Europe

ECB, Europe, Interest rates

ECB, interest rates, negative interest rates, Profitability, topstory

Although the European Central Bank (ECB) appears comfortable in their continuation of negative interest rates, a chorus is rising that this policy is causing long-term damage to the region’s banks.…

Finadium: Assessing the European Client Securities Finance Market

October 8, 2019

Europe, Securities Lending, Technology

Europe, securities finance, technology, topstory

This report is an analysis of the 73 large beneficial owners that drive the European lender marketplace, the newer lenders that are hinting to join, and the drivers that encourage…

FISL Europe: securities lending deeply divided between optimism and pessimism

September 25, 2019

Anna Reitman

Europe, FISL, Regulatory

artificial intelligence, CSDR, FISL Paris, machine learning, SFTR, topstory

The Finadium Investors in Securities Lending Europe event yesterday in Paris gathered some 140 attendees across the buy-side, sell-side, regulators and vendors for what was a robust and insightful set…

Investors in Securities Lending conference launches tomorrow in Paris

September 23, 2019

ESG, Europe, Securities Lending, SFTR, Technology

BNPP, Citi, ESG, Eurex, Euronext, FISL Europe, MarketAxess, Securities Lending, topstory, Total Return Futures

We are excited to welcome roughly 150 attendees to the Finadium Investors in Securities Lending (FISL) conference tomorrow, this year in Paris. Here’s what’s in store for this buy-side oriented…

The Next Evolution of Electronic Repo Trading for the Sell-side and Buy-side

September 19, 2019

Tim Martins

Automation, Europe, Repo

Big Data, electronic repo, MTS, MTS BondVision, MTS Repo, Repo, topstory

A broader adoption of electronic repo trading across the buy-side and sell-side is creating opportunities for greater integration, efficiency and automation on trading desks. While most interdealer and dealer-to-client (D2C)…

SFTR peer update: where does your firm stand in getting ready?

September 10, 2019

Sunil Daswani

Europe, Regulatory, Repo, Securities Lending, Technology

Delegated Reporting, Europe, MarketAxess, securities finance, SFTR, topstory, UTI

MarketAxess and Finadium recently surveyed 16 large market participants to better understand the current state of readiness for the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). The results of the survey show…

GLMX on why expand its repo platform in Europe (Premium)

July 3, 2019

Anna Reitman

Europe, Repo

Europe, GLMX, topstory

Europe’s repo market has seen a spike in interest for electronic platforms setting up shop, with BrokerTec recently joining a field already occupied by heavyweights like Tradeweb, MTS, Eurex, and…

BNYM clears the first Eurex Lending CCP client trade – have the floodgates opened?

June 18, 2019

CCP, Europe, Securities Lending

BNYM, Eurex, Lending CCP, Securities Lending, topstory

BNY Mellon announced today that it is the first agent lender to clear a client trade on Eurex’s Lending CCP. This move, some four years in the making at BNYM…

Battle of the European repo RFQ platforms (Premium)

June 4, 2019

Europe, Repo

Europe, Repo, RFQ, SFTR, topstory

How many dealer-to-client platforms does the European market need for repo? We’re about to find out, as BrokerTec has launched BrokerTec Quote to compete with Tradeweb as the dominant player…

Plans for our institutional investor securities lending conference in Paris, 24 September 2019

May 29, 2019

Europe, Securities Lending

FISL Paris, Institutional Investors, Securities Lending, SFTR, topstory

We’re gearing up to host our Finadium Investors in Securities Lending (FISL) conference in Paris on 24 September 2019, moving to the Continent after two years in London. Here’s how…

We review ESMA’s consultation on SFTR reporting (Premium)

May 28, 2019

ESMA, Europe, Regulatory, SFTR

ESMA, SFTR, topstory

ESMA released several new documents on SFTR yesterday. We summarize what readers can expect from the main document, a consultation paper on guidelines for reporting. Continue reading

We review the Better Finance report criticizing EU asset manager seclending fee splits (Premium)

May 13, 2019

ESMA, ETFs, Europe, Securities Lending

ESMA, ETFs, Europe, Securities Lending, topstory, UCITS

Independent European consumer organization BETTER FINANCE released a report on UCITS fee splits in the European securities lending market. They found the known wide disparities in fee splits and criticized…

