Do you know how green your third-party service providers are? That’s the question risk and vendor procurement managers at fund management firms, banks and broker-dealers must soon answer correctly or face reputational and regulatory consequences, say legal and data experts in environmental, social and governance policies. The vendors can be anyone from a fund administrator, […]
Bloomberg’s FIGIs Win Nod From US Standards Body: Now What?
Bloomberg finally got its wish for FIGIs– acceptance of its securities ID codes as a standard– but whether that equates to popularity for trade and post-trade operations managers remains to be seen. Trade, middle, and back-office operations, and compliance managers at buy and sell-side firms can now be certain that Bloomberg’s financial instrument global identifiers […]
Broker-Dealer Alert: Filing Suspicious Activity Reports Could Get Harder
Anti-money laundering analysts and compliance managers at US broker-dealers may need to work a lot harder and worry a lot more before filing suspicious activity reports if Alpine Securities, a US penny stockbroker, loses its appeal to the Supreme Court over whether the Securities and Exchange Commission has the right to enforce the Bank Secrecy […]
Uncleared Margin Rules Phase Six: Five Step SCOPE Approach
With the fifth phase of initial margin requirements for uncleared swap transactions recently effective, collateral management and compliance managers at hundreds of fund management shops need to start preparing for the final phase of uncleared swap rules to avoid finding themselves in hot water with regulators or counterparties, warn operations and legal experts. Fund management […]
Europe’s SFDR: Shades of Green Cause Ops Headache
Non-green, light green and dark green. Investment, compliance, and legal managers at fund management shops who must classify their funds in one of those three categories under Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) are finding the road to explaining how their investments are helping or harming the environment and society paved with good intentions but […]
Archegos Debacle Prompts Holistic Counterparty Risk Management
The recent implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management should renew interest in counterparty risk management and the need for a holistic program, say some broker-dealer risk management experts. By JP Morgan’s estimates the fallout may have cost some prominent prime brokers, such as combined as much as US$10 billion in trading losses. Archegos’ betting […]
Crypto Industry to SEC: Safe Harbor for Broker Custodians Isn’t Safe
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to give broker-dealers a five-year reprieve from any regulatory sanctions to custody digital security assets in a trial run under limited circumstances isn’t all that sound, caution some broker-dealers, cryptoasset market players, and legal experts. While praising the SEC’s effort, respondents to the SEC’s request for feedback and others discussing […]
Securities Class Action Settlements: Don’t Leave Money on the Table
Recovering monies from class action settlements should be a risk-free revenue generator, but that’s not the case for many money managers, broker-dealers and their custodians. Instead, the process is fraught with operational errors, which results in billions of dollars in uncollected compensation each year. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed the types of securities […]
ADRs: Will Blockchain Create a Better Mousetrap?
Unsponsored American Depositary Receipts could be a lot less expensive and more efficient for investors to own and to receive dividends and other corporate action distributions thanks to a new permission-based blockchain platform designed by RISE Financial Technologies, according to the Boston and London-based blockchain technology firm. RISE Financial predicts its new blockchain-based infrastructure, set to […]
SEC’s New Fund Fair Value Rule: Ops and Fintech Solutions
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new fair value rule for how fund managers should price some of their funds’ assets is causing fund managers and board of directors plenty of angst which can be eased though the right operational workflow and finech solutions, says Milestone Group. The SEC in December 2020 scrapped all of its previous […]