MiFID II and GDPR project teams had better get acquainted quickly. Although the objectives of the two European regulatory measures, might sound contradictory, financial firms must find a way to accommodate both, particularly when it comes to recording phone calls. They don’t have much time to create a strategy. MiFID II becomes effective in January […]
ISINs for OTC Derivatives: Is Licensing an Issue?
Update 9/25/2017: Financial firms using ANNA’s new Derivatives Service Bureau to receive ISIN codes for OTC derivatives can expect to receive rebates for overpaying far more quickly, DSB officials now say. Likewise, financial firms will also have to fork over more money if they have underpaid. Instead of waiting until the end of 2018 to recalculate […]
MiFID II: Proving Best Execution Is Data Challenge
With the arrival of MiFID II, trade execution will no longer be solely the concern of the trading desk. It will take a village of compliance, operations, portfolio managers, IT managers and even website designers for financial firms to prove they have met the best execution requirements of the second incarnation of the Markets in […]
SEC’s Liquidity Rule: How to Bucket Your Assets
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 […]