How could Bank of America Merrill Lynch get away with giving institutional customers phony trade execution, transaction cost analysis and expense reports for five years? Ten brokerage operations and IT managers contacted by FinOps Report can only speculate after reading the scant details in separate settlement reports issued by the Office of the Attorney General […]
SEC 12b-1 Fee Amnesty: Costly Ops Work
A, B, C. Those three simple letters of the English alphabet could cause plenty of administrative grief for compliance and middle office operations managers at US mutual fund management firms over the next few months. That is, if they hope to take advantage of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s leniency program on overcharges to investors in […]
FINRA New Ops Certification: Two Exams Better?
What is the difference between a stock, a bond, a derivative, an exchange-traded fund and other financial products? What are customer suitability rules, margin rules and custody rules? These might sound like simple questions, but for US brokerage operations managers who must abide by changes in test formats imposed by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority […]
US T+1 Settlement: Not So Fast (Updated)
Update (May 13, 2018): Come late 2019, bank and broker-dealer members of the US Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. could look forward to reducing their settlement exposures by one day while retaining the current two-day settlement cycle. DTCC now says that US trades could be settled before the market opens on T+2 instead of the […]
Central Clearing for US Treasuries: Pipedream or Reality?
The have and have-nots. That is how operations and compliance executives at some fund management firms speak about the bifurcated system for how trades in US Treasuries clear. Fund managers tell FinOps Report they want a level playing field with broker-dealers. That means that buy-side trades in US Treasuries, such as bills, notes and bonds, […]
OTC ISINs: Few Users Pay Much More
Trading venues, banks, and broker-dealers now know for certain how much more they will have to pay to create International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) for over-the-counter derivatives. It turns out that it’s a lot more. In a recent statement, the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) said that instead of a €65,000 annual fee, power users will have […]
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 […]
Unique Product IDs: Can the OTC-ISIN Win the Job?
Can International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) become the foundation for unique product identifiers (UPIs)? The new Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) which will allocate ISINs for over-the-counter derivatives, appears to think so. It also thinks that it might be the organization issuing the UPIs, although it is willing to work with others. If such a scenario […]
EU Benchmarks: Time to Take Inventory
Some middle office and compliance managers will soon have their work cut out for them creating a benchmark inventory management process to show European regulators that they use approved benchmarks. Effective January 1, 2018, the European Benchmark Regulation (BMR) will require that European Union-supervised entities who want to enter into financial contracts or instruments referencing […]
Cybersecurity: Asset Managers Face Ratings Threat
Regulatory fines aren’t the only thing asset managers need to worry about when it comes to ensuring they have a strong cybersecurity program in place. A new study just released by Moody’s Investors Services about the cybersecurity preparedness of US fund management firms suggests that asset managers could face a credit ratings downgrade if they can’t protect their critical data. That data could include anything […]