FiNETIK – Asia and Latin America – Market News Network

Asia and Latin America News Network focusing on Financial Markets, Energy, Environment, Commodity and Risk, Trading and Data Management

February 1, 2012 • 11:32 am 0

A-TEAM launches Big Data 4 Finance

 A-Team Group launched today – BigDataForFinance.com where it will cover the emerging science of big data and how it relates to financial markets applications – such as analysis of time series pricing, management of reference data and determination of sentiment from news archives.  A-Team will also cover the evolving technology infrastructure that underpins big data applications, from storage to analytics and business intelligence.

A-TEAM: Let’s start by addressing a working definition for big data, as we see it.  Wikipedia has a pretty good starter: “Datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools.”

But here’s our improvement on that: “Datasets whose characteristics – size, data type and frequency – are beyond efficient processing, storage and extraction by traditional database management tools.”

And let’s be clear, the focus is as much on the analysis of data to derive actionable business information as it is on handling different data types and high frequency updates.

Make sure that you don’t miss news and contributions that could be valuable.  Be sure to sign up for the weekly email update here.

Source: A-TEAM, 18.01.2012

Filed under: Risk Management, Data Vendor, Data Management, Reference Data, Market Data, , , , , , , , , ,

January 19, 2012 • 10:45 am 0

IDC White Paper: Solving Big Data’s Big Challenges Can Lead to Big Advantages

Solving Big Data’s Big Challenges Can Lead to Big Advantages

The volumes and complexity of market data required by financial institutions today are immense and growing rapidly. Ongoing market changes are accelerating the growth in demand for data, and forcing financial institutions to address the challenges of what has come to be known as “Big Data”. This demand is fueled as firms develop and deploy new, more sophisticated cross-asset investment strategies.

At the same time regulatory changes are also forcing firms to source and report increasingly larger amounts of trade data, as well as to adopt higher-quality – and usually data-hungry – risk and pricing models. Investors are making similar demands of their asset managers.

Interactive Data, the reference data powerhouse, has authored a new white paper which describes these challenges in depth. It also outlines the steps financial firms may need to take in order to address them effectively. Those that do could have a notable competitive advantage over their more slow-footed rivals.

Download your complimentary copy here.

Source: IDC, 18.01.2012

Filed under: Data Management, Data Vendor, Market Data, Reference Data, Risk Management, Trading Technology, , , , , , ,

January 10, 2012 • 12:10 pm 0

SunGard -10 Historical Market Data Trends for 2012

Oliver Muhr, senior vice president of SunGard’s MarketMap business unit, said, “Economists, equity, fixed income researchers and quant traders need historical data to better understand growth opportunities and validate market positions and trading strategy. This requires not only more data, but more minute and granular information provided in a fast and efficient manner. SunGard offers information management tools that help enterprises filter and deliver accurate data for price discovery, financial modeling, risk management and business intelligence.”

The ten market data trends SunGard has identified for 2012 in historical data management are:

Transparency (Transparency and Evaluation Prices White Paper):

1. Firms need more consistent and timely reporting to meet new regulations and investor demands, creating greater strain on data infrastructures that feed risk reporting
2. Risk reports will be required by regulators and investors almost daily, while on-demand data will be needed to meet more advanced analytics
3. Greater transparency in analyzing the relationships between asset classes, such as complex derivatives, is driving the need for standardized entity and security identifiers, and cross symbology

Efficiency:

4. Larger data sets are required to feed predictive models, as more historical data over longer time periods and increased granularity of data sets power back-tests, forecasts and trading impacts throughout the day
5. Firms are focused on controlling variable data costs by centralizing historical data in one location to assess best price
6. Practitioners such as MBAs and CFAs want more flexible data management solutions that require less IT support so that they can spend more time discovering market opportunities
7. With globalization of markets, historical data brings greater complexity in terms of cross-border currencies, valuations and accounting standards – requiring improved accuracy and more market data coverage across assets and regions

Networks:

8. In order to perform advanced analytics and calculations required to support electronic trading strategies, firms must implement platforms that can store greater quantities of data and quickly retrieve and accurately process historical and time series data.
9. Vector storage, rather than traditional relational databases, will be needed to understand complex trends and scenarios
10. Cleaning and storing historical data is driving firms to seek plug-and-play technology that fits with industry standard infrastructures

Paul Rowady, senior analyst at TABB Group, said, “Data management has been, and always will be, an among the most critical components of the quantitative process. It is well known in the quant world that the depth of historical archive – the timeframe of data used for backtesting – is inversely proportional to the turnover of the strategy in question. Therefore, today’s trend toward slower-turnover strategies means that a proportional increase in the scale of the data will be required, as well as the most granular data possible in order to provide maximum flexibility for strategy development today and down the road.  In fact, dealing with data at the granular level and in a hands-on environment is paradoxically the most valuable exercise a quant can do to understand subtle market inefficiencies.”

Source: SunGard, 09.01.2012

Filed under: Risk Management, Data Vendor, Data Management, Reference Data, Market Data, , , , , , ,

December 9, 2011 • 8:10 am 0

The Global Crisis Reaches China: Unrest Spreads as Growth Stalls

China’s leaders are currently contending with declining demand, rising debt and a real estate bubble. Some factories are laying off workers, suffering financial losses or even closing as orders from crisis-plagued Europe dry up. The economic strains are frustrating workers and consumers in the country, threatening the political establishment and Beijing’s economic miracle.

This October was the third straight month Chinese exports decreased. Along with it, the hopes of German manufacturers that Asia’s growth market might help lift them out of the global crisis as it did in 2008 are also evaporating. This time China faces enormous challenges of its own — a real estate market bubble and local government debt — that could even pose a risk to the global economy.

Related article: Every Chinese Province bankrupt like Greece –  Chinese Regime nearly bankrupt  – 17.11.2011

A police special forces unit appears suddenly. One moment, a worker named Liu* is marching back and forth in front of city hall in Dongguan, China, with about 300 colleagues from the bankrupt factory Bill Electronic. “Give us back the money from our blood and sweat!” they chant.

The next moment, their shouts turn to screams as a few hundred uniformed police with helmets, shields and batons, along with numerous plainclothes security forces, leap out of olive green police vans. The demonstration leaders, including Liu, are rounded up on the side of the street by police dogs. Within just a few minutes’ time, the communist authorities have successfully suffocated the protest.

The men and women, most of them young adults, are packed into yellow buses and hauled back to their factory, where the government exerts massive pressure: By afternoon, they must consent to make do with 60 percent of the wages they are owed by the employment office. Anyone who refuses, officials warn, will receive nothing at all.

The new global crisis has reached China. Debt problems in Europe, the country’s most important trading partner, are starting to dim prospects here in the nation that has effectively become the world’s factory, as well. The unstable United States economy and threat of a trade war between the two superpowers make the situation even more uncertain. As the US presidential election campaign starts too heat up, American politicians are vying to outdo one another in protectionist declarations directed toward their communist rival.

Disillusioned Workers

For Liu, the factory worker, his country’s economic miracle is certainly over for now. Until recently, he worked 12 hours a day assembling accessories for DVD players. But then there was less and less work to do, he says, and a while back, the boss informed workers that fewer orders were coming in from Europe.

After the police break up the demonstration, Liu, now daunted, wanders through his city’s dusty streets, passing row upon row of factories and residential buildings. “We just wanted our full wages, but they set the police on us,” he says. He’s lost his faith in the party and the government.

