All I want for Xmas is exchange consolidation/competition (delete as appropriate)
Despite all the announcements, press briefings and other hullabaloo it looks like the BATS/Chi-X deal is the only one that’s actually going to get done this year. SGX/ASX and LSE/TMX are just two of the higher profile casualties in the global game of exchange Monopoly. Add to this the conversations and negotiations that never reached the public domain and you have a dazzling array of failed attempts in exchange speed dating. The irony, of course,... Read More
And the good news is….
Feels like it’s a pretty tough time to be in global banking right now. If it’s not falling volumes then it’s layoffs or, worse still, actors like Bill Nighy bleating on about the need for a Robin Hood tax hitting the headlines. And on both sides of the Atlantic we have regulators that seem oblivious to the damage they leave in their wake as they dream up yet more ways to be seen to be doing something about the evil banking world. This... Read More
Too early to tell?
Hope you like the new dedicated Australia page on the Frag website. Even if you’re not directly interested in antipodean fragmentation, Australia will provide a particularly pure data set for what is fast becoming a global phenomenon. This is because (right now at least) there is only one primary and one alternative venue. It’s too early to draw any meaningful conclusions but, as the charts below show, Chi-X Australia seems to have made... Read More
MiFID II – 10 key takeaways that will give you indigestion
Just back from a two week trip around Asia and Australia that took in dark pool seminars in Hong Kong and Singapore and attendance at the FPL conference in Sydney. In my absence, it seems like the Eurocrats in Brussels have been busy as the official version of the widely leaked MiFID II proposals came out last Thursday. For a good roundup of the general themes look no further than Michelle Price’s piece outlining the 10 key takeaways, but I fear... Read More
The rain in Spain stays mainly on the BME
Interesting contrast last week where the LSE’s market share of the FTSE 100 fell definitively below 50% whilst at the same time BME’s market share in the IBEX 35 remained stubbornly close to 100%. Both markets are in Europe – check. Both are subject to the MiFID directive – check. Both have significant levels of liquidity – check. So what is going on? The difference was highlighted at a Fidessa seminar in Madrid last week that brought... Read More
