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Gerhard Seebacher, Chris Mandell

The US National Futures Association (NFA) has sent out a proposal to its 43 Forex Dealer Members (FDMs) which if passed will almost inevitably lead to a huge consolidation in the US retail market. The proposal will be presented to the NFA’s board in August; if it is ratified, it will then be sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which effectively acts as the NFA’s gatekeeper. If accepted by this body, the NFA will then set a date by which FDMs would have to meet the new capital requirements.

As cycling is now the new golf, there were undoubtedly a few FX market participants taking part in the 15th L’Etape du Tour, which took place last Monday down in the French Pyrenees. Congratulations to two I know of – Barclay Capital’s chief operating officer Sean Comer and exotic options trader Ed Falinski – for completing what was a very arduous race http://www.letapedutour.com/2007/ETDT/presentation/us/parcours.htm.

Another research report, this time from Aite, details how important retail flow is becoming.

He must have been bitterly disappointed, but Zar Amrolia, global head of FX at Deutsche Bank, was unable to pick up the bank’s award as Best FX House at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence Dinner in London on July 12.

As regular readers of this column will know, I am a small shareholder of Icap. I’d like to be a bigger one, but I won’t bore you with my financial woes. Anyway, I was pleased to see that things are still more than positive at the company.

The Bank for International Settlements in Basle’s Committee of Payment And Settlement Systems this week published a detailed consultative report titled: Progress in reducing foreign exchange settlement risk (http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss81.pdf)

I received a fair amount of feedback about the article on the shenanigans surrounding the barrier event – or not as the case may be – in EUR/SEK on July 5. I also got a lot of requests asking me to send the story on. It’s available for everyone to read – all you need is a subscription to the Weekly FiX.

“Sounds like the rumour mill is at work”

As any FX dealer with a chalet in Verbier will tell you, you don’t always get best execution in FX. If you ever have to make a decent-sized FX transaction, chances are that one of the Robin Banks you have to deal with will not only rip off your arms and legs, but have your liver as well.

Including: Asia Pacific (ex Japan), European, US and Global Announced M&A

Systemic failure by the US financial system is tacitly admitted by the Fed “pilot scheme: on mortgage supervision, but is also apparent in the absence of market prices for CDOs.