Stuart Holt has joined JP Morgan in an equity sales role, based out of London.  Holt brings more than two decades of industry experience to his new position, which will see him focused on London hedge funds.  He joins from Clear Street, where he had been serving as managing director, sales, distribution and client strategy, since January 2025. Prior to this, he worked at Berenberg for seven years as head of pan-European sales, and also held a director position in equity sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for more than three years.  Holt also previously headed up hedge fund sales at Sanford Bernstein and worked in an equity sales role at Credit Suisse. JP Morgan confirmed Holt’s appointment when contacted by The TRADE.  Holt’s new role aligns with further sales-based hires for JP Morgan, most recently with the appointment of Will Jeffries as global head of sell-side trading services sales.  Alongside Jeffries, the firm also promoted Guy Dipper to the position of APAC head of sell-side trading services sales, following more than 20 years of experience at the firm.  The post JP Morgan appoints former Clear Street MD to equity sales role appeared first on The TRADE.

CME Group markets remain halted for trading following an outage on Thursday which has led to significant disruption of global equity, bond and commodities trading. Specifically, its Globex futures and options markets, and BMD markets are still impacted by the outage following a data centre cooling issue on Thursday evening. Currently, BrokerTec EU, BrokerTec US Actives and foreign exchange platform EBS markets, have reopened.Specifically, the outage stemmed from one of the group’s CyrusOne data centres. CME Group confirmed in a statement that support is currently working to resolve the issue “in the near term” and that clients will be advised of pre-open details as soon as they are available. Participants were first notified of the issue at 8.40pm CT on Thursday, according to its website. In a recent update, CME confirmed that its EBS market was set to reopen at 12pm GMT today, Friday, while all day and GFS orders will be cancelled. LSEG data has also revealed that future prices for indexes including S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Nikkei had not been updated by 7.20am GMT on Friday.  CME is the world’s largest derivatives exchange, spanning products including currencies, government bonds, futures, options, cryptocurrencies, and commodities.  The issue follows further recent market outages from exchanges over recent months. In July 2025, Nasdaq Nordic and Baltic experienced a technical issue which halted cash equities, extended exchange traded products (ETPs), and equity derivatives tradesAdditionally, in February, the European Central Bank (ECB) resolved an outage with its pan-European settlement system T2S from an incident with a hardware component, which caused commotion across the securities services industry. The outages can cause significant disruption across the industry, and in October, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the European Funds and Management Association (EFAMA) and the FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA), released a joint statement urging European stock exchanges to improve outage management with enhanced protocols.  Update: 28/11/2025, 3.30pm CME Group announced at 1:40pm GMT that all markets are now open and trading. Specifically, the group confirmed that the Globex FX spot plus markets opened at 8.30am CT, and that the futures and options markets opened at 7.30am CT.All day orders and GTDs for 28 November 2025 remain cancelled. The post UPDATED: CME Group markets remain halted appeared first on The TRADE.

What does declining touch sizes and widening spreads indicate about the depth and resilience of current European market liquidity?  Since early 2025, European markets have experienced a notable decline in touch sizes (-29% year to date), alongside widening spreads (+13% year to date). These developments can provide important insights into market liquidity, although they need to be viewed through short-term and long-term lenses.  In the near term, smaller touch sizes often reflect heightened risk management by market participants. When uncertainty around fair value increases – due to macroeconomic, earnings, or geopolitical developments – participants become less willing to expose large quantities at prevailing prices. Market-makers, in turn, widen spreads to protect against adverse selection. By quoting smaller sizes, participants limit their exposure to sharp price moves, reducing the risk of executing at unfavourable levels.  Lower touch sizes do not necessarily imply lower traded volumes. During periods of elevated uncertainty, trading frequency often rises. ‘Liberation Day’ saw resting times to fill shorten significantly (approximately 50%) while trade counts surged. This reflected a shift toward immediacy – investors prioritised certainty of execution and actively mitigated price risk. Notably, flows migrated back into lit continuous venues, and trade sizes fell across all venue categories.  Over a longer period, persistent reductions in touch sizes may offer clues about market depth and evolving microstructure. When viewed alongside aggregate volumes, it may indicate a migration of flow toward non-displayed venues or an increase in passive trading. Parent orders are increasingly sliced into smaller increments to minimise impact.  Conversely, the surge in touch sizes observed in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025 likely reflected strong conviction as investors aggressively allocated new flows into European markets. The subsequent decline since summer may signal a cooling of that trend and a shift toward more passive management of these positions.  From a resilience standpoint, these changes raise execution costs. Trading even moderately sized orders becomes more expensive and more likely to sweep through multiple price levels, amplifying market sensitivity to large trades and increasing volatility. In such conditions, liquidity appears less robust, and the market’s ability to absorb shocks without significant price dislocation is diminished.  How are rising trading costs affecting institutional execution strategies, and what adjustments are being made to mitigate these?  Changing market dynamics – wider spreads, smaller touch sizes, and reduced liquidity on lit continuous venues – have increased market impact costs. Institutions are responding through strategies such as adapting behaviour on lit pools and diversifying liquidity access. Lit venues remain essential for price discovery and high fill probability, but require more sophisticated interaction. Parent orders are sliced into smaller increments to reduce signalling, while queue priority and deeper price levels are leveraged for better passive fills. Spread-crossing is timed carefully to optimise costs and execution quality.  Liquidity diversification is accelerating. Dark pools help avoid paying the spread and reduce market impact, especially for block trades. Periodic auctions – now 8.9% of European market activity, surpassing dark pools as of October 2025 – offer limited pre-trade transparency and better protection against adverse selection. Bilateral liquidity is the standout trend, reaching approximately 32% market share. Direct connectivity to market makers and broker-built access layers are helping institutions reduce costs and execute large orders more efficiently. Looking ahead to 2026, what market-structure changes or liquidity trends do you expect to have the biggest impact on execution quality and investor behaviour?  Several structural changes will shape execution quality and investor behaviour in 2026. Periodic auctions, now 15% of lit market volumes, will continue to grow, influencing price discovery and execution performance. Monitoring how these venues scale will be critical. Bilateral liquidity, trading one-third of total volumes, may redefine large-order execution. Institutions are deepening direct connections to market-makers, while brokers build tailored solutions to democratise access to this liquidity. Increasing fragmentation across lit, dark, auctions, and bilateral channels will demand smarter routing, timing, and slicing strategies to manage impact costs. Expect greater reliance on adaptive algorithms and data-driven execution as liquidity becomes more dispersed. The post Fireside Friday with… Liquidnet’s Prashanth Manoharan appeared first on The TRADE.

