Second article of our two-part series on third-party risk management. For the first article, click here. Hands-on relationship manager. System Analyst. Recruiter. Negotiator. Risk Manager. Hatchet man. Whoa! Too many job descriptions requiring far different different personalities and skills. They couldn’t possibly all be handled effectively by any single individual. These are just a some of […]
Vendor Risk Management: Financial Firms under the Gun
First of a two-part series on third-party risk. For the second article, click here. Activities can be outsourced, liabilities can’t. Financial firms may understand the legal distinction, but when it comes to managing the risk involved with using external technology providers, they are too often falling asleep at the wheel, warn operations and IT experts. The reason: […]
Private Equity Funds: Coming Clean with Expenses, Fees
With the US Securities and Exchange Commission calling private equity fund managers to the carpet for their fees and expenses, managers had better start preparing to be a lot more forthcoming about their practices to investors. Regulatory exams are just around the corner, warn operations and legal experts. At issue is what expenses should be absorbed by private […]
Passing on the Business: Data Transit for Cost-Basis Reporting
A US investor decides to switch its account from one broker-dealer or bank to another. The transition is supposed to be a no-brainer which happens every day on Wall Street. However, when it comes to cost-basis reporting, a simple operational process could easily turn into an administrative and financial nightmare, warn tax operations experts. The ramifications can […]
2015: Top Ops Goals for Surviving the Regulatory Crush
With the beginning of 2015 just hours away, middle and back office operations specialists across the globe should count on a visit from C-level executives to set the tone for the new year. Forget about praise for all the hard work in 2014. Everyone now has to roll up their sleeves to address a host […]
Risk Data 2015: Silos Down, Linkage Up
Data and Risk. Besides having four letters, the two words have plenty in common based on an exhaustive list of “what’s in” and “what’s out” for 2015 released by the EDM Council, the global trade association advocating efficient enterprise data management. The profitability of financial services firms has always been based on risk analysis, and that […]
AIFMD Annex IV Reporting: Risk Scrutiny on Deadline
The Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive Annex IV. The long phrase describes at least three hundred points of reference data and other risk metrics alternative fund managers must provide regulators if they want to grab a “passport” to market their funds across European borders. That passport allows them to operate by a single set of rules, rather than […]
Pre-Trade Swaps Credit Check: It’s Time to Study the Options
Once there were two pre-trade credit checking hubs for swaps. Now there is only one left standing. Time for fund managers to ask their clearing agents some tough questions. Futures commission merchants (FCMs) are backing Traiana’s pre-trade credit checking hub over Markit’s, which was forced to shut down for lack of traffic. Concerns about the potential for […]
Securities Finance Data Analysis: A Wing and a Prayer?
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, or make that what regulators weave! If the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has its way, back-office operations executives at fund managers, custodians and broker-dealers will be working overtime to track down hoards of data on securities lending and repurchase agreements with no certainty it will be of any […]
FATCA: Cost-Overruns Come With the Territory
Red might be a festive color for the approaching holiday season, except for the red ink many fund management shops are facing in cost overruns complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), foisted by the US Internal Revenue Services on financial institutions around the world. With the end-of-year deadline for arranging new budgets coming up fast, it […]