2015-04-17

First Read



Tech Surge: Nasdaq’s Lars Ottersgard on New Developments in the Technology Space
JohnLothianNews.com

Nasdaq, the world’s first electronic stock market, is almost synonymous with technology, from listings to licensing. John Lothian News spoke with Lars Ottersgard, head of market technology at Nasdaq OMX, at FIA Boca, about what they are providing to marketplaces, brokers, and corporates, and the areas of growth he sees in the tech sector.
Watch the video »
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A Note of Thanks
Ray McKenzie, Pegasys Trading Systems

We here at Pegasys Trading wanted to thank all of the attendees at our launch party last week at the TT Tech Tap. If you haven’t been to the TT Tap yet I highly recommend it for your next event. We were fortunate to have over 100 potential customers for Pegasys turn out for the event and it was great to catch up with so many traders, exchanges, vendors and brokers from the Chicago community. The food was provided by the delicious Skrine Pork Chop restaurant and we had great craft beers from the TT Tap to quench everyone’s thirst.

It is always great when the Chicago trading community gets together to network and to exchange thoughts and ideas about our markets and get a sense of how everyone is doing. The overall mood in the crowd was very optimistic about the future and we received excellent feedback about our Pegasys Trading system. If you weren’t able to attend, feel free to reach out to me for a demo or to find out more.

Thanks also to the Lothian Newsletter for their support and of course everyone at TT. See you again soon.

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Chicago trading firms vie for top students
By Lynne Marek
For the undergraduates who competed in the UChicago Midwest Trading Competition, it wasn’t a zero-sum game. Nearly 80 students from universities throughout the U.S. descended on Hyde Park last weekend, as much for the coding combat as for networking with Chicago’s big trading firms.
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***** There did seem to be a lot of geeks in Chicago last week.

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Deals Postponed After Bloomberg Terminals Go Down Globally
By JOSIE COX, WSJ
Bloomberg trading screens in Asia and Europe on Friday morning went dark, with an outage that caused a wave of confusion on social media and some bond deals to be postponed until after the weekend, according to several bankers.
jlne.ws/1yAJr2r

****** I believe this was caused by a snark attack.

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Morgan Stanley executive to co-host TV show
By Lauren Tara LaCapra, Reuters
Gary Kaminsky, a vice chairman in Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business, is moving into a part-time advisory role at the bank so he can co-host a television show about Wall Street, the bank confirmed on Thursday.
jlne.ws/1DN0vSN

****** Who knew The Price is Right needed a new co-host?

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National Futures Association, AARP and Chicago Department of Family & Support Services co-sponsor “Avoiding Fraud is Your Best Money Strategy” during Money Smart Week
NFA
National Futures Association (NFA), AARP Illinois and the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services (DFSS) will co-sponsor a seminar that aims to provide individuals and community leaders with the tools they need to help protect themselves and others from identity theft and investment fraud.
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***** I try to avoid doggy doo too, but sometimes it happens. As with fraud, vigilance is key.

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ICE Brent Crude Futures Achieves Open Interest Record, Surpasses 2 Million Contracts
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), the leading global network of exchanges and clearing houses, today announced that ICE Brent Crude futures achieved an open interest record of 2,006,759 contracts on April 15, 2015. The previous open interest record was set on April 2, 2015, with 1,992,780 contracts at ICE Futures Europe.
jlne.ws/1CPsD3U

***** That is a lot of oil.

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Best of Both Worlds: Fidessa’s Steve Grob on Keeping Tech Costs Low
JohnLothianNews.com

With rapid changes in the financial industry, firms are challenged to keep their technology robust and resilient while at the same time being secure and compliant, says Steve Grob, director of group strategy for Fidessa. He spoke with John Lothian News at the FIA Boca conference about this technology balance as well as what companies like Fidessa are doing to address IT costs.
Watch the video »
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Thales Announces the Formation of an Advisory Board
PR Newswire
Thales Trading Solutions is pleased to announce the formation of an Advisory Board. Comprised of leading industry experts, the Advisory Board will offer unique insights to support Thales as it continues to expand. The Advisory Board brings together a distinctive group of professionals from various segments of the financial services industry including, Institutional Investors, Fund of Funds, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Commodity Trading Advisors, as well as Regulatory and Technology experts.
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***Appointments to the independent introducing broker include friend of JLN and Katten Muchin Rosenman special counsel Gary DeWaal