LSEG is set to enhance its after-market trading session, Closing Price Crossing (CPX), to increase liquidity and participation in the trading period following market close. Specifically, the upgrade, currently scheduled to go live on 8 December, will facilitate iceberg and hidden orders to be placed post close, allowing traders to participate without revealing their full size and eliminating the need for participants to provide full pre-trade transparency.  Moreover, the enhancement will also include a feature which provides users with the option to pre-submit an order to automatically inject at the beginning of the session with immediate execution against any contra liquidity.  The move is expected to make the overall session more useful for traders. Currently, orders submitted to the CPX are fully displayed, which is widely believed to increase risk and open up the possibility of trade exposure.  Read more – LSEG unveils new post-trade offering to reduce FX options market risk In addition, LSEG’s enhancement will also see the inclusion of a fourth matching engine partition for the order-processing workload, to balance the message load and improve performance.  Expanding the CPX session to encompass hidden and partially hidden orders marks a step towards a full implementation of Auction Volume Discovery (AVD), with rollout currently expected in Q2 2026.  This also aligns with similar plans and launches by other firms, including SIX Swiss Exchange, which launched its AVD functionality in 2023, as exclusively revealed by The TRADE at the time, as well as Euronext’s plans to introduce AVD for equities, set to be unveiled on 8 December.  The post LSEG to include iceberg and hidden orders in its after-market trading session appeared first on The TRADE.

