If US mutual funds and other registered investment funds feel relief they have been spared from the cumbersome rules for systemically important financial institutions, they may not for much longer. Hefty new disclosure requirements are on the horizon, if the US Securities and Exchange Commission has its way. Although the SEC is seeking industry input before […]
OTC Derivatives: The Identifier Debate Heats Up in Europe
As over-the-counter derivatives emerge from the shadowed status of private bilateral contracts into the relative sunlight of clearinghouse operations and regulatory reporting, there is a war heating up about a brand new problem — how these deals will be identified. Stocks, bonds, exchange-traded derivatives and other financial instruments are all regularly assigned unique codes that […]
Want to Price Shares Late: Get the Post Office to Help Out
US mutual fund complexes are supposed to give investors who buy and sell shares the price of the shares on the day they receive their orders. So says the US Investment Company Act of 1940. But insurance giant Nationwide Insurance found a creative way of not doing so. It didn’t have to rely on technology, […]
Outsourced Collateral Management: A Calculated Choice
When it comes to collateral management for fund managers, why not let someone else do the work? Considering the cost and administrative burden of this complex processing function, outsourcing sounds like a great idea. There are certainly some mega custodians and other managed service experts only too willing to help out. However, in this apparent […]
Europe’s Target2Securities: On Target or Not?
Will T2S launch as scheduled? Nine years after the European Central Bank proposed the initially controversial idea of launching a single centralized settlement platform for domestic and cross-border European securities transactions, the plans to launch might have hit a snag. It wouldn’t be the first time, but this time it would be at the 11th […]
DTCC Embraces ISO 20022 for Corporate Action Elections
Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s corporate actions transformation project could well become a gamechanger for the US market by including the use of ISO 20022-compliant messages for elections, as well as notifications on corporate events. Beyond the obvious reduction of operational risk in the stickiest aspect of corporate actions processing, the expanded use of ISO […]
Unbundling Commissions from Research: Big Pain, but Any Gain?
Customers are supposed to understand and agree on exactly what they are paying for. Right. It sounds like a truism, but it isn’t always true. Deals may contain perks or incentives that are never explicitly detailed in the agreement. If they suddenly have to be spelled out and agreed upon, item by item with the […]
News to Use: New AML Technology and Bitcoins
AML Tech Upgrade: To avoid doing business with the wrong customers and counterparties, financial firms can now rely on a new generation of software applications that go beyond traditional rules-based screening to far more sophisticated data analysis, says a new research report from Celent. The costs of not complying with anti-money laundering rules can be […]
News to Use: SEC, Omgeo and OpsCheck
Another SEC Cybersecurity Reminder: Fund managers have just received a few pointed suggestions from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management on just how they should monitor their cybersecurity risk. Although the new guidance doesn’t carry the force of a rule, it does put fund managers on alert for what the SEC will be looking […]
US T+2: Getting Rid of Paper Stock Certificates
Will the US finally go paperless? When it comes to issuing certificates that evidence share ownership, that is. This is the hope of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), transfer agents and other industry participants, now that a two-day settlement cycle could be just around the corner for the US. For more than a year they […]