Especially here in the export region of Guangdong, an experimental laboratory of Chinese capitalism, hardly a day goes by without new bankruptcies or protests. The Yue Chen shoe factory in Dongguan, which produces athletic shoes for a parent company in Taiwan that supplies brands such as New Balance, is in a state of emergency. With orders dropping off, the manufacturer has fired 18 managers. Workers have seen overtime pay eliminated, and normal wages are barely enough to live on. Frustration is so high that some shoe factory workers also went to protest in front of city hall. About 10 of them were injured in the clash with police, some young women from the factory report.

The situation outside the gray factory complex is tense. Thugs in plainclothes guard the entrance, photographing and intimidating anyone who talks to the workers. Inside the factory, the showdown between bosses and employees goes on. Workers sit inactive in cheerless factory rooms. The management has switched off the power in some of the halls where workers normally sew and glue together shoes.

In the rest of China as well, more and more assembly lines are grinding to a halt. In Wenzhou in eastern China, a city known for making cheap lighters, shoes and clothes, a large number of business owners are on the run from their creditors, the private shadow banks that last lent them money. Some of these businesspeople even secretly removed machinery from their factories before taking off.

Demand Drop in Europe and China

China’s showcase industries are also feeling the crunch of the drop in European demand. Suntech Power Holdings, for example, which manufactures solar panels in Wuxi, near Shanghai, reported third-quarter losses of $116 million (€87 million). During the same quarter of the previous year, the company generated $33 million in profits.

Just recently, Asia’s champion exporter was the object of admiration from foreign executives and politicians, a victor in the global financial crisis. Some even believed they’d found a superior alternative to crisis-ridden Western-style market economies in Beijing’s authoritarian-style capitalism.

German carmakers, in particular, let themselves be carried away by China’s growth and made enormous investments. China is Volkswagen’s most important market, and the company hopes to sell 2 million cars there by the end of this year.

But the car boom is slowing. “We haven’t received a single new order in nine days,” admits a smartly dressed salesman at Dongguan’s Porsche dealership. “We’ve never experienced that before.” Many business owners are short on cash, he adds. “They used to mostly pay cash, but now they prefer to buy on credit.”

Cheap Chinese brands such as BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) are also having a harder time selling their cars. Important governmental tax incentives for buying cars ran out last year, and major cities such as Beijing are attempting to ease their congested streets by restricting the number of new automobiles. In October, people in China bought roughly 7 percent fewer cars than in the previous month.

Economic Missteps?

At first, it seemed as if Beijing’s state capitalists had found the magic recipe for endless growth. In 2009, they pumped 4 trillion yuan (the equivalent of €430 billion) — China’s largest stimulus package in history — into building ever more modern highways, train stations and airports. Tax incentives led millions of farmers to purchase refrigerators and computers for the first time.

More or less on the party’s orders, banks threw their money at the people’s feet, and local governments were particularly free about getting themselves into debt. By the end of 2010, outstanding debt stood at 10.7 trillion yuan — nearly a quarter of China’s entire economic output.

Much of these funds went, directly or indirectly, into real estate construction. Local governments discovered that selling land for building made for a lucrative source of revenue — and of collateral, so banks would continue to issue new loans. Thousands of farmers were driven off their fields so that villas and apartment buildings could be built.

Many of those development projects, often megalomaniac undertakings from the start, are now ghost towns. In China’s 15 largest cities in October, the number of newly auctioned building plots decreased by 39 percent compared to October 2010.

While many in the West hold out hope that China can solve the euro and dollar debt crisis with its foreign currency holdings, the rift between rich and poor within the country is growing. The “harmonious society” promised by Hu Jintao, head of the government and of the Communist Party, is at risk.

The country’s central bank has increased interest rates five times since mid-2010 to get inflation under control, while at the same time forcing banks to hold larger reserve funds. Beijing hopes this method will allow it to orchestrate a “soft landing” from its own economic boom. But the maneuver entails risks. Along with the construction industry, the motor driving China’s economy up until now, other sectors such as cement production, steelmaking and furniture construction stand to lose vitality as well.

Part 2: Will Rising Middle Class Turn against Government?

If the real estate bubble bursts, it is sure to turn China’s rising middle class against the government. Until now, the nouveau riche has viewed the Communist Party as a guarantee of their own prosperity. Recently, however, outraged apartment owners organized a demonstration in downtown Shanghai, protesting the decline in the value of their property.

Wang Jiang, 28, points to a nearly complete apartment block in Anting, one of the city’s suburbs. The software company manager bought an apartment on the 16th floor of the building for €138,000 in early September. It was a steep price for 82 square meters (883 square feet), especially since the building is located in an industrial area, hemmed in by factories and highways. But Wang was determined to get in on the boom. He didn’t even take the time to view the housing complex before he bought the apartment. Where else, after all, should he have invested his assets, if not in real estate?

Now China’s state-run banks are paying their customers negative interest and Shanghai’s stock market is considered a high-risk casino, where a few major governmental investors are believed to manipulate exchange rates at will.

Wang’s apartment isn’t even finished yet, but he no longer feels any joy about moving in — not now that the real estate company is offering similar apartments in the same complex for about 20 percent less.

Wang feels he was deceived about his apartment’s resale value. “What are they thinking?” he demands. “Surely they can’t just erase a portion of my assets?”

But they can.

Wang and many other furious apartment owners went to the real estate company’s salesroom to protest the drop in value. Suddenly, Wang relates, someone started smashing the miniature models of apartments. After that, in the blink of an eye, the company’s guards grabbed him and hauled the protesters to the police in minibuses. “We were interrogated until 2 a.m. in the morning,” Wang says. Some of the protesters, he adds, are still in prison and authorities won’t tell their families anything.

A Political Quandary

Whether in Dongguan or Shanghai, cracks seem to be forming everywhere in Chinese society. As long as the one-party dictatorship kept growth in the double digits, most people accepted their lack of freedom. Now, though, Beijing is facing a dilemma. Tough police crackdowns will hardly get the consequences of the stagnating economy under control in the long term. But nor are government subsidies enough to stimulate the economy. It seems neither money nor force will help.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao recently announced a “fine-tuning” of his economic policy: Banks should grant more generous loans, especially to small and medium-sized export companies, he said.

The economic situation now is far more complicated than it was after the 2008 global financial crisis, says economist Lin Jiang. In 2008, Chinese exports collapsed and roughly 25 million migrant workers had to return from factories to their home provinces.

Back in Dongguan, authorities have no cause at the moment to fear any further protest from Liu, the factory worker. He’s too busy looking for a new place to stay. When he lost his job, he also lost his spot in one of the electronics factory’s residences.

* Liu’s name has been changed by the editors in order to protect his identity.

Source: Spiegl Online, 08.12.2011 By Wieland Wagner

Filed under: China, Countries, News, Risk Management, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 29, 2011 • 1:00 am 0

China:Exchanges and Trading Houses Face Overhaul by Government

Electronic trading houses, which conduct transactions in commodities, artifacts and precious metals, have seen their numbers grow in the past five years from a few dozen to more than 300.

But the boom could come to an abrupt end as the government pursues a drive against risky practices in the industry.  This week, the State Council determined that these legal and illegal trading houses are too risky to be left unregulated. The council called on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to “clear them up”.

