US IT and compliance directors need to pay a lot closer attention to how they jointly test and evaluate critical data generated by back-office systems. That’s the bare bones lesson, according to ten IT and compliance managers speaking with FinOps Report, that financial firms should learn from Scottrade’s reporting fiasco which resulted in a fine […]
Hedge Fund Managers: Taming the Data Headache
It’s a given that hedge fund managers consume data — and lots of it — to ensure the most lucrative trading strategies and efficient post-trade processes. They need to know just how the global market is moving at every fraction of a second every business day and just which transactions must be cleared and settled […]
Legal Entity Identifiers: Scrutiny of EU Firms Tightens
When the concept of a new global legal entity identifier first took shape among regulators in the US and across the globe, it was hailed as a brilliant revolutionary move. Financial firms and trading counterparties could now be appropriately identified and tracked by regulators seeking to mitigate systemic risk. No longer would they have to […]
Hedge Fund Accounting: Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt
With eagle-eyed institutional investors needing assurance of the accuracy of hedge funds’ operations, as well as their returns, keeping books and records is no easy one-shot deal. No matter who serves as the official fund administrator, back-up verification or “shadow accounting” has already become the modus operandi for the largest funds and is quickly taking hold among smaller ones. Over 75 percent of hedge […]
Private Equity Managers: Data Becoming a ‘Four-Letter Word’?
Private equity fund managers are starting to crack under the pressure of finding data and turning it into useful intelligence for investors and regulators at record speed, say investment operations experts. Although many of them can ill afford it, they will eventually have to invest in the necessary data infrastructure for the same reasons as […]
EMIR: One Little Number Can Make or Break Reporting
With the European regulatory requirements for reporting exchange-traded and over-the-counter swap transactions less than a month away, fund managers can’t afford a leap of faith that they will be ready, warn regulatory and operations experts. There is a key nagging issue they must resolve before February 12: just who will create the 52-character unique trade […]
Reconciliation Moves Into Fee Accounting
Once viewed strictly as a matter of matching up cash, positions and transactions, the middle-office task of reconciliation is quickly moving into the trade-execution and post-trade space. The reasons are self-evident: not only are regulators demanding better control of operational risk, but C-level management are requiring more precise analysis of the bottom line for each unit. “It’s all […]
What to Do When the CFTC Gets Into Your Phone Calls
A new requirement from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that all oral communications on some over-the-counter transactions be recorded, could end up being technologically and economically unfeasible. In its role as overseer of the burgeoning US$650 billion swaps market — a designation assigned by the US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act — the CFTC […]
FATCA: How to Reduce Ops Risk
At the core of FATCA is the need for foreign financial intermediaries to know and report whether securities accounts are owned by US persons who are deliberately trying to avoid paying their correct share of US taxes.In fulfilling the rules of FATCA, the US legislation designed to catch US tax evaders, financial firms would be […]