For US broker-dealer operations managers failing to settle a transaction in US Treasury securities might never have been all that problematic, but with the number of fails rising dramatically during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic one megabank–BNY Mellon– has decided to offer a preventative service in a technology partnership with Google Cloud. As the […]
Citi’s $900M Blunder Casts Light on Poor Loan Ops
A New York judge’s recent ruling that lenders to financially ailing cosmetics giant Revlon can keep US$500 million in payments they mistakenly received from Citibank is prompting operations managers of syndicate loan desks at rival banks to take a closer look at their technology, internal procedures and any offshore work. Citibank is considered an anomaly […]
New IDs for Digital Assets: FIGIs or ISO-Backed Codes?
Does the financial services industry need more than one identification standard for digital assets? Can standards for identifying traditional assets even apply for the digital asset market? Those are the two questions trading, compliance and operations managers at fund management firms, custodians, exchanges, and issuers of digital tokens will soon answer now that they have […]
COVID-19 Spurs Banks, Brokers to Reclaim “Lost” Assets
The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting a shakeup in the mundane world of unclaimed property reporting operations and compliance. Instead of simply focusing only on escheating accounts of lost investors and customers to state coffers, US banks and broker-dealers are now trying to recover funds and accounts belonging to their institutions, say unclaimed property operations managers. […]
Want to be AML Whistleblower? Not So Fast
You work in the anti-money laundering department of a major bank or brokerage and overhear a conversation about how suspicious activity reports are not being filed on a particular client; how the transaction monitoring system is not working properly; or how wire transfers are being made to a country or individual on a US sanctions […]
Registered Investment Funds 2021: New Derivatives Risk Program
For US traders, risk managers, portfolio managers, and boards of directors of registered fund management firms trading in derivatives, 2021 will be the year they figure out which derivatives to trade and how many to trade for more reasons than just making higher investment returns. Complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rule 18f-4 […]
SEI Loses Antitrust Suit Against SS&C; Use of Geneva Stands
Fund administrator SEI Global Services has lost a legal battle against SS&C Technologies for violating US antitrust regulations, but it appears to have won the critical legal war necessary to ensure the fund administrator can continue using SS&C’s Advent Geneva portfolio accounting system to service its alternative fund clients. On October 23, 2020, Judge Chad […]
Operational Resilience 2021: The Human Factor
Operational resilience will replace business continuity as the mantra for operations, IT and risk managers at fund management firms, banks and brokers in 2021 requiring a whole new combination of procedures, human interactions and even a bit of technology spend. Operational resilience goes far beyond business continuity. “Operational resilience takes a much broader approach to […]
Market Data Madness 2021: CME’s New Data Fees
The CME Group’s decision to require redistributors to soon pay a first-time ever annual fee for its historical commodities data has pitted a group of vendors against the world’s largest derivatives exchange calling the action illegal and anti-competitive. Effective January 1, 2021, says the CME Group, redistributors of its historical commodities data will have to […]
Fund Middle Office 2021: Year of Fair Valuation
Middle-office accounting managers at US fund management firms will likely be talking a lot more in 2021 with C-level management, third party valuation agents, and boards of directors to figure out just what the terms fair and material mean when it comes to pricing non-exchange traded assets in their portfolios following the Securities and Exchange […]