Derivs - Equity

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association this week asked its members for feedback on the potential integration of smart contract functionality into the definitions that govern derivatives transactions.

BNP Paribas has given its global head of EQD institutional sales and EQD linear trading more UK-specific responsibilities with a new leadership role.

Private equity-owned ION Investment Group has been named as the high bidder of the two that have made last minute bids to beat Temenos in the race for UK trading technology company Fidessa.

A pair of gatecrashers have burst into Temenos’ £1.4bn bid for UK trading technology firm Fidessa, with one party offering a 5% premium to the existing deal from the Swiss banking software company.

As volatility returned to financial markets, US derivatives exchange operator CME saw record average daily volume for derivative contracts in the first quarter of 2018, beating the same period last year by 30%.

It has been a long held belief over the past few years that a return of volatility would be good for equity capital markets. But the speed of its return is causing many investors to give taking risk a wide berth.

A selloff led by worries over tech and tariffs has continued from last week, with some bank strategists beginning to doubt there will be a return to the market conditions seen in January and the second half of 2017.

After months of posturing, pan-European securities watchdog ESMA came down hard on "speculative" retail derivatives, restricting or banning products for three months.

Deutsche Börse has said it will build a blockchain-based securities lending platform that will be open to all custodians.

The strong momentum of the IPO market has been hindered this week as markets subject are buffeted by heightened geopolitical volatility in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and of new US trade tariffs.

Equity market volatility in the US spiked this week as investors scrambled to position for emerging risks, including impending tech regulation, an escalating trade war and rate hike worries.

Equity markets took a hit this week in the wake of revelations that big data political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, managed to obtain data from millions of Facebook profiles, sparking concerns about possible government-led crackdowns on data and tech companies around the world.