First Read
Mary Schapiro and Richard Kovacevich to Join Hedge Fund
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, NY Times
Hudson Executive Capital had already set out to not be the typical activist hedge fund. Its stated mission is to be constructive in dealing with corporate boards, rather than taking combative stances of the likes of William A. Ackman and Carl C. Icahn.
jlne.ws/1Jz1Y1f
***** The skeptic would say that Mary Schapiro has been working for hedge funds for a long time.
++++
Susan Milligan Joins CFTC
Susan Milligan has left LCH.Clearnet after four years of service and re-joined the CFTC as Deputy General Counsel, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. Milligan previously worked for the NYSE in the 1990s. She has also worked for the OCC and NYSE. She can be reached at smilligan@cftc.gov
***** A great hire by the CFTC.
++++
Escalating Demands at Work Hurt Employees and Companies
By TONY SCHWARTZ, NY Times
Earlier this week, I had a call with the chief executive of a $5 billion company who has traveled four to five days a week for many years. She sounded utterly exhausted. “When times get tough,” she told me, “the only way I’ve ever known is to muscle through. I just can’t do it anymore. I’ve hit bottom. The problem is that I’ve been numb for so long, I’m honestly not sure if I can find my way back to a sane life.”
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***** The same thinking that emphasizes short term investment returns is a problem for how you manage your people. I want my people to grow personally and professionally. If you wear them out to point of fatigue, they can’t grow.
++++
Gossiping is what makes us human, says Oxford professor; Gossiping about others is a vital part of life and could even keep us alive longer, according to evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar
By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
Talking about people behind their backs might seem like an underhand activity which should be frowned upon by society but it is what sets us apart from the animals, academics have claimed. Gossip is what makes people human, according to Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, because it allows us to pass on vital information about who to trust, and helps us bond with family and friends.
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***** Who knew you lived longer by gossiping?
++++
Sixtysomething and figuring out new forms of employment
Emma De Vita, FT
After a corporate and entrepreneurial career focused on early-stage venture funding, 64-year-old Alex Korda has no intention of ceasing to work for a living. “I am trying to build a portfolio of remunerated and voluntary activity,” he says, but since work for the last start-up he was involved in wound down, he has struggled to find a way back into venture funding.
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***** I like the “portfolio of remunerated and voluntary activity.” We never stop working, we just only get paid for some of our work.
++++
Millionaires Who Are Frugal When They Don’t Have to Be
By PAUL SULLIVAN, NY Times
BOB WEIDNER likes to play a game when he goes to a high-end outlet store like Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren: How many things can he buy and not spend more than $100? On his last visit, the answer was seven.
jlne.ws/1FFzkpB
***** I can’t get out of Home Depot for less than $100.
++++
We bailed you out, and now you want what!?!
Steven Pearlstein – The Washington Post
Americans were angry when Wall Street’s greedy and risky behavior triggered a global financial crisis in 2008. They were angrier still when the government had to borrow and spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest banks and the insurance company AIG. They were outraged when they found out that executives at those enterprises were continuing to receive big salaries and bonuses.
So just imagine how it outrageous it would be if some Wall Street sharpies went to court to argue that they didn’t benefit enough from the bailouts and that taxpayers should pay them tens of billions of dollars more. In fact, they did.
And, according to legal observers, they just might prevail.
jlne.ws/1T64HE7
***** What is the difference between legal and moral?
++++
THE IAQF ANNOUNCES FOUR WINNERS OF THE 2014 ACADEMIC COMPETITION
IAQF
The International Association for Quantitative Finance is pleased to announce the winners of the Fourth Annual Academic Affiliate Membership Student Competition. Twenty-five papers from seventeen schools were submitted to the competition in response to the competition problem, which required students to “develop a product which can be used to reduce the risk in defined benefit pension plans.”
