Traders World

ICD To Begin Processing CDS in March

2009-03-06T22:29:00.000Z

IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE:ICE) ,today announced that ICE US Trust, LLC (ICE Trust), a New York limited liability trust company, will begin processing and clearing credit default swap (CDS) index transactions on March 9, 2009. Clearing of North American Markit CDX indexes is expected to be followed by liquid single-name CDS in the following months. ICE Trust has entered into an agreement with Markit to produce daily settlement prices required for mark-to-market pricing, margining and clearing.

ICE also announced the closing of its acquisition of The Clearing Corporation (TCC) on March 6, 2009. TCC developed the CDS risk management framework, operational processes and infrastructure for ICE Trust's clearing operations.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today issued an exemptive order permitting ICE Trust to clear CDS transactions. In December 2008, ICE Trust received approval from the New York State Banking Department (NYBD), and on March 5, 2009, the Superintendent of the NYBD issued the authorization certificate to ICE Trust to commence business as a regulated bank based in New York. These approvals, combined with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' approval received on March 4, mark the completion of the required regulatory reviews prior to the launch of ICE Trust.

"Regulatory approval allows ICE Trust to bring to market the most comprehensive range of CDS clearing and risk management services available today," said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Chairman and CEO of ICE. "ICE Trust has been designed to further enhance well-functioning CDS markets by reducing counterparty and systemic risks, and increasing transparency and capital efficiency in the CDS markets. ICE will continue to work closely with the Federal Reserve and other regulatory bodies in the U.S. and abroad in implementing risk management solutions for the vital credit markets."

"Robust counterparty risk management is a cornerstone to the success of privately negotiated derivatives and of the ISDA architecture," said Eraj Shirvani, ISDA Chairman and Head of Fixed Income for EMEA, Credit Suisse. "The development of options that deliver strength, flexibility and transparency to clearing and settlement are key to the evolution of CDS. We in the industry welcome solutions that help us achieve these goals."

Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS have supported the establishment of the clearing house for CDS transactions, and are the initial clearing members of ICE Trust. Each of these participants has completed a rigorous technical testing and validation process over the past several months. In addition, each member has made a significant contribution to establish the ICE Trust guaranty fund, which will continue to increase as positions are transferred into the clearing house.

TCC's risk management systems were developed internally based on a proprietary risk assessment methodology designed specifically for the CDS market, and have been reviewed and validated by Finance Concepts, an independent risk management consultancy, as part of the regulatory review process. TCC's methodology will be used by the clearing house to determine initial and variation margin requirements, guaranty fund requirements and official daily settlement prices.

Tower Group Completes CastlePoint

2009-02-05T22:29:00.000Z

Tower Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWGP) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of CastlePoint Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: CPHL) in a transaction valued at $531 million based on Tower’s current market price. Tower announced a definitive agreement to acquire CastlePoint on August 5, 2008. All closing conditions have been met.

With the close of the transaction, CastlePoint shares (NASDAQ: CPHL) will be delisted from the NASDAQ.

CSC DealRoom

2009-02-03T21:47:00.000Z

Corporation Service Company® (CSC), has released the CSC DealRoom. The CSC DealRoom enables clients to receive documents from CSC electronically into a customizable deal workspace, so they can collaborate with outside counsel, and manage, organize and close deals more efficiently.

The introduction of CSC's DealRoom follows the company's successful implementation of comprehensive matter management and electronic billing systems that provide collaboration tools and automatic integration of electronic service of process delivery.

The CSC DealRoom, available exclusively from CSC, delivers electronic images of client documents directly into a virtual deal workspace helping clients to manage and organize every phase of a deal from marketing to due diligence to closing. It is a highly secure environment set-up to manage critical data, tasks, and deal documents, and enables collaboration with associated parties using role-based access. Each CSC DealRoom has fully customized workflows, checklists, task assignments with alerts, along with comprehensive reporting and audit tools. The result is a streamlined and collaborative platform designed to help mitigate risk and reduce cost for clients throughout the deal process.

"CSC DealRoom is a logical extension of the corporate and legal services we perform for our clients," said Bruce R. Winn, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSC. "This expansion further demonstrates the winning combination of innovative technology and superior service that are the hallmark of CSC, and reflects our strategy to invest in services that address our clients' most critical business requirements over the long term."

