The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) may think that putting new CARDS on the table will help clearing and introducing brokers comply, but they are still not too happy about the hand they’ve been dealt. Granted, in its new version of the so-called CARDS initiative, FINRA has bowed to industry demands with some changes to its initial […]
Regulatory Reporting: It’s All About the Process
As the regulatory reporting mandates keeping coming, there is no question fund management shops are feeling overwhelmed. But they are also realizing that offloading the management of the tsunami of reporting tasks onto third-party service providers isn’t working out as well as they expected. Both sides are on a steep learning curve in handling the mission-critical function and fund managers are learning the […]
New Criteria for US Accredited Investors: Looming Pain for Alt Funds?
The Securities and Exchange Commission might think it is protecting Americans from risky investments as it considers changing the criteria for defining accredited investors, but middle and back-office executives at hedge fund management shops are worried their livelihoods and client service levels are at risk. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act requires the SEC to […]
UCITS V: Devil in the Compensation Details
UCITS V — the latest incarnation of the decades-old European legislation easing cross-border marketing of investment funds — has fund managers angry about what they see as far more rigid rules governing their bonuses. Just adopted by the European Parliament, the legislation not only massively reduces the short-term variable compensation of so-called “risk-taking” staff, but defers […]
Custodians Under Pressure Refocus on Middle Office Basics
Squeezed from the top and squeezed from the bottom. It’s only natural that custodians and other asset servicing providers are feeling the pinch. A barrage of new regulations, shorter settlement cycle, new European centralized settlement platform on the one side and, on the other, mounting client demands are forcing custodians to refocus their attentions on […]
Solvency II Creates Big Data Challenge for Fund Managers
If regulations such as AIFMD, EMIR and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act weren’t enough to prompt fund managers to shore up any deficiencies in their data management capabilities, Solvency II could finally do the trick — and quickly. Called the Basel III of insurance firms, Solvency II has also been called a “data nightmare” by […]
Fund Managers: On the Hunt for New Cybersecurity Officer
With the Securities and Exchange Commission now requiring registered investment advisors to prove they are doing their best to reduce the risk of data and other security breaches, hedge fund managers are quickly waking up to the need to assign a dedicated chief security information officer (CISO) to the task. Although the SEC’ s guidelines […]
Fund Managers: Raising the Operational Bar for Uncleared Swaps
With regulators on both sides of the Atlantic wanting bespoke swaps trades to fall under new margin guidelines, fund managers can ill-afford to sit idly by and rely simply on the negotiating skills of their legal advisors to come up with the best terms possible. Buy-side firms will need bring the so-called uncleared swap transactions […]
Europe’s T+2 Settlement: Bond Trades Hardest Hit?
With about thirty European countries moving to a two-day settlement cycle next month, concern is starting to mount that the fixed-income market will trail its equities counterpart in meeting the shorter timetable, leaving fund managers and broker-dealers to pay a heftier cleanup bill than initially anticipated. Securities depositories responsible for settling domestic and cross-boder transactions say that they […]
Catching a Money Laundering Thief: Combing Data in a Tower of Babel
Looking at the multitude of employment ads placed by executive search firms and large global banks, it becomes clear that the world’s biggest financial institutions are spending lots of money hiring new staff to combat potential money laundering and other illegal activities. It’s an understandable kneejerk reaction to what has been an onslaught of mega financial […]