Hong Kong’s ambitions to position itself as a global RMB liquidity centre and digital market infrastructure leader remain constrained by entrenched operational, regulatory and technological frictions – and resolving these obstacles will define the city’s next stage of growth, agreed a panel of experts.  Speaking at The Network Forum Asia in Hong Kong last week, executives from HKEX, Deutsche Bank, State Street, Euroclear, CMU OmniClear and The ValueExchange offered one of the clearest assessments to date of the structural pressures limiting Hong Kong’s transition into a more integrated RMB and digital ecosystem.  Their message was consistent: the direction of travel is right, but significant groundwork remains. Looking at FX One of the sharpest challenges raised was the high FX conversion cost faced by mainland investors using Southbound Stock Connect – a friction that persists despite policy efforts to deepen RMB usage. Tae Yoo, managing director, head of institutions and client executive, global client development at HKEX, said: “We have roughly about HK$6.2 trillion of portfolio that’s held by mainland investors through Southbound Connect… The current FX cost is roughly about 200 to 250 basis points for mainland investors to convert renminbi to Hong Kong dollars.” That cost, he emphasised, is incurred on every buy and sell order. “That means whenever there is a transaction of buy or sell, the mainland investors have to pay somewhere around 2-2.5% on transaction cost.” For a programme designed to encourage connectivity, such costs remain a material barrier. Though, the dual-counter model aims to soften this problem by allowing investors to trade and settle in RMB directly, but the scale of the friction underscores how far the ecosystem must go before RMB truly becomes the default operating currency in Hong Kong markets. Despite a decade of cross-border development, China access mechanisms remain fragmented – Stock Connect, Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII), CIBM Direct – each with different account structures and regulatory expectations. This is one of the biggest pain points for institutions trying to operate efficiently across channels. A key sticking point remains the ability for the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to see through nominee structures used in Connect. This reflects a broader regulatory divergence: China’s central regulator – State Admission of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) – is understood to be comfortable with increased fungibility, but CSRC’s disclosure and transparency requirements continue to hold the brakes. From an infrastructure perspective, HKEX needs to accommodate two fundamentally different philosophies – the onshore ID-based model versus offshore omnibus structures.  Ben Li, China head of securities services at Deutsche Bank, said: “The market structure of the Asia market has always been ID market driven.  When you have to integrate offshore practice to onshore practice, it’s quite complex to pull off.” This tension explains why convergence, despite being widely requested, remains slow.  The role of RMB Even as RMB’s role in global trade expands, offshore liquidity tools remain underdeveloped. This mismatch discourages corporates and financial institutions from relying on RMB sustainably.  James Fok, chief commercial officer, CMU OmniClear, said: “Some 35% of all China’s commercial goods trade, and over 40% of China’s services trade, are now being settled in renminbi. Chinese companies and those companies interacting with Chinese counterparts do not have the full suite of liquidity and risk management tools in renminbi. Offshore they are still being forced to operate in US dollars with all the friction and costs associated with that.”  In other words, RMB usage is outpacing the development of supporting infrastructure.  Until repo markets, money market funds and broader risk tools mature, Hong Kong’s ambition to function as a true RMB hub remains constrained. The issue of time zones As global markets move toward shorter settlement cycles, Hong Kong faces a fundamental barrier: time. With most of its trading driven by overseas participation –  especially from the US – the time difference creates a uniquely difficult operational challenge. Fok said: “Two-thirds of the trading in the Hong Kong market comes from overseas… If you need to deal with affirmations, allocations, post-trade on a T+0 basis… there is simply no overlap in the business hours that enable you to do that.”  This means the traditional settlement workflow cannot support T+0 or even certain T+1 requirements, and so, the implication is clear: digital infrastructure cannot be an optional parallel track; it needs to become foundational. The post Time zones, FX costs and legacy rails threaten Hong Kong’s path to digital settlement appeared first on The TRADE.

SIX’s head equity products and quant research Simon Mason is set to join LSEG, as the firm’s new head of market structure and new products, The TRADE can reveal.  London-based Mason brings more than two decades of industry experience to his new role, effective 1 December, and joins the firm after spending nearly six years at SIX, where he initially joined as head equity product for UK and Ireland in 2020.  Prior to this, he spent almost eight years at Benchmark Holdings in roles as a business development manager, and later as head of BioSystems.  He has also held senior positions as firms including Emerge Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley and AssetBacked Finance, and his new appointment at LSEG marks a return to the firm for Mason, who served as a business development manager at the firm from 2008 to 2009.  Read more – Fireside Friday with… SIX Swiss Exchange’s Simon McQuoid-Mason He began his industry career as a private banking relationship manager at Bank of Queensland in 2000.  LSEG confirmed the appointment when contacted by The TRADE.  Read more – LSEG unveils new post-trade offering to reduce FX options market risk Mason’s appointment marks a further string of senior hires for LSEG in recent months. Most notably, in November, the exchange named Stephen Grady as head of open directory – community engagement and growth, joining from Tradeweb where he served as a strategy consultant. The post SIX’s head of equity products and quant research joins LSEG to lead market structure appeared first on The TRADE.

George Wales has joined BTIG’s high-touch sales trading team as an equity sales trader. Wales will be based out of London, which will see him trading pan-European stocks covering UK long-only and hedge fund clients, The TRADE has learnt.  He brings more than a decade of industry experience spanning both the buy- and sell-side to his position at the firm, and joins from Numis, now part of Deutsche Bank, where he also worked as an equity sales trader for three years.  Previously in his career, he also held similar positions at sell-side firm Winterflood Securities, as well as RBC Global Asset Management. He began his industry career working as an analyst at Northern Trust in 2011.  Read more – BTIG adds former UBS outsourced trading head to bolster EMEA team BTIG declined to comment when approached by The TRADE. Wales’ appointment follows further hires for BTIG in recent months. In September, Alastair Mankin and Charlie Hawkesworth both joined the firm from Clear Street, to support the firm in building out its event-driven offering, as revealed by The TRADE at the time.  The post BTIG taps Deutsche Bank’s Numis for equity sales trader appeared first on The TRADE.

