidity," said Lucio Biase, Managing Director, NetDelta, LLC. "NetDelta provides the automation and infrastructure the $54.6 trillion credit derivatives market needs."

The NetDelta solution benefits traders, prime brokerages, risk managers, controllers and settlement groups. It is applicable to new trades and will soon be applicable to existing positions in a firm's portfolio as well. The NetDelta offering also addresses many of the key principles recently set forth by the Operations Management Group (OMG) and President's Working Group (PWG) - both of which aim to instill a clear, functional and well-designed infrastructure that can meet the needs of the OTC derivatives markets.

"We are excited to bring NetDelta to the OTC derivatives markets in these challenging times," said Thomas M. Joyce, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Knight Capital Group. "We believe NetDelta is an ideal solution for the entire lifecycle of credit derivative trades. Importantly, the NetDelta solution supports the credit derivative market makers who are so vital to the health of the market."

The platform's modular technology allows for simple integration into existing trading platforms, settlement services and reporting engines. In addressing market infrastructure and legacy issues, the NetDelta solution renders unwinds and novations obsolete for positions cleared on NetDelta. NetDelta also allows for greater transparency of the value of each position without disclosing pivotal market making data. At present, NetDelta is internally beta testing the platform and in the process of onboarding clients.

National Stock Exchange Connectivity and Portware

2008-10-14T00:51:00.000+01:00

National Stock Exchange, Inc. (NSX(R)) today announced that it has opened another line of connectivity to its marketplace through Portware, enabling Portware's diverse customer base to gain immediate and direct access to NSX's markets. Portware is a leading provider of multi-asset, automated and algorithmic trading software and solutions to the global securities marketplace.

"Through NSX's connectivity with Portware, both buy-side and sell-side customers will be able to take advantage of NSX's liquidity, low latency, and highly competitive pricing," said James Kearney, NSX Senior Vice President, Business Development and Client Relations. "NSX will continue to add these key connections for its customers as we remain committed to meeting the needs of the marketplace."

Eric Goldberg, CEO, Portware, adds: "Portware provides clients with unparalleled access to trading destinations worldwide. The NSX represents a valuable addition to the 300 plus destinations available via Portware, and I am sure that our clients will benefit greatly from this partnership."

RavenPack Appointement

2008-10-14T00:00:00.000+01:00

RavenPack International, a provider of news analytics technology and content, today announced the appointment of Don Williams as Managing Director, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Welcoming Mr. Williams to RavenPack, Armando Gonzalez CEO and President of RavenPack said, "We are pleased to have Don on board with us to drive our sales and marketing initiatives forward. The addition of Don strengthens the leadership team at RavenPack and we are looking forward to tapping his broad experience in providing technology and content solutions to financial markets."

Mr. Williams has held senior executive positions with Reuters and McGraw-Hill/ Standard and Poor's, two of the world's largest electronic publishers. In addition to his publishing experience, Don has also held key executive management positions with several venture backed technology and content companies and helped raise over US$50 million in venture capital.
"Don is an agile manager whose direct experience with our partners and target markets will really help take RavenPack to its next level of growth. With a strong core of experienced executives, I am really looking forward to executing on our plans over the coming months," said Mr. Gonzalez.

RavenPack's target markets include quantitative portfolio managers executing on algorithmic trading programs and risk managers. RavenPack's business partners include the world's largest electronic publishers, and a number of select technology providers delivering modeling solutions, trading visualizations and low latency trading workflow applications.

BluePhoenix Wins $5m of Deals

2008-10-13T22:22:00.001+01:00

BluePhoenix Solutions (NASDAQ: BPHX), has recently signed two new deals valued at over $5 million for two large European banks.

Blue Phoenix solutions offer financial institutions a unique platform to reduce operating and maintenance costs of their IT assets, which is of critical importance now, with the banking industry worldwide in crisis mode. These two deals reinforce the market opportunity for Blue Phoenix and demonstrate that the company's ability to close large deals from its growing pipeline for potential business has remained robust during this recent economic downturn.