jlne.ws/1RXap9B
***** Can you say Zero Coupon Treasury Bonds?
++++
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Lead Stories
Deutsche Bank Co-CEOs Jain and Fitschen Resign; Move throws into question the future direction of one of the world’s biggest banks
By EYK HENNING in Frankfurt, and DAVID ENRICH and JENNY STRASBURG in London, WSJ
The embattled co-chief executives of Deutsche Bank AG announced their resignations on Sunday, an abrupt move that throws into question the future direction of one of the world’s largest banks.
jlne.ws/1HVHn2W
Creative traders flock to China’s derivative markets, ups risk profile
Reuters via South China Morning Post
The rapid liberalisation of Chinese derivatives markets has attracted a new breed of creative traders employing complex trading strategies that can generate quick profits – and an extra dollop of risk – in China’s runaway stock boom.
jlne.ws/1Ix2Wwl
Lehman to Pay Barclays $1.3 Billion to Settle Suit
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, NY Times
One of the longest-running legal fights from the financial crisis, rooted in the dismantling of Lehman Brothers, is near an end.
jlne.ws/1IsKp4g
CME bars grain traders for years over wash trades, spoofing
Reuters
CME Group Inc said on Friday it barred a grain trader from its markets for three years for executing noncompetitive transactions and suspended another for two years for market manipulation. The traders, Aleksey Vsemirnov and Stephen Duggan, could not immediately be reached for comment.
jlne.ws/1T3xmJK
Hedge-fund boom opens China to ‘flash boys’
WILL WATERMAN, The National
The rapid liberalisation of Chinese derivatives markets has attracted a new breed of creative traders employing complex trading strategies that can generate quick profits – and an extra dollop of risk – in China’s runaway stock boom.
jlne.ws/1HVE0ch
Deutsche Bank is still stuck in the middle of global finance
John GapperJohn Gapper, FT
In the end, the centre could not hold. After four years of jointly trying to reshape Deutsche Bank, allowing at least one of Europe’s big banks to compete with Wall Street, Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, the bank’s joint leaders, announced their resignations on Sunday. The scale of the strategic and cultural transformation needed by the bank has overwhelmed them.
jlne.ws/1QDMlGm
Banks’ post-crisis legal costs hit $300bn
Ben McLannahan in New York, FT
The total cost of litigation aimed at a group of the biggest global banks since 2010 has broken the £200bn ($306bn) barrier, according to a new study that challenges assumptions that banks are through the worst of post-crisis reparations.
jlne.ws/1KP9gNf
SEC secures $190m from CSC over fraud
Gina Chon in Washington, FT
US authorities secured a $190m payment from Computer Sciences Corporation and the return of $3.7m in compensation from its former chief executive for allegedly manipulating financial results related to the company’s multibillion-dollar contract with Britain’s National Health Service.
jlne.ws/1KMqhYl
In Bizarre Twist of Avon Case, a Real Bid for Tower Group; Bulgarian company says its takeover offer last year for Tower Group International was legitimate
By ARUNA VISWANATHA and GEORGI KANTCHEV, WSJ
The apparent takeover hoax of Avon Products Inc. keeps getting stranger. A day after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued a 37-year-old Bulgarian man for allegedly orchestrating a string of fake takeover offers, a Bulgarian company identified in the lawsuit said its takeover offer last year for Tower Group International Ltd. was real.
jlne.ws/1FBa5pw
Jeffrey Peek Named an Executive Vice Chairman at Bank of America
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDJ, NY Times
Jeffrey M. Peek, who once lost a race to become the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, is coming home, in a way. Mr. Peek will become executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America, which bought Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis, according to an internal memorandum sent on March 31.
jlne.ws/1FE1gLy
How a Carried Interest Tax Could Raise $180 Billion
By VICTOR FLEISCHER, NY Times
When Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in Iowa, the first substantive issue she raised was a safe one: carried interest. “There’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here,” she said.
