FT: BoE plans climate change into bank stress tests
The Bank of England is planning to include the impact of climate change in its UK bank stress tests as early as next year, in what would be an unprecedented…
Read More 
EU calls for feedback on “Trustworthy AI made in Europe” guidelines
The European Commission’s high-level expert group on artificial intelligence (AI HLEG) has released the first draft of the AI Ethics Guidelines, of which a final version is due in March…
Read More Fintech bank Revolut gets European banking license
Revolut announced that the ECB has approved the challenger bank for a European banking license. In the coming months, Revolut will be doing a lot of building and testing behind…
Read More Italy’s central bank creates big data, ML and AI unit
Excerpts from remarks by Salvatore Rossi, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Italy and president of the Institute for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS) at 29th (EC)2 conference, Big…
Read More Get the weekly SFM update – our December 14 newsletter is online
Headlines: The buzz on Total Return Futures (Premium); Finadium’s report on US Repo Market at End of 2018; Are fiduciaries risking litigation by not electing scrip dividends or rights issues?…
Read More EU tick size regime differentiates for third-country venue liquidity
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released the final amendments to the tick size regime. The proposed draft amendments to RTS 11 will allow National Competent Authorities (NCAs)…
Read More Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse among investors in $17.5mn round for exceptions management fintech
AccessFintech announced it’s closed a series A funding round and secured $17.5 million investment from Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. The AccessFintech network aggregates business exceptions, and…
Read More Crypto executives settle SEC’s ICO scam charges
Two former executives behind an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO) that was stopped by the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year have been ordered in federal court to…
Read More Cinnober tech deployed by Singaporean crypto asset exchange
Cinnober announced that Vaultex Exchange will use Cinnober’s trading and clearing systems for its new security token exchange. Based in Singapore, Vaultex is preparing to launch a fully licensed and…
Read More DTCC survey shows cyber and fintech risk among top concerns
Cyber risk remained the number one threat to the financial industry, with more than a third of respondents (37%) citing it as the most significant risk and 69% ranking it…
Read More Flextrade picks Corvil advanced analytics for execution
FlexTrade has selected Corvil advanced analytics to gain a higher standard of execution quality analysis and improvement. FlexTrade is a broker-neutral provider of execution and order management trading systems for…
Read More Credit Suisse saves $200mn yoy from digitization
Credit Suisse said it expects to save CHF200 million ($202.0mn) on operating expenses year-on-year as a result of its digital transformation strategy. Parts of the strategy highlighted in the Swiss…
Read More Two Sigma, Consensys invest $8mn in crypto security startup
UK-based Trustology announced a seed fundraising round of $8 million led by Two Sigma Ventures, the early-stage venture capital fund of the systematic investment manager. Also participating in the financing…
Read More CFTC targets Ethereum Network in comment probe
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is seeking public comment and feedback in order to better inform the regulator’s understanding of the technology, mechanics, and markets for virtual currencies beyond…
Read More LCH RepoClear hits €183tn in record year
RepoClear has already had a record year in 2018, clearing over €183 trillion ($207.7tn) in nominal over the year to date, across LCH’s UK and Continental Europe operations. Also: At…
Read More More institutional investors eyeing advanced tech amid growth concerns
State Street published its latest study, New Routes to Growth, which surveyed more than 500 global asset managers, asset owners and insurance companies to understand the challenges they face in…
Read More Tradeweb: 2018 highlights of fixed income market electronification
The growing quantity of data that the street could see on screens defined fixed income markets in 2018. Interest rates – and yields – flickered up, prices scuttled down, international…
Read More DTCC partners with Xceptor for SFTR reporting data management
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that it has partnered with Xceptor, a data-centric intelligent automation software provider. DTCC will incorporate Xceptor’s data transformation capabilities with the Global…
Read More 
How much influence do fintechs have in the future direction of finance? (Premium)
How the fundamental functions of finance work are changing and fintech is not just a driver of that change, but also the future of solutions, said Nobel Laureate and co-originator…
Read More genesis partners with OpenFin for capital markets digitization
genesis, the international capital markets software firm, and OpenFin announced a partnership to provide clients with scalable and interoperable technology and desktop solutions, built and deployed at speed. The partnership…
Read More Project Syndicate: cryptocurrencies are a bet on dystopian future
The right way to think about cryptocurrency coins is as lottery tickets that pay off in a dystopian future where they are used in rogue and failed states, or perhaps…
Read More Biggest threat to banks is big tech, not fintech
How will banks be impacted by big tech entering the financial services industry? Can regulation promote a level playing field? These are some of the questions raised at the Big…
Read More AI hedge funds break losing streak in November, crypto funds still down
Fund managers using AI/machine learning strategies were up 2.1% in November, ending their streak of losses which placed them on track to record their worst year since the inception of…
Read More Autonomous Next: $1 trillion lost in crypto since all-time highs
Here’s the monthly update on the crypto fundraising figures. Let’s start with some good examples — Trustology raising $8 million in equity from Two Sigma and ConsenSys, and ErisX raising…
Read More Fidelity, Nasdaq in $27.5mn crypto spot market investment
ErisX announced the closing of Series B funding from investors spanning the traditional capital and digital asset markets including Bitmain, ConsenSys, Fidelity Investments and Nasdaq Venture. ErisX will operate an…
Read More Nasdaq acquires alt-data firm Quandl