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Lead Stories

EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton Said to Hire Former Wall Street Cop as Campaign CFO
By Phil Mattingly and Silla Brush, Bloomberg
Hillary Clinton is planning to name Gary Gensler, a former top federal financial regulator and strong advocate for strict Wall Street rules, as the chief financial officer of her campaign, according to a Democrat familiar with the decision.
jlne.ws/1GSQsy3

***** Mr. Gensler continues his quest to become U.S. Treasury Secretary.

BATS to Launch Second U.S. Options Exchange; Targets November 2015 Launch for EDGX Options
BATS
BATS Global Markets (BATS), a leading operator of exchanges and services for financial markets globally, today filed rules to launch a second options exchange – EDGX Options – with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). BATS , operator of the fastest -growing U.S. options market today, is planning to launch the new exchange in November 2015, pending SEC approval.
jlne.ws/1CSdxcI

***** BATS steps up to the big leagues of options operators.

FINRA Board Approves Changes to Communications With the Public Rules, Trading Activity Fee
FINRA
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced that its Board of Governors approved proposed changes to FINRA’s Communications With the Public Rules, as well as amendments to the Trading Activity Fee for firms with no customers that are engaged solely in proprietary trading activity for their own accounts.
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***** This is not a transaction tax. Repeat after me, this is not a transaction tax.

SEC Charges 10 Individuals in Scheme to Sell Stock in Blank Check Companies Secretly Bound for Reverse Mergers
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against 10 individuals involved in a scheme to offer and sell penny stock in undisclosed “blank check” companies bound for reverse mergers while misrepresenting to the public that they were promising startups with business plans.
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Firm58 Seeks ‘Strategic Buyer;’ Object: Getting to ‘Next Level’
By Michael Brown, The Street
Firm58 has attracted a number of inquiries from private equity firms over the past two years.
But with its current, strong set of financial backers, the CEO of the back-office high-frequency trading technology company said he’s more interested in looking for a strategic buyer to get it to the next level.
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Elizabeth Warren’s Extraordinarily Bad Idea For A Financial Transactions Tax
Tim Worstall, Forbes
It’s really quite amazing how bad public policy keeps being presented as if it’s something new, vibrant and wondrous. This does indeed apply to both sides of the aisle. Just to insist, it is is not true, always, that cutting a a tax rate leads to more revenue being collected. The idea of the Laffer Curve is that this is true at some tax rates and not at others. That’s why it’s a curve, not a straight line. And then on to today’s news: this idea that Elizabeth Warren put forward, again, in a speech today, this idea of a financial transactions tax. My apologies to those who wish to stick it to Wall Street but this is an idea that really, really, just doesn’t work. So why is it that so many people keep advancing it?
jlne.ws/1ENsbYA

Big-Bank Profit Engines Accelerate; Goldman, Citigroup, Blackstone top expectations
By JUSTIN BAER, RYAN DEZEMBER And CHRISTINA REXRODE, WSJ
Wall Street’s biggest names are getting their mojo back. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,Citigroup Inc. and Blackstone Group LP each posted blowout earnings Thursday that topped analysts’ expectations, signaling that many of the financial industry’s cylinders are firing.
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Citadel trader who lost $1 billion in 2014 resigns
Bloomberg via Crain’s Chicago Business
Derek Kaufman, global head of fixed income at Citadel LLC, is leaving the hedge fund firm after losing $1 billion last year in a variety of trades, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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David Makol, Known for Pursuit of Insider Trading Cases While at F.B.I., Joins S.E.C.
By BEN PROTESS and MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN, NY Times
Before David Makol scared insider trading suspects into cooperating with the F.B.I., and long before he helped investigate the Boston Marathon bombing, he was a low-level examiner at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Regulatory

CFTC chief wants possible clearinghouse cooperation if member defaults
MLex
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission should consider whether clearinghouses ought to coordinate with each other if a member bank defaults, Chairman Timothy Massad said. http://jlne.ws/1OiWEOZ

SEC Charges New York-Based Financial Advisor With Stealing $20 Million From Customers
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a New York City-based financial advisor accused of stealing at least $20 million from customers to fund his own brokerage accounts and then squandering the bulk of the money in highly unprofitable options trading.
jlne.ws/1FYyQhs

