Trading volumes in exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs) continue to rise (up 30% from pre-crash volumes). During a recent pilot study at a large securities clearing house Gresham CTC was tasked with processing 20 million trades in 14 minutes as a minimum requirement for processing ETD transactions.  I’m pleased to say that we passed with flying colours, but it does highlight the increasing volumes.

Tradition, one of the world’s largest interdealer brokers in over-the-counter commodity and financial products, has appointed Robert Pickel as Non-Executive Director to the Board of TraditionSEF, the Swap Execution Facility (SEF) operated by Tradition in the United States.

Cyan (AIM:CYAN.L), the integrated system and software design company delivering mesh based flexible wireless solutions for utility metering and lighting control, announces that it has successfully deployed what the directors believe to be is the first 865MHz Advanced Metering Infrastructure ("AMI") commercial volume project in India.

Online shops are increasingly integrating Bitcoin as additional payment method in their payment process, while consumer acceptance is also rising at a corresponding rate. The digital currency offers substantial advantages to both sides, such as fraud-free transactions for merchants and the removal of payment risks for shoppers as the entry of personal payment data is no longer necessary. 

 Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today opened a state-of-the-art data center in Toronto, Ontario. Known as TR2, the new data center will serve companies doing business in Canada's largest financial, networking and cloud computing market. Toronto is home to a rich financial services ecosystem already present in Equinix with customers including Chi-X, and Liquidnet.

After an ambitious project carried out in partnership with SimCorp, CNP Assurances has reached a key milestone with the integration of a "front-to-back-office" platform built on the SimCorp Dimension system. CNP Assurances can now optimise its management of more than €300 billion worth of assets in line with best market practices via a platform that covers all types of financial instruments and multiple accounting standards. CNP Assurances is using the platform to meet the requirements of Solvency II and to consolidate its new offers and partnerships.

 Information Mosaic, a market leader in global post-trade securities processing solutions, today announced it has achieved Oracle Exadata Optimized, Oracle SuperCluster Optimized, and Oracle Exalogic Optimized status for its IMSecurites™ version 7.0.4 solution through Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). Information Mosaic is a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork.
 

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Africa's largest exchange, today announced that it signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Eris Exchange (Eris), a U.S.-based futures exchange group, to list swap futures on the South African Exchange.The license agreement enables the JSE to launch multiple swap futures products based on the Eris Methodology, Eris' product design for constructing capital-efficient futures that replicate the economics of OTC swaps, which incorporates intellectual property, expertise and patent-pending innovations.
 

Global advisory, fund administration and fiduciary services firm Maitland has acquired 100% of Phoenix Fund Services, a UK based company offering bespoke outsourced fund administration services to investment managers in the UK and offshore.

The deal boosts Maitland’s assets under administration by £6.2 billion (USD $9.3 billion) to over £140 billion (USD $210 billion) and heralds its entry into the fund administration sector in the UK where it has an established private client and corporate services business.