jlne.ws/1dpNbtC
Plenty to chew over at Buffett lunch
Stephen Foley in New York, FT
The folks who successfully bid $2.3m for lunch with Warren Buffett can expect a convivial event filled with jokes, investment wisdom and life advice, according to those who have won in previous years — but they had better keep an eye on their soft drinks.
jlne.ws/1T6ism8
One-third of large investors expect Grexit from eurozone
Madison Marriage, FT
One-third of large investors expect a Greek exit from the eurozone as negotiations between Athens and its creditors over a desperately needed EUR7.2bn bailout package deteriorate.
jlne.ws/1KVSLSP
Regulatory
FIA Europe publishes review of European regulatory reform
Press Release (PDF)
FIA Europe has published a review of the cumulative effect of European derivatives law reform, setting out the core issues and offering potential solutions to encourage further debate.
The aim of the white paper is to assist key legislative and regulatory bodies in addressing inconsistencies and unintended consequences brought about by a range of current and proposed European derivatives regulations.
jlne.ws/1Hi3Zik
Daniel Gregus Named Associate Director for Broker-Dealer Exam Program in Chicago
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has named Daniel R. Gregus as the Associate Director for the broker-dealer examination program in its Chicago Regional Office.
jlne.ws/1BRCLc4
Susan Axelrod of Finra: An Eye in the Sky Keeping Watch on Wall Street
Interview by PATRICIA R. OLSEN, NY Times
Susan Axelrod is the executive vice president for regulatory operations at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, in New York.
jlne.ws/1GglUoP
SEC May Seek More Information from Audit Committees
By EMILY CHASAN, WSJ
U.S. securities regulators are preparing a “concept release” that could push corporate boards of directors to disclose more about how they oversee their outside auditors, a top official said on Friday.
jlne.ws/1AW27dX
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 Adopt Rule 13.8 Describing a Communication and Routing Service Known as BATS Connect (Release No. 34-75107; File No. SR-BATS-2015-40; June 4, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
BYX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Adopt Rule 13.8 Describing a Communication and Routing Service Known as BATS Connect (Release No. 34-75108; File No. SR-BYX-2015-26; June 4, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
C2: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Relating to the Solicitation Auction Mechanism (Release No. 34-75106; File No. SR-C2-2015-014; June 4, 2015)
CBOE: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change Relating to Intermarket Order Routing (Release No. 34-75109; File No. SR-CBOE-2015-053; June 4, 2015)
EDGA: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change to Rule 13.9 Describing a Communication and Routing Service Known as BATS Connect. (Release No. 34-75112; File No. SR-EDGA-2015-20; June 5, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
MIAX: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change by Miami International Securities Exchange LLC to Amend the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and the Amended and Restated By-Laws of the Sole Limited Liability Company Member of MIAX, Miami International Holdings, Inc. (Release No. 34-75116; File No. SR-MIAX-2015-38; June 5, 2015); see also Exhibit 5
NYSE: Order Approving Proposed Rule Change to Amend the Seventh Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of the New York Stock Exchange LLC (Release No. 34-75105; File No. SR-NYSE-2015-16; June 4, 2015)
jlne.ws/1eCTnOv
Structured Products – Complexity and Disclosure – Do Retail Investors Really Understand What They Are Buying and What the Risks Are?, by Amy M. Starr, on May 14, 2015
SEC
jlne.ws/1AVToZe
Remarks at the 34th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting Institute Conference, by James Schnurr, Chief Accountant, Office of the Chief Accountant, in Pasadena, California
SEC
jlne.ws/1JxXNEy
Exchanges & Trading Facilities
Fact & figures: just another historic moment for VSTOXX Options
Eurex
In June, not only temperatures are rising, but also traded volumes in our volatility asset class. Wednesday, 3 June 2015 marked the second largest volume day in the history of our VSTOXX Options with 103,294 contracts. The open interest stood at about 430,000 contracts on that day.
jlne.ws/1HVKJD4
Dubai Financial Services Authority grants “Recognised body” status to DGCX
LeapRate
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the regulator for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), has granted the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) and its CCP Operator division – Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC), a status of a “Recognised Body”.
