Oh, what a tangled web we weave, or make that what regulators weave! If the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has its way, back-office operations executives at fund managers, custodians and broker-dealers will be working overtime to track down hoards of data on securities lending and repurchase agreements with no certainty it will be of any […]
FATCA: Cost-Overruns Come With the Territory
Red might be a festive color for the approaching holiday season, except for the red ink many fund management shops are facing in cost overruns complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), foisted by the US Internal Revenue Services on financial institutions around the world. With the end-of-year deadline for arranging new budgets coming up fast, it […]
Shareholder Ballots: The Quest to Confirm a Vote
An investor receives information about a corporate agenda and casts its votes. It happens every day of the week and most frequently from February through June when most US firms hold their annual meetings. But just because a shareholder votes, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s any way to verify the vote made its way to the issuer, […]
FINRA: New CARDS Does Little to Ease Data Collection Concerns
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) may think that putting new CARDS on the table will help clearing and introducing brokers comply, but they are still not too happy about the hand they’ve been dealt. Granted, in its new version of the so-called CARDS initiative, FINRA has bowed to industry demands with some changes to its initial […]
Regulatory Reporting: It’s All About the Process
As the regulatory reporting mandates keeping coming, there is no question fund management shops are feeling overwhelmed. But they are also realizing that offloading the management of the tsunami of reporting tasks onto third-party service providers isn’t working out as well as they expected. Both sides are on a steep learning curve in handling the mission-critical function and fund managers are learning the […]
New Criteria for US Accredited Investors: Looming Pain for Alt Funds?
The Securities and Exchange Commission might think it is protecting Americans from risky investments as it considers changing the criteria for defining accredited investors, but middle and back-office executives at hedge fund management shops are worried their livelihoods and client service levels are at risk. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act requires the SEC to […]
Aggregating Swaps Data: Putting the Cart Before the Horse?
How can we effectively monitor systemic risk in the swaps market? That is the question now facing regulators around the world, and if financial firms were to have their way a federated approach to aggregating data would be the best option, they tell FinOps Report. Whether this scenario — one of the options now under review by […]
US SEC: Will It Finally Address CUSIP Fees?
After years of complaining about the fees they are paying for the issuance and use of CUSIP codes, issuers of fixed-income securities and the financial firms which use the securities identifiers may finally have found a friend at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The US regulatory agency isn’t investigating CUSIP Global Services’ licensing fees […]
UCITS V: Devil in the Compensation Details
UCITS V — the latest incarnation of the decades-old European legislation easing cross-border marketing of investment funds — has fund managers angry about what they see as far more rigid rules governing their bonuses. Just adopted by the European Parliament, the legislation not only massively reduces the short-term variable compensation of so-called “risk-taking” staff, but defers […]
Custodians Under Pressure Refocus on Middle Office Basics
Squeezed from the top and squeezed from the bottom. It’s only natural that custodians and other asset servicing providers are feeling the pinch. A barrage of new regulations, shorter settlement cycle, new European centralized settlement platform on the one side and, on the other, mounting client demands are forcing custodians to refocus their attentions on […]