Custodian bank operations managers should start planning to get their hands a lot dirtier in the proxy plumbing process. The new version of the European Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD) calls for them to respond to European issuer requests for identifying investors who hold more than 0.5 percent of a company’s stock, to forward proxy information […]
EquiLend, Prime Brokers Sued: Collusion or Fair Game?
Prime brokers harmed beneficial owners of securities by protecting their turf and sabotaging fledgling electronic securities lending platforms that could have helped buy-side firms earn more revenues from their loans. That is the claim of four US pension plans and one trading firm that have sued six mega US prime brokers and securities lending platform EquiLend […]
Can Blockchain Supercharge Syndicated Loans?
Editor’s Update (4/26/2018): Finastra announced on April 24 that its Fusion LenderComm platform was commercially available, as an app on R3s Corda platform. Agent banks in the syndicated loan market can publish lender-specific deal positions on the ledger eliminating the need for lenders to query their agent banks about transaction history by phone, fax or […]
Form N-PORT: Managers Report Big Stress
Update 12/12/2017: Fund managers shouldn’t feel too relieved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s delay on when they must submit Form N-PORT. On December 8, the SEC said that fund managers can wait until April 2019 at the earliest to transmit their completed Form N-PORT to the regulatory agency’s Edgar system. However, fund managers […]
Middle-Office Blockchain: BNP Paribas, Broadridge
Recent announcements of blockchain pilots from BNP Paribas Securities Services and Broadridge Financial show how distributed ledger technology continues to make inroads into the post-trade arena. Both come with claims of operational efficiencies through a single indisputable source of data that reduces the potential for processing errors. BNP Paribas Securities Services project for corporate action […]
Countdown to US T+2: Five Last Minute Tips
It’s now or never when it comes being ready for the pending two-day settlement cycle in the US. With September 5, the day T+2 becomes effective, just around the corner, operations and IT managers are taking the opportunity to verify that their front, middle and back office systems are tweaked correctly. And that their counterparties […]
SEC Reporting Rules: Fund Managers’ Recon Challenge
The US Securities and Exchange Commission uses the word modernization when speaking of its new reporting rules for registered investment fund advisers, but that’s not how asset managers see things. They dread the approaching tsunami, according to panelists and attendees at a recent TSAM North America fund management event held in New York. Fund managers […]
US T+2: SEC Joins the Bandwagon
The Securities and Exchange Commission may have just given its official blessing to a shortened trade settlement cycle in the US come September 5, but the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), its member firms and service providers have already been working long and hard on operational adjustments and industry-wide testing. All this effort will hopefully […]
Dole Class Action Ruling: Short-Selling Clawback Next?
US brokerage and bank operations and compliance managers will soon have to face an onerous back-office and legal challenge — figuring out how to make short sellers pay back $2.74 plus interest for each share of Dole Foods shorted more than three years ago. That money would be used to compensate beneficial investors who are considered the […]
ADR Lawsuits: Depositary Banks on the Hotseat
When it comes to their handling of American Depositary Receipts, depositary banks have more than just an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to worry about. BNY Mellon, Citi and JP Morgan are being targeted with class action lawsuits filed in a New York court by disgruntled investors, alleging overcharges in foreign exchange […]