(Editor’s Note: This article was updated on February 29 to reflect the JSE’s announcement on February 26 that it had selected July 11 as the go-live day for T+3.) South Africa is in the last lap of a longstanding project to shave two days off its current five day settlement cycle, even though the […]
Securities Finance Data: Useful or Not for European Regulators?
In asking market players to shed more light on their securities finance transactions, European regulators have unintentionally opened an operational and legal can of worms. The newly passed European Securities Financing Transactions (SFT) legislation includes a requirement that managers of new European traditional and alternative investment funds disclose their policies involving securities finance transactions in […]
FINRA’s TBA Margin Rule: No Meeting of Minds with Industry
The pleas of fund managers and broker-dealers for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to change proposed rules requiring the collateralization of agency mortgage-backed securities and other transactions are falling on deaf ears and time is running out. The SEC is requiring that final comments on FINRA’s new proposal published last month be submitted by […]
Squeezing Market Data Costs: Why, When, Where and How
Market data may be the life blood of financial firms, but it’s also a massive expense to them. Often quick to blame exchanges and market data vendors for overcharging them, financial firms eventually have to face the fact that the buck stops with them. If they want to reduce their data spend, they have to get their own […]
Mutual Funds to SEC: We Can’t Swing Prices
When proposing new rules, the US Securities and Exchange Commission often plays catch-up to the changing technological or market times. Not so when it comes to the practice of swing pricing, part of its new proposed rules for liquidity management.by US registered investment funds. Nothing short of a revolutionary change in operational capabilities would be needed […]
US Registered Funds: Say Hello to Derivatives Risk Managers
Must have knowledge of derivative products, risk management, compliance procedures, technology implementation and project management. An MBA or graduate degree in financial engineering is required. A certified financial analyst designation is preferred. Those are the likely employment requirements for the derivatives risk manager that many US registered investment funds will have to hire if the Securities and Exchange Commission […]
Fund Transfer Agents: SEC Toughening the Rules
Providers of shareholder recordkeeping services for US mutual funds and non-equity accounts could soon face more regulatory oversight if the US Securities and Exchange Commission has its way. The SEC’s lengthy concept release issued late last year suggests that the US regulatory agency wants rules to keep up with the changing times. To that end, […]
UK Watchdogs Put C-Level Execs on the Hotseat
When it comes to accepting liability for regulatory wrongdoing, the top UK bank executives will no longer be able to hide behind the Queen’s royal we. As of March 6, C-level officials at UK banks and other bank-like organizations will find themselves individually liable for not only their own wrongdoing, but also for the financial […]
US T+2 Playbook: Rush to Affirmation
Make certain your trades are affirmed as quickly as possible. (And fix your T+2 failures now, rather than later). Speeding up affirmations is one of dozens of recommendations operations and technology managers at fund management, broker-dealer and custodian banks will find if they read through the 164 pages of an implementation playbook just issued by […]
US Post-Trade Matching: Omgeo, Bloomberg or SS&C?
The mundane world of post-trade matching just got a long-awaited shakeup. What has been a virtual monopoly in the post-trade matching market is about to become a horse race, since the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Bloomberg and SS&C Technologies to enter the business of post-trade matching services in competition with incumbent Omgeo. In allowing […]