"BluePhoenix has an outstanding track record of working with banks to help them reduce total cost of ownership around more efficient, flexible and reliable platforms," said Yaron Tchwella, president of BluePhoenix Solutions. "Our unique modernization resources are helping our clients meet their cost-cutting mandates while they migrate their legacy IT systems to modern-day platforms. We look forward to the opportunity to work with these two customers and continuing to take advantage of what we see as an excellent business opportunity in front of us."

Thomson Reuters Launches Metals Initiative

2008-10-13T00:20:00.000+01:00

Thomson Reuters today launched a web-based, interactive community that brings comprehensive information, research, analysis and professional networking tools to the global base metals marketplace. Thomson Reuters Metals Insider went live today at www.communities.thomsonreuters.com/basemetals with a community of approximately 6,700 professionals. Metals Insider is aimed at equipping the global base metals marketplace with the tools to gather in-depth information and collaborate with industry peers.

The launch of the base metals community follows Thomson Reuters acquisition in July 2008 of the business of Metals Insider, a free daily news and analysis service headed up by Andy Home, a highly respected commentator on the metals markets for 20 years. The Thomson Reuters community combines Metals Insider's informed market perspective and audience with comprehensive Reuters news and technology to provide a true community platform for the traders, fund managers, producers, fabricators and market analysts in the base metals market.

The Thomson Reuters Metals Insider community has free access to a base metals news archive as well as research, market reports, prices and data. Members can also sign up to a free email newsletter, providing a comprehensive daily update on developments in the base metals markets.

Metals Insider uses Web 2.0 technologies and features professional interaction and networking capabilities. Intuitive networking tools enable members to create a personal profile and link up with clients, suppliers, contacts and colleagues in the metals industry. Members can also tap into the community to ask questions, provide comments, post reports or up-load research, creating a unique interactive resource for metals professionals.

Mitchel Ingham-Barrow, Global Head of Metals and Minerals, Thomson Reuters, commented: "Thomson Reuters Metals Insider demonstrates our commitment to maximise the potential of professionals in the broader base metals community. It harnesses our world renowned news and data with technological innovation to give the base metals marketplace a competitive edge."
Features to be added to the Metals Insider platform include industry jobs, conferences and events. The existing set of free data from the London Metal Exchange is also set to be enhanced and complemented by prices from NYMEX and the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

Metals Insider was launched at LME Week, an important fixture in the global metals industry calendar, which opens today in London. The London Metal Exchange, which represents the vast majority of all non-ferrous base metals trading, achieved US $9,500 billion in monetary terms in 2007. Metals Insider complements Thomson Reuters professional base metals subscription services, Reuters 3000 Xtra and Reuters Trader for Commodity, which offer even deeper news, market coverage and analytical capabilities.

BoNY Mellon Asian Appointment

2008-10-13T00:02:00.000+01:00

The Bank of New York Mellon, the global leader in asset management and securities servicing, has appointed Lee B. Stephens to the position of Chief Administrative Officer for the Asia Pacific region. Stephens will report to Chris Sturdy, Chairman of Asia Pacific.

Stephens joined The Bank of New York Mellon in 1990 and was most recently a member of the Global Client Management team where, as Executive Vice President and Head of Public Sector Banking, he spearheaded the company's efforts in the U.S., covering key supranational, government, municipal, endowment & foundation and other public tax-exempt enterprises.
I
n his new role, Stephens will help drive the development and build-out of the region's infrastructure to support the company's governance and growth initiatives across Asia Pacific.

"As Asia's dynamic, high-growth markets continue to develop and offer new and growing business opportunities, we have looked to enhance our management platform," said Chris Sturdy, Chairman of Asia Pacific, The Bank of New York Mellon. "Lee has an excellent reputation for diligence and a proven ability to coordinate across business lines and shared services. As we plan to accelerate our business further in Asia, he will be a valuable addition to our capabilities - both for the company and for our clients."

EU Leaders Agree Bailout

2008-10-12T21:28:00.003+01:00

EU politicians and financial executives have agreed to inject billions of euros into banks in an effort to stabilize and restore confidence in the world financial system.