EU prepares rules for tackling failed financial firms outside banking
BY HUW JONES, Reuters
The European Union is looking at creating rules on how to deal with financial firms outside the banking industry that run into trouble, including clearing houses, insurers and asset managers, the EU’s financial services chief said on Friday.
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Canadian regulators seek comment on further expansion of passport system
AMF
Montréal – The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published proposals today to further expand the passport system to two new areas: applications to cease to be a reporting issuer and cease trade orders resulting from the failure to file continuous disclosure documents.
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Dodd-Frank’s Hotel California May Have Exit After All
By STEPHEN J. LUBBEN, NY Times
General Electric may be the first to find out if it is possible to escape the Hotel California. In G.E.’s case, the reference refers to the company’s designation as a “systemically important financial institution” under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. The label for companies deemed too big to fail subjects them to heightened regulation, some fear forever. G.E.’s recent move to shed large pieces of its finance operations will put that provision to the test.
jlne.ws/1FRwqyB

Fed may allow banks to use muni bonds to meet liquidity rules – WSJ
Reuters
The U.S. Federal Reserve may allow big banks to use some municipal bonds to meet new liquidity rules that ensure they have enough cash during a credit crunch, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
jlne.ws/1cBKd5f

Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) Rulemaking and National Market System (NMS) Plans
SEC

BATS: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend Exchange Rule 3.5 (Advertising Practices) and Repeal Exchange Rule 3.20 (Initial or Partial Payments) (Release No. 34-74743; File No. SR-BATS-2015-30)

BATS: Order Granting Approval of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend Rules 11.9, 11.12, and 11.13 of BATS Exchange, Inc. (Release No. 34-74738; File No. SR-BATS-2015-09)

BYX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend Exchange Rule 3.5 (Advertising Practices) and Repeal Exchange Rule 3.20 (Initial or Partial Payments) (Release No. 34-74740; File No. SR-BYX-2015-23)

C2: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend the Fees Schedule (Release No. 34-74733; File No. SR-C2-2015-007; April 15, 2015); see also Exhibit 5

FINRA: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Waive Trade Reporting Fees Under Rule 7710 Due to an OTC Reporting Facility Systems Issue (Release No. 34-74734; File No. SR-FINRA-2015-007; April 15, 2015)

ICEEU: Notice of Designation of Longer Period for Commission Action on Proposed Rule Change Relating to CDS Procedures for CDX North America Index CDS Contracts (Release No. 34-74741; File No. SR-ICEEU-2015-005; April 16, 2015)

MIAX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Amend Exchange Rule 500 (Release No. 34-74744; File No. SR-MIAX-2015-29)

MIAX: Exhibit 3 (Release No. 34-74744; File No. SR-MIAX-2015-29)

NASDAQ: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change to Establish Distributor and Managed Data Solution Distributor Fees for an Optional Hardware-Based Version of NASDAQ ITCH to Trade Options (Release No. 34-74745; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2015-035)

NASDAQ: Order Approving a Proposed Rule Change, as Modified by Amendments No. 1 and No. 2, to List and Trade the Shares of the First Trust Strategic Floating Rate ETF of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund IV (Release No. 34-74742; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2015-011)

NASDAQ: Order Approving a Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade Shares of the AlphaMark Actively Managed Small Cap ETF of ETF Series Solutions (Release No. 34-74728; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2015-013; April 15, 2015)

jlne.ws/1eCTnOv

Exchanges & Trading Facilities

Former Swaps Trade Group CEO Joins Tradition’s Trading Platform
SWI – Bloomberg
The former top executive of Wall Street’s swaps-industry lobby group is joining a trading platform that’s seeking to capitalize on financial regulations that encourage their use. Robert Pickel, a 17-year veteran of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, will be a non-executive director at Tradition Sef, the company said in a statement Thursday. Tradition Sef is a U.S. swap-execution facility owned by Cie. Financiere Tradition SA, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based brokerage that handles transactions largely between banks.
jlne.ws/1IlRmAA

SGX kicks off Bull Charge 2015 with charity run
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX) today officially launched its annual Bull Charge 2015 with a relay race around SGX Centre in the Central Business District.
jlne.ws/1NWsJBn

China’s First Fund Using Bourse Link Says H Shares Are Cheap
Bloomberg
China’s first mutual fund to gain access to the Hong Kong exchange link says stocks in the city are still cheap after surging to seven-year highs.
jlne.ws/1b9GqvA

NCDEX inks pact for international commodity & derivatives exchange at GIFT City
The Financial Express
The National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) on Thursday signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish an international commodity and derivatives exchange within India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar. NCDEX is the third exchange after BSE and NSE to sign an MoU with GIFT City.
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Hedge Funds & Managed Futures