The new CSC DealRoom ascribes to the emerging technology approach referred to as software as a service (SaaS) which delivers solutions via a network, most often the Web, which shifts the burden of getting and keeping an enterprise application up and running from the client to the vendor. This approach translates to several advantages for clients: faster implementation, easier access to current technology, and lower costs due to little to no need for IT involvement, expense, or resources.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing In Belgian Win

2009-02-02T22:31:00.005Z

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, the global leader in securities servicing,has been appointed by KBC, a Belgian bancassurance group, to provide U.S. equity trading services.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing will provide KBC with seamless trading across the complete lifecycle of a U.S equity trade, from order capture to execution in the market, affirmation/confirmation, clearing, settlement and reporting via the company's BNY ExecutionPlus platform.

BNY ExecutionPlus fully integrates BNY Mellon's market-leading, custody, clearing and settlement services with Pershing LLC's extensive global execution capabilities, allowing financial institutions based outside of the United States to execute and settle bank custody trades in the U.S. equity markets via a single instruction to purchase or sell. Pershing is a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.

BNY ExecutionPlus also provides clients with the ability to utilise Pershing's online brokerage platform, NetExchange Pro(R). NetExchange Pro enables investment professionals at financial organizations to access account information, quotes, investment research, news and other third-party content.

Luc Aspeslagh, Managing Director Securities Services at KBC Securities, said: "BNY ExecutionPlus allows us to address the operational risk associated with trading in the U.S. markets and by streamlining our trading process we in turn can provide our clients with the best possible services. It also offers clear economic advantages, as payment of a single, bundled commission that covers all transaction processing costs will clearly benefit our bottom line."

Nadine Chakar, Executive Vice-President and Head of Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, said: "BNY Mellon's world-class integrated custody capabilities and the power of Pershing's global execution and clearing platform together deliver a single, dynamic solution to those financial organisations seeking efficient and accurate technology to optimise the management of their investments. We are delighted to be working in partnership with KBC and we look forward to assisting them in implementing further efficiencies within their investment processes."

Frank La Salla, Managing Director of the global securities services group at Pershing, said: "This appointment further demonstrates The Bank of New York Mellon's ability to provide financial institutions with a comprehensive and seamless offering to help them meet their sophisticated trading and settlement needs. We remain fully committed to developing and delivering market-leading solutions to our clients as they look to grow their businesses in today's challenging capital markets environment."

2009-02-02T22:31:00.004Z

Forex Capital Markets LLC (www.fxcm.com) today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire certain assets of the U.S. retail forex business of Hotspot FXr LLC to further expand the liquidity offered via its Active Trader platform. Hotspot FXr's affiliate, Hotspot FXi LLC, will continue to offer its platform for institutional FX trading.

"Hotspot FXr is a major innovator in the field of fair and transparent pricing. While the retail clients of Hotspot FXr will be moving to a new platform, they will continue to receive pricing which is free of influences from the dealing desk," said Drew Niv, CEO of Forex Capital Markets (FXCM). "Every price is derived from a major bank and every trade is offset. FXCM and Hotspot FXr share the same fair pricing principles."

Hotspot FXr's retail forex business is a perfect fit with FXCM's focus on expanding its Active Trader Group. FXCM's Active Trader platform was developed to meet the needs of non-institutional traders exceeding $10 million in monthly volume. The Active Trader platform is revolutionary in the retail forex space, offering pricing transparency, with a five level display of market depth.
The deep liquidity available through FXCM's Active Trader platform derives from the firm's long standing liquidity relationships with many of the world's largest banks and financial institutions. The platform provides agency (no dealing desk) execution where all trades are offset, with FXCM taking no market risk. This enables FXCM to focus on obtaining competitive pricing and providing the best technology to its clients.

Dubai Completes Migration to CME Globex

2009-02-02T22:24:00.001Z

CME Group, and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME), an energy futures and commodities exchange based in the Middle East, announced today that they have successfully completed the migration of DME's contracts to the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform.

The successful transition enables the world's three crude oil benchmarks - WTI, Brent and Oman - to trade on the same platform alongside CME Group products across all major asset classes. The DME contracts will be accessible for trading beginning 18:00 EST on Sunday, February 1, equivalent to 03:00 Dubai and 07:00 Singapore on Monday, February 2. Clearing will continue to process through the NYMEX clearing house until it is integrated with CME Clearing.

