Complying with “best execution” requirements is nothing new for fund managers, but some could easily end up failing to meet their fiduciary obligations this year due to circumstances beyond their control — the unprecedented market volatility and remote working generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. About a dozen operations managers at US fund management firms who […]
Fair or Not: Fund Managers Face SEC’s New Valuation Rule
Registered investment advisers might find it operationally a lot harder and a lot more expensive to value hard-to-price assets held by mutual funds if the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed modernization of fund valuation practices is adopted. Appointing a chief valuation officer could become necessary to handle the laundry list of new requirements. The […]
OCC’s DLT for Sec Finance: Broker Reconciliations Gone?
Securities finance operations managers at US broker-dealers clearing their securities loan deals through the Options Clearing Corp. (OCC) could soon reduce if not eliminate time-consuming manual reconciliation work thanks to its new distributed ledger technology-based platform. Once OCC’s new DLT-based securities finance infrastructure is up and running, its 72 broker-dealer users would have real-time access […]
COVID-19: Addressing Return to Work Legal Quirks
The eventual return of Wall Street’s trading and operations executives to their physical offices as the coronavirus pandemic subsides could end up being a cause for litigation and employee angst, rather than celebration, if C-suite executives don’t carefully balance profit-making with worker safety. Knowing when employees can come back to work is the easiest part […]
SEI Sues SS&C For Threatening to Shut Advent/Moxy Access
Fund administrator SEI Global Services has sued rival SS&C Technology Holdings and subsidiary SS&C Advent for allegedly trying to put SEI out of business by cutting off its access to critical portfolio accounting technology SEI needs to service its fund manager clients. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in the SEI’s backyard in […]
Coronavirus Plagues AML Compliance Managers
The new coronavirus pandemic is testing the ability of anti-money laundering (AML) analysts and compliance managers to adjust their methodologies and technology quickly enough to catch criminal activity. Financial firms must still conduct due diligence when onboarding customers and file suspicious activity reports (SARs) if necessary within 30 to 45 days after an alert is […]
Coronavirus: How CCOs Can Manage (Virtually)
For chief compliance officers at financial firms, following the five Ps — prioritize, plan, protect, preserve, and paper– with the help of IT managers will become critical to ensure employees working remotely meet corporate and regulatory requirements. “Even the best designed business continuity plans likely didn’t take a global pandemic into account,” says Kristin Koloniaris, […]
SEC: CAT Reports Can Omit Some Customer Data
Data management units at US broker-dealers and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will be creating bogus codes for sending trade execution reports required by the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) to conceal the identities of investors and mitigate potential damage from cybersecurity breaches. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-awaited decision earlier this month to […]
Coronavirus: Survival Tips for Middle Office Fund Ops
The coronavirus pandemic is frazzling even the best trained middle-office operations managers of US fund management shops who are working in the trenches of a battlezone. The war isn’t about setting up remote access to IT systems for employees having to work from home or deciding who should do which task and when. Following a […]
BNY Mellon Gives Fund Managers New NAV Agent
Fund managers no longer have to rely on their fund administrator’s backup plan or their own when striking or validating a net asset value. BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank, says it can save the day by doing all the operational work using Milestone Group’s pControl platform which also allows for accurate backup NAVs […]