Citi has made seven additions to its FX team in Japan, Asia North and Australia (JANA) and Asia South, in a bid to bolster its offering in these regions.  The hires span the firm’s corporate, institutional and trading teams for its FX business across JANA, and among the appointments is Manoj Goel, who joins as head of corporate FX sales for the India sub-continent.  In his new role, Goel will report to Vandana Bhatter, head of corporate FX Sales for JANA and Asia South and Aditya Bagree, head of markets for India, and joins from HSBC where he had been for 20 years, most recently as head of global markets corporate sales.  Also joining the corporate FX sales team is Cassalynne Lou, who joins Citi after a stint at Barclays, and will be based out of Singapore to focus on growing the CCB North Asia-Singapore corridor FX business, as well as increasing the FX solutions advisory agenda.  Alongside the new hires, Yusuke Aita has also joined the institutional FX sales team as a director in Tokyo. He will report to Anand Goyal, head of institutional FX sales for JANA and Asia South, and brings 17 years of industry experience to his new role, most recently serving at BNP Paribas. Similarly, Renee Gao also joins the team from HSBC as a director in Hong Kong, reporting to Chen Ni, head of FX institutional sales, Asia North and Australia, while Matthew Lim joins in Singapore as a vice president, reporting to Timothy Young , head of FX real money and bank sales, Asia South.  Gao joins Citi from HSBC where she focused on emerging markets fixed income and FX products for institutional clients, while Lim most recently served at UBS, where he specialised in banks and private banks across FX and rates coverage.  Elsewhere, within Citi’s FX trading team in the region, Nicky Lam has joined the firm’s G10 FX options trading team as a director from Nomura International Singapore, where he headed up the APAC G10 options business.  Additionally, Jonathan Chua joins the FX trading desk as a Singapore SGD trader and STIR, bringing a decade of experience working at firms including Wells Fargo, Natwest Markets and Maybank.  Both hires will be based out of Singapore in their new roles, and Lam will report to Akshay Saxena, head of FX options, while Chua will report to director and senior EM FX trader, Dany Checrallah. Speaking on the appointments, Nathan Swami, head of FX trading in JANA and Asia South, said: “We are delighted to announce the expansion of our FX team with these hires across the FX sales and trading business.  “These appointments underscore our steadfast commitment to strengthening and maintaining our leadership position in these markets. They also reaffirm our deep dedication to our valued corporate and institutional clients, as well as our continued investment in the growth our business.” The post Citi expands FX team in Japan, Asia North, Australia and Asia South with seven new hires appeared first on The TRADE.

Natasja Hansen is set to join Kepler Cheuvreux’s execution services platform, KCx, as a high-touch sales trader.  Hansen will join the KCx team in January, based out of Paris, and will support the development of the firm’s execution strategy in her new role.  Speaking to The TRADE, Chris McConville, global head of execution services and trading at Kepler Cheuvreux, said: “We are pleased to welcome Natasja to our Paris office as a high-touch sales trader. Her expertise, discipline, and strong client orientation will be instrumental in supporting the continued development of the execution franchise. Clients will feel the impact from day one.” Hansen joins Kepler Cheuvreux from S14 Capital, where she spent three years as head of execution, based out of Milan.  Previously in her career, she has worked out of Luxembourg, serving as an execution trader at Indosuez Wealth Management for four years, and a cross-asset dealer at Societe Generale Private Banking for three years.  Prior to this, she also worked on Covéa Finance’s equity dealing desk, as well as working in equity sales trading at Deutsche Bank.  She began her industry career as a portfolio manager assistant at Banque d’Orsay in 2006.  Currently, KCx’s team spans Europe, the US and the Middle East, in locations including Amsterdam, London, Dubai, New York, Oslo and Zurich.  Hansen’s appointment marks a further expansion of KCx’s team in recent months, and in October, Andrew Alder joined the platform as a portfolio trading sales trader.  He had most recently been at Barclays Investment Bank as a director in EMEA equities electronic sales trading.  The post Kepler Cheuvreux appoints S14 Capital head of execution to sales trading role as part of KCx expansion appeared first on The TRADE.

SIX has acquired Baymarkets, a Norwegian provider of clearing technology, in a move aimed at strengthening its derivatives clearing capabilities.   The deal comes amid growing pressure on European market infrastructure to modernise legacy systems and handle more complex instruments. Baymarkets, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Oslo, offers a clearing platform that supports both exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets.  Its system is designed to handle multiple currencies and asset classes and includes a risk model that has been tested across diverse market conditions.  For SIX, the acquisition adds a technology layer that can scale as clearing requirements evolve. Rafael Moral Santiago, head securities services and executive board member, SIX, said: “The proven expertise of Baymarkets in clearing technology strengthens our ability to deliver faster and more flexible post-trade services to our clients.”  Santiago added: “By combining Baymarkets’ innovative systems and talented team, we can accelerate the modernisation of clearing technology and bring tangible benefits to market participants across Europe.” The deal reflects broader trends in post-trade markets, where operators are investing in digital tools and expertise to keep pace with regulatory expectations and client demands.  By bringing Baymarkets’ platform into its operations, SIX is positioning itself to tackle these challenges while expanding its toolkit for derivatives clearing. The integration will also provide Baymarkets with access to a larger operational framework, allowing its technology to be deployed more widely.  The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. The post SIX strengthens clearing business with Baymarkets acquisition appeared first on The TRADE.