Welcoming the move, Ahmad Sharaf, Chairman, DME, commented, "This migration is not only a strong step forward in the growth of the DME's existing contracts but is also a mark of the success that the DME has achieved in building robust contracts recognized and traded by leading industry participants. The visibility and reach offered by the CME Globex platform will dramatically increase the global exposure of both the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract, and the DME Oman Crude Oil Financial Contract, which also successfully migrated to the CME Globex platform on February 2."

"The transition of DME's contracts to CME Globex further represents the benefits of merging the NYMEX businesses with CME Group, not only increasing the distribution of the contracts to a global set of hedgers and investors, but also opening up new possibilities for arbitrage and other sophisticated trading strategies on a single, virtually 24-hour platform," said Terry Duffy, CME Group Executive Chairman. "These benefits are available to established users of our markets as well as the new participants we welcome along with the DME contracts."

DME CEO Thomas Leaver added, "The DME Crude Oil Futures Contract is recognized as the crude oil benchmark for the East of Suez region, and as such is increasingly used for efficient price risk management as well as affording arbitrage opportunities with the other crude oil pricing regions. This next step in our development will open the contract to a new and diverse set of market participants, and we will continue to work with our core stakeholders, strategic partners, and existing customers and traders to build on this momentum throughout 2009 to identify avenues of growth that will drive the DME to new heights."

ICE Exclusivity With Natural Gas Intelligence

2009-01-05T22:09:00.001Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , in accordance with the terms of its agreement with Intelligence Press, Inc. (IPI), ICE will have the exclusive right to license the natural gas indices published in the Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) newsletters for exchange settlement and clearing beginning May 1, 2009.

ICE contracts referencing NGI indices and delivery points do not require modification as the exclusivity period takes effect. Market participants with existing positions benchmarked to NGI data who wish to maintain their positions may transfer open interest to ICE using ICE's block trade capabilities.

In March 2007, ICE entered into a purchase and leaseback agreement with IPI for the exclusive right to license the NGI indices. IPI continues to collect, aggregate and publish prices in the wholesale natural gas market. In addition to providing daily and monthly spot price discovery for the industry, NGI's indices are used by ICE and other licensees for daily and monthly settlement and clearing, particularly in the Canadian, Midwest and California natural gas markets.

Corporation Service Company

2009-01-05T21:50:00.000Z

Corporation Service Company serves as a leading provider of legal and financial services for the world's largest companies, law firms, and financial institutions. Founded in 1899, CSC, a service company, remains dedicated to helping mitigate risk and reducing costs for our clients; while providing matter and deal management; corporate identity protection; corporate governance and compliance; and transactional support services. Our systems are fully integrated with our monitoring, workflow, compliance and reporting solutions. To learn more about CSC, and take advantage of our unique brand of service, visit www.cscglobal.com.

ICE to Start Clearing Agricultural Swaps

2009-01-03T22:04:00.000Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , an operator of regulated global futures exchanges and over-the- counter (OTC) markets, announced today that ICE Clear U.S.(TM) will begin clearing sugar, coffee and cocoa swap contracts on January 30, 2009.
As previously announced, the three contracts will be cleared by ICE Clear U.S. and will be cash-settled at expiration based on the settlement prices of the related traded futures contract. Qualifying swap agreements will be submitted to the Market Supervision department of ICE Futures U.S.(R), which will expedite the contracts for clearing.

The new cleared swaps are the first such contracts offered by ICE and are specifically designed to meet the needs of OTC market participants. ICE Clear U.S.'s September 2007 application to clear these swaps was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on December 12, 2008.

CME Launches Russian Oil Futures

2008-11-10T00:56:00.000Z

CME Group today announced that it will launch a Russian Export Blend Crude Oil (REBCO) financial futures contract, on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform and the ClearPort(R) electronic clearing and trading platform, beginning November 23 for trade date November 24.

The contract (commodity code: R2) will be financially settled based on Argus Media's Urals FOB Primorsk assessment. It will be listed for up to 48 consecutive months, beginning with the January 2009 contract.

