Absolute personal responsibility with little to no authority. That’s how anti-money laundering specialists at some of the world’s largest banks summarize the job description of Brown Brothers Harriman’s global director of anti-money laundering (AML) activities. Besides a hefty fine to be paid by BBH in a settlement, Harold (Hal) Crawford will pay US$25,000 to the US Financial […]
FIXing the Post-Trade Communications Process
Reducing time, risk and cost. camela araujoThat’s the mantra the FIX Trading Community promoted at an event it hosted in New York last week when recommending its message tags and workflow be used for locally matching post-trade instructions in all asset-classes. It’s also the beginning of a battle to win the hearts and minds of […]
FINRA: Even Tougher Margining Rules
catkitty21 nudes sensualimagination69 US broker-dealers and their fund manager customers that deal in forward-settling agency mortgage-backed securities or similar asset classes better prepare for even more legal and operational stress. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has just come up a set of far more rigid and comprehensive rules than guidelines from a committee of the Federal Reserve Bank […]
Hedge Fund Managers: Taming the Data Headache
It’s a given that hedge fund managers consume data — and lots of it — to ensure the most lucrative trading strategies and efficient post-trade processes. They need to know just how the global market is moving at every fraction of a second every business day and just which transactions must be cleared and settled […]
Legal Entity Identifiers: Scrutiny of EU Firms Tightens
When the concept of a new global legal entity identifier first took shape among regulators in the US and across the globe, it was hailed as a brilliant revolutionary move. Financial firms and trading counterparties could now be appropriately identified and tracked by regulators seeking to mitigate systemic risk. No longer would they have to […]
State Street Fine: Mind the Transition
When State Street Global Markets, a unit of mega custodian State Street, first acknowledged in 2011 that it had overcharged a UK pension fund client for transition management services, its public account sounded familiar. The bank did nothing wrong. Rogue employees, who violated bank policy, were to blame. They were dismissed and the client was […]
Hedge Fund Accounting: Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt
With eagle-eyed institutional investors needing assurance of the accuracy of hedge funds’ operations, as well as their returns, keeping books and records is no easy one-shot deal. No matter who serves as the official fund administrator, back-up verification or “shadow accounting” has already become the modus operandi for the largest funds and is quickly taking hold among smaller ones. Over 75 percent of hedge […]
Fund Managers: Get Ready for Margin Call Tsunami
Five hundred to one thousand percent. That’s the eye-popping prediction of the coming increase in margin calls in a new report from US market infrastructure Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), “Trends, Risks and Opportunities in Collateral Management.” The trigger: new regulations and recommendations requiring far more transactions in far more asset classes to be collateralized. Relying on […]
WAMCO Fine: A Coding Error or Compliance Breakdown?
A computer coding error. That’s how most media outlets explained one of the key reasons the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Labor whammied a large US fixed-income fund manager with a US$22 million fine. The second is inappropriate cross-trading which unfairly benefited one group of clients at the expense of others. But […]
Latin America’s MILA: Solving Settlement Quagmire
Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano, or MILA, sounded like a great idea. Announced in September 2009 and launched in May 2011, the initiative was supposed to bolster trading volumes in three stock markets, which historically languished in the shadows of Brazil and Mexico. The exchanges of Colombia, Chile and Peru would become the new Euronext. Or so […]