The basic plan follows that of Britain', with the governments taking direct equity stakes in distressed banks and guaranteeing bank lending for up to five years. France and Germany are expected to release national packages worth billions of Euros on Monday. Some figures have been bandied about, Germany is considering a plan to inject 50 billion to 100 billion euros into its banks, with a price tag for all of the new measures reaching as much as 400 billion euros, or $536 billion, according to a person briefed on the government’s work.

“The meeting that we had was exceptional,” President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, said at a news conference. “We need concrete measures, we need unity. That’s what we achieved. The plan on which we agreed today will be applied in all our respective states.”

The Belgian finance minister, Didier Reynders, said, “We are committed in all European states to recapitalize banks if we establish a threat to solvency and a risk to the economy....The goal is to kick-start the interbank lending market,” he said.

Additionally unfreezing the commercial paper market used by companies to finance their businesses, is to be an aim of the plan.

Contrary to Britain or the US, a price tag has not been put on the rescue package.

“Our goal is to have coordinated action for the euro zone,” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said, and the meeting “is a very important signal for the strength of the euro zone.”

BankVal Server

2008-10-11T22:28:00.001+01:00

A customer hosted validation web service and batch validation application. Provides full validation and lookup of UK bank sort codes and account numbers. Vendor is United Software

BankVal

2008-10-11T22:26:00.000+01:00

A suite of web services used to validate uk bank sort codes, account numbers and credit card numbers and to provide full lookup of UK sort codes, including clearing information and accepted transaction types. Vendor is United Software.

OBS

2008-10-10T22:35:00.001+01:00

OBS is a highly specialized Atlanta-based technology company providing next-generation Cash Management and Business Banking revenue generating solutions to financial institutions. OBS clients include 7 of the top 50 banks. Based on the proven, event-based, multi-channel Online Messenger(TM) ASP platform, products include: Unattended BAI File Delivery, M-Secure Browser, M-Secure Keyboard, Two-Factor Authentication, Secure File Transfer, Automated File Mapping, Single Sign-On (SSO) Services and OnBoard Automated Enrollment Engine.

Credit Default Swap Clearing House Inches Forward

2008-10-10T21:32:00.002+01:00

A group of leading credit derivative market participants today announced they have joined forces to support a joint global clearing solution for Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Signatories to the letter of intent include The Clearing Corporation, Markit Group, Risk Metrics, and IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) through its subsidiaries, including ICE US Trust, a New York limited Trust Company (ICE Trust), Creditex and T-Zero. ICE Trust will operate as a New York limited Trust Company and function as global clearinghouse and central counterparty for CDS transactions. ICE Trust plans to become a member of the Federal Reserve System. The letter signals the intention of the signatories to use their best efforts to work together in establishing a clearinghouse that will accomplish the objectives established by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

CME and Reuters to Close FXMarketSpace

2008-10-10T21:27:00.001+01:00

CME Group and Thomson Reuters today announced that they will take steps necessary to close FXMarketSpace, the 50/50 joint venture company they introduced in May 2006. All trading on the platform will be suspended at the close of business on 17 October, 2008. During the coming months, CME Group and Thomson Reuters will work closely with FXMarketSpace to ensure an orderly wind down of existing business operations.

Both CME Group's FX futures business and Thomson Reuters FX Spot Matching services continue to reflect strong growth in their respective product lines. CME Group and Thomson Reuters remain committed to offering innovative solutions to the rapidly-growing OTC FX market, and the two companies will explore working together to pursue clearing and operational efficiencies for their customers.

CME Gas Trading

2008-10-10T20:41:00.000+01:00

CME Group is launching 18 new natural gas basis, index and swing swaps futures contracts on ClearPort(R), beginning on October 19 for trade date October 20.

The new futures contracts and their commodity codes are: NGPL STX natural gas basis swap (T5); Algonquin Citygate natural gas basis swap (B4); TCO natural gas index swap (Q1); TETCO STX natural gas index swap (Q2); Tennessee Zone 0 natural gas index swap (Q4); Transco Zone 3 natural gas index swap (Y6); Tennessee 500 leg natural gas index swap (Y7); MichCon natural gas index swap (Y8); CIG Rockies natural gas index swap (Z8); TCO natural gas swing swap (A1); TETCO STX natural gas swing swap (T2); Tennessee Zone 0 natural gas swing swap (T4); Malin natural gas swing swap (W9); Stanfield natural gas swing swap (Q3); Transco Zone 3 natural gas swing swap (T6); Tennessee 500 leg natural gas swing swap (T7); MichCon natural gas swing swap (T8); and CIG Rockies natural gas swing swap (U8).