Tradeweb Upgrades CDS Indices Marketplaces

2008-11-07T22:38:00.003Z

Tradeweb, upgraded its marketplaces in the U.S. and Europe for Credit Default Swap Indices. As a result, clients will be able to view real-time composite prices, and efficiently execute and process trades for the major CDS indices. The U.S. market is live, with Europe expected to launch in January 2009.

This initiative supports the goals voiced by financial regulators in recent weeks by providing increased price transparency, a marketplace for electronic trading and connectivity to relevant third parties for electronic processing and legal confirmation of CDS index trades.

The new marketplaces will benefit institutional clients by:

-- Providing access to the liquidity of leading CDS dealers;
-- Displaying real-time, indicative composite two-way pricing for the major U.S. and European CDS indices;
-- Providing connectivity to key third parties, including DTCC Deriv/SERV (and the Trade Information Warehouse), and order management systems where relevant;
-- Maintaining a full audit trail on all trades;
-- Electronically capturing trade details in real-time, using the Tradeweb API messaging service;
-- Providing access to AccountNet, Tradeweb's leading derivatives account database to maintain accurate settlement instructions and deliver electronic allocations to dealers.

These CDS Index marketplaces offer a broad level of commitment from the major dealers, sophisticated new trading protocols for institutional clients and real-time pricing to provide a high degree of market transparency. They demonstrate Tradeweb's ability to evolve the electronic trading environment to meet changing market needs.

The markets will provide a new trading protocol, "Request-for-Market," in addition to enhanced "Request-for-Quote" functionality, pioneered by Tradeweb in the late-1990s. RFM allows a client to request a two-sided market and negotiate interactively with a single dealer, while RFQ allows clients to request a price from up to four dealers simultaneously.
"We have been working with the buy-side and supporting dealers for months to bring an enhanced electronic marketplace for trading CDS indices. Especially given the current market turmoil, we are confident that Tradeweb's inherent transparency and efficiency for OTC markets will provide a compelling trading mechanism for the market," said Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb.
"As one of the leading CDS dealers, we are keen to provide solutions that allow our clients to trade more effectively. We support the growth of electronic trading as it provides for a more efficient marketplace and look forward to using Tradeweb as a distribution channel for better servicing our clients in the CDS market," said Eraj Shirvani, Head of European Credit at Credit Suisse and Chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

"We are proud to support CDS index trading on the Tradeweb platform," said Rob Milam, Managing Director, Head of North American High Grade Credit Trading at J.P. Morgan. "It will allow us to expand our client service and provide another efficient trading and settlement process."

"We believe the liquidity that clients will find on Tradeweb will prove to be very compelling, and the capabilities for automated trade booking will benefit all market participants," said Brian Walter, Managing Director, Head of U.S. Credit Index Trading at UBS.

"Tradeweb has successfully introduced greater transparency and efficiency to the fixed income and derivatives markets over the past decade," said Vic Simone, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs and Chairman of Tradeweb. "It makes sense that they are leading the way in providing the same kind of benefits to the CDS market."

2008-11-07T00:00:00.000Z

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) , the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets bonds and other types of fixed-income securities, today announced total monthly trading volume for October 2008 of $13.3 billion, consisting of $7.3 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $2.4 billion in eurobond volume, and $3.6 billion in other volume.

This data can be accessed on MarketAxess' website at www.marketaxess.com.

Monthly volume updates are posted in the Investor Relations section of the website on or before the tenth business day of each month. The data provide current month and historical volume totals on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

Liquidnet To Open Singapore Office

2008-11-06T01:43:00.001Z

Liquidnet is to open an office in Singapore in November 2008 amid surging interest in the region among its buy-side membership. Liquidnet currently has 109 members signed on to trade Asia-Pacific equities on its platform (as of 31/07/08) which gives institutional investors a protected venue to make large trades without attracting price-altering attention. The office is Liquidnet's fourth in the region after Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney.

"Member interest in Singapore and all of Asia has grown stronger as the global markets have become more challenging," said David Klinger, managing director of Liquidnet Asia. "Buy-side investors representing millions of individual investors are expressing an even greater need in these shifting markets to trade large blocks of Asian stock quickly to preserve the conviction of their trading decisions. That is where we add great value."

