The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to broadly define what makes a trade execution discretionary will force introducing and executing brokers to walk a thin tightrope when complying with its new Rule 606. They will have to make some tough choices on how much information the executing broker can release on a trade order […]
IRS Tells Cryptoinvestors: Find Your Data, a Calculator, and Good Lawyer
If you are a cryptocurrency investor, you can forget about enjoying your summer vacation, thanks to the US Internal Revenue Service. By the end of August, you could be one of the 10,000 investors to have received a letter from the US tax agency that you owe taxes on your cryptocurrency investments. You will need […]
State Street’s US$88M Fine Highlights Deceptive “Pass-Along” Custody Fees
How can a global custodian bank convince clients for almost two decades that a twenty-five cent cost to transmit a message through the SWIFT network transmission is really worth a $5 “pass-along” fee? Easily, when fund managers aren’t paying attention and no one at the custodian bank is minding the shop. That’s no longer the […]
Free Webinar: Six Practices to the Best Cyber Defense From Hackers and Regulators
Is your IT team overwhelmed keeping your network/cloud safe from sophisticated hackers? Are your C-suite executives struggling to keep regulators and customers satisfied all confidential data and assets are properly protected? Tony Pietrocola, president of Agile1, has devised six proven practices to mitigate the chance your organization will become the next cyberattack headline, forced to […]
IRS: Get Your Data Right on FATCA and QI Certifications (Or Else)
The US Internal Revenue Service is turning tax operations and compliance departments into data and paperwork geeks when it comes to meeting their requirements for FATCA and QI. Did your tax operations department withhold the correct amount of tax for the right account and file the form correctly by deadline? That’s what an IRS auditor […]
SS&C’s Win of Trade Secrets Suit Highlights Hiring Risks
SS&C Technologies’ recent US$44 million jury verdict in a lawsuit against Clearwater Analytics has put Wall Street’s legal and human resource managers on alert to protect their firms from the receipt of trade secrets when hiring key employees from the competition. “HR and legal departments are a company’s first line of defense against litigation from […]
Free Webinar: Eight Steps to Manage Third-Party CyberRisk
Join FinOps Report (www.finopsinfo.com) for a FREE educational webinar on Managing Third Party CyberRisk: A Best Practice Approach Date: June 4, 2019 Time: 430PM to 530PM EST Interviewer: Chris Kentouris, Editor and Founder of FinOps Report Panelist: Joanna Fields, Managing Principal of Aplomb Strategies For dial-in information please contact Chris.Kentouris@hotmail.com You cannot have the best […]
FINRA: E-Mail Oversight Needs Quantity and Quality
Reasonable. How is a US broker-dealer’s compliance manager supposed to interpret that word when it comes to overseeing the firm’s e-mail correspondence. With some difficulty and much deliberation on quantity and quality as shown by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s recent US$32,000 fine and censure of Utah-based broker-dealer Wilson-Davis which specializes in microcap stocks. […]
SEC to Transfer Agents: Clean Up Your Operations
Broker-dealers and banks aren’t the only ones running off with customer monies. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking the whip on shareholder recordkeepers for doing the same. Misappropriation of issuer and investor funds was one of the two major operational deficiencies the US regulatory agency’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations says it […]
Swaps Margin: The Final Sweep of Document and Ops Morass
For collateral management operations and IT managers at hundreds of small to mid-sized broker -dealers and fund managment shops the nightmare of handling the new regulatory-imposed initial margin requirements for uncleared derivative contracts has just begun. Phase four of the US and non-US regulations, effective September 2019, and the ultimate phase five version, effective September […]