Finextra50 fintech index

The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index is a free-float value weighted index of the world's leading companies that provide technology-based products and services to the financial services industry. It was set at an indexed value of 100 at market close on Friday 4th May 2007. This is a community for discussing the index, its movements and wider M and A activity in the fintech world.

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

LSE dips its toes in dark waters

Investment firms were distinctly unimpressed by the London Stock Exchange's announcement that it is to work with Lehman Brothers to create a new dark pool trading platform. By mid-afternoon, shares in the UK stock market operator were trading almost 13% lower, giving up gains made the previous day on the back of speculation about a potential preda...

26 June 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Just how rich is Michael Bloomberg?

John Thain estimates that Merrill Lynch's 20% stake in financial information supplier Bloomberg could be worth up to $6 billion. The valuation puts a $30 billion price tag on the company and makes Thomson's $8.8 billion buy-out of Reuters seem a positive snip. It also offers an insight into the personal net worth of the company's eponymous founde...

13 June 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

City exposed as institutionally corrupt and morally bankrupt

A broker writes: "Behind the headline-grabbing stories of rogue traders losing billions, the more mundane, day-to-day world of high finance is as wild and unregulated today as it ever has been. Brown envelopes stuffed with £50 notes change hands every lunchtime in bars across the City; drugs wreak havoc with traders' judgments as they stake f...

06 May 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Granville's insolvency a sign of things to come

The descent into administration of UK business intelligence vendor Granville Associates reawakens the spectre of insolvency for smaller software companies in the fintech space. For the best part of the past decade, companies with a sluggish sales pipeline and cashflow problems have been able to keep themselves afloat by taking on more debt and bor...

02 May 2008 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Thomson Reuters fails intelligent information test

The newly-merged Thomson Reuters combo made an inauspicious start to its first day's trading yesterday. Brokers, spooked by the rising tide of red ink and job losses in the investment banking sector, responded with a clamour of sell notes, sending shares in the company tumbling on its market debut. But just how far did the stock fall? The answer t...

18 April 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

CEBR Cassandras accused of over-optimism

The CEBR forecast for 20,000 credit crunched job losses in the City of London has been trumped by a new analysis from JPMorgan property analysts which puts the total number of redundancies at something closer to 40,000. To be fair, JPMorgan's figures embrace a wider definition of the 'City', taking in Canary Wharf and some parts of the West End, an...

15 April 2008 /wholesale

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Software scapegoats for the sub-prime situation

Fair Isaac is the technology company most damaged by the subprime crisis. In fact some banks, such as HSBC Finance, have said its ubiquitous FICO credit scoring system contributed to the problem by being "ineffective" in predicting behaviour during a period of aggressive lending and low interest rates. I don't know the FICO system well

02 April 2008 /regulation /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Price war looms for European exchanges

European exchanges had best get ready for another round of fierce price cutting following the announcement by the US-based Bats ECN that it is to set up an operation in London. The Bats ECN launched in the US two years ago and now claims an 8-10% market share in US equities. Much of its success stemmed from an agressive pricing plan introduced in ...

31 March 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Dimon fills his boots with Visa and Bear double-whammy

It's a safe bet that Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive won't be losing too much sleep after legal snags and investor opposition forced the firm to quintruple it's offer for Bear Stearns from the bargain-basement price of $2 per share to a slightly more palatable $10 per share. Yes, it is a bit of a climb-down, but for his $1.2 billion outla...

25 March 2008 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Misys gets reverse Midas touch

Misys boss Mike Lawrie and largest shareholder ValueAct Capital seemed to be onto a winner when they announced a deal earlier this week to spin off the company’s ailing healthcare business and merge it with rival Allscripts. News of the deal – accompanied by an upbeat interim statement from the banking division – lifted Misys’ share price by 20% f...

20 March 2008 /retail /wholesale