MIAX is set to offload a 90% stake in its derivatives exchange – MIAXdx – to Robinhood Markets, in partnership with Susquehanna International Group, following an agreement between the parties. JB MackenzieFollowing close of the transaction, MIAX has confirmed that it will retain 10% of the issued and outstanding equity in the exchange and clearinghouse. Specifically, MIAXdx is a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organisation (DCO) which is approved to list and clear fully collateralised futures, options on futures and swaps. Thomas Gallagher, chair and chief executive of MIAX, said: “Through our retained equity stake, the transaction announced today will provide MIAX with access to the growing prediction markets on an expedited basis. “The transaction with Robinhood closely aligns with our strategy of partnering with industry leaders to offer innovative trading products to the market, and we’re excited about the opportunity to gain exposure to prediction markets through this initiative. The transaction represents a logical step forward for MIAX as we continue to focus on strategic growth opportunities within our core exchanges […] We have evaluated alternatives to facilitate our entry to the prediction markets, and we believe that today’s strategic alignment is the right lever for offering institutional and retail futures traders exposure in the growing prediction markets while providing MIAX with potential long-term value.” Read more: Institutional prop trading interest in prediction markets on the up, report reveals In August 2024, MIAX announced a $100 million capital injection from Warburg Pincus, which at the time was set to partly contribute to the development of  MIAXdx, as well as MIH’s agricultural and financial futures businesses on its US futures exchanges Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX). The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, as well as the relevant filings with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. JB Mackenzie, vice president and general manager of futures and international at Robinhood, added: “MIAX is a market leading exchange operator and we look forward to exploring future partnership opportunities to deliver products that meet the needs of Robinhood’s customers.” The post Robinhood Markets picks up 90% stake in MIAX derivatives exchange appeared first on The TRADE.

As the deadline for the UK’s move to T+1 settlement, scheduled for 11 October 2027, awareness and planning for the transition appears to be strengthening, with new data indicating the strong progress is being made to ensure the industry is prepared.  Andrew DouglasAs revealed in The ValueExchange’s new survey, 95% of firms have now begun preparations for the 2027 transition.  Moreover, the report also indicated that 60% of the firms surveyed also predict that they will hit the key T+0 confirmation deadlines in 2026.  As a result of the findings, the survey suggests that awareness and planning for the shift to T+1 settlement has increased significantly since Q1 2025, where 26% of respondents to a similar study produced by The ValueExchange indicated in April that they would miss the target date for the transition. Similarly, in Q1, only 62% of firms surveyed had started preparations, marking a 33% increase over the course of the year.  Despite these areas of growth, firms still appear to be facing some obstacles when addressing the T+1 transition, and according to the survey, less than a third of firms believe that their service providers will be prepared to support the key requirements needed for the settlement shift.  Read more – Settlement failure costs could soar into the billions under T+1 without automation and strong data standards To support firms in staying on track for the 2027 implementation, the survey also outlined some key priorities that firms should be addressing. Specifically, these included assessing budget and resource allocation to prevent cost underestimation, accelerating internal automation, engaging with counterparties early, updating fund dealing cycles and processes and investing in people and process training.  Speaking on this, Andrew Douglas, chair of the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, said: “We’ve seen strong engagement from the industry ahead of the UK’s transition to T+1, and we’re now urging firms to take a proactive stance.”  “Investing in automated trade matching tools and improving SSI databases will also be crucial for navigating the complexities of T+1. The earlier firms start, the better positioned they’ll be to transition smoothly and capture the long-term benefits of faster settlement.” Read more – A shift to T+0 is likely to initially complement T+1, rather than replace it, say experts The recommendations also align with news in October, where the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce re-emphasised the importance of automation and ensuring that firms had completed interim deadlines by the end of 2025, to enable a smooth T+1 transition.  Val Wotton, managing director and global head of equities solutions at DTCC also said: “The UK T+1 Pulse Survey results demonstrate the industry’s strong momentum, but also highlight the need for continued collaboration and investment in automation, operational readiness, and ecosystem-wide alignment.  “Together, we can help deliver the benefits of a shorter settlement cycle, including reduced risk, improved efficiency, and enhanced market competitiveness for all participants.” The ValueExchange’s new UK T+1 Pulse Survey was led by the UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, with the support of the Euroclear and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).  The post T+1 readiness gaining momentum across the UK with 95% of firms having begun preparations appeared first on The TRADE.