Liquidnet already provides trading in Singapore. During the third quarter of 2008, the average value of a trade in Singapore equities in Liquidnet was S$1.8 million.

Greg Henry will manage the office and report directly to David Klinger. Henry was most recently responsible for portfolio trading operations at Liquidnet in New York. He joined the firm in July 2004 having previously worked with Fidelity Capital Market Services, Investment Technology Group Inc. and Instinet Inc.

ICE Completes Derivatives Transition

2008-11-05T23:00:00.002Z

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , has successfully transitioned its energy futures and OTC markets to ICE Clear Europe(TM). On the morning of November 3, 2008, 100 percent of open positions, or 28.5 million contract sides, were transferred from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe. The total margin requirement now managed by ICE Clear Europe for these novated positions is approximately $16.5 billion. ICE Clear Europe launched with 44 member firms.

"We want to take the opportunity to express our gratitude to members of the clearing community who have supported our transition over the course of the past year and a half," said Paul Swann, President of ICE Clear Europe. "We will continue to work closely with market participants to expand ICE Clear Europe and to offer additional benefits to our clearing firms and customers. Our next steps will be to respond to the enormous demand for additional cleared energy contracts."

"ICE Clear Europe will allow us to introduce new cleared OTC and futures contracts in our energy markets in the coming weeks and months," added David Peniket, President and Chief Operating Officer of ICE Futures Europe. "The coordinated effort by our clearing members, customers and employees to launch the first new derivatives clearing house in the U.K. will result in more products and services for the broader trading community."

"We believe ICE's commitment to clearing is demonstrated by the collaborative nature of the development of ICE Clear Europe," said ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher. "Integrated clearing, in particular, plays a central role in risk management and in the sound operation of global markets, especially in today's volatile environment. We will strive to bring further innovative risk management solutions to the global marketplace."

As the first new major clearing house in London in over a century, ICE Clear Europe was formed to provide clearing services to the global energy markets for over-the-counter and European futures transactions executed on ICE's electronic platform. ICE Clear Europe will enable the efficient development of new cleared markets to support the risk management needs of customers, with the capability to offer similar services to an expanded range of asset classes.

Belzberg Technologies 2008 Q3

2008-11-05T00:00:00.000Z

Belzberg Technologies Inc. (TSX -BLZ), a provider of technology-based equity and options trading services, announced today that in the third quarter ended September 30, 2008 the net loss was $0.3 million including a previously announced unusual pre-tax trading error of $0.8 million. Net earnings in the same quarter last year were $1.8 million.

Total revenue for the third quarter increased 13% to $11.0 million versus $9.7 million in the same year-ago period. Diluted loss per share for the third quarter was ($0.02) per share as compared to earnings of $0.12 per share in the same year-ago period.

BNY ConvergEx On Pension Fund Leverage

2008-11-04T23:12:00.001Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC, has created a new solution that enables small and medium-sized pension funds to leverage the benefits of international asset reallocation opportunities.

Through its global transition management business, ConvergEx has created a new clearing solution that gives small and medium sized pension fund clients investing in commingled funds the ability to use transition management to make changes in investment strategy. ConvergEx's global clearing arrangements allow it to offer efficient global trading and settlement to those clients without their own global clearing and settlement framework in place.

"As the recent uncertainty in the equity markets has demonstrated, having access to a multitude of markets and asset classes is essential when seeking enhanced returns, beating benchmarks, or simply staying above water," stated Carey S. Pack, Chief Executive Officer, BNY ConvergEx Execution Solutions. "This is another prime example of ConvergEx's ongoing commitment to creating unique solutions to the increasingly sophisticated demands of our global transition management clients."

Kal Bassily, CFA, Managing Director and Global Head of BNY ConvergEx Group's global transition management business, commented, "Clients who lack the ability to trade and settle their portfolios in non-US securities are exposed to greater risk during the transition process if the trade involves a large cash funding component. We have created a unique remedy to this problem by allowing small and medium-sized pension funds to participate in transitions as they never have before, while both expanding the breadth of opportunities available to them during changes in investment strategy and increasing our ability to hedge and mitigate risk."