Mastering the Client Side of SFTR

May 2, 2019

Automation, Europe, Market infrastructure, Securities Lending, Technology

DTCC, SFTR, topstory

Securities Finance Monitor spoke with DTCC’s senior SFTR Trade Repository leadership about the importance of the client side of the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) and why DTCC dedicates so many…

Does the European pledge model solve all ills? (Premium)

April 30, 2019

Europe, Securities Lending

Europe, Pledge model, Securities Lending, topstory

The benefits of the pledge model in securities lending for borrowers are clear: by retaining legal ownership of the security with the borrower, regulated entities no longer have the obligation…

For SFTs, is there information value in RTS 28 reports? (Premium)

April 16, 2019

MiFID II, RTS 28, securities financing transactions, topstory

As we near the second year of disclosure publications, we investigate multiple MiFID II RTS 28 best execution reports for SFTs to learn what, if any, is their information value…

US and European repo market structure for H1 2019 in five charts (Premium)

April 15, 2019

Europe, Repo, US

DTCC, DTCC GCF Repo Index, Federal Reserve, ICMA, Repo, RepoFundsRate, topstory

US and European repo markets have started the year on divergent paths. One seems to be choppy, with ends of months and quarters seeing regular spikes and governments talking about…

Uncertainty in reporting for CSDR settlement fails rules

March 11, 2019

ESMA, Europe, Regulatory, Settlements

CSDR, ESMA, Europe, settlement fails, topstory

It looks like ESMA’s application of settlement discipline under CSDR may have extraterritorial impacts, which could result in investor preferences to use one CSD over another to ensure being subject…

Business of Collateral Trading 2019 roundup and conference materials (Premium)

February 25, 2019

Collateral Management, Europe

BOCT, collateral management, Finadium, Frankfurt, topstory

Here’s what we learned at the Business of Collateral Trading event we held last week in Frankfurt, attended by 81 professionals across the buy-side, sell-side, vendor and regulatory communities. We…

ECB papers highlight the state approach to solving market problems

February 19, 2019

ECB, Europe, Regulation, topstory

Recent European Central Bank (ECB) working papers on collateral have been really good, well researched and thoughtful about the problems they are tackling. They also show a continued bias towards…

Opportunities for SFTR data in the private sector (Premium)

February 13, 2019

Big Data, ESMA, Europe, Repo, Securities Lending

Data, ESMA, SFTR, topstory

We’ve been thinking about what the markets will do with SFTR data when it is published by Trade Repositories. In particular, we’ve been thinking about what Finadium plans to do…

The Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) and tri-party: good, bad or indifferent? (Premium)

February 5, 2019

Collateral Management, ECB, Europe

ECB, ECMS, European Central Bank, Eurosystem Collateral Management System, topstory

The ECB recently took the next step in their Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway (ESMIG) project, which itself progresses the aims of the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS). We look…

Finadium: European Delta One Trader Survey

January 22, 2019

Delta One, Europe, Liquidity Management, Securities Lending

Delta One, Europe, Finadium, listed derivatives, securities finance, topstory

The Delta One business is a type of market making for liquidity and risk management clients that seek economic exposure of a security without the complexity of carrying the underlyings.…

A European challenge to the dollar highlights the breakdown of the Bretton Woods order

December 10, 2018

Europe, Liquidity Management, US

Bretton Woods, dollar, Euro, Liquidity, topstory

Most Americans don’t understand the immense benefit they receive from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, nor the fact that this global choice is the result of the US-led…

What we learned at yesterday’s securities finance event in Zurich (Premium)

December 6, 2018

Europe, Repo, Securities Lending, Total Return Swaps

events, Finadium, Securities Lending, SFTR, topstory, Zurich

That was really interesting. We held our fifth annual securities lending and repo update yesterday in Zurich. Discussion centered on SFTR and the evolution of the securities finance business in…

Progress on Frankfurt as the next big banking hub

December 5, 2018

Collateral Management, Europe, Liquidity Management

Brexit, collateral, Frankfurt, Frankfurt Main Finance, topstory

Arguments are growing in favor of Frankfurt as a larger financial hub post-Brexit. A regional lobbyist is saying that 750 to 800 billion Euros in assets will transfer from London…

