Does the financial services industry need more than one identification standard for digital assets? Can standards for identifying traditional assets even apply for the digital asset market? Those are the two questions trading, compliance and operations managers at fund management firms, custodians, exchanges, and issuers of digital tokens will soon answer now that they have […]
COVID-19 Spurs Banks, Brokers to Reclaim “Lost” Assets
The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting a shakeup in the mundane world of unclaimed property reporting operations and compliance. Instead of simply focusing only on escheating accounts of lost investors and customers to state coffers, US banks and broker-dealers are now trying to recover funds and accounts belonging to their institutions, say unclaimed property operations managers. […]
Want to be AML Whistleblower? Not So Fast
You work in the anti-money laundering department of a major bank or brokerage and overhear a conversation about how suspicious activity reports are not being filed on a particular client; how the transaction monitoring system is not working properly; or how wire transfers are being made to a country or individual on a US sanctions […]
Registered Investment Funds 2021: New Derivatives Risk Program
For US traders, risk managers, portfolio managers, and boards of directors of registered fund management firms trading in derivatives, 2021 will be the year they figure out which derivatives to trade and how many to trade for more reasons than just making higher investment returns. Complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rule 18f-4 […]
SEI Loses Antitrust Suit Against SS&C; Use of Geneva Stands
Fund administrator SEI Global Services has lost a legal battle against SS&C Technologies for violating US antitrust regulations, but it appears to have won the critical legal war necessary to ensure the fund administrator can continue using SS&C’s Advent Geneva portfolio accounting system to service its alternative fund clients. On October 23, 2020, Judge Chad […]
Operational Resilience 2021: The Human Factor
Operational resilience will replace business continuity as the mantra for operations, IT and risk managers at fund management firms, banks and brokers in 2021 requiring a whole new combination of procedures, human interactions and even a bit of technology spend. Operational resilience goes far beyond business continuity. “Operational resilience takes a much broader approach to […]
Market Data Madness 2021: CME’s New Data Fees
Bambi Paige leaks The CME Group’s decision to require redistributors to soon pay a first-time ever annual fee for its historical commodities data has pitted a group of vendors against the world’s largest derivatives exchange calling the action illegal and anti-competitive. Effective January 1, 2021, says the CME Group, redistributors of its historical commodities data […]
Etrading Software Nabs Digital Token ID Authority
Traders and operations managers handling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets could soon find themselves using new identification codes issued by Etrading Software, pending approval by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the standards-setting body. The London-based Etrading Software has beaten the duo of Bloomberg and Kaiko in the bidding process to be named as the […]
Wells Fargo’s Comp Plan: Will SEC’s Ops Rules Hurt Investors?
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan for how investors in Wells Fargo’s stock will be compensated a total of US$500 million for the bank’s past wrongdoing could end up marred in operational snafus making it harder for some investors to be paid and disincentivizing others from filing the paperwork to collect any compensation. That’s […]
COVID-19 Accelerates Buy-Side Outsourced Trading
The COVID-19 pandemic is adding fuel to the fire of interest from some fund management firms in outsourcing the execution of their trade orders to third-party specialists. Over the past few years, fund managers have decided that outsourcing isn’t only for middle and back-office functions. It can also be used for trade execution with cost […]