Do you know how green your third-party service providers are? That’s the question risk and vendor procurement managers at fund management firms, banks and broker-dealers must soon answer correctly or face reputational and regulatory consequences, say legal and data experts in environmental, social and governance policies. The vendors can be anyone from a fund administrator, […]
Uncleared Margin Rules Phase Six: Five Step SCOPE Approach
With the fifth phase of initial margin requirements for uncleared swap transactions recently effective, collateral management and compliance managers at hundreds of fund management shops need to start preparing for the final phase of uncleared swap rules to avoid finding themselves in hot water with regulators or counterparties, warn operations and legal experts. Fund management […]
Europe’s SFDR: Shades of Green Cause Ops Headache
Non-green, light green and dark green. Investment, compliance, and legal managers at fund management shops who must classify their funds in one of those three categories under Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) are finding the road to explaining how their investments are helping or harming the environment and society paved with good intentions but […]
Cryptomarket Rejects New Certification for Trading, Ops Execs
Should Wall Street executives trading and processing digital securities transactions be legally required to pass licensing or mandatory in-house training programs? The answer to the question raised in a comment letter sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in April concerning its December 2020 framework for the custody of digital securities appears to be […]
Archegos Debacle Prompts Holistic Counterparty Risk Management
The recent implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management should renew interest in counterparty risk management and the need for a holistic program, say some broker-dealer risk management experts. By JP Morgan’s estimates the fallout may have cost some prominent prime brokers, such as combined as much as US$10 billion in trading losses. Archegos’ betting […]
Securities Class Action Settlements: Don’t Leave Money on the Table
Recovering monies from class action settlements should be a risk-free revenue generator, but that’s not the case for many money managers, broker-dealers and their custodians. Instead, the process is fraught with operational errors, which results in billions of dollars in uncollected compensation each year. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed the types of securities […]
New FX Benchmark Aims to Save Buy-Side Big Bucks
Are we getting the best foreign exchange conversion rate? Pension plans and other asset owners asking their fund managers that question might hear a resounding yes, but that’s not always the case as highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not all benchmarks are created equal, according to London-based Raidne, which claims it has come up with a […]
ADRs: Will Blockchain Create a Better Mousetrap?
Unsponsored American Depositary Receipts could be a lot less expensive and more efficient for investors to own and to receive dividends and other corporate action distributions thanks to a new permission-based blockchain platform designed by RISE Financial Technologies, according to the Boston and London-based blockchain technology firm. RISE Financial predicts its new blockchain-based infrastructure, set to […]
SEC’s New Fund Fair Value Rule: Ops and Fintech Solutions
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new fair value rule for how fund managers should price some of their funds’ assets is causing fund managers and board of directors plenty of angst which can be eased though the right operational workflow and finech solutions, says Milestone Group. The SEC in December 2020 scrapped all of its previous […]
NYSE Puts FINRA in Hotseat For Proxy Distribution Fee Oversight
The issue of which self-regulatory authority will take over the job of setting the maximum fees issuers must pay broker-dealers and banks to mail proxy materials to beneficial shareholders has pitted the New York Stock Exchange against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. leaving proxy operations managers and corporate secretaries in a lurch. The NYSE, which […]