Update 12/30/2017: This article has been updated to include more details about the DSB’s €8.8 million figure for overhead. Data, operations and vendor procurement managers whose buy- and sell-side firms need international securities identification codes (ISINs) for over-the-counter derivative contracts could end up with some bad news come January 15. Financial firms might discover they […]
EU’s SRD: Reworking Proxy Services
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 […]
FINRA to Broker-Dealers: Justify Order Routing Perks
Brokerage compliance managers might have to scale back their holiday plans. The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is revisiting broker-dealer order routing, and it wants answers by the end of this month. Last month, the self-regulatory agency for broker-dealers sent an undisclosed number of broker-dealers a request for detailed information on how they quantify […]
North Korea Sanctions: Tracking the Unknown Cohorts
US President Donald Trump’s order to block any “significant financial transactions” related to North Korea is presenting US financial firms with a rigorous challenge to their anti-money laundering procedures. Trade finance, trade surveillance and other departments will have to dig far deeper into customer identities, business relationships, and transactions to protect their firms from costly […]
MiFID Challenge: Which OTC Derivatives to Report?
To report or not to report over-the-counter derivatives under MiFID II. That is the question that compliance and regulatory reporting managers will face when it comes to deciding which trades to include in their transaction reports the day after trades are executed. The wrong answer could cost them hefty fines but finding the right answer will […]
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 […]
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 […]
Morgan Stanley Fine: Lessons in Fee Recon Failures
Futures commision merchants had better pay far closer attention to their middle office fee reconciliation process, caution operations experts. Morgan Stanley’s recent US$500,000 fine from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for overbilling clients trading fees isn’t a large fine considering the FCM’s size. What is alarming is that Morgan Stanley is the fourth FCM […]
IRS 871(m) Withholding Tax: No More Relief for the Weary?
On October 2 when the US Treasury published its announcement of eight regulations scheduled for repeal or replacement, tax operations, compliance and legal experts found a major disappointment. Despite repeated industry requests for repeal, or at least more clarity about some of its provisions, the controversial Internal Revenue Service Section 871(m) on withholding tax for US […]
MiFID II: Reporting on Corporate Action Decisions
Update 11/27/2017: Under MiFID II, a financial firm must still report shares received as its entitlement from a voluntary corporate action even it never explicitly told the issuer its choice of payment. On November 12, in response to an inquiry from Scorpeo Analytics, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said that investors may intentionally […]