The CME Group’s decision to require redistributors to soon pay a first-time ever annual fee for its historical commodities data has pitted a group of vendors against the world’s largest derivatives exchange calling the action illegal and anti-competitive. Effective January 1, 2021, says the CME Group, redistributors of its historical commodities data will have to […]
Global Network Management: Are My Assets Safe?
Global network managers of custodian banks are redefining the word relationship when it comes to monitoring local agent banks that safekeep assets of underlying clients in multiple countries. It is no longer enough to make a sporadic visit or have a phone call. Global network managers have become detectives sifting through mounts of data to […]
Morgan Stanley Fine: Lessons in Fee Recon Failures
Futures commision merchants had better pay far closer attention to their middle office fee reconciliation process, caution operations experts. Morgan Stanley’s recent US$500,000 fine from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for overbilling clients trading fees isn’t a large fine considering the FCM’s size. What is alarming is that Morgan Stanley is the fourth FCM […]
Compliance Officers: Uniform CFTC and SEC Rules?
What possible difference could a few words make? Apparently a lot for chief compliance officers of large swap dealers, fund managers, and clearing firms. They must be breathing a sigh of relief now that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed to harmonize the rules for CCOs with those of the Securities and Exchange Commission. […]
Variation Margin: Facing the Countdown to March 1
With less than three weeks left until posting variation margin for uncleared swap transactions becomes mandatory, it’s do or die for fund managers still scrambling to be ready by March 1. As FinOps Report went to press, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a no-action letter that it would not take any […]
Uncleared Swap Deals: Clarity Is Work in Progress
“It’s not that complicated.” Regulators might have thought that setting specific rules for margining uncleared swap transactions would make life easier for financial firms because they will won’t have to negotiate over how, or even whether to collateralize their deals. They couldn’t have been more wrong. So said panelists and attendees at the International Swaps […]
Clearing the Decks for Uncleared Swaps Margins
Asset managers might not be affected by the new margin requirements on uncleared swap transactions for at least a year. Nonetheless, they are slowly starting to prepare for the inevitable legal and operational teething pains. US banking regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have decided that effective September 2016 or March 2017, depending on […]
Reporting Security-Based Swaps: Dissent Brews with SEC
Security-based swaps might comprise a small fraction of the entire multi-trillion dollar over-the-counter derivatives market, but that’s little solace to operations, IT and regulatory specialists who will eventually have to follow the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules on reporting transactions in these contracts to a swap data repository (SDR). Just who must do the reporting, […]
Futures Commission Merchant: Four Steps to the Right Choice
It’s the phone call no operations manager wants to get. The trading desk just tried to execute a swap contract, and discovered that the newly hired futures commission merchant (FCM) doesn’t handle transactions in that currency. Or doesn’t accept that kind of collateral. Or isn’t a member of the necessary clearinghouse. Who’s to blame? Good question, […]
Merrill’s Reconciliation Fine: What Happens When Middle Office Fails
Reconciliation: it’s an everyday process in buy- and sell-side shops, where overworked middle-office analysts pay close attention to details and hope technology works. Like all post-trade operations, it often draws the attention of C-level executives only when something goes wrong. Even worse, as evidenced in a recent case involving Merrill Lynch, mistakes can also elicit […]