Rules bar the trading houses from making markets and adopting centralized pricing and say that no more than 200 investors may hold stakes in any single traded asset. Investors are also banned from reselling an asset within five days. Although the government said that some of the trading houses’ activities are illegal, it didn’t specify which transactions are involved.

This isn’t the first time that the government has found fault with the trading houses. In 2009, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce “banned” the establishment of new trading houses, and last year, the Ministry of Commerce and five other ministries issued regulations on securitized trade houses.

But this latest move is a more serious threat to the trading houses. First, it is being initiated at a higher level, by the State Council. Second, the government is using the phrase “clear up and reorganize”, not “regulate” – meaning that some trading houses might have to close.

Hantang Artworks Exchange was one of the first trading houses to react. In a statement on Tuesday, the exchange said it will stop using centralized pricing and limit participants’ trading frequency.

Fei Jian, chairman of Shanghai Agricultural Products E-Business Co Ltd, a trading platform for agricultural products, said his business is in full compliance with the rules and welcomes the cleanup.  “We made changes early in 2009 to comply with the regulations. Having the sector regulated is good for everyone,” he said.

The scale of the trading houses’ business isn’t known. The houses aren’t required to disclose transaction data. Additionally, their fast growth and the fact that some of their activities are illegal make it difficult to calculate the industry’s size.

The trading houses pose risks, with an absence of clearinghouses, ever-changing trading rules and price manipulation.

But investors’ collective intelligence is unlikely to have ignored or missed these risks. Thus, some experts said, if regulators really want to establish financial stability, they need to figure out what needs the exchanges fulfill.

Hu Yuyue, head of Beijing Technology and Business University’s securities and futures research center, said the answer can be summed up in one word: demand.

Hu said many trading houses have sprung up because investors need more financial tools than are being provided by the major, approved futures exchanges, such as the Shanghai Futures Exchange, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange.

“The futures exchanges in China are well-regulated but relatively underdeveloped. So they lack new products and systems to satisfy investor demand,” he said. “That has resulted in the boom of unregulated trading houses.”  In the first 10 months of this year alone, 58 trading houses were established.

Three bourses were set up in the city of Wuhan in just a week: the Wuhan Shipping Exchange, the Wuhan Financial Assets Exchange and the Wuhan Agricultural and Livestock Products Exchange.

One factor driving the formation of the new trading venues is the surge in liquidity caused by the 4 trillion yuan ($631 billion) stimulus package enacted in 2008 amid the global downturn.

The private-sector credit crunch has also driven capital into the trading houses, as some entrepreneurs abandon their businesses for the financial market.  Fei said that the trading houses do face a shake-up, but strong investor demand will keep the sector developing.

Source: China Daily, 25.11.2011

Filed under: Asia, China, Exchanges, Risk Management, , , , , ,

November 19, 2011 • 12:50 am 0

LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) set to arrive in waves

A new system giving financial institutions standardized Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) will start to be phased in next year after an international organization finalizes new standards in January 2012.

LEI requirements for a Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Solution May 2011
LEI industry progress and  recommendation July 2011

The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is expected to approve a plan for LEIs at the beginning of next year, calling for them to consist of 20 alphanumeric characters. After that happens, the infrastructure is already in place to start issuing the IDs early in 2012, according to officials with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

“Assuming the standard is approved by early January, our expectations are that legal entities will be able to register in short order for an LEI,” said Tom Price, managing director and head of SIFMA’s technology, operations and business continuity planning group.

During the financial crisis, both regulators and institutions realized they did not have the information available to quickly address issues of counterparty risk. LEIs aim to change that by using a universal code that would allow counterparties to be easily identified.

The United States has provided much of the leadership behind the push for LEIs, but the concept enjoys broad support around the globe. The registering authority for LEIs will not come from any government, but rather from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).

After the ISO finalizes the standard, the next step will be rule writing, which is already underway at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with respect to swaps. Price said LEIs will be used first for swaps participants and then gradually adopted for transactions involving other types of assets until they are required for all trades.

David Strongin, who is also a managing director at SIFMA, said the U.S. will be the first country to require LEIs, but Hong Kong and Canada will likely follow fairly quickly. The European Union has committed to adopting LEIs as well, though it is unclear whether Europe will adopt the system all at once or phase it in country by country.

Strongin stressed, however, that there is a global consensus to move forward, even if not every nation and region mandates LEIs at the same time.

“The G20, both the finance ministers and leaders, have all endorsed this,” Strongin said. “From a very high level, you don’t see disagreement that an LEI is needed. I think everyone agrees that it’s an important tool to build the foundation for risk management.”

Strongin said that while many traders might not see it right now, most firms are currently working hard to prepare for LEIs. Eventually, however, the changes will touch every facet of the industry. ”There’s a lot of work going on, though there’s only so much you can do until you see the final rules,” Price added.

Source: Traders Magazine, 18.11.2011

Filed under: Data Management, Reference Data, Risk Management, Standards, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 17, 2011 • 12:10 am 2

Every Chinese Province bankrupt like Greece – Host Says Chinese Regime nearly bankrupt

China’s economy has a reputation for being strong and prosperous, but according to a well-known Chinese television personality the country’s Gross Domestic Product is going in reverse.

Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.

Related Article:

Bobsguide - China reduces lenders’ ratio requirements (02.12.2011)
EpochTimes – China’s Economy on the Brink of Collaps (Nov.2011)
The Guardian – IMF sounds warning  on Chinese Banking System (Nov.2011)
 
The restrictions Lang placed on the Oct. 22 speech in Shenyang City, in northern China’s Liaoning Province, included no audio or video recording, and no media. He can be heard saying that people should not post his speech online, or “everyone will look bad,” in the audio that is now on Youtube. 

In the unusual, closed-door lecture, Lang gave a frank analysis of the Chinese economy and the censorship that is placed on intellectuals and public figures. “What I’m about to say is all true. But under this system, we are not allowed to speak the truth,” he said.

Despite Lang’s polished appearance on his high-profile TV shows, he said: “Don’t think that we are living in a peaceful time now. Actually the media cannot report anything at all. Those of us who do TV shows are so miserable and frustrated, because we cannot do any programs. As long as something is related to the government, we cannot report about it.”

He said that the regime doesn’t listen to experts, and that Party officials are insufferably arrogant. “If you don’t agree with him, he thinks you are against him,” he said.

Lang’s assessment that the regime is bankrupt was based on five conjectures.

Firstly, that the regime’s debt sits at about 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion). This calculation is arrived at by adding up Chinese local government debt (between 16 trillion and 19.5 trillion yuan, or US$2.5 trillion and US$3 trillion), and the debt owed by state-owned enterprises (another 16 trillion, he said). But with interest of two trillion per year, he thinks things will unravel quickly.

Secondly, that the regime’s officially published inflation rate of 6.2 percent is fabricated. The real inflation rate is 16 percent, according to Lang.

Thirdly, that there is serious excess capacity in the economy, and that private consumption is only 30 percent of economic activity. Lang said that beginning this July, the Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of the manufacturing industry, plunged to a new low of 50.7. This is an indication, in his view, that China’s economy is in recession.

Fourthly, that the regime’s officially published GDP of 9 percent is also fabricated. According to Lang’s data, China’s GDP has decreased 10 percent. He said that the bloated figures come from the dramatic increase in infrastructure construction, including real estate development, railways, and highways each year (accounting for up to 70 percent of GDP in 2010).

