On Thursday May 1 the CFTC released an eagerly awaited clarifying document outlining when and how package trades would be required on SEF.  Packaged transactions will be phased in by type from May 15th through November 15th, and to deal with...

Last week I did an interview with the guys at DerivAlert about where we've come and where we're going.  The result was a pretty concise overview of our thoughts on SEFs, US Treasury's, corporate bonds and European regulatory reform, so we...

If you work in institutional finance you’ve heard talk of market structure. Not only are there entire conferences dedicated to the topic, but most of the participants at those conferences— banks, asset managers, researchers—send their heads of...

Capital is expensive and getting more expensive. But the problem is proving a much harder one to manage in Europe, with European banks continuing to deleverage and already complying with the principles of Basel III while US banks have their capital...

Turned out the first week of mandatory SEF trading was a Big Bang, just in the wrong direction. Reported SEF volumes for interest rate swaps fell off a cliff for the week of February 17th, cliff signdropping 64% (revised down slightly as new data...

We spoke to just under 500 portfolio managers and traders globally to see what they’re doing with and what they think about OMSs, trading-system EMSs and TCA platforms for Equities, FX and Fixed Income. This is not a space of dramatic year on year...

The CFTC is great at sending emails out at inopportune times. In this case it was the 13 no-action letters sent between December 20th chicagoand December 31th while most of the financial world was trying to take a deep breath and enjoy some time off...

The year 2013 will likely go down as the year of mandatory clearing. Once ignored by eager financial market Greenwich Associatesprofessionals as boring back-office stuff, collateral management, credit limits and all other things clearing stood front...

The CFTC issued a slew of new guidance and rules last week, two of them particularly interesting and impactful. First was the rule that requires clearinghouses to have credit facilities available to back up all margin posted in US Treasuries. I (and...

Earlier this week the first two made available for trading applications were made to the CFTC starting the clock ticking for mandatory mat chartSEF trading. Those applications started a debate as to exactly how mandatory SEF trading should be phased...