…She had a hand in developing such infrastructure components as BOAT, a trade reporting system now owned by Cinnober Financial Technology, and London Stock Exchange Group’s Turquoise platform. Currently nonexecutive chairman of London upstart Aquis Exchange, Beattie observes that “banks are seeing a massive squeeze on their capital. It’s quite clear that exchanges will have to play a bigger role in capital formation.”

(Reuters) – MICEX-RTS, the Russian stock market, has hired the former heads of markets at the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) and Merrill Lynch International (BAC.N) as directors to advise the group on its plan to compete with the LSE for trading.

The Russian exchange said on Thursday Martin Graham, the head of equity markets at the LSE for six years, and Niki Beattie, formerly the head of European markets at Merrill, had become independent directors.

Graham, who left the LSE in 2009, and Beattie, who quit Merrill in 2008, are the first non-Russians to sit on the MICEX-RTS board.

…In the days of a single national exchange, a market maker had certain rules that it abided by. “But now everyone is scrabbling to get a bit of flow. There’s nothing wrong with HFT – we have just gone a little far in encouraging it,” she says. “We need guidelines on market making, and oversight on how exchanges are running that.” Beattie stresses that…

However, a survey of five Australian asset managers by Market Structure Partners, a strategic advisory firm, found that, on average, they only valued issuer-funded research at 1.8 points out of 10, even when no other research is available. “There is definitely a discount for the value of research where the issuer has paid for it, but it still has some value,” says Niki Beattie, chief executive of MSP.

…banks have been required to move some of their over-the-counter derivatives trading to electronic platforms where possible. “There is a sea change going on because of regulation, squeeze on capital, reputational risks. Banks don’t want to do certain things anymore, while what’s left tends to be more computerised,” said Niki Beattie, CEO of consultancy…

Richard Bennet joins Aquis Exchange board
…Niki Beattie, who chairs the Aquis Exchange board, said Bennett brings a wealth of experience and his contribution will be invaluable.

“His international experience will be particularly helpful as we seek to sell our technology to banks, brokerages and exchanges across the world,” she said.

Niki Beattie, chief executive of consultancy Market Structure Partners and non-executive chairman at Aquis, said: “Clearing is an issue – it’s very chicken and egg – you have to persuade a clearing platform to connect to you but they won’t want to do the work if you don’t have any volumes.”

“…The real debate should not be about who receives what information when, but about what we want our financial markets to look like. Governments have repeatedly failed to step up and define a blueprint for markets, and our regulators continue to flounder, resulting in rules that are at best unhelpful and at worst contradictory, with little thought for the longer-term consequences…”

“The groundbreaking shift we are witnessing in the OTC markets towards electronic trading is both anticipated and increasingly in demand, not least with regard to current and pending regulatory demands,” says Niki Beattie, a London-based markets strategist and…

Niki Beattie, chief executive of consultancy Market Structure Partners, and a non-executive director of the Moscow Exchange, said she expected dealmaking in Asia to continue along these lines. “We’ll see much smaller, incremental deals, that look like joint ventures, which are more diplomatic,” she said.