Fifthly, that taxes are too high. Last year, the taxes on Chinese businesses (including direct and indirect taxes) were at 70 percent of earnings. The individual tax rate sits at 81.6 percent, Lang said.

Once the “economic tsunami” starts, the regime will lose credibility and China will become the poorest country in the world, Lang said.

Several commentators have expressed broad agreement with Lang’s analysis.

Professor Frank Xie at the University of South Carolina, Aiken, said that the idea of China going bankrupt isn’t far fetched. Major construction projects have helped inflate the GDP, he says. “On the surface, it is a big number, but inflation is even higher. So in reality, China’s economy is in recession.”

Further, Xie said that official figures shouldn’t be relied on. The regime’s vice premier, Li Keqiang for example, admitted to a U.S. diplomat that he doesn’t believe the statistics produced by lower-level officials, and when he was the governor of Liaoning Province “had to personally see the hard data.”

Cheng Xiaonong, an economist and former aide to ousted Party leader Zhao Ziyang, said that high praise of the “China model” is often made on the basis of the high-visibility construction projects, a big GDP, and much money in foreign reserves. “They pay little attention to things such as whether people’s basic rights are guaranteed, or their living standard has improved or not,” he said.

Behind the fiat control of the economy, which can have the appearance of being efficient, there is enormous waste and corruption, Cheng said. It means that little spending is done on education, welfare, the health system, etc.

Cheng says that for the last decade the Chinese regime has accumulated its wealth primarily by promoting real estate development, buying urban and suburban residential properties at low prices (or simply taking them), and selling them to developers at high prices.

According to Cheng, the goals of regime officials (to enrich themselves and increase their power) are in direct conflict with those of the people–so social injustice expands, and economic propaganda meant to portray the situation as otherwise prevails.

Few scholars inside the country dare to speak as Lang has, Cheng said. And that’s probably because he has a professorship in Hong Kong.

Source: TheEpochTimes, 15.11.2011

Filed under: Asia, Banking, China, News, Risk Management, , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 12, 2011 • 3:02 am 0

Mexican Market Leaps Forward – FIX, Technology, Co-Location and Regulation

In the last 12 months dramatic changes have occurred at Mexico’s stock exchange and among its brokerage clients. Cross border partnerships, technology upgrades, new FIX infrastructure and business friendly regulatory changes have opened the Mexican market to high frequency trading (HFT).

While US regulators can be seen to scold HFT firms, the Mexican market has opened its arms. The Mexican Exchange (BMV) and its brokerage firms have upgraded their infrastructure and sought business opportunities north of the border. Earlier this year after the CME Group and the BMV signed their partnership, high frequency traders on the CME Globex trading system began to route orders to the Mexican Derivatives Exchange or MexDer. Today 90 percent of average daily volume on the MexDer comes from high frequency traders north of the border.

Mexico’s brokerage firms have completed significant infrastructure upgrades. Last spring only a few brokers in Mexico could handle a highfrequency hedge fund client and many Mexican brokers could process no more than one connection to the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) at a time. The landscape has changed quickly and improvements in broker and exchange systems have ushered in a new capacity for speed in the transmission and execution of orders in Mexico.

Over the summer a major milestone occurred for the industry. Working with the BMV, Mexico’s brokers completed an industry-wide upgrade to FIX 4.4. The top 25 brokers are now certified with FIX 4.4 to the BMV. Leading the way, are brokerages like GBM, Interacciones, Actinver, UBS Mexico, IXE and others.

Now that Mexican brokers speak FIX 4.4, all of the order routing to the BMV can now be done through FIX allowing the BMV to retire the antiquated SETRIB protocol. The only way the BMV will allow Mexican brokers to continue to use SETRIB is by paying excessive fees, and even this will not be allowed by the end of 2011. Retiring SETRIB sets the stage for more positive changes in the industry and at the BMV.

Work is already underway to upgrade the BMV’s trade matching engine. The existing engine was built in the 1990s for a Tandem mainframe. Retiring the Tandem has many benefits. Faster order matching and processing is high on the list. In addition, more choices for application and software vendors and significant cost savings are expected. Retiring the mainframe will also eliminate the scheduling nightmares associated with the limited availability of the central mainframe for testing with the broker community. The new matching engine will be hosted on modern Unix based hardware. The release of the new matching engine and infrastructure is planned for the first quarter of 2012.

Another important milestone is the availability of a state-of-the-art co-location facility at KIO Santa Fe. The BMV infrastructure is located here and starting in October it will be easy for brokers and third party providers to collocate order routing and market data in this hosting facility leading to high throughput low latency services.

While all of the infrastructure and matching engine upgrades are momentous, they would bear no fruit without the simultaneous modernization of Mexican regulations. The initiative to modernize Mexico’s regulations, called RINO, began a year ago and phase two is due to rollout in the fall of 2011. The goal of RINO is to conform Mexican regulations to international standards. By converging with international standards, regulators hope to bring more international order flow and greater liquidity to the market, resulting in increased investment in the Mexican market.

While regulations in the US like Sarbanes Oxley and Dodd-Frank can be seen to drive businesses offshore, the regulatory changes in Mexico are removing handcuffs from businesses and facilitating opportunities. The first step forward occurred early this year with RINO I. RINO I allowed brokers to have multiple channels to the BMV’s electronic trading system. Previously all orders were in a single queue. Multiple access points per broker provides more flexibility in executing strategies and handling client requests, including separate BMV channels for program trading and orders called into the trading desk. RINO I also eliminated sizebased criteria from order management,  thus leveling the playing field in the processing of orders. RINO II takes effect on October 10, 2011, bringing more modernizations including pegged orders, improvements in crossing operations, average price operations, price delivery regardless of volume, and decimal bids for fixed income securities.

Crosses, in which a brokerage carries out a transaction through the stock exchange between two of its clients, were permitted previously but the rules were very arcane. Starting in October, the crossing operations will be vastly simplified allowing clients to simply choose whether to cross inside or outside the spread. With this modernization, the BMV hopes to repatriate orders that brokers would previously carry out in the US, where crossing orders was possible using ADRs in dark pools or at the NYSE.

In addition the RINO II regulations a very important new mid-point hidden book order. The orders execute at the midpoint, broker anonymity is guaranteed and the order priority is determined by volume. This is effectively a dark pool. Similar to Xetra, this new BMV order helps the market participants and simultaneously protects the BMV from  providers toying with moving into the Mexican marketplace.

As the regulations modernize and the FIX infrastructure hardens, opportunity beckons. Brokers are beginning to push for more high frequency trading algorithms, more efficient routing of international orders, and more sophisticated risk controls, all of which will attract even more international business. As the need for speed grows, co-location previously offered by the exchange may become more strategic, particularly to brokers wanting to attract high frequency traders.

All of this progress was made possible in large part because of the exchange’s demutualization and subsequent listing in 2008. The demutualization coincided with rule changes allowing Mexico’s pension funds or AFORES to invest. Before the rule changes, the AFORES were forced to invest almost entirely in short-term government paper. Today, Mexico’s pension funds are allowed to invest up to 25 percent, in individual stocks and shares and 12 percent in a hybrid of corporate debt and equity capital to allow companies to raise funds to expand businesses.

Considered together, regulatory improvements and infrastructure updates have morphed the BMV and the Mexican brokerage community into a thriving and modern marketplace. The BMV reported a 22 percent jump in earnings last year, with operating income increasing 70 percent in the last three months. A record six initial public offerings made it to market last year and overall trading volumes rose 50 percent in 2010. This year Mexico’s IPC index has tested and hovered near record highs.

