Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Liffe to move into clearing - Bloomberg

London-based derivatives exchange Liffe is planning to enter the clearing business in a bid to fight off competition from Project Rainbow, the European exchange being set up by investment banks, according to a Bloomberg report.

27 February 2008

News/Legal

EU payments Directive set to hit bank/corporate relationships

The European Payments Services Directive (PSD) is set to have a disruptive effect on relationships between banks and their corporate customers, according to research from TowerGroup.

26 February 2008

News/Legal

Experian files lawsuit against Lifelock

Credit referencing agency Experian has filed a lawsuit against LifeLock - which operates an ID theft prevention service - for allegedly placing fraud alerts illegally on customer credit files it maintains.

21 February 2008

News/Legal

Lords to follow up cyber crime inquiry

The UK's House of Lords is to conduct a follow-up inquiry into personal Internet security after the Government ignored recommendations on fighting cyber crime given in its original August 2007 report.

21 February 2008

News/Legal

SocGen looks to shore up risk controls with biometric access system

Société Générale is to implement biometric access controls for dealing personnel after an internal investigation into the EUR5bn rogue trading scandal found major weaknesses in its supervision, security and control procedures.

21 February 2008

News/Legal

StatPro buys Performa Consultants UK

AIM-listed StatPro has acquired Performa Consultants UK, a provider of compliance software to asset managers, in a cash and stock deal worth around £7 million.

21 February 2008

News/Legal

Regulators greenlight Thomson/Reuters merger

The European Commission (EC), US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Canadian Competition Bureau (CCB) have approved Thomson Corporation's £8.7 billion proposed acquisition of Reuters, on condition that the companies sell off some of their respective financial data units in order to eliminate competition concerns.

19 February 2008

News/Legal

Turquoise hires former LSE compliance manager Werner

Bank-backed equities trading venue Turquoise has added Ian Werner - a former compliance and investigations manager at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) - to its senior management team.

19 February 2008

News/Legal

LCH.Clearnet blocks SIS x-clear

Swiss central counterparty SIS x-clear has been forced to delay the launch of its UK equity clearing service after LCH.Clearnet refused to allow it free access to the London Stock Exchange's equity business as required under the EC's voluntary code of conduct.

18 February 2008

News/Legal

Bats edges closer to exchange status

Bats Trading, the all-electronic alternative to Nasdaq and Nyse, is moving closer to acquiring exchange status after clearing a key regulatory hurdle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

15 February 2008

News/Legal

Hypercom moves to buy Thales card payment unit as Ingenico steps aside

Arizona-based e-payments firm Hypercom says it has executed a deal to acquire a card payments unit from Thales. At the same time Hypercom's own suitor - France's Ingenico - has abandoned a bid to buy its business.

14 February 2008

News/Legal

Ingenico bids for Hypercom

French eftpos outfit Ingenico has made an unsolicited all-cash bid to acquire rival US e-payments firm Hypercom for around $332 million, but the deal is contingent on the Arizona-based vendor dropping a proposal to acquire a card payments business from Thales.

11 February 2008

News/Legal

Instinet to launch Chi-X ATS in Australia

Interagency broker Instinet is gearing up to launch its Chi-X alternative trading system in Australia which will compete with services provided by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

08 February 2008

News/Legal

DoJ calls for split of futures exchanges and clearing houses

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is calling for the separation of clearing and settlement services from futures exchanges after finding the current structure - where market operators such as CME Group own and control their own clearing operations - inhibits competition.

06 February 2008

News/Legal

Government report alleges risk and security failures at SocGen

A probe into the EUR5bn Société Générale rogue trading scandal by the French government has revealed that the bank was warned last year that its security systems and internal controls were lacking.

04 February 2008

News/Legal

Payzone calls EGM to oust Nagle and Williamson

Troubled Irish e-payments firm Payzone says at the request of 60% of its shareholders, it is calling an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to approve the removal of CEO John Nagle and CFO John Williamson from the company.

04 February 2008

News/Legal

EU to prosecute MiFID laggards

The European Commission (EC) says it is referring Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in national law.

01 February 2008

News/Legal

Sepa goes live

The first stage implementation of the single euro payments area (Sepa) - which aims to make cross-border payments as cheap as domestic transactions - has gone live with the official launch of the Sepa payment instrument for credit transfers.

28 January 2008

News/Legal

Turquoise recruits Detica and Progress to build market surveillance system

Turquoise, the bank-backed equities trading platform that is being set up to compete with the domestic stock exchanges in Europe, is teaming with Nasdaq-listed Progress Software and London-based consultancy Detica to offer a real-time trading surveillance system.

28 January 2008

News/Legal

Ex-Citi bankers charged under Singapore's Computer Misuse Act

Seven former Citibank staff are facing over 1000 charges under Singapore's Computer Misuse Act and bank secrecy laws over client details allegedly stolen from the US bank and passed on to rival firm UBS.

25 January 2008