European Parliament and Council Approve Commission’s Ratings Agencies Regulations
The European Parliament and the European Council have both approved the recently proposed regulation on credit ratings agencies, tabled by the European Commission earlier this year. The new regulation will put in place a common regulatory regime for the issuance of credit ratings with a view to restoring market confidence in the sector and increasing...
JSCC and Tokyo Financial Exchange Plan Introduction of IRS and CDS CCP
The Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) and the Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX) have confirmed that they are both planning to introduce clearing for credit derivatives this year, in the form of interest rate swaps (IRSs) and credit default swaps (CDSs). Both parties have been planning the move for around six months and are currently in...
Rigel Capital Rolls Out FundWorks Global’s FundReports6 to Automate Reporting Process
Seattle-based institutional asset management firm Rigel Capital has gone live with FundReports6, FundWorks Global’s enterprise client communications and reporting platform, to meet its institutional reporting requirements. The firm decided to replace its previously manual monthly and quarterly institutional reporting process in order to speed up report production and reduce the risks in the process, says...
SEC’s Ratings Roundtable Agrees to Change Fee Structures for Ratings Agencies
This week’s long awaited Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) roundtable on the future of the ratings agencies threw up very few surprises. The regulator’s chairman Mary Schapiro confirmed that the agency is planning to change the way that ratings agencies are paid to minimise the potential of conflicts of interest and roundtable participants agreed there...
Vendors Scramble to Upgrade Solutions to Support ISDA’s US CDS Big Bang
Ahead of the introduction of the new credit default swap (CDS) standard protocol on 8 April, the vendor community has been busy upgrading their various solutions to meet the changes for pricing single name CDS contracts. To this end, financial analytics and valuations provider Fincad has updated its Fincad Analytics Suite 2009 for Excel to...
ICE Trust Claims Clearance of US$71 Billion in First Four Weeks
Following its launch on 9 March, IntercontinentalExchange’s clearing counterparty (CCP) for the credit default swap (CDS) market, ICE Trust, has cleared US$71 billion of CDS index contracts, says Dirk Pruis, president and chief operating officer of the CCP. ICE Trust was the first CCP to clear CDS transactions in the US market, as it gained...
CESR to Get New Regulatory Powers Over Credit Ratings Agencies, SEC Plans Roundtable on Subject
Somebody should have told the credit ratings agencies to beware the ides of March. Regulators from both sides of the Atlantic have been scrutinising the ratings community this month: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is gearing up for its roundtable discussion on the subject on 15 April and there are ongoing discussions within the...
ICE US Trust is First CCP to Clear CDS Trades in US Market
Following its approval two weeks ago by the regulatory powers that be, IntercontinentalExchange’s ICE US Trust has become the first clearing central counterparty (CCP) to clear credit default swap (CDS) transactions in the US market. According to ICE, it pipped rival CME Group to the post by guaranteeing 91 swaps transactions valued at US$7.1 billion...
Broadridge Signs Strategic Alliance with Oracle for Mantas Compliance Solution
Representing its third partnership agreement this month, Broadridge Financial Solutions has signed another strategic alliance, this time with Oracle Financial Services Software to offer a best practices compliance solution for financial institutions using Oracle Mantas. Under this new agreement, Broadridge hopes to offer financial institutions a one stop shop for compliance via a managed solution...
FRSGlobal Launches New Liquidity Risk Solution for Compliance with UK’s CP 08/22
Risk and regulatory reporting solution vendor FRSGlobal has launched its new Liquidity Risk solution, aimed at enabling financial institutions to meet the requirements proposed by the UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) Consultation Paper (CP) 08/22. According to Thomas Brouwer, product manager at the vendor, the combined risk and regulatory platform meets its customers’ demands for...