Technology & Finance
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Verizon Wireless Lying?
I keep reading reports that instead of insisting on a $175 fee for canceling a contract they are prorating it…
like this story
Verizon Wireless has prorated cancellation fees for nearly a year, but last week it also began to let customers change their calling plans without extending their contracts by a year or two.
But I can’t seem to get any such deal, even tho I provided my own phone...Amazing what an oligopoly wireless is.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
London Firms Dislike NYSE-Euronext Move on Clearing
NYSE Euronext’s decision to end the 26-year clearing agreement that Liffe has had in place with LCH.Clearnet has been met with disapproval from member firms in London.
IBS Publishing reports on the topic in a recent electronic alert.
LiffeClear, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year, will create a new clearing counterparty to enable NYSE Euronext to manage its London clearing operations and clearing revenues, while outsourcing risk management and guarantee functions to LCH.Clearnet. This means that member firms will not have to capitalise a new default fund and if there is a default it will be passed to LCH.Clearnet for liquidation.
A spokesman for NYSE Euronext says that LiffeClear will initially only clear contracts traded on Liffe, amidst speculation that it could clear third party business from other exchanges, including the potential rival, Project Rainbow.
The plans have been met with anger from clearing member firms. They believe the move has been taken to deliver shareholder value and will not bring any benefits to them or the market. They also say they have still not been briefed by the exchange as to how the new clearing arrangements will work.
US Finserv Fraud Management Must go Enterprise-Wide
The Aite Group found that institutions surveyed displayed a common concern for the ability to achieve enterprise-wide clarity when it came to monitoring fraud. The largest internal cause for concern related to the lack of robust enterprise-wide case management, with 62% of interviewees considering this an important or extremely important impediment.
“The results of the survey were strongly indicative of a common need for U.S. financial institutions to have enterprise-wide clarity when it comes to the management of fraud,” says Nick Holland, senior analyst with Aite Group and co-author of this report. “With the rapid evolution of new fraud types, and the ability for criminals to attack institutions remotely and on an unprecedented scale using the Internet and inevitably, mobile, the need for the left hand to know what the right hand is doing has never been more important.”
Portware Wins Best Execution at TradeTech 2008
Portware, a leading provider of global, multi-asset trading solutions, has won the Award for Best Execution Management System at the prestigious TradeTech 2008 Awards ceremony at the CNIT Centre, Paris.
The TradeTech 2008 Awards’ judges panel, made up of leading industry professionals and thought leaders, voted Portware’s trading system the best for client satisfaction, reliability, speed, and cost efficiency for both buy- and sell-side firms. Also shortlisted for the award were Flextrade, TradingScreen, Traderforce, GL Trade and Townsend Analytics.
Ary Khatchikian, president and chief technology office, Portware, accepted the award. He said: “We are delighted to receive the award for Best Execution Management system, particularly as the European market is undergoing significant regulatory and structural changes. MiFID has placed a greater focus on achieving – and proving – best execution, while new execution venues have led to increased market fragmentation, creating a challenging trading environment.
Gemstone Upgrades Data Fabric
GemStone Systems, a provider of Enterprise Data Fabric (EDF), has released of GemFire Enterprise 5.5, offering distributed event processing capabilities with the introduction of continuous querying and durable event notifications to hundreds of clients.
GemFire Enterprise 5.5 introduces a pluggable framework for security, a graphical monitoring tool for managing multiple deployed distributed systems and increased reliability over the publish/subscribe model. From a business perspective, users can take advantage of the distributed event processing and improved scalability features to immediately capitalize on opportunities created by changing market conditions with improved system response times.