Wealth Adviser: Science Replaces Cat Tricks in Hunt for Clients
By KEVIN NOBLET, WSJ
Financial advisers take a more scientific approach to winning clients now than they used to. The old days featured some “cowboy stockbrokers who relied on chutzpah and grit to lasso clients,” recollects Norb Vonnegut. Among them was a broker who set loose his cat in posh neighborhoods, so he could connect with the rich strangers who rescued it. Another attended wealthy strangers’ funerals and paid special attention to grieving widows, sisters, and daughters. Now, “cowboys are also disappearing because of the shift from product to process sales,” Mr. Vonnegut writes on Wealth Adviser at WSJ.com. “The cycles are longer and dependent on proven expertise in clearly defined market niches. More skill. Less serendipity.”
jlne.ws/1EQe5FS

I.R.S. Seeks $3.2. Billion in Dispute Over Back Taxes
NY Times
The Internal Revenue Service wants $3.2 billion to cover back taxes it says are owed by a prominent Texas businessman and his late brother who the agency says hid income by setting up overseas trust funds. The I.R.S. detailed its claim in documents filed Wednesday in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. It seeks to recover more than $2 billion in unpaid income taxes, interest and penalties from Sam Wyly and more than $1.2 billion from the estate of his brother, Charles Wyly.
jlne.ws/1G0nF7V

Small Hedge Funds Get Bigger Share of Investors’ Money; In shift away from hedge-fund industry titans, about half the inflows last year went to firms with less than $5 billion in assets
By MATT WIRZ
Hedge-fund upstarts attracted as much money as the titans of the industry last year, a shift for investors who have long favored larger firms.
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Virtu’s Shareholders Said to Include Industry Critic T. Rowe
by Sam Mamudi, Leslie Picker, Bloomberg
T. Rowe Price Group Inc., one of the biggest critics of high-frequency trading, now finds itself in a seemingly surprising spot: It acquired shares of HFT firm Virtu Financial Inc., a key player in reshaping how everything from stocks to currencies are bought and sold.
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Banks & Brokers

Goldman’s stock trading boom turns up heat on Morgan Stanley
BY LAUREN TARA LACAPRA, Reuters
Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s blockbuster performance in stock trading last quarter has some Wall Street watchers wondering whether it knocked rival Morgan Stanley out of the top spot in equities.
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Cantor Fitzgerald Wealth boss Stan Gregor to exit – report
Reuters
Stan Gregor, a private banker hired almost two years ago to create a wealth management business for Wall Street trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., is leaving, according to trade publication InvestmentNews.
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Clearing & Settlement

Safest U.S. Debt Likely Only Collateral Covered in Repo Clearing
Bloomberg Business
Treasuries and U.S. government-related bonds are likely be the only collateral covered when financial institutions begin offering centralized trade clearing in the short-term market for borrowing and lending debt.
jlne.ws/1IlL5Vr

LCH.Clearnet Ltd Board Changes
LCH.Clearnet
Shona Milne appointed as Independent Non-Executive Director
Brings over 25 years of industry experience to the Board
Stephen Compton (Citigroup) named as User Board Member
LCH.Clearnet Limited (“LCH.Clearnet”), the global clearing house, today announced that Shona Milne and Stephen Compton have been appointed to its Board of Directors.
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Modernisation of the payments system
International Law Office
Later this year amendments to the Canadian Payments Act are expected to come into effect which will significantly change the manner in which the Canadian Payments Association (CPA) is governed. The CPA is an association created by statute and operated by its members which has the mandate of running a national payment clearing and settlement system. At present, the payment systems run by the CPA clear and settle the vast majority of payment items in Canada.
jlne.ws/1IlLqri

Indexes & Products

State Street Adds U.S. Quality Mix ETF
ETF Trends
The new ETF tracks the equally-weighted MSCI USA Quality Mix A-Series Index, which is a combination of the MSCI USA Value Weighted, MSCI USA Minimum Volatility and MSCI USA Quality Indexes. As of Feb. 27, the index was home to 631 large- and mid-cap companies, according to a statement issued by SSgA.
jlne.ws/1IlLBCJ

Active Share: Not Necessary, and Definitely Not Sufficient
Indexology: S&P Dow Jones Indices
The concept of active share was introduced several years ago as a measure of the degree to which a portfolio of stocks differs from its benchmark. One of the intriguing results of the initial research on active share was that high active share managers seemed more likely to outperform than low active share managers. This led, predictably enough, to a widespread belief that if active management wasn’t “working,” the solution was to be more aggressive, or as it was often expressed, to invest with more conviction.
jlne.ws/1IlMmvC