ConvergEx's global transition management business recently received eleven "Best in Class" rankings in Plan Sponsor Magazine's 2008 Transition Management Survey, including wins for best in Pre-Trade, best in Execution, best in Post-Trade and best in Organization & Support, as well as a sweep of the Endowments, Foundations, and Nonprofits category.
With a dedicated team of professionals worldwide, ConvergEx's experience, global capabilities and dedicated expertise help to provide clients with a customized transition strategy that can preserve assets, minimize market impact, manage risk and minimize cost.

Belzberg Technologoies

2008-11-04T01:46:00.000Z

Belzberg Technologies Inc. is a provider of technology-based brokerage services, trading equities and options through Electronic Brokerage Systems, Belzberg Technologies' wholly owned broker-dealer. Electronic Brokerage Systems is a member of most North American stock exchanges, options exchanges and clearing organizations, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, CBOE, NSCC and OCC. Using Belzberg's suite of integrated trading tools and network connectivity, Belzberg's customers have direct access to all North American equities and options markets. The firm's client-base includes over 200 leading U.S and international brokerage houses and financial institutions. Belzberg Technologies is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (Ticker-BLZ) - additional information is available at www.belzberg.com.

Misys In Pakistan Win

2008-11-04T00:40:00.000Z

AlBaraka Islamic Bank has announced that it has selected Misys Equation and Misys Trade Innovation for implementation across its 20 branches in Pakistan. The new contract builds on a number of previous contracts with the AlBaraka Banking Group (ABG) and Misys across Africa and the Middle East.

Shafqaat Ahmed, AlBaraka Islamic Bank's Country Head Pakistan said, "As part of our growth strategy involving conversion of our Pakistan Operations into an Islamic Bank registered in Pakistan, paving the way for significantly enhancing our branch network and customer outreach, AlBaraka Islamic Bank in Pakistan has chosen Misys Equation as its new banking system. This will support its growth and diversification and would provide us a common banking system platform with our parent company, AlBaraka Banking Group, Bahrain and subsidiary banking companies spread over 12 countries. AlBaraka Islamic Bank's choice of Misys Equation is based on Misys' ability and strength to fully support AlBaraka's Islamic Banking needs, its strong risk management and compliance policies and its need for strong parameterisation attributes in a system, to support the bank's ongoing efforts aimed at innovative new product development."

Tradeweb Completes Hilliard Farber Acquisition

2008-11-03T23:17:00.002Z

Tradeweb, a leading over-the-counter, online marketplace, announced today that it is has completed the acquisition of Hilliard Farber, an inter-dealer voice brokerage for mortgage-related and other U.S. securities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Tradeweb additionally plans to launch an electronic inter-dealer platform for pass-through mortgage-backed securities in early 2009, complementing Hilliard Farber's voice offering.

The formation of an inter-dealer business is a natural extension for Tradeweb, which has played a pioneering role in developing electronic customer-to-dealer trading of debt securities and derivatives since 1998. Hilliard Farber provides extensive voice broking experience and expertise, as well as an extensive network of trading desk relationships, off which Tradeweb can leverage its decade of leadership in electronic trading to build a broader inter-dealer business.
Hilliard Farber was one of the first inter-dealer brokers to trade mortgage-backed securities, when it opened a mid-town Manhattan office in 1975. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest boutique brokers.

Hilliard Farber's brokers will continue to operate under the Hilliard Farber brand, and will offer voice broking in all their current markets, including U.S. Treasury securities, repurchase agreements, as well as specialty mortgage products: pass-through mortgage-backed securities, adjustable-rate mortgages and specified pools.

"Tradeweb is strongly positioned to develop an inter-dealer business," said Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb. "Our relationships with the dealers date back to the roots of e-trading; our expertise at building markets has been thoroughly tested; and we have a proven track record of delivering greater efficiency to both institutional clients and dealers."

"Hill provides a strong foundation on which we can build our inter-dealer business," said Billy Hult, President of Tradeweb, who will now oversee Hill Farber and Tradeweb's electronic inter-dealer markets. "Its extensive brokerage experience, combined with Tradeweb's reputation in the electronic markets, promises to deliver a powerful offering to the dealer community."
"Tradeweb was a logical choice as we examined the strategic options for the business. It has a proven ability to create liquid and efficient electronic markets," said Hilliard Farber, founder and owner of the company.

