116 Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast October 16th, 2021

Transcript:

This week in the parish of bourses and market structure:

Saudi Tadawul, they may achieve a $4 billion valuation upon IPO while the Nigerian Exchange should be a public traded company by the time you hear this podcast. Meanwhile, the European Commission demands a near real time consolidated tape, one wonders if the EU can catch up on a decade of undelivered promises around capital markets union.

And this podcast is coming to you from Nassau in the Bahamas, where Mr. And Mrs. Young has been keynote speaker at the first ArawakX International Investor Conference.

My name is Patrick L. Young.

Welcome to the bourse business weekly digest.

It’s the Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast number 116.

Good day ladies and gentlemen, this is a very brief reduction of highlights amongst the key headlines from the week in market structure. All the analysis of the many events over the course of the past seven days can be found in Exchange Invest’s daily subscriber newsletter, the unique guide to bourse business sent daily to your inbox.

More details at ExchangeInvest.com.

Near real-time information is needed to attract more retail investors to capital markets, said the European Commission this week via the Brussels bugle after FESE ( European Securities Exchange Federation) tried to fit an execution format, which might actually meet the EU’s ongoing incapacity to achieve things.

Thus the European Commission delivered a low latency splat to the entire 15 minute delayed notion with a near real time demand for the consolidated tape. Well, that’s the right idea from the European Commission but FESE we’re being realistic. After all, it’s the European Union we’re talking about here, aka those who have comprehensively failed to achieve, for example, any meaningful capital markets union after a decade of vocal emissions, but little beyond that European Commission’s nebulous hot air.

Better Data Needed for Reform of the European Trading Rules said the Official according to the headline in Reuters. Some might argue a better European Union is the vital prerequisite so we can actually have a capital markets union.

The City of London Corporation, they finally got behind the message in a week where the previously Europhile crazed City of London Corporation got in line with protecting clearing heights access from the UK to the EU. Meanwhile, over in Nigeria, the exchange was preparing to list on its own bourse by the end of the week, while the big news in regulation was delivered in a zinger Bloomberg headline:

Sec Chief to Wall Street: The Everything Crackdown is coming

Echoing, of course, the sympathies of Exchange Invest as we’ve been explaining to subscribers for months in fact, from the very day when it was first noted that Gary Gensler might be taking over as SEC chairman. So just in case you rented one of Osama Bin Laden’s old caves via AirBnB for the past few months and have not been reading Exchange Invest…you really need to read that article.

The point is that, of course, as we’ve also raised in Exchange Invest one of execution – a fascinating issue, the Gensler regime has a swaggering ambition which may undercut its ability to deliver. Which makes of course the SEC little different to the rest of the current US government on the ambition stakes, albeit Gary Gensler has a reputation for competence, which is not apparent anywhere else from the White House down in the current government.

Therefore, we are left to ponder: Quis custodiet, the “everything crackdown?”

Across the Atlantic, London Metals week has returned: The Hottest Party in The Metals World Is Back, But Much Smaller noted Bloomberg.

The week’s centrepiece event they said a black tie dinner, the infamous LME week dinner hosted by the exchange that is normally attended by 2,000 people in the ballroom of the Grosvenor House Hotel is going ahead with a slimmed down 850 guests and larger gaps between the tables.

We hope everyone involved had a lovely evening and toasted the soiree from where Exchange Invest has been produced this week and indeed also this podcast, the Nassau in the Bahamas.

Depleting net worth has put the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India’s future in limbo. As per the rules stock exchanges have to maintain a ₹100 crore net worth. MSEI which was originally founded as MCX Stock Exchange MCX-SX was once jointly promoted by Financial Technologies at its birth (Financial Technologies being the jigna shah company which has since been rechristened 63 moons in the wake of the NSEL fiasco). It was the offspring of commodity bourse MCX, but never quite caught the zeitgeist in the same way that MCX became a dominant player in India’s commodity markets. Now it seems the exchange’s net worth may well be below the threshold or perilously close.

Elsewhere as I mentioned at the top of the show the Saudi Exchange Tadawul, they’re said to be close to an IPO at an impressive valuation of 4 billion US dollars.

In new markets this week, it was a busy week for various new markets, and all of the information on the deals and everything else were in Exchange Invest daily, the newsletter nobody can afford to be without in capital markets and market structure. For the sake of this podcast, let’s look at a few edited highlights amongst the new markets.

ProMEX launched last week, it’s the world’s first direct real time platform based around initially trading Moutai, China’s most famous national liquor. The platform’s Hong Kong based digital marketplace is trading physical commodities and indeed, as we learned subsequently, it’s being powered by Exberry, the up start exchange trading and execution platform.

Elsewhere at the London Metal Exchange, they made an announcement during their London metals week, that they have a deal with Metalshub to provide digital spot trading in base metals. The first contract to come out there will be in aluminium.

Don’t forget ladies and gentlemen, if you’re travelling somewhere whether it’s Nassau in the Bahamas or not, you should be reading a “Victory or Death”. If you haven’t got a copy pick one up from Amazon.com or wherever books are sold, “Victory or Death” – Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and the FinTech world, it’s an easy read. It is published by DV books and distributed by Ingram worldwide.

Meanwhile, we had a great episode this week of IPO-Vid, we were in the offices of ArawakX (the upstart new exchange and crowdfunding platform centred around SME markets). You can catch the highlights of that entire one hour show indeed on Youtube.com – just go search for IPO-Vid.

The Coinbase CEO, he had a bit of a strop, Chief Executive of Coinbase Global Brian Armstrong said he’s concerned US business leaders will quit due to the scrutiny they face. He made the comments hours after Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had publicly defended his company following a series of negative stories.

Hmm.. I have to say I’m minded to wonder about the idea of being the chief executive of a publicly quoted company worth umpteen billion dollars and then not expecting some degree of public scrutiny.

Meanwhile, that came in the week when crypto exchange Binance and the derivatives trading and other offerings in South Africa, which means that South Africa has joined a an expanding list, the UK, Australia, Thailand, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy amongst others who have issued bans and warnings to the Binance exchange.

Meanwhile, Binance themselves, they registered three more firms in Ireland as the crypto regulation battle heats up. Seems that the ban and CEO is saying Ireland is part of its HQ plans quite which party there is not clear and indeed is not clear what Dublin did to deserve Binance. At the same time other coin media have been wandering in this case Coingab is Biannce seeking an HQ in Dubai and then suggested a few who done at clues pointing in the direction of fact that, well, clearly having failed to acquire regulatory approval in Singapore according to coingab, the world’s largest crypto exchange platforms CEO Changpeng Zhao, better known as si CZ had been spotted in Dubai attending a meeting with the authorities. Thus it seems there will be a headquarters or perhaps several headquarters to Binance coming soon in the public eye and “D” seems to be the starter letter. Some folks say Dublin, others say Dubai.

Back to Coinbase, they’ve been hit with a class-action suit for failure to register as an exchange – aka they do not meet the definition of an exchange under federal securities law according to this suit. That of course leaves us to wonder is there any news from the 6000 folks who got hacked during the DPO process ramp up? Does anybody expect they’re not going to sue?

Product news this week, ICE benchmark administration, they’ve launched a beta USD SOFR ICE Swap Rate and USD SOFR Spread -Adjusted ICE Swap Rate to assist the nonlinear market in its transition to software away from Libor.

MCX, they’re moving to SEBI, the regulator asking for options in COMDEX (their Commodity Index) and indeed money control reckons index options in commodities will be a ‘game-changer’ for MCX.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in India disposing of the SEBI-CERC case has opened the door for electricity futures, certainly longer term power derivatives now seem to be allied and that is going to be quite the revolution for the likes of the IEX the Indian energy exchange and its upstart competitors.

If you’re struggling with the history and relevance of this agreement, think of it as an Indian sparky Shad Johnson.

Back to the crypto world the Mexican Stock Exchange is considering joining the crypto futures party. According to the (BMV) CEO José-Oriol Bosch.

Regulation news this week, the French watchdog the IMF, their chief has called for a ban on ‘payment for order flow’ in the European Union stock market, which would mark out an even more stark divergence between the European Union’s model of stock trading and the American anything goes payment for order flow model.

South Korea – they’re planning a 20% crypto tax from 2022 but we’ll exclude NFT’s from the duty.

Elsewhere, the White House has been stating that it’s weighing broader oversight of the cryptocurrency market. Leaving us to wonder in Exchange Invest that perhaps Elizabeth Warren may be running the USA. As after all we can be fairly clear that neither the President nor the Vice President currently seem to be in charge.

Career paths and people news this week, the UAE markets regulator gets a female CEO as Al Suwaidi has taken charge.

That’s a fairly spectacular move for girl power. It has to be said of course though, in neighbouring Saudi Arabia Sarah Al-Suhaimi became the first woman to chair the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange title in 2017. And is about to lead it to an IPO perhaps at a valuation as we mentioned earlier as high as $4 billion.

Binance US bumped their president Brian Schroder to CEO while the CFO has departed.

Over in the big world this week, we were musing on the fact that China’s Golden Week data turned out to be remarkably soft for retail sales. That one suggests it might bode rather ill. According to an analysts note by CIti:

“The spend weakness was attributable to the relatively soft prices of travel products and a shift towards short-haul trips”.

Given that that comes on the back of a likely Evergrande default, and indeed a minor meltdown across the Chinese property market, which might actually be a major meltdown across the Chinese property market as a result of Evergrande doesn’t strike me as overly good news for the world economy.

And on that mysterious and magnificent note ladies and gentlemen, my name is Patrick L Young.

I will see you back every day in the newsletter Exchange Invest if you’re a subscriber, if not join us come to ExchangeInvest.com and sign up for a trial.

I wish you wherever you are in the world today, a sunny week. A great week in blockchain, life and markets. Thanks for listening!

LINKS:

Brussels Rejects Exchanges’ Call For 15-Minute Delay On Record Of Trades
FT

Better Data Needed For Reform Of EU Trading Rules: Official
Reuters

City Of London Corporation Calls For Extension To UK Clearing House Access To EU
City A.M.

The Hottest Party In The Metals World Is Back, But Much Smaller
Bloomberg

Depleting Net Worth Puts MSEI’s Future In Limbo
The Hindu BusinessLine

ProMEX Launches Today The World’s First Direct, Real-Time Platform To Trade Moutai, China’s Most Famous National Liquor – A Hong Kong-Based Digital Marketplace To Trade Physical Commodities With Moutai As Its First Product
ProMEX Twitter

LME Collaborates With Metalshub In Digital Spot Trading Offering For Base Metals
LME

LME CEO On Metalshub Partnership, Aluminum
Bloomberg

London Metal Exchange Joins Germany’s Metalshub To Launch Spot Trading Platform
Yahoo! Voices

LME To Develop Digital Metals Spot Market Beginning With ‘Green’ Aluminum
MarketWatch