SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — New channels of electronic communication have been a boon to many industries, opening up sales and marketing opportunities, helping improve customer service and speeding up innovation and collaboration. For Wall Street, however, the benefits of technology such as Twitter have to be weighed against the compliance pains.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) halted trading of Topix index futures, government bond futures and all options for nearly four hours Tuesday, when systems problems prevented the order book from being accessed by the exchange’s trading platform.

As the 2008 Olympics draw closer, the number of shops in Beijing that accept internationally branded payment cards stood at about 110,000 at the end of June, nearly double the number from last year, according to state-owned news media.

Suffering from a lack of liquidity and poor securities processing, Ukraine is hoping that Nasdaq OMX Group can provide some relief and bring the country’s markets more international attention.

PETFOOD INDUSTRY — Since the 2007 melamine contamination scandal, Chinese regulators have upped their oversight, run a four-month-long food industry inspection sweep that covered petfood makers and signed a new export agreement with the US that requires Chinese petfood makers to register with the government.

Chinese regulators said that they have completed a three-year overhaul of the country’s brokerage industry in which 19 firms were shut down and misused funds returned to investors.

As Asian countries roll out high-speed Internet services, online trading rates are climbing. But adoption by retail investors has been anything but uniform throughout the region. While Japan has the highest online trading rates in the world, China and India are just getting into the game. Rapidly accelerating growth in those markets, however, indicates their potential to become the new leaders of Internet trading.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — Chinese firms listed in Shenzhen, Shanghai and overseas will be able to issue corporate bonds more easily under new regulations released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission last month.

The three-year overhaul of China’s securities industry, including better risk management measures, share ownership reforms, and the introduction of new products, will be completed in August, according to regulators. A moratorium on new investments by foreign brokerage companies, put in place while the changes were being made, could be lifted this fall.

Despite geographical and technical obstacles, the growth of algorithmic trading and direct-market access in Asia is noticeable.

PETFOOD INDUSTRY — In early May the Chinese government arrested two people involved in the melamine and cyanuric acid contamination of petfood ingredients exported to the US and stepped up enforcement activities. In addition, the Chinese government worked with experts from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help resolve the problem.

After months of waiting, Nasdaq Stock Market and NYSE Euronext will be allowed to open official representative offices in China this summer. The two exchanges had applied for permission late last year, but government approval was held up pending regulations that the China Securities Regulatory Commission finally issued on May 20.

Buy-Side-Driven Trading Takes Hold in Hong Kong
Link to Originally published in Securities Industry News
Hong Kong is a major international financial center and a regional hub for institutional buy-side firms. Their presence in Asia, coupled with the growth of hedging strategies, has led to an increase in algorithmic trading in the region. Gabe Butler, Hong [...]

FDM - Exports continue to rise, but China’s largest upholstery manufacturers also are concentrating on booming business at home.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — A much-anticipated rise in algorithmic and electronic trading is taking hold in Japan. It is confirmed in a recent report by Connecticut-based research firm Greenwich Associates and is being led by Japan’s largest securities firms.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — In a sign that the maturing of the Chinese financial markets is creating new opportunities for Western technology suppliers, SunGard Data Systems of Wayne, Pa. has acquired Shanghai-based Fudan Kingstar Computer Co.