The US Internal Revenue Service is spreading its love for the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to US shores. US tax operations and corporate tax directors at US banks and broker-dealers serving as US withholding agents must now deal with the IRS’ request for more information on their compliance with FATCA. If they haven’t done […]
FINRA: Customer Protection Applies to Digital Assets
The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority could soon be offering broker-dealers some badly-needed guidance on how they should handle cryptocurrencies and similar products. Industry sources tell FinOps Report that FINRA is in discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Department of Trading and Markets about FINRA crafting a regulatory notice informing broker-dealers how to apply […]
Global Network Management: Artificial Intelligence the Charm?
For global custody network managers, analyzing the tsunami of data on dozens of local agent banks and markets to ensure the safety of client assets remains a sore spot. The use of artificial intelligence appears to be an elusive ideal, acknowledge panelists and attendees at a recent global custody event in New York hosted by […]
IRS Creates Legal,Ops Headaches for Escheated IRAs
(Editor’s Update on November 29, 2018): Tax operations, compliance and technology managers at US financial firms now have until January 1, 2020 to implement the Internal Revenue Service’s rule to withhold taxes on unclaimed individual retirement accounts. The IRS’ one-year extension is far less than the 18 months requested by the securities industry but provides […]
NY Court: Goldman’s Morse Can Sue Fidessa for Wrongful Termination
A New York appeals court has just sent a stern warning to Wall Street, fintech and other firms: you can’t fire any of your employees simply because of who they married to or are even romantically involved with. The Appellate Division of New York’s First Department ruled that Christopher Morse, now vice president of electronic […]
Margin: Tackling Initial Hurdle for Uncleared Swaps
First it was variation margin. Now it is initial margin for uncleared swap transactions causing compliance, operations and financial technology managers at fund management shops angst. As of September 1, 2019 many fund managers must know whether they meet the threshold for posting initial margin, calculate it correctly and set up the right custodial contracts […]
NY State of Mind for Cybersecurity: Take Three
The US Labor Day weekend won’t be a happy one for some cybersecurity compliance, technology and operations managers at New York-based banks. They will likely be scrambling to successfully implement the third phase of New York’s onerous cybersecurity rules, effective September 3. Among the multitude of tasks to complete under 23 NYCRR 500 encrypting data and […]
BofAML’s Fake Trade Reports: Governance Breakdown?
How could Bank of America Merrill Lynch get away with giving institutional customers phony trade execution, transaction cost analysis and expense reports for five years? Ten brokerage operations and IT managers contacted by FinOps Report can only speculate after reading the scant details in separate settlement reports issued by the Office of the Attorney General […]
Crypto Laundering: AML Regs Tighten
Anti-money laundering managers at banks and other financial institutions need to adapt their customer onboarding and transaction-monitoring approaches to cryptocurrency investors or risk regulatory fines, warn AML experts. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, already are involved in nearly ten percent of the total US$2 trillion of dirty money that is washed annually. That percentage is […]
GDPR: Final Call for US Asset Managers
Does Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) apply to me? If compliance and operations managers at US asset management firms are asking themselves that question, they are already in hot water. They should have started data mapping and amending their contracts with third-party service providers such as fund administrators and transfer agents, say data privacy […]