BNY ConvergEx Tops NYSE Euronex Broker Volume

2008-11-03T22:42:00.001Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC, today announced that it was ranked number one in the NYSE Euronext Broker Volume Top 10 from October 1st through October 21st 2008.

Over the past year ConvergEx has quickly moved from being consistently ranked in the top 10 of all firms in NYSE Euronext trading, to a top 5 ranking at the end of the third quarter, to a number one ranking for the period mentioned above. This rapid increase in volume can be attributed to ConvergEx's agency model, which has allowed it to put the needs of its clients first and maintain a position of strength during this period of unprecedented market volatility.

As trading volatility surged around the world over the last several months, significant growth was attained in both the number and type of new client wins, even as the complexity and degree of difficulty of the trades being executed greatly increased. The NYSE Euronext Broker Volume Top 10 provides a way to identify the leaders in equity orderflow and lists the top 10 NYSE member firms by volume.

Joseph M. Velli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BNY ConvergEx Group, commented, "ConvergEx's ability to thrive in this unstable and challenging trading environment is a direct result of a unique agency trading model that combines advanced execution technology with the skill of our sales traders. Clients have realized that this model allows us to focus solely on their investment objectives, and better positions us to be their partner for the long term."

LiquidPoint

2008-11-03T22:34:00.000Z

LiquidPoint, based in Chicago and a member of BNY ConvergEx Group, is an agency-based registered broker-dealer that specializes in derivatives execution management technology and brokerage services for listed options and equities. LiquidPoint provides a total solution for today's dynamic and diverse trading requirements, combining sophisticated trading tools with its commitment to superior order execution services and focused customer support.

LiquidPoint Claims Options Trading Record

2008-11-03T22:31:00.000Z

BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC today announced that LiquidPoint routed and/or executed a record 84.6 million options contracts for the month of October 2008. This represented LiquidPoint's highest volume ever recorded in one month, surpassing September 2008 as the previous record month and bringing its year-to-date options contract total to 631 million.

LiquidPoint's October volume represents an increase of 54.8% compared to October 2007, while the overall volume of the U.S. options industry increased approximately 28.7% over the same period, according to transaction volume data obtained from the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).

"The fact that we were able to achieve record volumes while overall options volume has grown to a less dramatic degree is a great testament to the strength and reliability of our options execution technology," commented Anthony J. Saliba, Chief Executive Officer, LiquidPoint. "Clients continue to recognize the advantages of ConvergEx's independent agency trading model, especially as an oasis of calm during this period of extreme volatility in the markets."

October Options Figures

2008-11-03T10:56:00.000Z

375 million contracts changed hands in October according to the Options Industry Council (OIC), representing a 28.75 percent increase over October 2007 and 1.4 million contracts more than the previous monthly volume record set in September. Average daily volume for the month was 16,344,995 contracts, also up 28.75 from the same period last year.

On October 20, year-to-date volume reached three billion contracts for the first time in history. It took 203 trading days to reach this milestone. Total options volume reached two billion contracts for the third time ever on July 22, taking only 140 trading days to reach that mark. The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) reported October year-to-date volume stood at 3,116,322,848 contracts, an increase of 34.63 percent compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date daily volume is averaging 14,699,636 contracts, compared to 11,022,807 contracts at the same point in 2007.

Equity options saw 336,805,246 contracts traded, 25.54 percent higher than October 2007. Year-to-date equity options volume is 2,857,938,960 contracts, up 36.70 percent over the same point last year. Daily equity options volume averaged 14,643,706 contracts per day in October, an increase of 25.54 percent over the same month last year.

Trading Jargon Today

2008-11-02T22:27:00.000Z

Actimize
A provider of transactional risk management software for the financial services industry and a NICE Systems company.
CEP
Complex Event Processing
CFIUS
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
Examines national interest issues and is part of the US Treasury Department
FTEN
A provider of advanced risk-management technology to hedge funds.
Janus Capital Group
A large asset manager that focuses on equities.
KX Systems
A provider of high-speed data management solutions.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
Investment vehicles owned by national governments
Tabb Group
Financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets.

TABB Group

2008-11-02T22:02:00.001Z

TABB Group is a financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets. Founded in 2003 and based on the methodology of "first-person knowledge," TABB Group analyzes and quantifies the investing value chain from the fiduciary, investment manager, broker, exchange and custodian.