Etrading Software has submitted a witness statement to the High Court, as part of an effort to support the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) application to lift the suspension on the bond consolidated tape (CT) contract award.  The firm has also applied to participate in the proceedings as an interested party, for the purpose of providing “relevant factual information to support the Court’s consideration,” as described by the firm.  The news marks the latest development in the legal challenge surrounding the UK bond CT, with the FCA confirming it had filed an application to the High Court last week, after Ediphy – which was named the EU bond CTP – challenged the awarding of the UK CTP mandate to Etrading Software in September.  Read more – FCA asks High Court to lift suspension on bond consolidated tape award The lifting of the suspension of the High Court would facilitate the signing of the contract between the FCA and Etrading Software, while the legal challenge continues to progress in parallel.  Etrading Software has also confirmed that it will continue to progress with preparatory work for the CT’s launch, although the contract signature and required authorisations are necessary to complete all activities.  Read more – Ediphy appeals FCA bond CTP decision Following the announcement of the FCA’s appeal to the High Court, Etrading Software also told The TRADE that the proceedings represented a “strong signal to market participants” to continue preparing for the tape’s launch.  Prior to the legal proceedings, Etrading Software’s estimated to begin on 5 January 2026 for a five-year period, which will see the firm taking on a contract valued at £4.8 million including VAT.  In response to the legal challenge received in September, the FCA affirmed that it carried out a “fair, competitive two-stage process,” and that it is currently engaging in discussions with market participants in preparation for the tape.  The post Etrading Software submits witness statement to support FCA’s appeal to the High Court on bond CT appeared first on The TRADE.

BlackRock has signed a strategic partnership with AccessFintech to increase connectivity between buy-side firms and their sell-side, asset servicing and market infrastructure counterparties.  Sarah ShentonExisting clients of BlackRock’s Aladdin investment management platform will gain real-time visibility into trade lifecycle events, connecting directly with brokers and custodians to resolve exceptions and reduce fails.  Sell-side participants and asset servicers will gain a new channel to engage with the network of global buy-side firms on the Aladdin platform.  The partnership also promises to deliver real-time multi-region data and AI-driven predictive analytics, while remediation processes are accelerated and operational risk reduced.  “BlackRock has accelerated its strategy in partnership with AccessFintech, integrating real-time data across the post-trade and asset servicing lifecycle. This delivers more efficient workflow, greater interoperability, and improved risk management,” said Michael Debevec, head of global investment operations at BlackRock.  “Our partnership extends these benefits to the wider Aladdin community, helping clients achieve higher operational performance and capacity throughout the investment lifecycle with a broader ecosystem of collaborators, enhancing the client experience.” In addition to the partnership, BlackRock has made a strategic capital investment in the fintech firm, designed to support the company’s next phase of growth – including product innovation and global expansion.  “This partnership is a major milestone in our mission to unlock capital market efficiency at scale,” said Sarah Shenton, chief executive of AccessFintech. “This investment will accelerate our efforts to bring to market the innovations that continue to drive alpha for our clients.” The post BlackRock and AccessFintech partner to increase post-trade connectivity between buy- and sell-side appeared first on The TRADE.

Marex is set to serve as a clearing firm for SGX’s bitcoin and ethereum perpetual futures products, launching on 24 November 2025.  Thomas TexierThrough providing clearing services for the products, Marex will support SGX in facilitating institutional traders’ access to continuous bitcoin or Ethereum exposure providing central clearing to minimise counterparty risk, and offer greater operational transparency.  Specifically, the launch of SGX crypto perpetual futures makes use of a funding rate mechanism associated with the iEdge CoinDesk crypto indices, to align with institutional standards for price benchmarks, and offer clients the same transparency, and operational and risk management frameworks as traditional listed derivatives.  Thomas Texier, head of clearing at Marex, said: “As a day-one clearer for this product, Marex is proud to provide clients with first access to this innovative financial instrument, under the same standards applied to traditional derivatives products.  “Clearing and margining these contracts through this model will provide institutional traders with greater transparency, improved risk management, and enhanced capital efficiency.” The clearing partnership and product launch follows increasing demand for regulated crypto derivatives across the industry, with firms such as EDXM International and Sage Capital Management partnering to enhance institutional access to differentiated perpetual futures liquidity.  Read more – Marex to acquire market maker Valcourt to bolster fixed income offering Speaking on the launch, Michael Syn, president of SGX Group, said: “Building a regulated and institutional-grade market for crypto derivatives requires strong clearing participation. We welcome Marex as a pioneer clearer, adding depth and trusted risk management to this new market structure.  “Marex’s involvement supports our aim to provide global investors with transparent, robust access to crypto derivatives in Asia.” The news follows further clearing-related developments for Marex in recent months. In September, the firm announced that it had cleared the first ever US Treasury (UST) delivery on FMX Futures Exchange.  The offering is expected to provide Marex’s clients with opportunities to save capital, made possible through the firm’s clearing partnership for interest rate swaps with LCH, as well as offer access to competitive offsetting between UST futures positions on FMX and LCH IRS portfolios.   The post Marex to act as clearing firm for SGX crypto perpetual futures appeared first on The TRADE.

