News Centre

The Payments Association Echoes Industry Calls For Policymakers And The Fintech Sector To Support Consumers With Community Finance

Date 18/06/2024

• 12.9 million adults (one in four) in the UK have low financial resilience and a record 6.7 million are now in severe financial difficulty.
• The Payments Association’s “Redefining Community Finance: Unlocking Pathways to Financial Inclusion” whitepaper highlights the role of community finance organisations in expanding access to financially underserved communities across the UK.
• The paper identifies barriers like limited reach due to language barriers and biases, and common bond requirements, as well as stifling regulations designed for larger institutions.
• The paper proposes policy recommendations which have been crafted following extensive conversations with experts across academia, the industry, the third sector and regulators, as well as a review of other studies which have looked at how the community finance sector can help tackle financial exclusion.

SIX Launches New Global Equity Indices

Date 18/06/2024

The global financial information provider SIX has launched today a family of global equity indices designed specifically for the retail, private banking, and asset management sector. This marks the company’s latest move in its push to further strengthen its position as a global index and data provider.

Trading Technologies Broadens Product Line With New Offerings For Futures TCA And Multi-Asset Trade Surveillance - TT® Futures TCA And TT® Trade Surveillance Announced At FIA International Derivatives Expo In London

Date 18/06/2024

Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced the introduction of TT Futures TCA and TT Trade Surveillance, two new offerings that significantly enhance its Data & Analytics and Compliance lines of business. TT Futures TCA, a comprehensive transaction cost analysis (TCA) tool for futures trading, leverages the largest collection of anonymized, millisecond-level futures market and trade data with a vast array of metrics and measures. TT Trade Surveillance, powered by the proprietary SCORE machine learning algorithm, combines new multi-asset coverage and dozens of new configurable models with the machine learning-driven models from TT Score, the company's first-generation trade surveillance platform. The firm plans to upgrade and shift all TT Score users to TT Trade Surveillance in the second half of this year.

8th Bilateral Monetary Authority Of Singapore-China Securities Regulatory Commission Roundtable Fosters Greater Cooperation In Capital Markets Activities

Date 18/06/2024

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) affirmed their commitment to strengthen supervisory cooperation and enhance collaboration in capital markets at their annual supervisory roundtable held on 14 June 2024. The roundtable was co-chaired by MAS’ Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision) Ms Ho Hern Shin and CSRC’s Vice Chairman Mr Chen Huaping.

Monetary Authority Of Singapore: The Start Of Financial Transparency Corridor (FTC) Initiative between Singapore And Cambodia

Date 18/06/2024

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) today announced the start of the Financial Transparency Corridor (FTC) initiative between Singapore and Cambodia. The FTC commemoration event was held at Istana, Singapore, and was presided over by His Excellency Lawrence WONG, Prime Minister of Singapore and Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei HUN Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, during the official visit by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia to Singapore from June 18 to 19, 2024.

A Transformative Experience, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, At The 2024 Marshall Forum: A U.S.-U.K. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Chicago, Illinois

Date 18/06/2024

Thank you, John. And thank you to the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and the commissioners for this most extraordinary honor. To be mentioned alongside previous Marshall Medal recipients, such as Secretary Madeleine Albright, Secretary Colin Powell, Justice Stephen Breyer, and eminent political scientist and university president Nan Keohane, is humbling. The distinction is especially meaningful to me, because I have taken great pride in being a Marshall Scholar from the moment I was selected during my senior year at Spelman College. In the years since, I have enjoyed meeting and being inspired by Marshall Scholars throughout the country and around the world. I also have enjoyed reviewing the applications of future Marshall Scholars, one way in which I have taken seriously the responsibility to serve as an ambassador for the program. I look forward to continuing to serve in such an ambassadorial role as a Marshall Medal recipient. Again, I am beyond grateful to the Commission for the truly humbling and thrilling honor.

CFTC To Hold A Commission Open Meeting June 24

Date 17/06/2024

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam today announced the Commission will hold an open meeting on Monday, June 24 at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) at the CFTC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. Members of the public can attend the meeting in person, listen by phone, or view a live stream at CFTC.gov.

CFTC Awards Over $8 Million To Insider Whistleblower Who Aided CFTC And Other Agency Actions

Date 17/06/2024

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it awarded over $8 million to one insider whistleblower who provided significant information and assistance that led the CFTC and other agencies to bring multiple enforcement actions. The whistleblower helped the CFTC establish that one or more derivatives market participants deceived clients about key aspects of trades. 

Statement Of CFTC Commissioner Caroline D. Pham Regarding Settlement Order With Trafigura Trading LLC

Date 17/06/2024

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Caroline D. Pham released the following statement regarding the CFTC’s administrative order regarding Trafigura Trading LLC announced today:

“While I commend the CFTC Division of Enforcement for their efforts to pursue manipulation in global markets, the Commission inappropriately tacks on an additional charge to fly under the radar with a wholly new interpretation of a 7-year-old rule that has never been the subject of a staff advisory or other notice to the public since it was issued. I’m incredibly grateful for those whistleblowers that report bad actors–often at great risk to their own wellbeing. Of course, we should always encourage open lines of communications and prevent whistleblowers from being silenced. But this settlement order essentially wordsmiths job offer letters and other employment-related agreements with confidentiality provisions for commodity firms around the world that have no CFTC registration requirements and other market participants. Because the settlement order not only inaccurately uses the term “non-disclosure agreements,” but also fails to include important details about what contractual language the CFTC thinks violates Regulation 165.19, companies and lawyers all over the world are left playing a guessing game to revise tens or hundreds of thousands of documents for both current and former employees that fail to include a carve-out for the magic words “Commodity Futures Trading Commission.” I made numerous requests for examples of the agreements that the CFTC found violative, and I received only one job offer letter and one separation agreement. Only the job offer letter had language requiring written pre-approval from the firm regarding confidential information, similar to prior SEC—not CFTC—enforcement actions, but it also had two savings clauses that voided any language that may violate any law or regulation whether current or prospective. In addition, the firm did not enforce these confidentiality provisions and the separation agreement actually required cooperation in government investigations. Let me be clear: These were not “non-disclosure agreements” as is commonly understood by in-house lawyers and external legal counsel. The Commission once again overreaches in its zeal to fine millions of dollars for technical issues like nitpicking legal documents in the absence of a firm taking any action to “enforc[e] [] confidentiality and pre-dispute arbitration clauses respecting actions by potential whistleblowers in any pre-employment, employment or post-employment agreements” as stated in the Commission’s only interpretation of Regulation 165.19 to date, in its 2016 proposed rulemaking. As I keep reminding the Commission, we are not the SEC, and the SEC’s orders or precedents do not provide sufficient notice to the public for CFTC interpretations because we are a different agency with a different statute, regulations, and markets."

FIA May 2024 SEF Tracker

Date 17/06/2024