The Recognized Body status enables financial institutions domiciled in the DIFC, a special free zone in Dubai, to become members of the DGCX.
jlne.ws/1cGbdzN
Hedge Funds & Managed Futures
#TTtraining: Analytics and Charting
TT Trade Talk by Andre Russell, Manager, Documentation and Training
We’re excited to announce our one-stop online destination for all training materials related to the TT platform. The new training site contains training videos and materials targeted to both traders and administrators, with even more topics in development. The site also allows users with a TT login to save training materials under the My Tutorials section for later viewing.
jlne.ws/1Jy48Ql
Mars warns Brussels’ raw materials regulation will hit consumers
Emiko Terazono and Philip Stafford, FT
A visit to the petrol station for chocolate and fuel may become more expensive if proposed revisions to European financial market rules are implemented, industry executives have warned.
jlne.ws/1FKa01L
U.S. Is Awash in Glut of Scrap Materials; A strong dollar, slowing Chinese economy cut into demand abroad for salvaged metal and paper
By JAMES R. HAGERTY and BOB TITA, WSJ
American companies have complained for the past year that the headwinds of a strong dollar and a slowing Chinese economy are hurting their earnings.
jlne.ws/1Jy1GJE
BlackRock takes another swipe at Pimco
Chris Newlands and David Ricketts, FT
BlackRock, the world’s largest fund company, has taken a potshot at rival investment house Pimco as part of its plea to regulators that funds should not be classified as “too big to fail”.
jlne.ws/1GkmvpB
Dow Theory Has Investors Skittish on Market’s Next Leg; Century-old stock-market tool is signaling a correction could be coming
By CORRIE DRIEBUSCH, WSJ
Warning signals from a century-old stock-market analysis tool known as Dow Theory are sparking debate about whether stocks are headed for a fall.
jlne.ws/1FK7fh4
Asset manager John Keeley dies at 75
By LYNNE MAREK, Crain’s Chicago Business
John Keeley, who founded Keeley Asset Management, died yesterday at the age of 75, leaving behind a boutique Chicago investment firm known nationally for value investing.
jlne.ws/1AUWkoJ
The plight of the asset-less 40-somethings who cannot get on the housing ladder
The Telegraph
Sky high house prices and tight mortgage lending keep 35 to 49 years olds trapped in renting and throwing away billions
jlne.ws/1T6lOp9
Bill Gross Will Manage Money for ‘Old Friend’ at Janus
By KIRSTEN GRIND, WSJ
Chalk up a win for Bill Gross. Following his departure last September from Pacific Investment Management Co., investors have shown lackluster interest in his new mutual fund at rival Janus Capital Group Inc.JNS +2.29%
jlne.ws/1dUCqjI
Why Mutual Funds Should Pay Investors for Loyalty
By JASON ZWEIG, WSJ
Talk to any money-management executive for more than two minutes and you will get an earful about how impatient investors are. And it is true: Individuals and institutions alike chase performance in good times and bail out in bad times.
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Hedge funds up 3.9 percent through May, beat S&P 500 -data
Reuters
The average hedge fund inched up 0.72 percent in May and is up 3.89 percent for the year through the end of May, according to data released on Friday that show the funds outperforming the broader stock index.
jlne.ws/1cDYkWZ
More ‘death bond’ investors see values plummet
Judith Evans, FT
Investors in a suspended fund that holds traded life policies or so-called “death bonds” have been told the value of their investment has fallen by 60 per cent in a year, in the latest example of big losses in the asset class.
jlne.ws/1AUWpJb
Calpers to Cut External Money Managers by Half; The largest U.S. public pension fund intends to sever ties with roughly half of the firms handling its money
By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN, WSJ
The largest U.S. public pension fund intends to sever ties with roughly half of the firms handling its money, one of the most aggressive industry moves yet to reduce fees paid to Wall Street investment managers.
jlne.ws/1QDMtFN
Banks & Brokers
High Hopes for John Cryan, Deutsche Bank’s New Chief, Known for His Pragmatism
By JENNY ANDERSON, NY Times
John Cryan, a former finance chief at UBS who Deutsche Bank said on Sunday would become the bank’s new chief executive, brings many qualities to the table, colleagues say.
