Start small, think big is what aficionados of blockchain technology see as the most effective strategy in implementing the newfangled architecture. Skipping the more complicated or broader reaching applications for the moment, blockchain appears to be gaining momentum in specialized operations serving smaller user groups . Although no one cited any live cases, representatives from FIS and Symbiont […]
Panama Papers Fallout: Heavier KYC/AML Burden(Updated)
(Editor’s Note: After this article went to press, the US Treasury said it had adopted a rule requiring banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities to collect and verify information on beneficial owners. The Treasury also sent to Congress legislation to approve requiring that companies formed in the US file […]
New SEC Reporting Forces Big Analytic Leap for Funds
Duration, options delta, gamma, vega. total monthly return and payoff profile. These are just a handful of the data points which mutual fund companies will be required to provide the US Securities and Exchange Commission if the regulatory agency finally adopts its new reporting rules for registered investment companies. For the SEC, the new data […]
The Derivatives ID Dilemma: Industry Accord Suggests an ISIN Solution
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 […]