Breakups can be messy and switching from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to alternative reference rates (ARRs) will be no exception for trading, operations, fintech, risk and compliance managers in 2022. An ounce of preparing next year can translate into a pound of preventing errors in 2023, caution LIBOR operations and legal experts who […]
Autism Center of Alleged Crypto Inventor Wright’s Fraud Trial
A brilliant autistic cryptocurrency developer or a brilliant con artist? That’s what a federal jury in Miami has to decide about Australian-born Craig Wright, who alleges he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of the most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin and underlying blockchain technology. Ira Kleiman, the brother of the late Dave Kleiman, sued Wright in 2018 […]
S in ESG Stands for Supply Chain
Do you know how green your third-party service providers are? That’s the question risk and vendor procurement managers at fund management firms, banks and broker-dealers must soon answer correctly or face reputational and regulatory consequences, say legal and data experts in environmental, social and governance policies. The vendors can be anyone from a fund administrator, […]
Bloomberg’s FIGIs Win Nod From US Standards Body: Now What?
Bloomberg finally got its wish for FIGIs– acceptance of its securities ID codes as a standard– but whether that equates to popularity for trade and post-trade operations managers remains to be seen. Trade, middle, and back-office operations, and compliance managers at buy and sell-side firms can now be certain that Bloomberg’s financial instrument global identifiers […]
Broker-Dealer Alert: Filing Suspicious Activity Reports Could Get Harder
Anti-money laundering analysts and compliance managers at US broker-dealers may need to work a lot harder and worry a lot more before filing suspicious activity reports if Alpine Securities, a US penny stockbroker, loses its appeal to the Supreme Court over whether the Securities and Exchange Commission has the right to enforce the Bank Secrecy […]
Uncleared Margin Rules Phase Six: Five Step SCOPE Approach
With the fifth phase of initial margin requirements for uncleared swap transactions recently effective, collateral management and compliance managers at hundreds of fund management shops need to start preparing for the final phase of uncleared swap rules to avoid finding themselves in hot water with regulators or counterparties, warn operations and legal experts. Fund management […]
Symbiont Scores Legal Win Against Ipreo, IHS Markit
US syndicated loans operations managers must bid farewell to a wannabe blockchain-based competitor to IHS Markit’s ClearPar platform based on a recent decision by a Delaware state judge who also awarded Symbiont a whopping US$70 million in its lawsuit against former partner Ipreo and Ipreo’s parent IHS Markit. Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of Delaware’s […]
Europe’s SFDR: Shades of Green Cause Ops Headache
Non-green, light green and dark green. Investment, compliance, and legal managers at fund management shops who must classify their funds in one of those three categories under Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) are finding the road to explaining how their investments are helping or harming the environment and society paved with good intentions but […]
Cryptomarket Rejects New Certification for Trading, Ops Execs
Should Wall Street executives trading and processing digital securities transactions be legally required to pass licensing or mandatory in-house training programs? The answer to the question raised in a comment letter sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in April concerning its December 2020 framework for the custody of digital securities appears to be […]
Legal Experts Debate Personal Liability for Chief Compliance Officers
Chief compliance officers need a new operating model, not a new legal framework, to avoid being personally penalized unfairly by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for regulatory infractions, say some legal experts. The New York City Bar Association’s recent framework suggesting that the SEC be more understanding of the challenges faced by chief compliance […]