Mr. Cryan is smart, clinical and, perhaps most important, knows how to make big banks swallow bitter pills.
jlne.ws/1RX2GIM
A New Hand on Helm at Deutsche Bank
Former UBS finance chief is expected to distance German lender from legal problems
By JENNY STRASBURG and EYK HENNING, WSJ
John Cryan, Deutsche Bank AG’s next chief executive officer, is expected to continue sharply cutting costs while also moving Germany’s biggest lender past long-standing conduct issues and regulatory challenges that have dogged it in recent years, according to several people familiar with his appointment.
jlne.ws/1KPbwUC
Hard slog remains for Deutsche Bank as Anshu Jain walks away
Martin Arnold and James Shotter, FT
Anshu Jain knows his longstanding detractors are likely to say that he was ousted as co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank — and he is determined to rebuff this idea.
jlne.ws/1JBVmiW
Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen to step down at Deutsche Bank
James Shotter in Frankfurt and Martin Arnold in London, FT
Anshu Jain, one of the most prominent European investment bankers of the past decade, is to step down as Deutsche Bank’s co-chief executive, the latest in a string of high profile exits from global banks.
jlne.ws/1FDXuSg
Merrill Gives Brokers Bigger Leeway to Slash Fees; Move permits brokers greater leeway in discounting clients shifting to new advisory program
By MICHAEL WURSTHORN
Merrill Lynch brokers now have more flexibility to cut fees for clients moved onto its new advisory platform.
jlne.ws/1eV5QOU
Deutsche Bank probes possible money laundering by Russian clients
James Shotter in Frankfurt, Kathrin Hille in Moscow and Caroline Binham in London, FT
Deutsche Bank is conducting an internal investigation into whether about $6bn of trades by Russian clients breached anti-money laundering rules.
jlne.ws/1F1xw9J
Bank Tellers Draw Scrutiny Over Security; New York official urges banks to take steps to limit access to data
By CHRISTINA REXRODE, WSJ
Banks have hired armies of security experts to combat shadowy hackers from breaking into customer accounts.
jlne.ws/1KVWiAD
Three Swedish banks accused of ‘closet tracking’
Madison Marriage, FT
Three of Sweden’s four largest banks have been accused of mis-selling funds to retail investors as the scrutiny on funds that charge high fees for active management but mimic an index intensifies.
jlne.ws/1QDKIZc
Clearing & Settlement
LCH.Clearnet hires Goldman exec for futures push
By Tim Cave, Financial News
LCH.Clearnet, the international clearing house owned by the London Stock Exchange, has hired a clearing executive from Goldman Sachs, a move which will help drive what it has termed a “transformational” initiative designed to reduce the capital banks have to put up against derivatives trades.
jlne.ws/1dXeL2m
Indexes & Products
Indexes Open China to Millions More; MSCI to decide whether to include mainland stocks in its emerging-market and global indexes
By CHAO DENG and JACKY WONG, WSJ
Global investors are soon going to get a taste of stock trading, China-style.
jlne.ws/1Ixea40
STOXX Launches True Exposure Index Family To Help Investors Achieve Efficient Strategic Asset Allocation
Press Release
STOXX Limited, a leading provider of innovative, tradable and global index concepts, today announced the launch of the STOXX True Exposure index family, in short STOXX TRU. The indices allow investments in predefined countries or regions by selecting companies that have a dominant economic exposure to the targeted area. By enabling investors to sharpen portfolio exposure to selected regions, these indices allow for improved asset allocation that significantly de-risks portfolios with the same regional allocations.