Europe readies for CRD-V (Premium)

November 14, 2018

Basel III, Europe, Regulatory

Basel III, CRD-V, Europe, Leverage Ratio, topstory

The European Parliament and the European Council are in discussions to amend the Capital Requirements Directive and Regulation rules (CRD-IV) to create CRD-V. This latest iteration recognizes recent Basel Committee…

Protectionist government policies and the impact on financial markets

October 31, 2018

Europe, US

financial markets, politics, stock market returns, topstory

As Brazil’s election this week shows, the trend towards electing governments that diverge from historical norms is not yet over, and protectionism and nationalism remain popular. We ask, what can…

Trends in European vs. US tri-party repo

October 24, 2018

Europe, Repo, Tri-Party Repo, US

Federal Reserve, ICMA, topstory, tri-party

The latest ICMA European repo market survey showed a sharp drop in the percentage of business going to tri-party, just 6% down from 12% in December 2016. There are several…

The Cum-Ex trade, CCPs, FTTs and other rough roads in European regulation (Premium)

October 22, 2018

CCP, Europe, Repo, Securities Lending

CFTC, Cum-ex, EMIR, ESMA, Germany, ICMA, topstory

Just when you thought things were settling down and European regulation was becoming predictable, a string of news suggests the opposite. The end of 2018 clear through into 2019 could…

The ECB’s Cœuré walks through ESTER: time is short to solve some tricky problems

October 18, 2018

ECB, Europe, Interest rates, LIBOR, Regulatory

ECB, ESTER, topstory

The ECB’s Benoit Cœuré recently spoke about ESTER, the ECB’s new overnight rate. Benchmark reform is all the rage, and Europe, while initially setting itself some tough deadlines, is now…

Several blows this week to London as a financial center post-Brexit (Premium)

October 11, 2018

CCP, Derivatives, Europe, Risk Management

back-to-back, Brexit, ECB, FT, ISDA, London, topstory

The odds for London thriving as a financial center post-Brexit got worse this week. Here’s what happened and where things seem to be going. Continue reading

The ECB on repo in the Leverage Ratio: taking a strong stand today may not turn out well tomorrow

October 8, 2018

Basel III, Europe, Regulatory

ECB, Leverage Ratio, Repo, topstory

The ECB’s publication last week of “The implications of removing repo assets from the leverage ratio” creates a conundrum. On the one hand, the findings stick true to the Basel…

Sanction backfire: a non-US payment system would change the balance of financial power

August 29, 2018

Europe, Regulatory, US

Germany, Payments, sanctions, Swift, topstory

The idea has been floated that Europe should create its own payments system so that European firms doing business with Iran could separate themselves from the US payment system. The…

European roundup: some weighty news for the end of July (Premium)

August 1, 2018

CCP, Cleared Interest Rate Swaps, Derivatives, ESMA, Europe, Securities Lending

Clearing, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Borse, ESMA, Europe, FT, Securities Lending, topstory

As July wound down, European market participants released some important news items. We look at Euro clearing moving to Frankfurt, UCITS funds and collateral and the FT’s article on SFTR.…

The SFTR win for firms that don’t trade with European counterparties

July 26, 2018

Dodd-Frank, Europe, Regulatory

Dodd-Frank, Europe, SFTR, topstory

The Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) will be global regulation by default as the majority of market participants trade with a European entity or subsidiary and hence are captured by…

More on handicapping the odds of a repo carve out for the US Leverage Ratio

July 25, 2018

Europe, Repo, SOFR

Europe, Federal Reserve, OFR, Regulatory, Repo, SOFR, topstory

At our Rates & Repo 2017 conference, we proposed taking bets on whether regulators would adopt the US Treasury’s recommendation of excluding Treasuries from the calculation of the Supplementary Leverage…

The ECB swings a big stick on supervision of repo CCPs

July 19, 2018

CCP, ECB, Europe, Repo

CCP, Cover 2, ECB, topstory

We understand the impulse: if a CCP’s potential failure could cause severe damage to a region’s economy and monetary policy operations, then that region’s financial supervisors should want to have…

