Vol 1 No 34
BRIEF OBJECTS
011705
SWAPSTREAM LANDS THREE FIRMS
Banco Santander Central Hispano, WestLB, and ING Bank are new users of the multilateral electronic trading platform for medium and long-term interest rate swaps (IRS) from Swapstream, officials say. "Swapstream lets us manage and direct our liquidity through functionality like integrated futures-cross trading," says Peter Millington, head of IRS and government bonds at Banco Santander. Along with IRS, Swapstream’s system handles swap spreads in Euros and Swiss Francs, and the vendor is expected to launch USD and GBP swaps later this year. The system is delivered to customers over a secure private network from Deutsche Börse facilities in Frankfurt.
HSBC USA MERGES UNITS
HSBC Brokerage (USA) has merged into its broker/dealer affiliate, HSBC Securities (USA), and has taken on the HSBC Securities name. The merger will have no impact on customers’ accounts or account numbers, nor will it cause any disruption of service as the HSBC Brokerage operating, trading and clearing platform has not changed, according to the firm. HSBC Brokerage accounts automatically converted to HSBC Securities accounts on Jan. 1 of this year.
HARRIS NESBITT LAUNCHES FX TRADING PLATFORM
North American bank Harris Nesbitt has launched a new online trading system that will facilitate the real-time electronic transaction of foreign exchange for a range of corporate and institutional clients. Called eFXpedite, the platform lets users execute trades on the spot and access foreign exchange prices in real-time. The eFXpedite system also supports the execution of spot, forward, swap and cross-currency transactions.
HVB GROUP GETS ‘RISQUE’
German bank HVB Group has extended its agreement with vendor Sophis. Under the agreement, the newly formed structured derivatives division at the corporate and markets arm of the bank will use Sophis’ solution, Risque, as its main platform for sales, trading, structuring, risk control and operations in the front, middle and back offices. The solution will be rolled out across hundreds of workstations and will replace several in-house and third-party systems in all relevant asset classes, the vendor says. Although the other contenders were not disclosed, the bank went through a careful vendor evaluation process to figure out "which system could best support our objectives," says Reinhard Eschbach, CIO for the corporate and markets arm of HVB Group, in a prepared statement. HVB contributed to the development of the exotic interest rates derivatives module of Risque, according to Eschbach.
SWEDISH AGENCY TAPS FINANCIAL OBJECTS FOR ACTIVEBANK
The Swedish National Debt Office (SNDO) has entered into a new £1 million ($1.9 million) contract with vendor Financial Objects, to install the vendor’s ActiveBank software. The contract was secured through Financial Objects’ Swedish partner by way of a public EEC tender. The contract is initially worth £540,000 to Financial Objects, and a five-year maintenance agreement has also been entered into over and above the initial contract value. Under the terms of the agreement, the Swedish partner will be providing the majority of on-site delivery, with Financial Objects supplying product and modifications. The SNDO is a government agency that manages central government debt and borrowing at the lowest possible cost, taking into account risk, officials say. The debt office issues government guarantees and lending, and acts as an internal bank for state agencies, supervises the state’s cash management and makes forecasts of central government borrowing requirements.
APAMA REACHES OUT TO BUY SIDE
Apama has launched its trading strategy management product suite to the buy side community. Two global investment banks, current Apama sell-side clients, are in the process of extending the use of the technology to their corporate customers to let them adopt and modify trading strategies from their desktop via the Internet, according to Apama. Apama has also signed up its first two hedge fund clients, one in the U.S. and the other based in Europe. "Using the platform, hedge funds gain a level of access and control over the trading strategies operated by their prime brokers or outsourced service providers," says Peter Beard, Apama CEO.
MEMBERS GET CONTROL OF AMEX
Earlier this month, the American Stock Exchange (Amex) closed the transaction transferring control of the Amex from the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to the Amex Membership Corp. (AMC). A new board of governors will be elected for the Amex, as well as for the AMC, in accordance with rules approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December. The Amex has achieved a strategic goal in reestablishing itself as an independent entity, says Amex chairman and CEO Salvatore Sodano, in a prepared statement. "As an independent institution, the Amex can better manage its opportunities and challenges and compete more aggressively in the marketplace," he says.
GOLDMAN SACHS REBRANDS SLK
Goldman Sachs has renamed the electronic execution, prime brokerage and clearing businesses of Spear, Leeds and Kellogg (SLK) as Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing (GSEC), effective from Jan. 14, 2005. Within the next few weeks, clients’ SLK accounts will be converted, resulting in GSEC branded reports, documents and Web-based tools, the firm says. GSEC remains a separate legal entity and a separately registered broker-dealer, and the ownership and business conducted by GSEC will not change. There are no plans to change the names of other separate specialist entities that retain the SLK name, the firm says. The Amex ETF specialist business housed in the SLK broker-dealer, will be subject to the GSEC name change.
CCORP MOVES INTO CHINA
The Clearing Corp. (CCorp) has signed an agreement to provide a variety of consulting services to the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (CZCE) in China. Under the agreement, CCorp will provide CZCE with consulting services related to futures and options trading, clearing, settlement and risk management. Dennis Dutterer, CCorp president and CEO, led a delegation of CCorp officials to the exchange in Zhengzhou in October, resulting in the signing of the agreement. China’s economic growth demonstrates the need for risk management systems and processes, "which we will help the Zhengzhou exchange to develop," says Dutterer, in a statement.