Sam Hart has joined Stifel as a director, high-touch sales trader, further expanding the firm’s execution services team, The TRADE can reveal.  London-based Hart brings 15 years of industry experience to his new role, and will report to Mark Small, managing director at Stifel.  He joins from Berenberg, where he spent more than six years as a senior market maker. Prior to this, he also served as a UK equities trader at Winterflood Securities, serving in this role for nearly nine years.  Stifel confirmed the appointment when contacted by The TRADE.  Hart’s new position builds on other high and low-touch trading hires for Stifel in recent months, across both US and EMEA equities.  In October, The TRADE revealed that Jack Harvey and Yannis Bouchakour had joined the firm’s European execution services team to focus on low-touch trading, based out of London and Paris respectively.  Both individuals will come under the leadership of Seema Arora, managing director and head of execution services at Stifel.   Additionally, the firm also hired Matthew McNestry as a managing director in low-touch trading in September, joining from Euronext, where he spent almost five years as head of sales, global buy-side and liquidity providers.   The expansion of Stifel’s execution services team in Europe also aligns with the firm’s recent success at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading event in London, taking home the Best Client Service award in the Algorithmic Trading category earlier this month.  The post Stifel continues expansion of execution services team with Berenberg hire appeared first on The TRADE.

DTCC The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has appointed Arianne Collette as managing director and head of US equities, a newly created role that will see her lead strategy, growth and operational execution across the organisation’s equities business.  Based in Jersey City, Collette will oversee strategic planning for DTCC’s clearing and settlement infrastructure in US equities, with a view to driving market expansion and operational efficiencies.   She reports to Val Wotton, managing director and global head of equities solutions.  Collette joins DTCC from Morgan Stanley, where she worked for over 24 years – holding senior roles including COO and head of strategy for reinvestment, global head of sales strategy, and Americas head of resource optimisation.   LSEG Established buy- and sell-side participant, Stephen Grady has joined LSEG as head of open directory – community engagement and growth.   Grady brings extensive experience to his new role, and has worked extensively across the industry in dealing and trading roles for over three decades.   In 2024, he received The TRADE’s Lifetime Achievement Award at Leaders in Trading, after being nominated by several buy-side peers for his significant contribution and longstanding service to the industry.   Prior to joining LSEG, he most recently served as a strategy consultant at Tradeweb for four months.   He also held the position of head of global markets and executive vice president at Lombard Odier for more than three years, based out of Geneva.   While at Lombard Odier, he also served as a director on the Swiss Regional Committee of the International Capital Market Association.   Grady has an extensive track record in leading dealing and sales trading and spent five years as global head of trading at Legal & General Investment Management.   He also held similar positions at Barclays Wealth and Fortis Investments, and served at firms spanning Liquidnet, Powe Capital Management, ADIA and Bankers Trust Asset Management.   He began his industry career working as an FX dealer at Bank of America in Sydney in 1990.   Grady has also contributed to several industry organisations including the Fixed Income Trading Committee, the Buy-Side Trading Committee and the Foreign Exchange Working Group (FXWG) during his time working across the markets.   GTS Securities Europe Daniel Dempsey has joined GTS Securities Europe as the firm’s new head of UK market making.  London-based Dempsey brings more than two decades of financial markets experience to his new role, which sees him building and establishing GTS’ UK market making desk.  He joins the firm from Iress, where he spent nearly three years as a senior account manager, and prior to this, spent more than two years as a UK market maker at Stifel.  Previously in his career, he also served as a director in equity trading at KBW, as well as head of trading for the UK at Pictet Global Markets.  He has also worked in various market making roles at firms spanning KCG Holdings and Matrix Corporate Capital, as well as equity sales trader positions at Daniel Stewart & Company, FBR, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, where he began his industry career in 2004.  The post People Moves Monday: DTCC, LSEG and GTS Securities appeared first on The TRADE.

What factors are the driving force behind the integration of crypto into traditional financial markets? The asset class itself has been maturing. When it first started, the returns and diversification capabilities were there, but it was a new asset, and there was very little information that institutional traders could go by. Now, the assets are more mature, so institutional investors – who require a lot of analytics before they move into an asset class – are able to start considering crypto.  There is also a lot of competitive pressure on retail banks to start providing crypto services to their underlying clients. In addition, the asset managers who were looking at allocating to this asset class now have the data to run the analytics and models needed to see how crypto would impact their portfolio. A few corporates are also starting to open up their services and looking to enable payments in crypto and stablecoin. The environment is developing, and real use cases have started to emerge, hence why we’re seeing more of a push towards cryptocurrencies. Will crypto trading soon be viewed similarly to FX when it comes to market structure? From an institutional perspective, a lot of our clients have housed this activity close to their FX desk. When we talk with our client segment across treasuries, banks and asset managers, there is an indication that the asset class – at least from a market structure perspective – is viewed in a similar way to the FX market. The FX market is generally an OTC market, with highly fragmented liquidity, and is more volatile than other assets. As is the cryptocurrency market. As a result, we see digital asset activity being housed mainly with the FX desks and firms prefer using these existing rails for crypto trading. It’s not a one-to-one copy, as cryptocurrencies live in an on-chain world, but it has the same components. What are the main challenges when it comes to integrating crypto with existing FX workflows and settlement processes? From a trading perspective, digital assets have similarities to previous FX processes, wherein activity happens either on OTC desks or crypto exchanges. To reach liquidity, there are multiple locations to go to. Connectivity to crypto liquidity destinations is hard to manage given the number of required destinations and the lack of standardisation, even when an API exists. Moreover, crypto trades 24/7 versus FX which trades 24/5, thus implementing digital assets requires different support models and technical capabilities that function around the clock. Post-trade models also differ. In FX, a large part of activity settles through payment-versus-payment, removing settlement risk, however similar structures do not exist for crypto today and crypto settlement remains bilateral and generally prefunded. The next phase of market evolution also involves using settlement agents to enable delivery-versus-payment and reduce post-trade friction. It’s important to note that many institutional clients still lack relationships with digital asset liquidity providers. Despite this, as the ecosystem matures these participants will likely become more widely known and obtain the required licenses required by institutional clients, to drive forward the adoption of cryptocurrencies.  The post Fireside Friday with… 360T’s Ralph Achkar appeared first on The TRADE.

