Wyoming’s attempt to establish banks as custodians for digital assets sounds great, but it might not be enough to convince institutional investors to take the plunge, caution some legal experts. The reason: without explicit rules from either federal securities or banking regulators, attorneys aren’t willing to tell any registered investment advisor it is on solid […]
Unclaimed Assets: Delaware Lawsuit Resurrects Ops Headaches
Unclaimed property operations managers at US financial firms need to stay proactive when it comes ensuring correct administrative and reporting procedures, warn compliance experts. The costly alternative: whopping state fines. A recent lawsuit filed by Illinois-based chemical supplier Univar against the state of Delaware provides ample evidence that Delaware is being even more vigilant in […]
Reg Compliance 2019: Tips to Ease Data Pain
When it comes to handling the data challenges inherent in regulatory compliance, 2019 will no exception for middle and back-office buy and sell-side operations, compliance and technology managers. While the rules of MIFID II and EMIR likely took up much of their attention over the past few years, a survey of about fifty operations, compliance […]
Trump’s Iranian Sanctions: New Policing Compliance Twists
What’s old is new again when it comes to US sanctions against Iran. Well almost, for anti-money laundering compliance managers and analysts at US banks. US President Donald Trump’s resurrection of sanctions against Iran in August and last month will force wire departments and correspondent banking units at US banks to dig deeper into the […]
SEC To CEOs: Keep Track of Chief Compliance Officers
Chief compliance officers at US broker-dealers had better get used to answering a lot more questions from their chief executive officers about how well they are doing their jobs. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has just sent brokerage CEOs a subtle warning: we could hold you legally liable for failing to supervise your chief […]
FINRA: Customer Protection Applies to Digital Assets
The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority could soon be offering broker-dealers some badly-needed guidance on how they should handle cryptocurrencies and similar products. Industry sources tell FinOps Report that FINRA is in discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Department of Trading and Markets about FINRA crafting a regulatory notice informing broker-dealers how to apply […]
IRS Creates Legal,Ops Headaches for Escheated IRAs
(Editor’s Update on November 29, 2018): Tax operations, compliance and technology managers at US financial firms now have until January 1, 2020 to implement the Internal Revenue Service’s rule to withhold taxes on unclaimed individual retirement accounts. The IRS’ one-year extension is far less than the 18 months requested by the securities industry but provides […]
GDPR: Final Call for US Asset Managers
Does Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) apply to me? If compliance and operations managers at US asset management firms are asking themselves that question, they are already in hot water. They should have started data mapping and amending their contracts with third-party service providers such as fund administrators and transfer agents, say data privacy […]
Custody: Unchartered Waters for Digital Assets
Qualified custodian. That’s a term that compliance and operations managers at registered investment fund advisors, not to mention the US Securities and Exchange Commission, are now grappling with, when it comes to the safekeeping of digital assets. The reason is two-fold. For starters, it is unclear whether the SEC’s custody rule for RIAs investing in […]
Cybersecurity and GDPR: the Budget Battles
Protecting critical data will top the list of challenges chief compliance officers face over the next three years. So will figuring out how to calculate and divide the budget with their IT, risk, finance and operations peers. Chief compliance officers are responsible for protecting their firms from reputational and legal risk. They are accustomed to […]