Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Sibos: A Week in Review

Merrill Lynch gets Unwanted First

Nobody wants to be the first firm to make the headlines for its failures. This week Merrill Lynch claimed that dubious “honor” as the FCA took its first enforcement action under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation three years after the rules came into effect, fining the bank for its lapses relating to reporting some 68.5 million derivatives transactions.

The size of the fine, $45 million, is remarkable given the impending arrival of Mifid II. Is this a signal of intent by the UK regulator to lay down the law ahead of the new regime, or has it sufficiently judged Merrill Lynch’s case on its circumstances alone? My feeling is that it’s the former and that any Mifid II or more EMIR failings will result in fines of an equal or greater total to be handed out.

JPMorgan Selects First In-House Fintech Graduate

JPMorgan has selected the first of what’s sure to be a number of graduates from its in-house fintech development program. Mosaic Smart Data’s real-time data analytics platform MSX, which will be integrated into the bank’s FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities) business, uses predictive machine learning and real-time data analytics to improve traders and sales desk performance, and having seen the product first-hand during the earlier stages of its development, it comes as little surprise to see it making the grade at a tier-one institution.

Oliver Harris, head of the InResidence program at JPMorgan, will be speaking at the inaugural WatersTechnology Innovation Summit in London on November 15, yet another good reason to ensure you attend the event.

Sibos Part Deux

Now that the dust has settled on this year’s Sibos event, it’s a good opportunity to take a look at what our man, James Rundle, reported on. Last week, I highlighted pieces touching on robotic process automation, machine learning and cybersecurity. Following on from that, there are a number of other excellent articles with the omnipresent blockchain at their heart, including the DTCC’s plans for a new derivatives reporting platform based on blockchain, scheduled to go live in late 2018 and how we can expect to see live systems in the market as of next year.

You can also hear from the man himself on the subject of Sibos in the most recent episode of the Waters Wavelength podcast here.