The basis and index swap futures contracts will be listed for 36 consecutive months, and the swing swap futures contracts will be listed for two consecutive months. The first listed month for all contracts will be November 2008.
The contract will be 2,500 mmBtus (10,000 million British thermal units) in size with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.0025 per mmBtu. For more information, please visit http://www.nymex.com/.

Invesco PowerShares

2008-10-10T00:01:00.000+01:00

Invesco PowerShares is a part of Invesco Ltd., a leading independent global investment management company dedicated to helping people worldwide build their financial security. By delivering the combined power of its distinctive worldwide investment management capabilities, including AIM, Atlantic Trust, Invesco, Perpetual, PowerShares, Trimark, and WL Ross, Invesco provides a comprehensive array of enduring investment solutions for retail, institutional and high-net-worth clients around the world. Operating in 20 countries, the company is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IVZ. Additional information is available at www.invesco.com.

Invesco PowerShares NextQ Portfolio Change

2008-10-10T00:00:00.001+01:00

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today that the PowerShares NextQ Portfolio (PNXQ) has changed its name to the PowerShares NQX Portfolio. The PowerShares NQX Portfolio will continue to be offered on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the existing ticker symbol (PNXQ). The investment objectives and fee structure will remain unchanged.

Known as "the PNXQ" to many market participants, "this name change highlights the ticker symbol identification and will allow for synergies in positioning the fund as a complement to the PowerShares QQQ (ticker: QQQQ), which is based on the Nasdaq-100 Index," said Bruce Bond, President and CEO of Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC.

The PowerShares NASDAQ NextQ Portfolio (PNXQ), launched in April 2008 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, is based on the NASDAQ Q-50 Index(SM). The Index is designed to track the performance of the 50 securities that are next in line to replace the securities currently included in the NASDAQ-100 Index®. The index reflects companies across major, non-financial industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology, and is adjusted quarterly.

Sciens Completes Atlas Acquisition

2008-10-10T00:00:00.000+01:00

Sciens Capital Management has completed the purchase of the institutional investment management business of Atlas Capital Associates (Atlas). Sciens has purchased 100% of Atlas Capital Limited, Sigma Asset Management (Guernsey) Limited, Atlas Capital Tokyo and Axis Capital Management (Bahamas) Ltd.

The combination has created an international investment management organization with approximately US$4.5 billion under management and advisory mandates. It brings into a single investment and marketing platform the Sciens diversified funds of hedge funds and the Atlas thematic offering such as the Alternative Income Fund and the Dynamic Trading Fund among others. Sciens also manages the Sciens Special Situation Master hedge fund and private equity, real estate and aviation funds.

Financial Technologies

2008-10-09T23:54:00.000+01:00

Financial Technologies Group is a US$1.8 billion (market capitalization as on 30th June'08, global leader in creating and operating new generation tech-centric, financial markets that not only builds unprecedented shareholder value through a non linear business model, but also in the process transforms economies, empower the common man and change lives.
We have set up 9 exchanges in India, Dubai, Mauritius and Singapore among equities, commodities, currency and bond across Africa, Middle East and South East Asia.

Our endeavour is to build the largest exchange network (liquidity platform) connecting fastest growing economies.
Our highly robust and scalable exchange and trading technology platform (Intellectual Property), coupled with deep domain expertise, gives us a decisive edge in driving mass disruptive innovation at a speed and cost of execution that are unmatched in the financial markets. This expertise uniquely positions Financial Technologies and helps create electronic, organized, and regulated financial markets for 'new asset classes' and 'new investor classes' that are either underserved or economically unviable to serve by traditional companies.

Our markets transform lives of people by democratizing global trade and economy and propagating the benefits of transparent price discovery, efficient trade execution, effective risk management, insurance against price volatility and access to structured finance. These benefits in turn create inclusive and equitable growth by unlocking value from the middle and bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.