In 2011 there are fewer IPOs, but trading volume remains strong. The order-routing agreement signed with Chicago’s CME Group has opened Mexico’s derivatives market to the world. Now, electronic trading infrastructure and investor friendly regulations have set the stage for act two.

Latin America has enjoyed a strong recovery for the most part it has sailed through the recession without lasting damage. Boosted by capital inflows, by record prices for commodity exports, by sound policies and by a heady expansion in domestic credit, the region saw economic growth of 6% last year and is on course to notch close to 5% this year. The region faces slower growth but not disaster. To up the pace, now is the time for reforms to boost productivity.

The main engines for growth in Latin America are China’s demand for minerals, food stuffs and raw materials – this looks set to continue – and consumption as tens of millions edge out of poverty and benefit from newly available credit.

Source: FIX Global Trading, 15.09.2011

Free Subscription of FIX Global Trading Magazin at http://fixglobal.com/subscription

Filed under: BMV - Mexico, FIX Connectivity, Latin America, Market Data, Mexico, News, Risk Management, Trading Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 10, 2011 • 1:29 pm 0

Latin America Fund and Investment News Aug-Oct 2011 – Alternative Latin Investor

American Business Practices in Brazil: A Contrarian’s View

Premium Article OCT, 2011 U.S. companies have been investing heavily in Brazilian private equity in recent years, capitalizing on the across-the-board growth in the country’s small, mid and large cap companies. But according to Malcolm McLelland, an American-born, Brazil-based consultant and…Read Full Article

Latin American Hedge Funds

Premium Article OCT, 2011 Hedge funds have become one of the most vital asset classes in LatAm in recent years, and LatAm hedge funds some of the most successful in the global industry, as local investors aim to diversify their strategies and exposure in the region while foreign investors vie for b…Read Full Article

Brazil

Premium Article OCT, 2011 Given its robust growth in recent years and massive wealth compared to its neighbors, Brazil has attracted the lion’s share of global investment in LatAm, with foreign investors allocating especially aggressively to equity and government bonds. Brazilian investors, …Read Full Article

MILA Integrated Latin American Market

OCT, 2011 On May 30 of this year, the Integrated Latin American Market (Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano, or MILA) was launched, combining the stock markets of Colombia, Chile and Peru into a single cross-trading platform. A key component of a regional trend toward integration, MILA has been wide…Read Full Article

Brazilian Pension Funds

Premium Article OCT, 2011 Alternative asset managers around the globe are vying for the attention of Brazil’s swelling pension funds. As of early 2011, these funds had a total of $342 billion under management and had grown an average of 14% per year for the last five years, one of the highest…Read Full Article

Meta-Trends in LatAm Investment

Premium Article OCT, 2011 The progress of alternative asset investment in LatAm is following two basic meta-trends, that is, large-scale and long-term patterns that transcend specific products, firms or opportunities. These meta-trends are, first, the increasing interpenetration of managers from th…Read Full Article

High Net Worth Individuals in LatAm

Premium Article AUGUST, 2011 The wealth and quantity of high net worth individuals (HNWI) in LatAm has grown in recent years. According to the Capgemini/Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report 2011, the number of LatAm HNWI grew by 6.2% in 2010, and its total HNWI wealth by 9.2%. There are about a half…Read Full Article

Quant Funds

Premium Article AUGUST, 2011 After taking a battering during the 2008 credit crunch and struggling in the early stages of recovery, quantitative (or ‘quant’) funds are trying to reassert themselves in the industry. And a small, but growing, number are looking to start afresh in the …Read Full Article

LatAm Funds

Premium Article AUGUST, 2011 U.S. Institutional investors looking to increase their exposure to emerging markets have been turning increasingly to a handful of LATAM countries, where they see a swelling pool of experienced fund managers working within a context of political stability and economic g…Read Full Article

Institutional Investing in LatAm

Premium Article AUGUST, 2011 For most institutional investors, there is an uncertainty about LatAm´s quality and future – and a certainty about its checkered past – that gives them pause as they investigate young managers in the region. Most of these investors want to see a stron…Read Full Article

Source:Alternative Latin Investor, October 2011

 

Filed under: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Exchanges, Latin America, Library, Mexico, News, Peru, Risk Management, Services, Wealth Management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 19, 2011 • 9:16 am 0

Brazil: BM&FBOVESPA – News October 2011 – Nr.21

BRIC exchanges announce alliance

The exchanges of the BRIC emerging markets bloc announced a joint initiative on October 12, during the 51st AGM of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in Johannesburg, to offer investors access to their dynamic economies. Initially the exchanges – which accounted for over 18% of all exchange-listed derivative contracts traded by volume worldwide as of June this year – will cross-list benchmark equity index derivatives on the boards of other alliance members. Following this, the alliance will develop innovative products to track the BRIC exchanges.

The seven exchanges are:

  • BM&FBOVESPA – Brazil
  • MICEX – Russia
  • RTS – Russia
  • Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) – China
  • Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) – South Africa
  • The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) – India
  • BSE Ltd (formerly known as Bombay Stock Exchange) – India

These seven exchanges represent a combined listed market capitalization of USD9.02 trillion, equitymarket trading value/month of USD422 billion and 9,481 companies listed.

BM&FBOVESPA new trading hours

In view of the start of daylight saving time on October 16, 2011, since October 17, 2011, the new trading hours (Brasília Time) for the BM&FBOVESPA markets – BOVESPA and BM&F segments – will be as follows:

Regular session: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

- After-Market: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (pre-opening phase to trading phase);

- Blocking / Exercise on the stock options market
Days prior to expiration: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (exercise of holder position).
Expiration date: 11:00a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – trading of the expired series to the offset of the position, that is, the sale for the holder of the position and purchase for blocking for the writer of the position / 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.: exercise of the holder position;

- Blocking / Exercise on the Index Options Market:
Days prior to expiration: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (exercise of holder position).
Expiration date: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. – trading of the expired series to the offset of the position, that is sale for the holder of the position and purchase for blocking for the writer of the position / After 6:00 p.m. – automatic exercise of the expired series which fit the following situations: call option (settlement index higher than the exercise price; and put option (settlement index lower than the exercise price).

- Over-the-Counter Market: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

> Complete information of the new trading hours (Circular Letters 009-2011-DO-Ofício Circular)

The trading hours for the BOVESPA and BM&F segments are available at this link

Market Makers for Options on the Stock of Banco Bradesco, Gerdau and Banco do Brasil

BM&FBOVESPA announced on August 3rd the start of the bidding process to select up to three market makers for options on stock of Banco Bradesco S.A. (BBDC4), Gerdau S.A. (GGBR4) and Banco do Brasil S.A. (BBAS3). This is the third stage of the Competitive Bidding Process to select market makers in equity options and BOVESPA Index (Ibovespa) options, developed by BM&FBOVESPA. The institutions (including nonresident) that wish to participate have until November 29, 2011 to deliver proposals and the winners will be announced on December 14, 2011.

