The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s proposal to collect megatons of customer account information is far from being implemented, but behind the scenes, operations, technology and data management specialists are rushing to make the necessary preparations for the first phase expected in 2015. The reason: despite all the lobbying against the initiative coined CARDS, short for […]
FATCA Responsible Officers: Be Careful, Very Careful
You’ve just been named by your financial firm as a responsible officer under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA for short. Should you hand in your two-week notice, take the job in stride, or brace– and protect yourself — from hefty operational and legal liabilities? Those are the decisions and options now faced by potential FROs, or thousands of […]
Plan Sponsors: Take Charge of Forex Trading Costs
Watch the watchers. That’s the mantra of a growing number asset owners, who are depending on fund managers and custodians to protect their financial interests. These asset owners are now adopting — or should be adopting — a “trust but verify” philosophy when it comes to choosing who executes and how their foreign exchange transactions should be […]
Europe’s Consolidated Tape: Reality or Pipedream?
While the European Parliament has finally voted its support for the new version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), one of its most controversial goals — establishing a central source of post-trade prices from regulated markets — is still far from fruition. The new MiFID mandate may include some stepping-stone dates, but the language of […]
DTCC’s Issuer Chills: Unfreezing Sparks Debate
Chills typically precede colds or fevers, which can be treated through medication. But when the chills are related to cancellation of settlement and other services by the US market infrastructure Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), they can be as deadly as the Bubonic plague, say critics, who are now battling the efforts of its […]
Intergovernmental Agreements: Blessing or Curse in Complying With FATCA?
Intergovernmental agreements will help foreign financial institutions more easily meet the requirements of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which aims to curtail tax evasion by US persons abroad. Or so financial firms around the world were told by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and their local tax authorities. That’s not exactly a […]
Not in the CARDS? US Clearing Brokers Protest Customer Reporting
A new reporting plan designed to flag possible misbehavior by US brokers, is drawing backlash from their back-office correspondent clearing firms responsible for complying. Their complaints? They run the gamut from the overwhelming costs and liabilities involved in following new rules to questions of how the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is going to manage the flood of data […]
Fund Managers: Get Ready to Monitor Phone Calls on Swap Deals
It isn’t often that regulators take into account the concerns of market participants on the difficulties in implementing new rules. When it happens it is a great relief — particularly for some fund managers who are already struggling to meet new trading and clearing requirements for swap contracts. But when it comes to the recent […]
Fund Managers and FATCA: Behind the Curve Or Just Being Prudent?
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which aims to help the US Internal Revenue Service catch potential tax evaders outside its radar, has always been viewed as a difficult regulation for financial firms to follow and with key deadlines close at hand some fund managers still apparently overwhelmed. They are so overwhelmed that they are massively unprepared […]
Bad European Data Validation Rules Give Banks Reporting Jitters
It’s hard enough for bank operations and financial reporting specialists to fill out all the data points and formats required by regulators in filing mandatory documentation evidencing financial soundness. But when a major banking regulatory watchdog — the European Banking Authority — issues 290 incorrect data validation rules, the whole reporting process can go awry […]