SEC panelists: MiFID II not useful for credit markets yet and likely to get more complex (Premium)

July 18, 2018

credit, Fixed Income, MiFID II, sec, topstory

Speaking at the SEC Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee on Monday, several panelists noted that while MiFID II has introduced a new innovation in pre-trade transparency, in practice this…

Market consolidation in derivatives and financing on both sides of the Atlantic (Premium)

July 11, 2018

Derivatives, Europe, Repo, US

consolidation, derivatives, Repo, topstory

Market consolidation of banks and dealers has been discussed for a while, but we’re now seeing some moves that make us think we are at the beginning of a significant…

One golden source data repository is necessary for smart regulation

July 9, 2018

Michael Cyrus

Big Data, Europe, Regulatory

Big Data, DekaBank, Europe, Michael Cyrus, Regulatory, smart regulation, topstory

When discussing data for regulatory reporting, the European Union currently suffers from a burdensome approach to reporting across multiple and often inconsistent regulations. A golden source of data for regulatory…

Electronic RFQ repo markets: The solution for reporting challenges and laying the building blocks for automation

July 5, 2018

Tom Trott

Automation, Europe, Repo

Europe, Repo, RFQ, topstory, Tradeweb

Challenges faced by the repo market including regulatory reporting requirements, reduced balance sheet and fewer resources, have all been well documented. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the use…

Regulatory reporting generates huge data sets, but what happens next?

June 28, 2018

Andrea Ferrise

Big Data, Europe, Regulatory, Technology, Trade Repositories

Big Data, collateral, LEI, Regulatory, topstory, Trade repositories, Unavista

The lure of big data to support regulatory oversight of risk, collateral chains and market behavior is strong, but regulators must be ready for big data analytics. This creates a…

The future of European securities lending: it’s still about people

June 25, 2018

Dan Copin

Europe, Securities Lending

CACEIS, Securities Lending, SFTR, topstory

The European securities lending market continues to go through profound change as regulation and competitive pressures push firms to streamline their operations. Whichever way the market turns, we must remember…

European and US repo markets are different, and that means one-size-fits-all-regulation is unwise

June 13, 2018

Jonathan Cooper

Europe, Market infrastructure, Re-Hypothecation, Regulatory, Repo, Systemic Risk, Tri-Party Repo, US

Europe, Repo, topstory, US

The US and European markets are not identical, although they are often made out to be just that. Besides macro differences, within Europe, transactions are subject to individual country laws,…

Finadium: Is Frankfurt the Next Collateral and Liquidity Hub?

May 15, 2018

Asia, Collateral Management, Europe, Liquidity Management

Asian banks, collateral, Finadium, Frankfurt, Liquidity, topstory

A new Finadium research report looks at Frankfurt as a financial center and some key aspects that may determine its competitiveness and future relevance post-Brexit and beyond. Does it have…

FISL London is next week – here’s a status update

April 30, 2018

Europe, Finadium Event, FISL, Securities Lending

buy-side, FISL London, FISL London 2018, Securities Lending, topstory

We look forward to welcoming 140 buy-side attendees and sponsors to the Finadium Investors in Securities Lending (FISL) Conference in London next week, May 9-10. This is our second year…

SFTR reporting will cause trouble for the buy-side; delegated reporting could expose positions

April 19, 2018

Anna Reitman

ICMA, NEX, SFTR, topstory

NEX’s recently released report on the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation starts with an apt quote from an exhausted UK voter facing the 2017 election: “You’re joking! Not another one. Oh,…

When looking at bankers leaving London post-Brexit, it’s computers as much as headcount (Premium)

April 3, 2018

Collateral Management, Europe, Regulatory, Technology

Brexit, European Central Bank, headcount, London, topstory

We’ve been reading the numbers of bankers leaving Brexit (4,000 for Paris, 1,000 for Frankfurt) and something has seemed amiss. EU regulations require more than a token presence in order…

What to make of the Deutsche Borse/HQLAx announcement on blockchain for securities lending (Premium)

March 28, 2018

Blockchain, Europe, Repo, Securities Lending, Technology

Clearstream, Deutsche Borse, Eurex Clearing, Eurex repo, HQLAx, Securities Lending, topstory