> More info

Market Makers for Options on Ibovespa and on Stocks of BM&FBOVESPA and Usiminas

BM&FBOVESPA announced on October 11 the winning institutions in the second selection process for market makers for options on stocks and on the BOVESPA Index (Ibovespa). The market maker obligation shall last twelve (12) months as of December 12, 2011. Banco Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Banco Itaú BBA S.A. and Timber Hill LLC shall be market makers for options on the BOVESPA Index (IBOV), complying with a maximum volatility spread of half a percentage point (0.5%). The institutions selected for options on stocks in BM&FBOVESPA S.A. (BVMF3) were Citadel Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Limited and Morgan Stanley Uruguay Ltda, which shall be market makers complying with a maximum volatility spread of four percent (4%). Meanwhile, the institutions selected for options on stocks in Usinas Siderúrgicas de Minas Gerais S.A. (USIM5) were Banco BTG Pactual S.A. and Morgan Stanley Uruguay Ltda, which shall be market makers complying with a maximum volatility spread of twenty percent (20%).

> More info

Options on OGX Petróleo and Itaú Unibanco rise with Market Maker activity

The trading volume for options on the stocks of OGX Petróleo and Itaú Unibanco rose significantly in September, strongly influenced by the fact that they have had Market Makers since September 9. The Exchange launched the Market Maker program for stocks this year in order to encourage trading in options and increase their liquidity, as well as to stimulate longer expiries on these contracts. Options on the stocks of OGX Petróleo and Itaú Unibanco now have three Market Makers.

Comparing the average daily volume in September to that of January to August, there were the following increases: OGX Petróleo ON 51.9% (BRL 13.7 million against BRL 20.8 million) and Itaú Unibanco PN 205.6% (BRL 1.7 million against BRL 5.1 million).

ETF financial volume more than doubles in the past two months

BM&FBOVESPA Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) reached BRL 1.4 billion financial volume in August and September, at 78,809 and 75,740 trades respectively. This is more than double the BRL 668 million financial volume and 31,997 trades in July.

Common Shares in Desenvix Energias Renováveis start trading on BOVESPA MAIS

The shares of electricity company Desenvix Energias Renováveis S.A. begin to be traded on October 3 on the BOVESPA MAIS segment of the BM&FBOVESPA Organized OTC Market, under the DVIX3M ticker symbol.

USD11 billion in public offerings and follow-ons in 2011

In the year to October, 15, BM&FBOVESPA registered USD11 billion in public offerings and follow-ons. There were eleven Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2011: AREZZO&CO (ARZZ3), SIERRA BRASIL (SSBR3), AUTOMETAL (AUTM3), QGEP PART (QGEP3), IMC HOLDING (IMCH3), TIME FOR FUN (SHOW3), MAGAZINE LUIZA (MGLU3), BR PHARMA (BPHA3), QUALICORP (QUAL3), TECHNOS (TECN3) and ABRIL EDUCAÇÃO (ABRE11).

BM&FBOVESPA on Twitter

BM&FBOVESPA launched its Twitter account in English last week. Please access this link

2011 EVENTS

 The World Cup of ETFs and Indexing Latin America

BM&FBOVESPA is lending its support to the World Research Group’s “World Cup of ETFs and Indexing Latin America.” The event aims at providing attendees with the best practices for ETF use, as well as a comprehensive analysis of market structure, regulations and current and future opportunities. The expected audience includes pension funds, hedge fund managers and investors, investment advisors, financial consultants, and other market participants. A BM&FBOVESPA representative will talk about the Exchange’s ETF products.

Location: São Paulo (TBC)
Date: October 17-18, 2011.
> Full Agenda and Registration

2nd FX Growth Markets Series: Brazil – Profit & Loss

BM&FBOVESPA will join the Profit & Loss FX Growth Markets conference on October 20, 2011 at the Tivoli Hotel in São Paulo. Profit & Loss has been operating its highly successful series of Forex Network and FX Growth Markets conferences for more than 10 years, with regular annual events held in London, New York, Chicago, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Shanghai and Toronto, and comes to Brazil for the second time. A BM&FBOVESPA representative will talk at the event.

Location: Tivoli Hotel São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Date: October 20, 2011.
> Full Agenda

2nd Brazil–China Capital Markets Forum

BM&FBOVESPA and the Shanghai Stock Exchange are coordinating the Second Brazil–China Capital Markets Forum. This event follows the First Brazil–China Capital Markets Forum, which occurred in February in São Paulo, Brazil. At the event, the Shanghai Stock Exchange shall bring 300 to 500 Chinese asset and insurance managers and representatives of listed companies.

Location: Xijiao State Guest House Shanghai, China
Date: October 27, 2011.

Volumes and trades by Direct Market Access (DMA)

BM&F Segment
In September, BM&F* market segment transactions carried out through order routing via Direct Market Access (DMA) registered 35,144,357 contracts traded and 4,311,865 trades. In August, the volume reached 41,417,494 contracts traded and 4,431,750 trades.

The volumes registered by each access modality in the BM&F segment were as follows:

  • Traditional DMA – 12,583,334 contracts traded, in 1,366,264 trades, in comparison to 17,540,231 contracts and 1,306,241 trades in August;
  • Via DMA provider (including orders routed via the Globex System) – 13,976,949 contracts traded, in 374,992 trades, compared to 14,088,756 contracts and 435,281 trades in August;
  • DMA via direct connection – 2,636 contracts traded in 447 trades, against 4,210 contracts and 830 trades in August;
  • DMA via co-location – 8,581,438 contracts traded, in 2,570,162 trades, compared to 9,784,297 contracts and 2,689,398 trades in August.

In September, transactions carried out by foreign investors presented by CME to BVMF (who use the Globex-GTS order routing system or access BVMF markets via co-location) totaled 4,685,186 contracts traded, in 1,164,510 trades, compared to 5,308,308 contracts and 1,235,349 trades in August.

BOVESPA Segment
In September, order routing via DMA in the BOVESPA* segment totaled BRL 111.41 billion and 14,298,483 trades, from BRL 138.52 billion and 17,021,408 trades the previous month.

Trading volumes per type of DMA in the BOVESPA segment:

  • Traditional DMA – Volume of BRL 95.77 billion and 11,763,618 trades from BRL 120.45 billion and 14,098,638 in August;
  • DMA via co-location – Volume of BRL 14.29 billion and 2,357,270 trades from BRL 16.69 billion and 2,755,498 in August;
  • DMA via provider – Volume of BRL 1.34 billion and 177,044 trades from BRL 1.37 billion and 167,272 in August.

* Direct access to the BM&FBOVESPA market segments is carried out through DMA models 1, 2, 3 and 4. In model 1 or traditional DMA, the client accesses the GTS or Mega Bolsa through technological intermediation of a brokerage house. In model 2 or via DMA provider, the client does not use the technological intermediation of a brokerage house, but rather connects to the system through an authorized access provider. DMA via order routing with CME Globex is also a form of DMA model 2. In model 3, the client connects to the system through a direct connection. In model 4 or via co-location, the client installs its own computer within the Exchange’s facilities.

Notes:

The volumes registered by access modality include both buy and sell sides of a trade.

The volumes by access modality for both the BM&F and the BOVESPA market segments have been reported in a consolidated manner in the BM&FBOVESPA statements since May 2009.

MARKET RESULTS

BM&F Segment September 2011

Derivatives markets in the BM&F segment (including financial and commodities derivatives) totaled 59,365,524 contracts and BRL 4.35 trillion in volume in September, compared to 78,606,873 contracts and BRL 5.23 trillion in August. The daily average of contracts traded in the derivatives markets in September was 2,826,930, in contrast to 3,417,690 in August. Open interest contracts ended the last trading day of September with 36,620,797 positions, compared to 37,821,302 in August.

