The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan for how investors in Wells Fargo’s stock will be compensated a total of US$500 million for the bank’s past wrongdoing could end up marred in operational snafus making it harder for some investors to be paid and disincentivizing others from filing the paperwork to collect any compensation. That’s […]
FREE WEBINAR: The Crypto Asset Market: What Fund Managers Should Know Before Investing
Hosted by CrossTower Save the Date: November 4, 2020 Time: 4:30 PM EST Contact: events@crosstower.com Cryptoassets aren’t just for retail investors any more. Hedge fund managers and some traditional fund managers have been buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a buffer against inflation and market volatility has led to far higher returns on investment for […]
AML Managers Question FinCEN’s New Effectiveness Test
Define effectiveness. That’s what anti-money laundering compliance directors and legal experts want the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to do after it announced late last month that it would update regulations issued under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). “Does anybody know what effective means?” was the question posed by over a dozen AML […]
Federal Court Tells Interactive Brokers to Comply With FINRA Panel’s $1M Ruling: Right or Wrong
A US federal appeals court has just sent brokerages and their customers a somber message — a ruling by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration panel is absolute regardless of its validity. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision earlier this month ended a five-year dispute between Interactive Brokers and three former […]
National Banks as Digital Asset Custodians: Big Deal or Not?
When it comes to picking a custodian for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, the US Office of the Comptroller’s decision to green light national and state banks might not be that much of a gamechanger for every fund manager. At least not in the short-term. Currently, investors holding cryptocurrency can keep their cryptocurrency in a […]
Prime Brokerage Enters Crypto Market, Sort Of
First it was digital asset custodians. Now it is aspiring prime brokers who are grabbing the spotlight in the evolution of the cryptoasset market as it tries to become an institutional investor-friendly industry, but with regulations still so murky cryptoasset prime brokers can only be pale reflections of their traditional prime brokerage peers. Although institutional […]
CSDR: Using Predictive Analytics to Prevent Fails
Predict and prevent– that’s what back-office operations managers at buy and sell-side firms preparing for Europe’s Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) settlement discipline regime are starting to think about so they won’t have to pay hefty financial penalties or endure buy-in requirements if they fail to settle their European trades on time. Instead of bemoaning […]
COVID 19: Custody Network Management Revisited
If fund managers can outsource middle and back-office operations and even trading desks, why can’t global custodians outsource network management due diligence and monitoring? That’s the question over a dozen former global custody network managers who spoke with FinOps Report over the past month are asking as concerns mount that the COVID-19 pandemic could eventually […]
Coronavirus Plagues AML Compliance Managers
The new coronavirus pandemic is testing the ability of anti-money laundering (AML) analysts and compliance managers to adjust their methodologies and technology quickly enough to catch criminal activity. Financial firms must still conduct due diligence when onboarding customers and file suspicious activity reports (SARs) if necessary within 30 to 45 days after an alert is […]
Coronavirus: How CCOs Can Manage (Virtually)
For chief compliance officers at financial firms, following the five Ps — prioritize, plan, protect, preserve, and paper– with the help of IT managers will become critical to ensure employees working remotely meet corporate and regulatory requirements. “Even the best designed business continuity plans likely didn’t take a global pandemic into account,” says Kristin Koloniaris, […]