BSE, S&P launches AllCap index for Indian mkts
The Echo of India
To put in place an overall gauge for the Indian stock market, a new S&P BSE Allcap Index was launched today which will cover over 700 listed stocks representing over 95 per cent of market capitalisation.
jlne.ws/1IlLWFw

How Canadian fund managers performed vs. the index in 2014
The Globe and Mail
Canadian equity indexes ended 2014 on a positive note. As of Dec. 31, 2014, the headline Canadian equities indexes, the S&P/TSX composite and the S&P/TSX 60, continued their winning streak from the previous year and registered gains of 10.55 per cent and 12.27 per cent, respectively. Rising markets proved to be difficult for active managers to overcome, as the majority of Canadian active managers saw their returns lag behind the benchmark, with just 26.47 per cent of Canadian Equity Funds outperforming the S&P/TSX composite.
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Technology

Maybank partners with 1337 Ventures for fintech bootcamp
CNBC
When JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told the banks’ shareholders that Silicon Valley “[wants] to eat our lunch” – alluding to how tech startups are slowly taking away business from them – he’s not alone in that belief. Banks are feeling the heat from startups, which are working on various alternatives to traditional banking. Some banks are not taking it sitting down.
jlne.ws/1IlMA5T

UK and Ireland becoming a force in ‘fintech’
CNBC
The U.K. and Ireland are fast becoming a force in the latest software revolution — fintech, with investment in technology that provides financial services more than tripling in the region, according to the latest report.
jlne.ws/1IlN500

Thomson Reuters Price Challenge Tool Adds Accuracy And Transparency To Fixed Income Market – AskTRPS Enhancement Allows Users To Raise Evaluated Pricing Inquiries Via Customer Interface
MondoVisione
Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today launched AskTRPS, an enhancement to Thomson Reuters Pricing Service (TRPS). This independent price challenge tool provides fixed income professionals with a rapid and transparent solution to submit and resolve evaluated pricing challenges directly via Thomson Reuters DataScope Select, the strategic global data delivery platform for non-streaming content.
jlne.ws/1G0l6mg

Automated Trader Update: When the TradeTech circus comes to town
Automated Trader
AT reports from TradeTech Europe, ITG Analytics launches, Colt introduces extranet, Cinnober & Ancoa partner. JWG on post Easter Islands, Heartwood reports on M&A’s, JSE & Eris partner, SocGen deploys ICE CDS Clearing, Solactive announces wearable tech index, Startupbootcamp FinTech names Singapore finalists, Bondcube platform goes live, OneTickCLOUD launches, Euronext selects Horizon platform. BATS, BOX, Custom Connect, & LCH.Clearnet people in the news.
jlne.ws/1IlLgQw

Bloomberg Terminals Suffer Widespread Failures
By CHAD BRAY and NEIL GOUGH, NY Times
Bloomberg LP’s data terminals experienced failures on Friday that appeared to stretch from Hong Kong to London.
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Enforcement

Ex-Wyoming fund exec to replead to insider trading: lawyer
BY NATE RAYMOND, Reuters
A former Wyoming Retirement System chief investment officer whose insider trading guilty plea was called into question after a major appellate ruling limited the reach of such laws has decided to enter a new guilty plea.
jlne.ws/1Dd1BCQ

Ernst & Young fined $10m over Lehman audits
Investment Week
Ernst & Young (EY) has paid $10m to settle claims it was negligent in it duty as auditor when it failed to raise the alarm when Lehman Brothers was heading towards collapse.
jlne.ws/1aCZyRq

Former J.P. Morgan adviser charged with stealing $20m from clients
Investment Week
A former J.P. Morgan investment adviser has been accused of stealing at least $20m from clients and using the money to trade on his own account and to pay off his mortgage.
jlne.ws/1yAISpm

Environmental & Energy

How putting a price on carbon saved Microsoft $10m a year
BusinessGreen
Since 2012 the tech giant has put an internal fee on carbon, which feeds into a multimillion-dollar fund to reduce the company’s footprint, buy green energy and develop new clean technologies
jlne.ws/1HzDVPj

BP investors turn up the heat over climate change
Michael Kavanagh, FT
BP shareholders have overwhelmingly backed demands led by the Church of England and institutional investors requiring the oil major to be more open about how climate change might affect its business.
jlne.ws/1JPtxSz