Following the introduction of the FCA’s new joint payments rules in May 2025, allowing payments for third-party research to be bundled and relaxing Mifid II restrictions, the buy-side appears to be moving increasingly back to client-funded research. Almost three quarters (73%) of European asset managers surveyed stated that they felt at a competitive disadvantage to their US counterparts, found a recent report by Substantive Research. Specifically, these disadvantages referred to the research European asset managers can access in the current profit and loss (P&L) funding environment, as well as the ability to meet with the corporates they need to meet with to make investment decisions. Read more – The rebundling conundrum Assessing these findings, the survey indicated that in Q2 2026, firms will increasingly shift back to client-funded research budgets, with 59% of the study’s respondents highlighting that by adopting a joint payments approach, asset managers could gain greater investment flexibility for future developments in the research space.  Currently, the average medium size asset manager in the UK or EU spends $700,000 less each year on technology-driven research tooling and analytics than those in the US, indicating that opportunities to access more research flexibility and developments could have a significant impact on European firms.  Speaking to The TRADE, Mike Carrodus, chief executive of Substantive Research, said: “As some of the largest buy side firms created working groups this spring to review their options, spurred on by the resolution of some outstanding regulatory issues, they became increasingly convinced that moving back to CSAs was aligned with their end investor clients’ best interests. Mifid II has done its job – these costs are materially lower than they were when they were last passed onto investors pre-2018, so any impact to performance should dwarf the added cost.” Read more – Buy-side AUM growth not equating to higher research budgets, report reveals In addition, performance was emphasised as a key priority for asset managers in the survey, with 80% saying that “if budgets increase slightly but have a leveraged effect on performance, then asset owners reap the rewards.” Carrodus added: “It’s clear that 2026/27 is going to be an investing climate that requires careful navigation. In tough times it’s tempting to cut research budgets from a cost perspective at exactly the time when asset managers need the best insights available to them. This move to joint payments would ring fence research from that dynamic.” These latest findings also build on an earlier survey, released in July, which revealed that 87% of buy-side respondents predicted that at least half of all research budgets will become client-funded within the next two years.  Substantive Research’s Buy-Side Survey included responses from 40 of ‘the largest asset managers,’ with a combined AUM of $15 trillion – 25% North American, 25% EU-based and 50% from the UK.  The post Buy-side will move increasingly to client-funded research in 2026, report reveals appeared first on The TRADE.

Euronext is set to acquire Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) following a successful voluntary share exchange tender offer.  The result follows a six-week window, which finished on 17 November 2025. The period saw shareholders tendering 42,953,405 ATHEX shares – approximately 74% of ATHEX voting rights – surpassing the required 28,925,001 shares needed to be tended for the offer to be successful.  The acquisition will see ATHEX integrating into Euronext’s trading and post-trade technology as a combined group, with a cross-border clearing framework.  In addition, the move is also set to boost the development and attractivity of Greek markets and further integrate Greek capital markets into the Eurozone and the European Union. Stéphane Boujnah, chief executive and chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, said: “The integration of ATHEX into Euronext marks a significant milestone for both Greece and the broader European financial landscape. By joining Euronext, ATHEX will become part of a strong and integrated European network focused on connecting local economies with global markets. “Greek issuers, brokers and investors will benefit from advanced trading and post-trade technologies that will enhance the global positioning and competitiveness of the Greek capital market.” Moreover, Euronext has also announced its intention to establish a new Group-level support and technology centre in Athens, to support the firm’s business lines and ensure the development of its network.  Euronext is set to issue the new ordinary shares for the acquisition on 21 November and will procure the exchange of ATHEX shares to settle the tender offer on 24 November.  The news also follows recent regulatory approval from Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) for Euronext’s acquisition, which made the tender offer unconditional. The post Euronext to acquire Athens Stock Exchange marking the next phase of exchange’s European expansion appeared first on The TRADE.