Sketchy information on annual meeting agendas or corporate actions announcements is not going to plague investors in Russia equities in the future. Nor will fund managers risk losing money as many do today, because the operational difficulties discourage them from participating. Russia’s corporate actions reform has given the country’s national securities depository National Settlement Depository (NSD) the […]
Asset Owners Put Managers on the Operational Hotseat
How do you run your business? If it sounds like an open-ended question for pension plans, endowments and other institutional investors to ask fund managers, it is intended to be. Institutional asset owners hope it will elicit a lengthy discussion over the policies, procedures and technology the fund manager uses to make money before they […]
Fund Operations Managers Weather UK’s Brexit Storm
While the UK and European Union leaders will have two years to come up with a gameplan for how the UK will separate from the European Union, middle and back-office operations professionals at fund management shops are taking it one day at a time during extreme market volatility. The UK’s legal limbo has caused higher trading […]
SEC to Fund Administrators: You Are Liable for Client Fraud (Updated)
(Editor’s Note: On July 25, 2016 Apex Fund Services announced two hires for compliance. It appointed Nitin Khanapurkar as global head of risk and compliance oversight. Apex’s Luxembourg unit tapped Sonja-Maria Hilkhuijsen as head of European compliance and data protection. Khanapurkar was previously senior partner at KPMG while Hilkhuijsen was chief compliance and data protection […]
T. Rowe Price Investor Payback: The Unpushed Button
For fund managers, proxy voting isn’t a minor housekeeping matter. Depending on just how financially controversial the corporate agenda is, the vote can be as crucial to the health of investor portfolios as any trading decision. There is plenty of regulatory rulemaking to keep everyone’s eye on the ball so when something goes awry, it’s big […]
Still Holes in New Tax Code for Equity Derivatives?
Foreign fund managers, prime brokers, broker-dealers and banks entering into US equity derivative transactions are facing a taxing operational challenge. Worse, at this point it isn’t entirely clear how it will work. After the US Congress passed enabling legislation in 2010 and the Internal Revenue Service floated several proposed versions of the rules to massive industry […]
Panama Papers Fallout: Heavier KYC/AML Burden(Updated)
(Editor’s Note: After this article went to press, the US Treasury said it had adopted a rule requiring banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities to collect and verify information on beneficial owners. The Treasury also sent to Congress legislation to approve requiring that companies formed in the US file […]
New SEC Reporting Forces Big Analytic Leap for Funds
Duration, options delta, gamma, vega. total monthly return and payoff profile. These are just a handful of the data points which mutual fund companies will be required to provide the US Securities and Exchange Commission if the regulatory agency finally adopts its new reporting rules for registered investment companies. For the SEC, the new data […]
Mutual Funds to SEC: Change Math on Swaps Exposure
Not all derivative contracts are created equal. That is the message mutual fund managers are giving the US Securities and Exchange Commission about its proposal to limit their exposure to derivatives. The SEC fears the growth in the use of derivatives by mutual funds and other registered investment fund advisers leading to greater financial losses. […]
Hedge Fund Managers: Five Areas of SEC Exam Focus
We have nothing to fear as much as the Securities and Exchange Commission itself. That is what hedge fund managers should be thinking about the US regulatory agency, warn legal experts. “A little paranoia will go a long way to ensuring they are prepared for a grueling round of exams this year,” says Ron Geffner, […]