Big U.S. investors push SEC for oil industry to detail risks of climate change
BY ERNEST SCHEYDER, Reuters
Calpers, the largest American public pension fund, and nearly 60 other institutional investors will ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to require oil and natural gas companies to publish detailed analysis of the risks posed by climate change to their business models.
jlne.ws/1IRlKWM

California Plagued by Dry Wells as Drought Makes Water Elusive
by Alison Vekshin, Bloomberg
Near California’s Success Lake, more than 1,000 water wells have failed. Farmers are spending $750,000 to drill 1,800 feet down to keep fields from going fallow. Makeshift showers have sprouted near the church parking lot.
jlne.ws/1PXjIq1

Asia-Pacific

Bank of China, BOC International Holdings and SGX expand collaboration on Renminbi and market developments
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX), Bank of China (BOC) and BOC International Holdings Limited (BOCI)[1] are extending their collaboration on Renminbi (RMB) initiatives and embarking on joint activities that will contribute to the growth of both financial markets. The respective framework for collaboration were signed today in Singapore and witnessed by Mr Chen Siqing, President of BOC and Mr Magnus Böcker, CEO of SGX in Singapore.
jlne.ws/1CT46ei

Closer Relationship: South Korea, China Merge Fintech Markets
BusinessKorea
LG U+, KB Financial Group, KB Kookmin Card Co., China UnionPay, and UnionPay International had a ceremony for the partnership for mobile card issuing and payment services on April 16 at the headquarters of LG U+ in Seoul, an LG U+ representative said. The service will provide customers a mobile card with UnionPay that will enable them to pay by connecting their smartphone to payment machines found in both South Korea and China, LG U+ said.
jlne.ws/1IlMJWZ

Mainland China market turnover hits record 1.5 trillion yuan but Hong Kong market down
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong and mainland stock markets went in different directions on Friday. Combined market turnover in Shanghai and Shenzhen hit a record 1.53 trillion yuan (HK$1.91 trillion) and both their indexes reached fresh seven-year highs, while the Hong Kong stock market fell slightly, with turnover at the low end for the week.
jlne.ws/1HzDvIH

China Futures Tumble on Trust Curbs, Expansion of Short Selling
by Kyoungwha Kim, Bloomberg
Chinese stock-index futures tumbled in after-hours trading after regulators clamped down on the use of shadow financing to buy equities and expanded the supply of shares available for short sellers.
jlne.ws/1EQgWid

Frontier Markets

Saudi Bourse to Give Foreigners Access Starting June 15
Bloomberg Business
Saudi Arabia plans to allow foreigners direct access to its stock market, one of the world’s most restricted, from June 15. The Riyadh-based Capital Market Authority will publish the rules on May 4, which will be enforced on June 1, according to a statement on its website.
jlne.ws/1HzE7Oj

Emerging markets still have plenty of room to grow
Financial Post
Emerging equity markets are red hot and ready to rally higher with or without the support of Chinese stocks, says John Higgins, economist at Capital Economics. “Admittedly, the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has been flattered by a strong showing from the MSCI China Index,” he said in a note to clients. “[But] even if the MSCI China Index does lose steam, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index will not necessarily follow suit since the rally in emerging market equities has been broad-based.
jlne.ws/1HzEsk5

Miscellaneous

Cargill supports Trade Promotion Authority legislation
Cargill
Cargill supports the introduction of a Trade Promotion Authority bill in the U.S. Congress, which would give the administration power to negotiate international trade agreements and submit them to legislators for an up-or-down vote.
jlne.ws/1DMZp9C

Cargill Executive Chairman Greg Page maps path to a more food-secure world
Cargill
Urges Global Food Security Symposium to focus on four principles to improve access to food and enhance diets and health
Speaking at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Global Food Security Symposium today, Cargill Executive Chairman Greg Page urged attendees to be mindful of four principles that can help ensure all people have access to safe, affordable and nutritious food.
jlne.ws/1HzAecb

Should You Read Ben Bernanke’s Blog?
By Peter Coy, Bloomberg
Author. Hedge fund adviser. Chatterbox. The former Fed chief has strong opinions and is eager to share them with you.
jlne.ws/1NWBECH

READ MORE: John Lothian Newsletter: Hillary Clinton Said to Hire Former Wall Street Cop as Campaign CFO; BATS to Launch Second U.S. Options Exchange; FINRA Board Approves Changes to Communications With the Public Rules, Trading Activity Fee.

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