Highly liquid, moderately liquid, less liquid, and illiquid. Classifying securities in one of those four buckets for the first time under the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s new liquidity rule will force compliance and risk managers at US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to implement new operational procedures by next year. “Fund managers will have […]
Corlytics: Can Analytics Reduce Regulatory Risk?
US$7.2 billion. That is what Deutsche Bank paid to the US Department of Justice this year for misleading invstors in the packaging, securitization, marketing, sale and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2006 and 2007 which contributed to the financial crisis. It might be the highest fine levied so far in 2017, but there will […]
MiFID II: Elaborate Exercise in Repapering
The second incarnation of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) adds a whole new meaning to the song lyric “Getting to know you” as financial firms and their clients tackle the new rules of onboarding. For financial firms the increased amount of required client data and documentation will prompt changes to their […]
EU Benchmarks: Time to Take Inventory
Some middle office and compliance managers will soon have their work cut out for them creating a benchmark inventory management process to show European regulators that they use approved benchmarks. Effective January 1, 2018, the European Benchmark Regulation (BMR) will require that European Union-supervised entities who want to enter into financial contracts or instruments referencing […]
SEC Reporting Rules: Fund Managers’ Recon Challenge
The US Securities and Exchange Commission uses the word modernization when speaking of its new reporting rules for registered investment fund advisers, but that’s not how asset managers see things. They dread the approaching tsunami, according to panelists and attendees at a recent TSAM North America fund management event held in New York. Fund managers […]
(Update) Bloomberg’s FIGIs: Global Accreditation for ID Codes Next?
Editor’s Update: The ballot concerning the FIGI becoming an ISO standard has been cancelled. On July 14, FinOps Report received confirmation from Steve Stevens, executive director of X9. “Bloomberg had requested that X9 ask the TC68 committee to withdraw the ballot from voting,” he said. “The request was agreed to by the X9 and TC68 withdrew the ballot. Since the […]
Sanctions Compliance: True Match is Hard to Find
Filing suspicious activity reports is hard enough for financial firms, but complying with sanctions is even worse. Matching up a name on a database to a government sanctions list is only the first line of defense against doing business with an individual or corporation or country prohibited by the US or another foreign government. Based on the […]
Colorado Raises the Bar in Buyside Cybersecurity
Banks might not be the only financial institutions needing dedicated chief information security officers (CISOs) to oversee and enforce a cybersecurity program. As FinOps Report goes to press, the Colorado Division of Securities is set to finalize rules which, as of July 15, will make the state the first in the US to require fund managers and broker-dealers […]
New Tax on US Convertible Bonds: Taxing Air?
The US Internal Revenue Service wants withholding agents to collect tax on upticks of the rights of convertible bondholders, despite protests that the levy is nothing more than “tax on air.” That’s how some tax attorneys and operations specialists view the IRS’ Section 305(c) rule on taxing adjustments to the conversion ratio of US convertible financial instruments, as […]
Global Data Protection Reg: Not Just a Tech Exercise
Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation, effective May 2018, will require financial firms to do a lot more than invest in technology to protect sensitive data from a cybersecurity breach or other loss. Compliance, operations,marketing, sales and even human resource managers at financial firms across the globe will need to establish the right processes and […]