Complying with a new US regulatory requirement for brokers to give investors more information on trade routing decisions under the amended Rule 606 could come down in the short-term to technologists creating the right packaging as much as operations managers finding the right data. With less than a month left to prepare for the April […]
Vote Confirmation: Devil in the Operations Details
Determining whether a vote was actually counted at a corporate meeting has resurrected a sparring match among transfer agents, financial intermediaries, issuers and Broadridge Financial over how to operationally get the job done. Among the participants on a new end-to-end vote confirmation committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission to address the issue, […]
BNY Mellon Gives Fund Managers New NAV Agent
Fund managers no longer have to rely on their fund administrator’s backup plan or their own when striking or validating a net asset value. BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank, says it can save the day by doing all the operational work using Milestone Group’s pControl platform which also allows for accurate backup NAVs […]
JP Morgan Whistleblower Case Tests Unclaimed Property Compliance
How hard is it to calculate past interest due? Unclaimed property operations and compliance managers at US financial firms will soon find out that the task is more difficult than they thought should JP Morgan Chase lose its appeal of a New York civil court judge’s ruling about the bank’s required interest payment on unclaimed […]
Suspicious Activity Reports: Should Absolute or Qualified Immunity Apply?
US anti-money laundering compliance managers may have to think twice before filing suspicious activity reports (SARs) depending on what the Supreme Court decides in a case involving Fidelity Brokerage Services. The petition filed by AER Advisors and two of its clients William J. Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits in White Plains, New […]
Regulatory Ops 2020: Handling Tower of Acronyms
Compliance, operations, and IT managers will be teaming up in newly created regulatory operations departments to do data aggregation, contract renegotiation and relationship management in 2020 as they handle a slew of new regulations commonly known by their acronyms or numbers. A telephone survey conducted over the past month by FinOps Report (www.finopsinfo.com) of 100 […]
Goodbye NSCC: Hello Paxos for Clearing US Equities?
US clearinghouses, such as the National Securities Clearing Corp. (NSCC), could become either a thing of the past or take a backseat, if custodian Paxos has its way in clearing and settling US securities. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent no-action letter to Paxos allows the firm to serve as a clearinghouse for a […]
Unclaimed Cryptocurrencies: New Legal, Ops Headaches?
States might soon make a real claim on unclaimed virtual currency accounts, forcing digital asset custodians and exchanges to address murky statutes and potential legal liability. “States have a good nose to smell just which industry isn’t compliant with their escheat laws and could target the cryptocurrency market,” cautions Robert Peters, managing director and head […]
FinCEN’s New Reporting Category: Human Trafficking
Anti-money laundering managers at US banks could soon beef up their efforts to help law enforcement catch human trafficking, thanks to a new line item on their suspicious activity reports (SARs). AML executives aren’t responsible for prosecuting the criminals, but they might prioritize sniffing business activity for signs of human trafficking now that the US […]
Opportunity Zone Fund Admin: Can Blockchain Do the Trick?
Blockchain is finding a new opportunity in middle and back-office operations for opportunity zone (OZ) fund managers, but can it outperform the current alternative fund administrators? One Arizona entrepreneur certainly thinks so. Co-founded and part-owned by Nico Willis, chief executive of cost-basis technology provider Networth Services, new fund administrator Agora AltX uses Hyperledger Fabric’s permission-based […]