Nasdaq announced it acquired Quandl, an alternative and core financial data provider. Nasdaq plans to combine Quandl with its existing Analytics Hub business within Global Information Services. Terms of the deal…
Read More 
COP24 advances ESG commitments for EU banks and regulators
In tackling climate change as a long-term risk, EU finance ministers are advancing European Banking Authority studies on mandatory ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) disclosures for banks in three years and…
Read More Get the weekly SFM update – our December 7 newsletter is online
Headlines: Finadium: What we learned at yesterday’s securities finance event in Zurich (Premium); Progress on Frankfurt as the next big banking hub; Fed survey sharpens understanding of banks and IOER;…
Read More Natixis research shows how big data, algos and cryptocurrencies fare for investor trust
Natixis Investment Managers surveyed 9,100 investors globally in September 2018, with the goal of understanding their views on the markets, investing and measuring progress toward their financial goals. Investors from…
Read More BIS research on market impact of central bank non-monetary news
In a BIS working paper, researchers Anna Cieslak and Andreas Schrimpf quantify the importance of non-monetary news in central bank communication. Using evidence from four major central banks and a comprehensive…
Read More Eurex repo clearing reaches 24 participants in Brexit shift
The extension of Eurex’s Partnership Program to the repo segment has so far signed up 24 participants from the US, the UK and Continental Europe. The program’s aim is to…
Read More 
How electronic trading is shaping the fixed income market
While it’s general knowledge that electronic trading continues a relentless march on fixed income, the stats are always worth an update. The figures discussed on a recent NY Fed event…
Read More Dataiku: intro to machine learning interpretability
Understanding and trusting models and their results is a hallmark of good science. Scientists, engineers, physicians, researchers, and humans in general have the need to understand and trust models and…
Read More MLex: OCC expects first fintech charter application in early 2019
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency expects to receive its first financial technology company application for a national bank charter in the next few months, possibly as…
Read More Insurers, asset managers, banks among firms completing CordaKYC trial
Enterprise blockchain software firm, R3, announced that over a dozen French corporates have completed a trial of the CordaKYC application built on the Corda blockchain platform and hosted on Microsoft…
Read More J.P. Morgan: reinforcement learning in electronic trading
The globalization of asset trading, the emergence of ultrafast information technology and lightning fast communications made it impossible for humans to efficiently compete in the routine low-level decision making process.…
Read More NY DFS approves digital payment platform Signet
New York State Department of Financial Services’ superintendent Maria Vullo announced the authorization of Signature Bank to offer a new digital payment platform named Signet. The Signet platform uses blockchain…
Read More ECB publishes expectations for oversight of cyber resilience
• ECB publishes final cyber resilience oversight expectations for financial market infrastructures • Document defines Eurosystem’s expectations in terms of cyber resilience, based on existing global guidance • Reflects comments…
Read More Sberbank and Interros transact OTC repo on blockchain
Sberbank and the Interros group company concluded the first OTC repo transaction in electronic format using a smart contract and electronic digital signatures through an IT platform developed by the…
Read More US Treasury unit OFAC targets bitcoin-using cyberattack ransom middlemen
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against two Iran-based individuals, Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, who helped exchange digital currency (bitcoin) ransom…
Read More Calastone will migrate funds to blockchain in May 2019
Calastone, the global fund transaction network, announced that its entire global network of more than 1,700 financial organizations, across 40 global markets, will be migrated to blockchain in May 2019…
Read More “World’s largest blockchain” centre moves ahead in Vienna
Austria started developing blockchain expertise at a very early stage. The COMET (Competence Centers for Excellence Technologies) and Austrian Blockchain Center (ABC) aims to bundle comprehensive, interdisciplinary competencies in basic…
Read More BlackRock in $123mn deal for digital wealth fintech
Chicago-headquartered Envestnet announced that BlackRock would be taking a 4.9% stake in a deal valued at $122.8 million, expected to close by the end of the year. The two companies…
Read More Former NYSE chief spearheads standards for crypto markets
Financial services and technology firms launched the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM) to establish a Code of Conduct for emerging digital asset markets. ADAM will be the first broad-based…
Read More ECB announces pan-European instant payments
• TARGET instant payment settlement (TIPS) now operational • TIPS means consumers can make retail payments across Europe instantly, 24/7/365 The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched an innovative pan-European…
Read More Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley go live on DLT platform for FX
CLS announced that CLSNet, a standardized, automated bilateral payment netting service for over 120 currencies operating on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, is now live with Goldman Sachs and…
Read More 
Crypto investment means different things for buy- and sell-sides
There was a slew of crypto announcements this week that will give institutional investors pause for thought. Some of these seem like trial balloons since the news is coming out…
Read More Top challenges to intelligent automation adoption in finance and insurance
As the digital revolution continues its takeover, it’s become clear that intelligent automation is permeating every industry; banking, financial services, and insurance [BFSI] is no exception. Using RPA, machine learning,…
Read More How major banks use data analytics to fight financial crime
The Monetary Authority of Singapore released a paper to encourage greater adoption of data analytics (DA) solutions by financial institutions. It was written by the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering…
Read More Get the weekly SFM update – our November 30 newsletter is online
Headlines: Finadium: Benchmark reform and transition: key takeaways from AMIC conference; Finadium: Stablecoins, Capital Markets and the Fiat/Digital Currency Divide; Why it’s time to stop quoting 30 year LIBOR (Premium);…
Read More