MOVE TO REAL-TIME TRADE SETTLEMENT: ROBINHOOD CEO

It's time to consider real-time settlement in U.S. equities trading, Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev said, after the online brokerage suffered immense financial strain from a retail trading frenzy that rocked Wall Street last week. “There is no reason why the greatest financial system the world has ever seen cannot settle trades in real time,” Tenev, who is also a co-founder of Robinhood, said in a blog post. The securities industry currently follows a two-day settlement system. “The clearing house deposit requirements are designed to mitigate risk, but last week's wild market activity showed that these requirements, coupled with an unnecessarily long settlement cycle, can have unintended consequences that introduce new risks,” Tenev said.