Is the International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) not fit for purpose for identifying certain types of derivatives, as claimed by some partisans for other identifiers or just “concerned citizens” of the derivatives realm? Or is the only possible solution for regulatory reporting requirements a Unique Product Identifier (UPI) based on the descriptive taxonomy developed by […]
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 […]
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 […]
Europe’s New AML Directive: Keep Digging for Customer Data
As if knowing the basics about your customer weren’t difficult enough, how about knowing a lot more, verifying what you think you know, and doing the same when it comes to the customer’s direct and indirect investors and controlling parties. That is what European regulators will eventually require from financial institutions doing business in the […]
Managing Your Vendor Risk? New Data Hub Helps Out
Can we trust this vendor? That question is the foundation of a process the begins long before a contract is signed and continues until the vendor and the customer firm part ways. Managing any relationship with a third-party provider can be taxing for a financial firm, requiring ongoing scrutiny, recordkeeping and now regulatory expectations. It is […]
KYC Onboarding: Taking a Global Centralized Approach
Name, rank and serial number. That’s what national military organizations across the globe use to identify their members. Too bad the same simplicity can’t be used by financial firms when it comes to identifying their customers and counterparties, bemoan operations and compliance specialists. Instead financial firms must deal with a hodgepodge of regulatory requirements across […]
FATCA Reporting Round One: The Scorecard
Wrong client classification, missing documentation proving country of citizenship, and incomplete information on investor income and account values. Those are the top three mistakes offshore fund managers tell FinOps Report they experienced when trying to send information to their local tax authorities to comply with the recent first round of reporting for the US Foreign Tax […]
AML Transaction Monitoring: Five Steps to Getting it Right
If you think your anti-money laundering transaction monitoring software isn’t working correctly, what should you do? a) blame your vendor and replace the software b) blame your analysts and tell them to work harder c) review your data feeds and inputs d) throw your hands up and think you can’t do anything e) doubt your […]
Commission Unbundling: What Price Is that Research in the Window?
It’s a given that fund management firms should pay for research — aka the ideas and analysis — that helps them make decisions on whether or not to buy or sell a particular stock or bond and when. Yet the European Commission now wants to put their spending on research under the regulatory microscope. A new […]
When Buying Cybersecurity Insurance: Caveat Emptor
The theft of personal details of millions of individuals in a U.S. government database might sound shocking, but it really isn’t given the latest stream of well-publicized hacking events in the retail, financial and insurance industries. Neiman Marcus, eBay, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Sony and Anthem are among the high-profile casualties. Given that a cyber […]