jlne.ws/1dXw2bG
Technology
Volante Technologies signs strategic partnership with Access to Arabia
Volante Technologies
Designed to address the migration of Jordanian payments to new ISO 20022-based message standards
Volante Technologies, a global leader in the provision of financial message and data integration, validation and processing software, today announced a strategic partnership with Access to Arabia (A2A). The initial focus of the partnership is to aid banks in Jordan, many of whom are existing A2A clients, migrate to ISO 20022-based payment messages.
(No Link)
HackerOne Connects Hackers With Companies, and Hopes for a Win-Win
By NICOLE PERLROTH, NY Times
In 2011, two Dutch hackers in their early 20s made a target list of 100 high-tech companies they would try to hack. Soon, they had found security vulnerabilities in Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and 95 other companies’ systems.
jlne.ws/1Jy54Ev
Google Misses Out on Apple’s Slice of Mobile Transactions; Credit-card issuers’ standardized security system means a loss of fee revenue
By ALISTAIR BARR and ROBIN SIDEL, WSJ
Google Inc. won’t earn any transaction fees from credit-card issuers for its coming mobile-phone payments service, unlike Apple Inc., because of evolving ground rules for the services.
jlne.ws/1AW27dX
Health tech start-ups target internet talent
By Richard Waters in San Francisco, FT
A new wave of data-intensive “health tech” companies is drawing talent from the internet world as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and intensive data analysis are brought to bear on health.
jlne.ws/1FK50tU
Duco Signs Seven New Clients on Four Continents
LONDON, June 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Press Release
Duco, a London-based financial technology (fintech) provider of hosted reconciliation services, today announced that the firm has signed seven new clients on four continents in the last 12 weeks. The latest firms to adopt the award-winning Duco Cube on-demand reconciliation system include a “Tier 1″ global bank, a major inter-dealer broker, a Chicago-based futures clearing firm, two proprietary trading firms in Europe and the U.S., and a Singapore-based physical bullion platform.
jlne.ws/1dXvT7Y
Enforcement
SEC Charges CSC and Former Executives With Accounting Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Computer Sciences Corporation and former executives with manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract. The SEC additionally charged former finance executives involved with CSC’s international businesses for ignoring basic accounting standards to increase reported profits.
jlne.ws/1Qehhlw
CFTC Staff Announces it is Issuing No-Action Relief from Introducing Broker and Commodity Trading Advisor Registration to Persons Located Outside the United States Engaged in Activities on behalf of Customers that are International Financial Institutions
CFTC
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (Commission) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) today announced it will not recommend that the Commission take action for failure to register as an introducing broker or commodity trading advisor against persons located outside the United States that facilitate swap transactions for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) that have offices in the United States.
jlne.ws/1BRBIc4
Lloyds Bank Fined $180 Million Over Handling of Insurance Complaints
By CHAD BRAY and PATRICK SCOTT, NY Toimes
British regulators on Friday said they had imposed a fine of about $180 million on the Lloyds Banking Group over its handling of customer complaints about a contentious loan insurance product that has cost the industry billions of dollars. As a result, the bank said it would cut its 2015 bonus pool.
jlne.ws/1dpNogq
Environmental & Energy
North Dakota refuses to flinch as OPEC keeps output high
BY ERNEST SCHEYDER, Reuters
Oil executives in North Dakota, a center of the U.S. shale revolution, say OPEC made a questionable bet when it decided on Friday to stick with a policy that aims to push higher cost American producers out of the market by keeping output high.
jlne.ws/1eV5AQ8
Patagonian shale raises hopes and fears
Benedict Mander in Añelo, FT
Dario Díaz will never forget the day two years ago when Argentina’s biggest company, YPF, and the US oil major Chevron signed a $1.2bn deal to develop what is now the biggest shale field outside the US next to the dusty little town of Añelo.
