EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 16 July 2010
The US Senate passed yesterday the financial regulation reform bill in a 60-39 vote. The final bill eliminates the $19 bn tax for large financial institutions, replacing it with a increase in deposit insurance fees for large banks and ending the TARP program three months earlier. The bill waters down Sen. Lincoln’s proposals, allowing banks to engage in proprietary trading within separately capitalized subsidiaries and engage in derivatives trading to hedge risks. Swaps remaining within a bank’s balance sheet will have to be cleared through a CCP. The bill will be sent to president Obama for signing next week.
Hellenic Exchanges completed the spinoff of its transactions clearing business. Its contribution to the 100% subsidiary "ATHEXClear" was completed.
Alpha is planning to launch a dark pool in 4Q10. The IntraSpread dark pool will allow internal crosses within the Canadian Best Bid and Offer.
Bursa Malaysia reported 2Q10 diluted EPS of MYR0.052 (-19% Y/Y) on profits of MYR28.4 mn (-19% Y/Y). Revenues totaled MYR84.3 mn (-11% Y/Y) and costs reached MYR45.5 mn (-1.2% Y/Y).
SunGard developed a clearing gateway with Nord Pool.
CME: Dow Jones Indexes launched the Dow Jones Long-Term Inflation Indexes.
MasterCard announced that issuing financial institutions accounting for more than 99 percent of eligible MasterCard-branded credit and debit cards have accepted the Alternative Recovery Offers they received pursuant to the settlement agreed to by MasterCard and Heartland Payment Systems.
Legg Mason: Western Asset Management will liquidate $23 bn in money market funds the company oversees for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney sweep accounts, representing about 15% of LM’s money market assets. “The financial impact to Legg Mason and Western Asset is immaterial, as we’ve been waiving a large part of our advisory fees in this low-rate environment … We continue to have a strong relationship with MSSB,” spokeswoman Mary Athridge commented.
Invesco: Old Mutual will acquire an eight person international equity portfolio management team Invesco acquired from Morgan Stanley and create the Echo Point Investment Management subsidiary led by Hans van den Berg. No deal terms were disclosed.
Federated Investors will acquire $17 bn in money market assets from RidgeWorth. The deal includes upfront payments of up to $8.75 mn and a contingent consideration of $30 mn.
Cohen & Steers appointed Anton Chan in its Hong Kong office as head of institutional marketing and client service for Asia. Mr. Chan was a VP with Bank of New York Mellon in sales and relationship management for North Asia ex-Japan. CNS also appointed Grace Ding as a Hong Kong-based member of the global listed infrastructure research team and Jackie Choy as a research analyst.
Charles Schwab 2Q10 EPS declined -6% Y/Y to $0.17 on net income of $205 mn (flat Y/Y;+3% Q/Q) and net revenues of $1,080 mn (-0.5% Y/Y;+10% Q/Q). Net interest margin improved to 201 bps from 183 bps in 1Q10 and money market fee waivers declined -10% Q/Q to $113 mn.
Charles Schwab June net new assets totaled $5.5 bn (excluding outflows from a single utual Fund Clearing client), down from $6.5 bn a year ago and client assets declined -3.6% M/M (+11% Y/Y) to $1,361.5 bn. Clients’ daily average trades declined -29% M/M (+16% Y/Y) to 364k. Mutual funds net buys reached $2.0 bn and money market funds net sales totaled -$4.1 bn.
DB1 was initiated with an "Underweight" rating at Barclays. Target price was set at €48.
BM&FBovespa was upgraded to “Buy” from “Underperform” at Banco Santander. Target price was raised to R$16.90 from R$14.00.
LSE was upgraded to "Neutral" from "Underperform" at Credit Suisse. Target price was cut to GBp680 from GBp710.
LSE was initiated with an "Equalweight" rating at Barclays. Target price was set at GBp620.
ICAP was initiated with an "Overweight” rating at Barclays. Target price was set at GBp500.
Federated Investors was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at Macquarie. Target price was reduced to $22 from $31.
Schroders was initiated with an "Underweight" rating at Barclays. Target price was set at GBp1200.
Henderson was initiated with an "Underweight" rating at Barclays. Target was set at GBp117.
CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said its agency will need “significant new resources” to move into regulating the OTC swaps markets.
The SEC settled with Goldman Sachs for $550 mn including an agreement to “reform its business practices” after misleading “investors in a subprime mortgage product”. Goldman didn’t admit to any wrongdoing but traded Fabrice Tourre is still charged with fraud.
Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com