Yes, the 34,000 customer records lost last month by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is a shadow of the 100 million customers affected by the repeated break-ins to the Sony Playstation Network this year.

The Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions Wednesday published a Consultation Report aimed at developing recommendations to mitigate risks posed to the financial system by technological developments, such as high frequency trading.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is warning 34,000 of its investors to be on alert after CD-ROMs carrying their personal data disappeared when they were mailed to a state government office.

Deutsche Boerse said it completed the move of its Xetra electronic stock trading market to a new data center.

TS-Associates said its software for precisely measuring the performance of high-speed messaging systems now can run on the Microsoft Windows operating system and can directly access stored data, to speed up calculations.

American Express Co. has added a cardholder perk designed to make spending on its cards worthwhile for a broad swath of small business owners: advertising credits on Facebook.

The world’s top foreign exchange dealers are working on an industry-wide initiative to reduce the risk of a Flash Crash hitting the global currency markets.

The London Stock Exchange late Wednesday pulled out of its $3.5 billion merger with Canada’s TMX Group leaving the door open for a possible hostile takeover from Maple Group.

Data giant Thomson Reuters has teamed up with real-time systems monitoring provider ITRS to allow financial firms to keep track of the performance and speed of Thomson Reuters’ market data platforms.

Courting high frequency traders, the London Stock Exchange is allowing non-members a direct connection to its electronic order books with some exchange controls.

Financial planning, at essence, is “helping people make smart financial decisions,” according to Marc Schindler, a founding partner of Pivot Point Advisors in Bellaire, Texas. His firm helps clients by following a quantitative approach that uses computer modeling and takes the long-view on investments.

Canada’s securities commissions have proposed to require transaction data on over-the-counter derivatives to be reported to trade repositories.

While mutual fund companies in general are not embracing mobile technologies to the degree that banks, credit cards and self-directed brokerages are, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF stand out in terms of its offering research and trades via mobile devices, according to Corporate Insight.

As banks search for their place in the fast evolving world of social media, they are increasingly looking to technology to help them cope with a tangle of potential regulatory and legal challenges.

Endace, a network monitoring infrastructure firm, has teamed up with Verizon to help financial firms prevent losing critical market data from trading venues.

European clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet confirmed market talk that it wants to enter the market and service alternative trading platforms.

It’s official. Senior ranking Wall Street operations executives must be licensed as operations professionals. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s request to do so, albeit with some minor changes.

Fiserv's upgrades to key processing software could remove another roadblock in the way of the many banks that want to speed up their ACH payments.

Lightspeed Financial said it acquired the Irish operations of Lime Brokerage International.

Broadridge Financial Solutions said it is beginning to supply post-trade processing services to prime brokers and investment banks.