ITG (NYSE: ITG), a leading independent execution broker and research provider, announced this week the appointment of Nick Johnston as Managing Director, European Head of Sales Trading. He will lead ITG’s European high-touch business. Sales trading at ITG is part of a global high-touch agency trading service, which also includes Portfolio/Index Trading and ETF Trading.

Barclays has launched a first of its kind cloud-based contingency payment service banking access channel in order to boost its commitment to corporate clients.

There has a been a lot of talk about how to trade blocks that are smaller than the LIS waiver but that are still too big to go to regular lit markets. The debate has been ratcheted up by the 4 and 8% dark pool caps that are part of the MiFID II spectre looming above us all. One approach, of course, is to chop your block into smaller pieces with an algo but this is becoming increasingly unattractive in an HFT-dominated world.

Venues like Turquoise have done their bit to help solve for this with their innovative Block Discovery service which has been gaining momentum steadily.

Chicago-based Rival Systems, LLC (Rival), a trading software company established earlier this year, today officially launched its new low latency derivatives trading and risk management platform.

 Geoswift, a leading provider of cross-border payments between China and the rest of the world, announced today that Michael Kireopoulos has joined the company as Global Head of Compliance. He is based in Geoswift’s San Francisco office.

 A new report from GreySpark Partners, a leading global capital markets consulting firm, shows how investment bank equities trading businesses are returning to profitability in 2015 after a sustained period of declining revenues following the onset of the financial crisis.

Banks have the chance to revolutionize finance just as Spotify has with music - but how can they use their Big Data advantage?

Surecomp^®, the leading global provider of trade finance solutions for banks and corporations, announced today that INTRUST Bank, the largest independent bank headquartered in Kansas, has licensed two Surecomp products as part of an end-to-end trade finance solution.