BOVESPA Segment September 2011

In September 2011, the equity markets (BOVESPA segment) financial volume totaled BRL 131.437 billion, in 13,551,487 trades, with daily averages of BRL 6.25 billion and 645,309 trades. In August, financial volume totaled BRL 177.906 billion, the total number of trades 16,234,673, and the daily averages BRL 7.73 billion and 705,855 trades respectively.

Source: BM&FBOVESPA, 18.10.2011

Filed under: BM&FBOVESPA, Brazil, China, Events, Exchanges, Hong Kong, India, Risk Management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 18, 2011 • 1:18 am 0

Brazil mysterious interest rate cuts & proposed Euro Rescue package… cause to worry?

Who sets interest rates in Brazil: Is it Central Bank President Alexandre Tombini or the country’s President, Dilma Rousseff? That question hung over financial markets after the Central Bank of Brazil cut the benchmark Selic interest rate by half a point, to 12 percent, on Aug. 31. The move was unexpected: The bank’s rate-setting committee had ratcheted up the Selic at its five previous meetings to combat inflation and had not signaled a change in its stance. Yet Rousseff in an Aug. 30 radio broadcast had said rates should begin to fall as the government curbs spending.

(Interestingly a week later Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, suddenly proposed a “Bric” rescue package for the eurozone this week, he caught not only other world leaders by surprise but also many of his fellow countrymen.

Even as officials from other members of the so-called Bric grouping – Russia, India and China – said it was the first they heard of the idea, many ordinary Brazilians expressed shock at the notion of bailing out the world’s richest trading bloc. FT 16.09.2011)

The abruptness of the shift in monetary policy left money managers such as Guilherme Figueiredo, director of M. Safra, a São Paulo investment firm, with the impression that Tombini had caved in to political pressure. “This is the worst possible decision our central bank could have made at such a moment,” Figueiredo says. “The loss of credibility is going to be large.” Rousseff’s press office declined to comment when asked about the rate decision.

New data indicate that Tombini may have acted prematurely. On Sept. 6, Brazil’s statistics agency said inflation accelerated to an annualized 7.23 percent in August—its fastest pace since 2005 and well above the 6.5 percent upper end of the target range set by monetary authorities for the full year. In an Aug. 31 statement the central bank defended the rate cut, saying it will help shield the economy from the effects of a “substantial deterioration” in the world growth outlook.

It’s true that Brazil shows signs of cooling. The central bank’s economic activity index shrank in June for the first time since 2008, and business confidence in the second quarter slid to its lowest level since 2009. Economists expect growth to slow to 3.7 percent this year, from 7.5 percent in 2010.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega has pledged that the government won’t resort to fiscal stimulus to spur the economy. Whether Rousseff, who took office on Jan. 1, can discipline the spending habits of the multiparty ruling coalition remains an open question, however. Congress rebelled against her first attempts at frugality by proposing bigger salaries for police officers and an increase in health-care spending. Cutting rates in these circumstances “is really risky, with inflation building and wages set to rise,” says Elson Teles, chief economist at Maxima Asset Management in Rio de Janeiro. The central bank is “weighing such subjective things like whether there’s going to be another global recession. What if it doesn’t happen?”

The bottom line: Brazil’s central bank may have bowed to government pressure for a rate cut, endangering its goal of containing inflation.

Source: Bloomberg, 08. 09.2011is a reporter for Bloomberg News.  Ragir   Bristow is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

Filed under: Brazil, News, Risk Management, , , , , , , ,

September 8, 2011 • 11:27 pm 0

Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR): A New Breed of Data Requirements – A-TEAM

Rather than opting for an all in one directive to herald the second coming of MiFID, the European Commission has split the update into two parts: a regulation and a directive. The Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) should be of particular interest to the data management community due to its focus on all aspects of data transparency, from trade data through to transaction reporting.

According to the draft of MiFIR, which is available to download at the bottom of the blog, the regulation: “sets out requirements in relation to the disclosure of trade transparency data to the public and transaction data to competent authorities, the authorisation and ongoing obligations applicable to providers of data services, the mandatory trading of derivatives on organised venues, and specific supervisory actions regarding financial instruments and positions in derivatives.” The data transparency requirements have therefore been neatly tied together under one regulatory banner, leaving the directive to deal with aspects such as the provision of investment services and conduct of business requirements for investment firms.

The draft regulation is the culmination of the work of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and its predecessor over the last couple of years to gather industry feedback on the implementation of the first version of MiFID and to fill in any gaps, as well as to extend the regulation beyond the equities market. The draft paper notes that the European Commission has focused on assessing the impact of these new requirements including cost effectiveness and transparency; hence it is adopting a defensive stance ahead of any possible industry backlash on the subject.

Much like its predecessor, MiFIR is focused on improving cross border transparency and ensuring a level playing field with regards to data reporting requirements and access. Although the regulation contains a number of important pre-trade data transparency requirements such as equal access to data about trading opportunities, the most important aspects for data managers will likely reside in the post-trade section of MiFIR.

The extension of transparency requirements to OTC derivatives and fixed income instruments and the multilateral trading facility (MTF) and organised trading facility (OTF) contingents in the market is one such development. These markets, however, will not face the same level of transparency requirements as the equity markets, although “equity like” instruments such as depository receipts and exchange traded funds will see the MiFID requirements extended to cover them directly. All trading venues and their related trades will therefore now be subject to the same level of transparency requirements, but these will be tailored to the individual instrument types in question (the level of transparency will be determined by instrument type rather than venue).

On transaction reporting (the area of most relevance with regards to reference data standards), MiFIR aims to improve the quality of the data underlying these reports (a common theme across a lot of recent regulation – see commentary on which here) by being much more prescriptive in the standards that must be used. The idea is for firms to provide “full access to records at all stages in the order execution process” and for trading venues, beyond just traditional exchanges to encompass MTFs and OTFs, to store relevant data for a period of five years. This data includes legal entity identification data that the regulation indicates must be reported via approved mechanisms and formatted in a certain manner that will make it accessible for regulatory oversight purposes cross border.

The exact nature of the legal entity identification (LEI) and instrument identification standards that are to be used by firms in their transaction reports is likely to be impacted by the ongoing work at a global level as part of the systemic risk monitoring effort (see more here). At the moment, a range of identifiers is acceptable, but the regulatory community has been pushing towards the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) for some time (see more on which here), but this may change before MiFIR comes into force.

Another important section of MiFIR is the one devoted to the “increased and more efficient data consolidation” for market data, which necessarily entails a reduction in the cost of this data. A City of London paper published earlier this year addressed this issue directly, noting that the majority of the European firms participating in the study believe poor data quality, high costs of pricing data and a reliance on vendors are the main barriers to post-trade transparency (see more here), and MiFIR appears to be aiming to directly address those issues.

The argument for some form of consolidated tape or tapes is an integral part of that endeavour (see recent industry commentary on this issue here) and MiFIR indicates that the aim is for data to be “reliable, timely and available at a reasonable cost.” On that last point, the regulation also includes a provision that all trading venues must make post-trade information available free of charge 15 minutes after execution, thus enabling data vendors to stay in business but increasing transparency overall (or so the logic goes). Moreover, the regulator is keen for a number of consolidated tape providers to offer market data services and improve access to a comparison of prices and trades across venues, rather than a single utility version.