jlne.ws/1AVYi8A
Asia-Pacific
HKEx to Host its Second RMB FIC Conference on 11 June
HKEx
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) is hosting its second annual renminbi (RMB) fixed income and currency (FIC) conference on Thursday, 11 June 2015 in Hong Kong as it looks to build on the momentum of Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, its ground-breaking mutual market access programme with Mainland China.
jlne.ws/1G5L87V
Japan economy grows 3.9% in first quarter
Robin Harding in Tokyo and Patrick McGee in Hong Kong, FT
Japan’s economy grew at an annualised pace of 3.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2015 as revised data showed the best performance since the introduction of last year’s consumption tax rise.
jlne.ws/1dXadZN
Frontier Markets
DGCX Group receives ‘Recognised Body’ Status by DFSA
DGCX
Recognition allows DIFC registered entities access to DGCX Group to trade and clear wide ranging products
The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) and its CCP Operator arm, Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC) has been granted the status of a ‘Recognised Body’ by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the regulatory authority for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), enabling DIFC companies to access its products.
jlne.ws/1BTy0ih
Iranian entrepreneurs thirst for foreign funding, expertise
By Georgina Prodhan, Reuters
Tohid Tasoujian is a co-founder of online fashion store Taxi Moda and one of a growing breed of Internet entrepreneurs in sanctions-hit Iran.
jlne.ws/1QgXK3Y
What stockbrokers want from the Buhari administration – CIS President
Daily Trust
President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr Oluwaseyi Emmanuel Abe, in a chat with journalists in Lagos recently, urges President Muhammadu Buhari to finance major government projects through the capital market
jlne.ws/1eXnNwq
Miscellaneous
Daphne Koller on the Future of Online Education; The Coursera co-founder on the advantages of learning online—and why traditional universities aren’t going to disappear
By ALEXANDRA WOLFE
“If you put an instructor to sleep 300 years ago and woke him up in a classroom today, he’ll say, ‘Oh, I know exactly where I am,” says Daphne Koller, co-founder of the online-education company Coursera. The same couldn’t be said for agriculture, manufacturing and health care, she notes.
jlne.ws/1HVMXSZ
U.S. Farmers Fear Fallout From Any Monsanto-Syngenta Deal; Agribusiness giant has made a $45 billion bid for the Swiss company
By JACOB BUNGE, WSJ
Agribusiness giant Monsanto Co.’s pursuit of Syngenta AG is sowing fears in the U.S. Farm Belt that another round of industry consolidation will eliminate a top competitor for farmers’ business and boost prices for seeds and pesticides.
jlne.ws/1G5FYsB
New York Times bets on London over Paris
Matthew Garrahan in New York, FT
The New York Times is ramping up its presence in London at the expense of its long-term European headquarters in Paris, a shift it attributes to France’s inflexible employment laws.
jlne.ws/1KjH6fg
Bridging the Week by Gary DeWaal: June 1 to 5 and 8, 2015 (BitLicense, Reg SHO, TRACE, CCPs, Manipulation and Shakespeare)
www.bridgingtheweek.com
Last week, the New York State Department of Financial Services enacted a requirement that all financial intermediaries engaging in a virtual currency business with a connection to New York State must first obtain a newly established BitLicense unless expressly exempted. In addition, the CFTC chairman provided insight into where the Commission may be headed in connection with its possible oversight of proprietary traders and algorithmic trading systems, while multiple respondents were fined for violations of Reg SHO, TRACE, position limits or non-disruptive trading requirements. Two firms, however, disputed CFTC allegations regarding their alleged manipulative conduct.
jlne.ws/1dXwaYC
READ MORE: John Lothian: Deutsche Bank Co-CEOs Jain and Fitschen Resign; Creative traders flock to China’s derivative markets, ups risk profile; Lehman to Pay Barclays $1.3 Billion to Settle Suit.