Bahrain Stock Exchange Embraces NASDAQ Trading Engine

Posted on July 23, 2014 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from Traders Magazine 07.23 story by John D’Antona

A Middle East stock exchange is tapping the knowledge of one of the Northeast’s bourses.

The Bahrain Bourse and NASDAQ OMX have joined forces with the former activating its newest trading engine, which is powered by NASDAQ OMX’s X-stream trading platform. The project went live on Monday, July 14, providing Bahrain Bourse with a multi-asset trading platform.

“Replacing our trading platform is a milestone in the history of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s capital market, and is one of the key projects of the Bourse’s strategy that was adopted in 2011 to develop all work aspects at Bahrain Bourse,” said The Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, chief executive at the Bahrain Bourse.

Bahrain’s new platform will enable it to provide more and advanced trading options for brokerdealers and investors and a variety of market participants, as well as create innovative products and services to match international demand. In addition to the new X-stream technology, the Middle East exchange will also continue to leverage the existing CSD technologies that have been provided and supported by NASDAQ OMX since 2000.

NASDAQ OMX’s exchange technology, including trading, clearing, CSD and market surveillance systems, is in operation in over 100 marketplaces across USA, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Middle East.

The Bahrain Bourse was established as a shareholding company in 2010 to replace the Bahrain Stock Exchange that was established in 1987. There are 50 companies listed on the exchange, two mutual funds, and nine bonds/Islamic Sukuk. The three indices tracking the market’s performance are the Bahrain All Share Index, the Esterad Index (which consists of a basket of selected local-publicly listed companies), and the Dow Jones Bahrain Index.

Since its establishment, BHB has joined several regional and international organizations such as World Federation of Exchanges, Arab Federation of Exchanges, Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges and the Africa & Middle East Depositories Association.

Broker-Dealers Slated To Flock To Saudi Stock Exchange

Posted on July 23, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from July 22 coverage from Bloomberg LP

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of oil and de facto leader of OPEC, is removing barriers to one of the world’s most-restricted major stock exchanges as the government pursues a $130 billion spending plan to boost non-energy industries. King Abdullah, the 90-year-old monarch, has kept the economy expanding at an average rate of 6.4 percent in the past four years even as Middle Eastern neighbors from Egypt to Iraq grappled with political turmoil.

The Tadawul surged 2.8 percent to 10,025.14 at the close, the strongest level since May 2008.

“The big sleeping giant in the region is Saudi Arabia, a well-capitalized and large market that foreigners couldn’t get access to,” Gary Dugan, the chief investment officer at National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, said by phone from Abu Dhabi. “It’s exciting. It gives greater credibility to the region.”

A listing of broker-dealers in the middle-east can be found via http://brokerdealer.com/databases/broker-dealer

“If you assume a neutral allocation to the market, and assuming the 4 percent that MSCI is guiding for, we will be talking about $40 billion” of foreign inflows in Saudi Arabia’s exchange, Dubai-based Rami Sidani, who oversees the $343 million Schroders International Selection Fund, said by telephone today.

“The move by Saudi Arabia helps accelerate efforts by the Gulf into becoming a more mainstream destination for international investors,” Ryan Huang, Singapore-based market strategist at IG Ltd., said by e-mail today. “Opening up the market will be a liquidity boost for Saudi corporations.”

At least three banks, including HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, have executed test trades, three people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private. Access for money managers outside the GCC has so far been limited to indirect routes, including equity swaps and exchange-traded funds.

The full story from Bloomberg LP can be found via this link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-22/saudi-to-open-up-531-billion-stock-market-to-foreigners.html

Finra seeks to delay nontraded REIT pricing rule

Posted on July 16, 2014 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog post courtesy of extract from industry publication InvestmentNews.com

Finra is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to give the independent broker-dealer industry much longer than it originally sought to implement rule changes that would give investors a clearer picture of what it costs to buy shares of a nontraded real estate investment trust or private placement.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. filed the changes and also sent a letter to the SEC on Friday that contained its final proposed rule changes to rule 2340, or rules affecting customer account statements.

In the letter, Finra associate general counsel Matthew Vitek asked the SEC to give broker-dealers and nontraded REIT sponsors 18 months to adjust to the new guidelines. Finra earlier this year had proposed giving the industry just six months after the SEC approves the rule to make those changes.

For the full story from InvestmentNews.com, please click here.

BrokerDealers and Buyside: Bitcoin Coming to A Screen Near You

Posted on July 15, 2014January 27, 2018 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from Traders Magazine, the leading publication within securities industry’s sell-side (otherwise known as the universe of registered broker-dealers). Coverage for this story provided by TradersMag writer Gregg Wirth. Visitors to this page who may wish to know more about brokerdealers and institutional investors having an interest in bitcoins are invited to search the brokerdealer.com database.

Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that initially became infamous as the tender of choice for drug traffickers and mercenaries, may be coming to a trading desk or institutional portfolio near you – and sooner than you think.

“2014 is going to be the year Bitcoin hits Wall Street,” said Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of SecondMarket, a capital-raising platform for private companies and investment funds. Indeed, there is a growing consensus in some corners of Wall Street and the buyside community that the $7.8 billion Bitcoin industry is going to become the new, flashy darling of investors, with dedicated digital currency funds, venture capitalists and asset managers all chasing after those 12 million bitcoins currently in circulation.

“Digital currencies like Bitcoin are not going away,” Silbert explained. “And Wall Street and the regulators know this, they’ve studied how to deal with it, and now they are starting to understand its potential.” SecondMarket has gone heavy into the Bitcoin phenomenon, launching the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a $70 million open-ended trust that invests exclusively in bitcoins, as well as a dedicated desk of 10 traders who buy and sell bitcoins for the trust and other institutional clients. SecondMarket is also creating what it hopes to be the largest, best-capitalized and well-run Bitcoin exchange in the U.S., and is enlisting banks and Bitcoin-related firms to be exchange members.

“The number of inquiries and requests from finance industry professionals for us to prepare compliant investor offering documents for crypto-centric funds is certainly keeping us busy”, said Paul Azous, CEO of Prospectus.com. “We don’t see this as some type of anomaly that is connected to a short-term fad, many of the funds we are working with are forward-thinking folks who realize that blockchain applications will be expressed in nearly every business process.”

In addition to preparing investment fund offering documents, Prospectus.com helps blockchain-based startups craft white papers, presentation decks that resonate with accredited investors and through a captive network of crypto industry consultants, the firm guides those advancing Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

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Mobile Shopping Startup Spring from Jello Labs Gets $7.5M Series A From Numerous Investors

Posted on July 11, 2014July 11, 2014 by admin

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of Dow Jones Venture Wire

Mobile Shopping Startup Spring Gets $7.5M Series A From Numerous Investors

Yuliya Chernova

July 10, 2014

Jello Labs Inc., a mobile shopping startup that does business under the name Spring, closed on a $7.5 million Series A round from more than 40 investors.

“We believe that shopping on your phone is broken,” said David Tisch, co-founder of the startup and one of the lead investors in it through his investment firm BoxGroup. “We are out to create the world’s best mobile shopping experience,” he said….

For the full article from Dow Jones (subscription required), please click here.