To comply with the Turkish regulation initiated by the Turkish Derivatives Exchange (TurkDEX) and its clearing house Takasbank Citi’s Global Transaction Services business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) has introduced third party clearing for exchange traded derivatives in Turkey. At the moment Citi provides third party clearing for exchange traded derivatives in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and the Czech Republic.

Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a new Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation and announced the appointment of Henry T. C. Hu, University of Texas School of Law Professor, to the post of director.Thus, the newly created division will combine functions of the Office of Economic Analysis, the Office of Risk Assessment, and other functions to provide the Commission with proper analysis that integrates economic, financial, and legal disciplines.

On Wednesday gold dropped below $955. Gold was at $954.10 an ounce at 0229 GMT, down 0.2 percent from the New York notional close of $955.85.Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Co Ltd, said some investors were concerned that the market could be headed for a major correction."Gold prices seem high despite fresh factors to buy the metal, and some investors are worried that prices could take a heavy fall at some point," Saito said.

On Tuesday gold rose over $950 an ounce after it dropped 0.5% the previous day on selling by short-term investors due to caution in the face of tumbling Chinese equities and a fall in oil prices. But investor nerves were largely soothed on Tuesday as Chinese stock markets showed signs of stability, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index .HSI rising 0.6 percent, and oil prices gaining ground, traders said.

Europe’s largest bank HSBC is about to announce its plans to enter the European exchange traded fund (ETF) market with its first launch according to reports from the Financial Times."We believe our future is linked to indexation and ETFs and not just active management," Farley Thomas, global head of wholesale distribution at HSBC Global Asset Management, told the newspaper.

BATS Global Markets, a U.S. stock exchange, announced that it is the first U.S. securities exchange to provide a Web-based real-time display giving members access to detailed information about their connections to the BATS trading platform. With the new display authorized members can decline all open orders at the port or firm level directly through the online interface. Previously, members were required to submit order cancellation requests to the BATS Exchange Trade Desk.

Gold was observed to held steady on Friday near a two-month high, due to the US dollar remaining weak and US data on jobless claims and business conditions denying hopes for a quick return to growth.Gold has already risen about 2.6 per cent this week, and is expected to rise further, as current prices prompt some to take profit while others halt investment in gold-backed exchange-traded funds. Gold reached as high as $US955.95 on Thursday, its highest since March 23 of $US966. 

Over the last few decades, the average person’s interest in the stock exchange has significantly grown. What was once rich people’s toy now has become a popular financial instrument. This interest coupled with new technology has fueled up stock trading. Nowadays shares are a part of nearly all investment kits. 

On Monday the Federal Reserve signed additional agreements with the four central banks, including Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union. To date the Fed established or expanded 14 currency swap agreements since the inception of the credit crisis. Under these arrangements the U.S. central bank provides dollars in exchange for reserves of the other nations' currencies.

According to the results of voting conducted earlier this year Intexchage.com service has won in category Best Autoexchager 2008. Today we decided to publish an interview with our winner to give an opportunity to everyone to learn more about this automatic service. Here is the interview with the admin of Intexchage.com.

Recently Liberty Reserve users started complaining about the problem of direct deposits from LR to Perfect Money payment system. Deposit form is not working anymore and some experts say that this may cause some discontent of the users. 

As soon as WebMoney payment gateway has restricted the exchange of its payment units to other e-currencies people started searching for some other ways to continue such operations. There is nothing surprising in this situation since it was a common user who suffered from those restrictions that deprived them of the opportunity to conduct online financial operations with ease.

AlterGold… This payment system became a real hit this year. First it was an ambitious launch of the system heated by the numerous posts on the forums. Then an aggressive PR of it… But last months all the discussions were related to the problems with AG. Everything began with the press release of AG that was issued in two parts and e-mailed to all the users. Among various “happy news” there was one point stating that AlterGold stops all the operations on AG currency exchange: