News Centre

Statement By U.S. Department Of The Treasury Assistant Secretary For Economic Policy Jan Eberly For The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee Of The Securities Industry And Financial Markets Association

Date 30/04/2012

The economy continued to expand at a moderate pace in early 2012, and labor market conditions improved. The rate of hiring accelerated and the unemployment rate continued to decline, although it remains elevated at 8.2 percent. The improvement in the job market, along with continued moderate growth in consumption, signs of a modest recovery in the housing sector, and strong gains in equity markets have contributed to a somewhat brighter near-term outlook since the beginning of the year. A consensus of private forecasters expects growth to strengthen gradually going forward, although forecasters expect additional progress in reducing the unemployment rate further this year to be limited. Notwithstanding these bright spots, we remain concerned about the potential risks posed by high oil prices, sovereign debt strains in Europe, and the slowdown in global growth more broadly. The Administration has proposed a number of measures to support the U.S. economy in the near term, including providing additional funding for jobs and training programs, further opportunities for underwater mortgage-holders to refinance their loans at lower interest rates, and incentives for small businesses to promote a faster pace of job creation. These short-term initiatives would not jeopardize longer-term efforts to rein in the federal deficit. The federal budget deficit is projected to decline as a share of the economy in FY2012 to 8.5 percent of GDP from 8.7 percent in FY2012, and narrow significantly thereafter to less than 3 percent of GDP by the end of the decade.

U.S. Treasury Announces Marketable Borrowing Estimates

Date 30/04/2012

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced its current estimates of net marketable borrowing for the April - June and July – September 2012 quarters:

During the April - June 2012 quarter, Treasury expects to issue $182 billion in net marketable debt, assuming an end-of-June cash balance of $95 billion. This borrowing estimate is $19 billion lower than announced in January 2012. The decrease is primarily due to projections of lower outlays and higher issuances of State and Local Government securities, partially offset by lower receipts.

Canadian Securities Regulators Grant Designated Rating Organization Status Under New Regulatory Framework

Date 30/04/2012

The Canadian Securities Administrators announced today the official designation of DBRS Limited, Fitch, Inc., Moody’s Canada Inc., and Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (Canada) as Designated Rating Organizations (DROs) under applicable Canadian securities laws, as contemplated under National Instrument 25-101 Designated Rating Organizations (NI 25-101).

Financial Services Industry Rallies Around OpenMAMA Project As It Delivers First Release - The Linux Foundation-Hosted OpenMAMA Project Fosters Increasing Collaboration On Open Source Technologies For Financial Services; New Steering Committee Participants Include IBM, Tick42 And TS-Associates

Date 30/04/2012

OpenMAMA, a Linux Foundation Labs (https://www.linuxfoundation.org/labs) project, today announced the availability of OpenMAMA 2.1, the open source Middleware Agnostic Messaging API and the first neutral standard in data messaging for financial services.

2012 NASDAQ OMX Analyst/Investor Day

Date 30/04/2012

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. ("NASDAQ OMX®") (Nasdaq:NDAQ) will hold its 2012 Analyst/Investor Day on Thursday, May 10, 2012. NASDAQ's senior executive team will conduct an in-depth discussion of the company's operations, objectives, and strategy. Analysts and investors who wish to attend should RSVP to investor.relations@nasdaqomx.com

Trading In Irish Market Up 26% To Over €10bn

Date 30/04/2012

• Value of ISEQ quoted companies rises by over 20% to €105 billion
• All ISEQ indices grow by more than 10% in Q1
• Turnover in Irish Government securities doubles to €25bn

Athens Exchange: Market Operations Committee Decision

Date 30/04/2012

The Market Operations Committee of ATHEX, during today's session, approved the application of price fluctuation limits of ±10%, for May 2012, for the low turnover velocity Stocks of the ATHEX Main Market (monthly average velocity of last month less or equal to 0.01%) presented in Table 1, according to the ATHEX Board Decision 22. 

FSB Enhances Its Process For Ongoing Monitoring Of Compensation Practices

Date 30/04/2012

The 2011 FSB peer review on compensation indicated that good progress has been made in implementing the FSB Principles and Standards on Sound Compensation Practices (“Principles and Standards”), but that more work is necessary to overcome constraints to full implementation by individual national authorities and to address concerns by firms of an uneven playing field. Following the completion of the peer review, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) was tasked by the G20 to undertake ongoing monitoring and public reporting on further progress in compensation practices.

ISE Premium Hosted Database™ Launches With Comprehensive Tick Data And Analytics - Hosted Solution Provides Straightforward Access To Over 200 Terabytes Of Data

Date 30/04/2012

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) announced today that it has launched the ISE Premium Hosted Database™ (ISE PhD™). ISE PhD™ is a fully managed historical tick database that offers full OPRA data including all quotes and trades from all exchanges, U.S. equities level one data, pre-computed implied volatilities and Greeks, full corporate action histories, and ISE Open/Close trade data.    

Direct Edge Trading Notice #12-18: Update: Message Efficiency Incentive Program Postponed Until June 1, 2012

Date 30/04/2012

As announced, Direct Edge will introduce the Message Efficiency Incentive Program (MEIP).  Members of EDGA Exchange, Inc. and EDGX Exchange, Inc. will receive standard rebates only in instances where the Member’s average monthly inbound message-to-trade ratio is at or less than 100 to 1. Members with a monthly average of more than 100 to 1 will have their rebate reduced by $0.0001 per share, regardless of the tier for which they would otherwise qualify. (Note: Inbound messages are defined to include orders, cancels, and cancel/replace messages.)