BIDS Trading (Block Interest Discovery Service), the newly formed alternative trading system (ATS) designed to increase competition and liquidity in the U.S. equity block trading market, has named industry veteran Richard Levin as general counsel, chief compliance officer and secretary to the board of directors.
Revelus, a business of i-flex solutions and a provider of analytical applications for the financial services industry, yesterday announced the availability of the Revelus Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) framework, a solution for implementing a governance structure, managing enterprise risk, and enabling regulatory compliance.
On Friday the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), extended three of the future compliance dates for Rule 610 and Rule 611 of Regulation NMS, the US equivalent of the Markets In Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
RIXML.org, a consortium of buy-side, sell-side and vendor firms that is developing the first open standard for investment research, says SNL Financial, an information and research firm, has joined the organisation.
JWG-IT Group Ltd, a technology think-tank that covers EU regulatory change, and Eukleia Training Ltd, a compliance training company, have formed a partnership to provide Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) related training.
Progress Software, a supplier of application infrastructure software used to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, has announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to provide its Progress Apama Event Processing Platform as a key component of Microsoft's MiFID solution suite. The solution will enable financial institutions worldwide to meet European MiFID requirements that go into effect on 1 Novembver 2007, the firm says. The Apama platform will provide Complex Event Processing (CEP) and Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) capabilities, enabling firms to monitor and analyse their MiFID best execution compliance, as well as meet the reporting, reference data and trade history requirements.
On Friday the Financial Services Authority (FSA) published a Policy Statement and Handbook that it says finalises its transposition of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) for FSA-regulated firms and markets by the European Union deadline of 31 January 2007.
MiFID will bring to the surface over 100 million additional trades annually in the three largest EU jurisdictions of France, Germany, and the UK, according to a new report on the directive by consultants Celent. Spending will increase as well, but at a slower rate, from €38 million a year to nearly €50 million.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has applauded the approval by member firms of the National Association of Securities Dealers (B+NASD) of the consolidation of regulation by the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
In an HSBC-sponsored study, Edhec-Risk Advisory questioned 127 buy-side firms about their level of preparedness for MiFID's Article 21, which stipulates that firms must prove compliance with a Best Execution strategy. 26 responses to Edhec's questionnaire were provided by hedge fund managers while 101 responses came from traditional asset management firms.