In order to tackle the issue of a lack of data quality for trade reporting, all firms will also be required to publish their trade reports through approved publication arrangements (APAs), thus ensuring certain standards are adhered to.

The full MiFIR Draft paper is downloabale here  from A-TEAM

Source: A-Team Virgina´s Blog, 08.09.2011

Filed under: Data Management, Market Data, News, Reference Data, Risk Management, Standards, , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 2, 2011 • 1:59 am 0

Alternative Latin Investor: Premium Launch Issue Nr 11.

Alternative Latin Investor August 2011 – Issue 11 Premium Launch Issue

 News

Political Moves: brought to you by Latinnews.com

Emerging Markets

Growing M&A Activity between Asia and Latin America?

Latin American Venture Capital: Lessons Learned from China

Be careful What You Wish For- A Brazilian Cautionary Tale

Philanthropy

Cuipo: Saving the Rainforest One Meter at a Time

Nuts: Crops that Grow Well in LatAm

Entering The Brazilian Agribusiness Sector (Premium)

Infrastructure

Mezzanine Financing for LatAm’s Infrastructure

Energy

Investing in Brazilian Oil (Premium)

Art

Fine Art Funds: Taking the Soul Out of Art Investing?

Hedge Funds

MILA Integration

LatAm Fund Due Diligence: What Managers Need to Know (Premium)

Institutional Investing in LatAm: A Contrarian’s View (Premium)

Attracting US Institutional Investors to LatAm Funds (Premium)

Quant Funds in LatAm (Premium)

How HNWI in LatAm View Alternative Assets (Premium)

Forex

Spotting Opportunities in LatAm Forex Trading

Regulation

Tax Incentives: Software Development in Argentina

Ventures

Mercatrade: Inter-emerging Market Trade

QuickStart Global: Have an Office Anywhere

Real Estate

Airlift Encourages Latin America to reach for the skies

Read the content  at www.alternativelatininvestor.com/issue11.html 

To subscribe please click on the corner tabs within the above magazines or click directly to www.alternativelatininvestor.com/signup.php If your firm is interested in multiple licenses we can provide corporate discounts.

Please feel free email me directly with comments or questions regarding our current content or with suggestions for future stories. I can be reached at editor@alternativelatininvestor.com or 202-905-0378.

 http://www.alternativelatininvestor.com/registration.html

Register for free to gain access to new feature article

Filed under: Argentina, Banking, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Mexico, News, Peru, Risk Management, Wealth Management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 1, 2011 • 11:14 am 0

Top 10 Root Causes of Data Quality : People Issues – Part 5

In the 5th and last part we look at how companies rely on data to make significant decisions that can affect customer service, regulatory compliance, supply chain and many other areas. As you collect more and more information about customers, products, suppliers, transactions and billing, you must attack the root causes of data quality.

Root Cause Number (9) Nine: Defining Data Quality
More and more companies recognize the need for data quality, but there are different ways to   clean data and improve data quality.   You can:

  • Write some code and cleanse manually
  • Handle data quality within the source application
  • Buy tools to cleanse data

However, consider what happens when you have two or more of these types of data quality processes adjusting and massaging the data. Sales has one definition of customer, while billing has another.  Due to differing processes, they don’t agree on whether two records are a duplicate.

Root Cause Attack Plan

  • Standardize Tools – Whenever possible, choose tools that aren’t tied to a particular solution. Having data quality only in SAP, for example, won’t help your Oracle, Salesforce and MySQL data sets.  When picking a solution, select one that is capable of accessing any data, anywhere, at any time.  It shouldn’t cost you a bundle to leverage a common solution across multiple platforms and solutions.
  • Data Governance – By setting up a cross-functional data governance team, you will have the people in place to define a common data model.


Root Cause Number (10) Ten: Loss of Expertise
On almost every data intensive project, there is one person whose legacy data expertise is outstanding. These are the folks who understand why some employee date of hire information is stored in the date of birth field and why some of the name attributes also contain tax ID numbers.
Data might be a kind of historical record for an organization. It might have come from legacy systems. In some cases, the same value in the same field will mean a totally different thing in different records. Knowledge of these anomalies allows experts to use the data properly.
If you encounter this situation, there are some business processes you can follow.

Root Cause Attack Plan

  • Profile and Monitor – Profiling the data will help you identify most of these types of issues.  For example, if you have a tax ID number embedded in the name field, analysis will let you quickly spot it. Monitoring will prevent a recurrence.
  • Document – Although they may be reluctant to do so for fear of losing job security, make sure experts document all of the anomalies and transformations that need to happen every time the data is moved.
  • Use Consultants – Expert employees may be so valuable and busy that there is no time to document the legacy anomalies. Outside consulting firms are usually very good at documenting issues and providing continuity between legacy and new employees.

This post is an excerpt from a white paper available here.

Source: 31.08.2011 Steve Sarsfield – The Data Governance and Data Quality Insider

Filed under: Data Management, Library, Reference Data, Risk Management, Standards, , , , , , , , ,

September 1, 2011 • 10:53 am 0

Top 10 Root Causes of Data Quality : Secret Code & Corporate Evolution – Part 3

In part three, we examine secret code and corporate evolution as two of the root causes for data quality problems.

Root Cause Number (5) Five: Corporate Evolution
Change is good… except for data quality
An organizations undergoes business process change to improve itself. Good, right?  Prime examples include:

  • Company expansion into new markets
  • New partnership deals
  • New regulatory reporting laws
  • Financial reporting to a parent company
  • Downsizing

If data quality is defined as “fitness for purpose,” what happens when the purpose changes? It’s these new data uses that bring about changes in perceived level of data quality even though underlying data is the same. It’s natural for data to change.  As it does, the data quality rules, business rules and data integration layers must also change.

Root Cause Attack Plan

  • Data Governance – By setting up a cross-functional data governance team, you will always have a team who will be looking at the changes your company is undergoing and considering its impact on information. In fact, this should be in the charter of a data governance team.
  • Communication – Regular communication and a well-documented metadata model will make the process of change much easier.
  • Tool Flexibility – One of the challenges of buying data quality tools embedded within enterprise applications is that they may not work in ALL all enterprise applications. When you choose tools, make sure they are flexible enough to work with data from any application and that the company is committed to flexibility and openness.

Root Cause Number (6) Six: Secret Code
Databases rarely start begin their life empty. The starting point is typically a data conversion from some previously existing data source. The problem is that while the data may work perfectly well in the source application, it may fail in the target. It’s difficult to see all the custom code and special processes that happen beneath the data unless you profile.

Root Cause Attack Plan

  • Profile Early and Often – Don’t assume your data is fit for purpose because it works in the source application. Profiling will give you an exact evaluation of the shape and syntax of the data in the source.  It also will let you know how much work you need to do to make it work in the target.
  • Corporate Standards – Data governance will help you define corporate standards for data quality.
  • Apply Reusable Data Quality Tools When Possible – Rather than custom code in the application, a better strategy is to let data quality tools apply standards.  Data quality tools will apply corporate standards in a uniform way, leading to more accurate sharing of data.

This post is an excerpt from a white paper available here. More to come on this subject in the days ahead.

Source: 29.08.2011 Steve Sarsfield – The Data Governance and Data Quality Insider

Filed under: Data Management, Library, Reference Data, Risk Management, Standards, , , , , , , , , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.