TP ICAP Plans to Buy Louis Capital Markets and MidCap Partner

TP ICAP intends to buy European brokerage group Louis Capital Markets and MidCap Partners for $21 million in cash. It will also pay deferred sums based on non-contingent and contingent considerations. The interdealer broker expects to complete the deal in the first quarter of 2020, strengthening its equity, equity derivatives and fixed income product line-up and its position in Continental Europe. Louis Capital operates in London and Paris, with other offices in New York, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv.

TAIFEX Plans Real-time Market Data Feed

The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) is planning to provide a real-time market data feed from March 23, 2020. The feed will be introduced at the same time as continuous trading on Taiwan’s stock market, which currently uses the call auction trading method during trading hours. TAIFEX’s existing data feed disseminates a snapshot of prices and volumes of the best five bids eight times a second. From March 2020, market participants and data vendors can choose to connect to the new real-time or existing data feed.

ESMA Announces MiFID Scheduled Publication Dates for 2020

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its 2020 calendar of MiFID II/MiFIR relevant publications for the transparency regime and systematic internalisers’ tests, to assist market participants planning for the next 12 months. The calendar covers non-daily publications (excluding daily reference data and transparency calculations for recently-listed instruments). Double volume cap data will also be released on the fifth working day of each month.

From April onwards, ESMA for the first time plans to publish transparency and systemic internalisers calculations for derivatives. These were not included in 2019 due to data quality issues.

ComplySci Launches London Office

Automated compliance management solutions provider ComplySci has expanded its global presence with a new London office, housing 13 full-time staff led by Kyri Yiannakis, Managing Director and Head of EMEA. The move follows the firm’s October 2019 expansion into a new 18,000 square foot headquarters in New York.

ComplySci is backed by Vista Equity Partners, a specialist investment firm exclusively focused on enterprise software, data and technology-enabled organizations.

Plato and BMLL partner to deliver market quality metrics tool Platometrics

Plato Partnership, a not-for-profit company working to improve the European equities market, and BMLL Technologies, a data analytics firm, have released Platometrics, a market quality metrics tool providing market participants with a picture of trading data and trends from European venues, free of charge. The solution provides a consolidated overview of liquidity, European best bid offer across exchanges at any specific point in time; and market quality metrics covering a large range of instruments for individual stock analysis and venues for performance comparison. Metrics are available on transaction date plus one day, with up to six months of historical data.

State Street collaborates with Gemini on digital asset pilot

State Street has started a digital asset pilot with Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian. The pilot builds on ongoing research and development to combine Gemini Custody with State Street’s back office reporting, and performs reporting scenarios on a user’s holdings within Gemini Custody. Initially, the pilot reports holdings of two cryptocurrencies chosen for liquidity reasons. However, it can be adapted to report on holdings of other digital assets, such as security tokens. It allows users to consolidate the reporting of digital assets serviced by Gemini, an independent digital asset custodian, with traditional assets serviced by State Street.

Basel Committee Launches Consolidated Basel Framework

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has launched a new consolidated framework, bringing together all of its 14 global standards for the regulation and supervision of banks and financial institutions for the first time on a new section of its website. The framework is the finalised version following the incorporation of feedback submitted against a draft published in April 2019.

Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines Selects LSEG Technology for Post Trade Processing

The Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines (SCCP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), has selected LSEG Technology’s Millennium Post Trade solution to improve its post trade processes. As part of the agreement, LSEG Technology will implement Millennium Clearing and Millennium Risk products, enhancing SCCP’s clearing, settlement, risk and collateral management capabilities and helping it meet global best practices and standards such as CPMI-IOSCO principles for financial market infrastructure.

SteelEye Extends Reach with Office in Paris

SteelEye, a compliance technology and data analytics firm, has taken the next step in its international expansion with the opening of an office in Paris. The office supports SteelEye’s rapid growth and positions the company closer to regulated financial markets in France, as well as the Benelux region, Switzerland and many of its existing clients. Since its inception in 2017, SteelEye has acquired over 40 clients across seven countries. CEO Matt Smith says: “After a successful first two years’ operating out of the UK, we now want to enable more firms to realise the benefits of the SteelEye platform.”

Trading Technologies Contracts SBI Thai Online to Distribute Platform

Trading Technologies International (TT) has contracted with SBI Thai Online, a Bangkok-based broker and subsidiary of SBI Group, to distribute the TT platform to its client base. The agreement will allow SBI Thai Online to provide international clients with access to the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX) via the exchange’s proprietary EMAPI API from within TFEX’s SET data centre in Bangkok. Clients will have access to TT platform’s full range of trading tools, including Autospreader, ADL and APIs.