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London Stock Exchange Group (LSE: LSEG) is a financial markets infrastructure company operating across the capital markets value chain – capital issuance, pre-trade, trade execution to post-trade. LSEG appears undervalued based upon its top line growth potential and potential OPEX savings. LSEG operates via three divisions – Data & Analytics (data insight and management), Capital Markets (primary issuance and secondary market trading), and Post Trade (clearing, risk management and compliance). The Group has a robust financial position with high…READ ICE CIC NOTE

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is a leading provider of market infrastructure spanning major asset classes including futures, equities, fixed income and US residential mortgages. ICE’s portfolio de-risks business cycle exposure shielding it from volatility and supports consistent growth. ICE owns and operates 10 exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange Group (NYSE) and the Chicago Stock Exchange (CSE); along with 6 clearing houses across the US, UK, EU, Canada, Asia Pacific and Middle East. ICE is the 4th largest global exchange by total trading volume, 3.23bn contracts in…READ ICE CIC NOTE

ASX Limited (ASX: ASX) is Australia’s primary securities exchange and one of the world’s top 10 listed exchange groups by market capitalisation. Services include listings, trading, clearing and settlement, and other post-trade services. Trading products include interest rate derivatives, equities, fixed income, commodities and energy. ASX has a local monopoly in the Australian financial markets delivering attractive operating margins (EBIT adj. 1H22 64%). ASX’s balance sheet is strong – gross cash position of A$5.3bn. ASX is enjoying a significant boom period underpinned by new listings and the global growth trend of greater retail investor market participation – Nevertheless, we see hard coded reasons for…READ ASX CIC NOTE
Deutsche Borse AG (Xetra: DB1) is one of the largest providers of market infrastructure worldwide. The company covers the entire financial market transaction process chain – indices and analytical solutions (pre-trading), trading and clearing services and settlement, liquidity and collateral management (post trading). It operated via four segments YE21A – Data & Analytics €0.48bn (14% of revenue), Trading & Clearing €1.81bn (51%), Fund Services €0.38bn (11%) and Security Service €0.835bn (24%). ESG related income was 7% of net revs YE21A. The diversified segments provide resilience to volatility in markets and also includes a number of high growth areas. DB1 is trading at…READ DEUTSCHE BORSE CIC NOTE

The Reputation Exchange (REPX) is a fintech/esports company with a strongly differentiated social engagement neobank model using affiliate marketing. With branded prepaid cards assigned to top sporting and influencer brands planned for roll-out in the next 21 months. Since our last note REPX has received: LSE standard list sign-off, conditional US OTCQX ticker approval, its first patent approval for the singing card and increased its number of cards in production by 2023, and has launched AC Milan’s Italy REPX PayFan card in Dec 21. We have recast our revenue and cost...READ REPEX RESEARCH NOTE

FCA banned the leading global crypto exchange by volume, Binance Markets, from doing business in the UK in June. Concerns grow over cryptocurrency firms withdrawing 5MLD (anti-money laundering) applications.
On 25th June, Binance was the most liquid crypto market – the group of Binance markets hosted $17.3bn of crypto trades across its exchanges over 24 hours. The next nearest was ZG.com with $10.3bn…READ FCA LEADS NEW CRYPTO CHANGES

Wirecard’s lack of transparency and numerous failures have been less than favourable for Fintech, the Frankfurt market and Commerzbank (which was pushed out of the DAX 30 by the Wirecard scandal), especially as it seeks to attract business from London. Hence, the need for a review of the current regulations and accepted practices by auditors and, to some extent banks.
However, the proposed changes seem to target financial auditors more than the companies that they are auditing, e.g. Wirecard. And whilst we believe that there need to be changes, it seems less sensible to create an asymmetric penalty system, company directors should also face a higher level of responsibility and risk for…READ FINTECH CHANGES AUDITING FUTURE

On Thurdsay April 30, 2020 the entire market value of cryptocurrencies increased by $35bn (mcap as of 04/05/2020 is $243bn). This was mainly due to Bitcoin which by 29/04/2020 reached a price of $9,388.30 up from $7,746.90 on 28/04/2020, a 17% increase. By 01/05/2020 Bitcoin was at $8,821.60. The other 2 main cryptocurrencies traded, Ethereum and XRP, also showed signs of gains during this major market event. Ethereum increased to…READ MORE ON CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET
