141 Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast April 30th, 2022

Transcript:

This week in the parish of bourses and market structure:

We’ve got a Caribbean vibe as we’re recording out side from the beautiful by nature Turks and Caicos Islands. In the world of bourses charges laid in the holy hoax fiasco, DB1 post shockingly good results, and the IMF rebuke the LME.

My name is Patrick L. Young.

Welcome to the bourse business weekly digest.

It’s the Exchange Invest Weekly Podcast Episode 141.

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

More details at ExchangeInvest.com.

Russian companies must revoke foreign listings by May 5th, that’s what the Central Bank says after Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to remove Russian stocks from overseas exchanges.

Over in India, the CBI the chargesheet is out and former National Stock Exchange of India CEO Chitra Ramkrishna and Senior Official Anand Subramanian have both been charged as part of the holy hoax fiasco.

Elsewhere, Chitra Ramkrishna is predecessor Ravi Narain he is subject to a SEBI demand notice and has to pay up some 2 crore rupees from his pension fund.

The clear worry at this juncture is of course the SEBI knee jerk back into totalitarian control mode after what has been the embarrassment of letting their former poster child NSE off with a slap of the wrists while the media in search of the tabloid story hit paydirt (and they still probably don’t really feel sufficiently confident to report what was actually happening behind the scenes, I suspect).

Better news from Africa, after 8 years of patient waiting, the Angolan Exchange is going to get its first IPO.

Over in Sri Lanka, stocks plunged when the stock market finally reopened this week after a period of 5 days closed. The total reopening lasted barely 32 minutes before trading was halted. Sri Lanka and Nepal are just two countries that appear outliers right now with massive financial difficulties but I don’t think they will feel better when a fair few other nations catch them up in the next few months.

Brexit news this week: Britain says the European Union will struggle to shift Euro clearing from London. #Obvs really?…after all we were told this would have happened by now by the EU shills, but in reality, it won’t. The problem is the European Union viewing the Euro in isolation and not in portfolio balance harmony with the rest of the world’s currencies.

Results: it was a frenetic week for results in the parish, all the deals were in Exchange Invest daily, the newsletter no person can afford to be without in capital markets and market structure. For the sake of this podcast, let’s look at some edited highlights.

NASDAQ announced 11% increase in quarterly dividend and they’re seeking approval for a 3-for-1 stock split. Very very interesting move from NASDAQ as they approach DB1 and the collapsing Coinbase in value and clearly think that this 1-for-3 stock split will only add liquidity and momentum to the stock itself.

Elsewhere, DB1 Deutsche Börse Group they surprise with a very strong start to the year net revenue up 24%, EBITDA up 32%. What a delightful shock indeed DB1 produce some quite stunning results as data revenue explodes and exchange traded derivatives have been soaring while there was a slight fillip from recent M&A. This is truly marvellous to see, and long may it continue. Congratulations to the management team under, er, er, er, now let me see, now you know, the group CEO, whatever who knows.

Over to the Channel Islands, they reported record turnover, record profit, record earning per share for 2021 and the strongest ever quarter, 1st quarter for new listings. Quite sensational altogether, 268 new listings in the first quarter of 2022. Absolutely awesome!

New markets this week: El Salvador will host Central America’s “Regional Debt Market”. El Salvador was selected by the Treasury or Finance Ministers of Central America, that would be Panama and the Dominican Republic (Cosefin) to host a “Regional Debt Market”, a project financially backed by the Central Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).

Over in the Balkans, Serbia and Slovenia, they will establish the first regional power exchange for Central and Southeast Europe.

Not such a frantic week for deals this week, but nonetheless, the Nairobi Securities Exchange, they are eyeing acquisition amongst other African bourses.

Don’t forget ladies and gentlemen, you can pick up a copy of my latest tome of “Victory or Death?”, whether you want to read it in the sun, overlooking the gorgeous Caribbean Sea as I’m doing today or if you’re just sitting at home, commuting as we now seem to be in a post work from home environment, or wherever you might be if you’re looking for some reading. COVID-19 is a killer, can it kill your career? Or is that the impact of FinTech destroying your business?

It’s a “Victory or Death?”, world of risk and opportunity. “Victory or Death?” – Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and the FinTech World is an easy read, explaining the differing and diverging roles of banks and exchanges and much more besides, If you want to understand the future of FinTech, then pick up a copy of “Victory or Death?” published by DV Books and distributed by Ingram worldwide.

Don’t forget while you’re waiting for your copy of “Victory or Death?” to arrive, you can check out our Livestream, that’s Tuesdays at 6pm London time, 1300 New York time. We’re gonna be having a break this week because it’s Pan European day of England celebrations after May 1st and all that socialist malarkey but at the same time the IPO-Vid live show is available go to IPO-Vid, you can catch some epic recent shows there. And indeed our most recent show which was absolutely phenomenal “From SMEs to Cannabis Power Player” discussing the Canadian Securities Exchange with our guest the CEO Richard Carleton.

In crypto land this week: many were quick to try to write off Coinbase’s NFT launch. Did Coinbase blow it’s NFT launch? (said Decrypt) Not so fast! According to Decrypt critics of Coinbase NFT say the exchanges too late to a now-crowded field. But it would be a mistake to dismiss Coinbase’s effort.

I agree, it’s not the issue that there is a crowded NFT field – the problem is the current NFT segment all too often looks like a heavily pixelated version of a ‘tat’-vending souvenir shop in a cheesy holiday resort. Ramping me tooism may have left us with a lot of badly drawn primates but there’s much much more, a much greater a more exciting series of possibilities out there – watch this space, etc etc.

Product news this week: the London Metals Exchange (LME) they’re going to be scrapping gold and silver futures by July due to thin activity. The CME Group they’re launching an aluminium options contract on May 23rd and the CBOE they filed trademarks for NFT and crypto services.

Speaking of crypto, the Russian Tax authorities suggesting that they can let Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency be used in foreign trade. Desperate times clearly call for dangerous remedies.

Beijing, they’re inching their way closer to deals on audits of Chinese firms that are listed on US exchanges that will be a good thing to see when we get an agreement and retail investors according to the Financial Times have been driving a sharp rise in share trading before the opening bell on Wall Street in the USA.

Bangladesh and India are set to formalise their electricity sharing system with trades going through the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

In technology news this week: FTX have selected Eventus for their global trade surveillance and risk monitoring on all markets. Meanwhile, there are a lot of worries that the New York Mayor Eric Adams no less who ran on a pro Bitcoin platform and made a huge deal about receiving his first three paychecks in Bitcoin itself may actually be about to oversee a ban on proof of work mining, aka how bitcoin is actually derived.

Speaking of that, in the world of Central Bank Digital Currency, the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) and Bank Indonesia, they have invited Global Innovators to take up CBDC challenges.

Regulation news this week: the IMF says the LME governance needs strengthening after the Nickel fiasco. Quite the rap over the knuckles for the LME, the IMF accused the LME of potentially harming ‘free and fair markets’ when it cancelled a slew of trades as the price of nickels surged.

To quote their IMF global financial stability report vehicle 2022: “Governance mechanisms for the LME need to be strengthened to address conflict of interest. Measures must be in place to ensure that the concentration of trading does not adversely impact free and fair markets.”

Of course, one possible ramification from the recent nickel nightmare is the possibility of regulation. An article by Bloomberg repeated in the financial posts this week notes Commodity Traders Can’t Go ‘unregulated’ Anymore. Nonetheless, that raises a vast raft more questions than it answers…nobody’s disputing that commodity trading might need some transparency but how do we do this without impacting core commerce?

Career paths this week: the big news just as we were recording was the exciting announcement that Matt Chamberlain is going to be staying as the CEO of the LME, clearly with a mandate to clear up the farago over the nickel nightmare. At the same time, the COO who was about to become acting CEO Adrian Farnham and also the CFO of the LME aren’t going to be departing.

Elsewhere NASDAQ private market has appointed Tom Callahan as Chief Executive officer at the same time as NASDAQ elected Kathlyn Card Beckles, Anne Marie Darling and Elizabeth Wideman to the board of directors of their US exchanges. A strong vote for excellence in Diversity from NASDAQ there.

The DTCC, their board of directors have appointed Frank La Salla, President and Chief Executive officer, he’s going to succeed Michael Bodson, who’s retiring after a decade leading the company. Good luck to Frank La Salla as he moves forward with plans to try and get T+2 to become T+1 across the American equity infrastructure.

One snippet of NSEL news this week: with the ongoing farrago which is the National Spot Exchange Limited, which immolated some years ago in India. The Indian Supreme Court has upheld the Maharashtra’s government decision to attach 63 moons’ assets. That gets us along step closer to the potential of the NSEL investors being rendered whole in due course.

Lots has been happening in big world of lead, of course, you might have missed perhaps the largest macroeconomic news of the Easter break, which had a raft of ramifications across the world: China’s cutting its reserve requirement ratio to boost the economy amidst the slowdown. Equally the funny money era engendered by the hugely destructive central bank fad is collapsing almost as fast as said bankers’ reputations. With bond prices tumbling due to the inflation that was always inevitable when you price money for nothing, the total of sub-zero yield bonds has collapsed from over $14 trillion in mid-December to a ‘mere’ $2.7 trillion in mid April.

And on that mysterious and magnificent note, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Patrick L. Young, publisher of the Exchange Invest newsletter, builder of exchanges the world over.

I wish you a great week in blockchain, life and markets.

LINKS:

Russian Companies Must Revoke Foreign Listings By May 5, Central Bank Says
MarketScreener

Putin Signs Decree To Remove Russian Stocks From Overseas Exchanges
Business Insider India

CBI Charge Sheet In NSE Co-Location Scam
The Hindu Business Line

CBI Files Charge Sheet Against Ex-NSE CEO Chitra Ramkrishna
Hindustan Times

SEBI Issues Demand Notice To NSE’s Former Chief Ravi Narain To Recover Rs2 Crore Penalty
Moneylife

After Waiting For Eight Years, Angolan Exchange To Get First IPO
Bloomberg

Sri Lanka Stocks Plunge, Ending Trading 32 Minutes After Reopen
Yahoo News

Britain Says EU Will Struggle To Shift Euro Clearing From London
Reuters

Nasdaq Announces 11% Increase In Quarterly Dividend, Seeks Approvals To Execute 3-For-1 Stock Split
Nasdaq

Nasdaq Reports 1Q2022 Results; Delivers Strong Growth In Solutions Segments Revenue
Nasdaq