(Editor’s Note: After the publication of this article, DTCC published a document which outlines the testing requirements from its subsidiaries NSCC, DTC and Omgeo for impacted organizations and instruments. The paper entitled “T+2 Test Approach: DTCC’s High-Level Testing Framework” can be found here). Testing, testing, testing. That is the next critical focus for achieving a successful transition […]
FINRA’s TBA Margin Rule: No Meeting of Minds with Industry
The pleas of fund managers and broker-dealers for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to change proposed rules requiring the collateralization of agency mortgage-backed securities and other transactions are falling on deaf ears and time is running out. The SEC is requiring that final comments on FINRA’s new proposal published last month be submitted by […]
US T+2 Playbook: Rush to Affirmation
Make certain your trades are affirmed as quickly as possible. (And fix your T+2 failures now, rather than later). Speeding up affirmations is one of dozens of recommendations operations and technology managers at fund management, broker-dealer and custodian banks will find if they read through the 164 pages of an implementation playbook just issued by […]
US Post-Trade Matching: Omgeo, Bloomberg or SS&C?
The mundane world of post-trade matching just got a long-awaited shakeup. What has been a virtual monopoly in the post-trade matching market is about to become a horse race, since the US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Bloomberg and SS&C Technologies to enter the business of post-trade matching services in competition with incumbent Omgeo. In allowing […]
Harmonizing ISO 20022 Messages: Only Best Efforts Apply
Understanding unfamiliar accents and dialects can be hard, even if you come from the same country and supposedly speak the same language. Imagine how users of ISO 20022-compliant messages must feel as they struggle to process the current variants of the up-and-coming messaging standard. Their solution: create ISO harmonization groups and hope they can reach […]
Automating Corporate Actions: Fund Managers Trail
The more things change the more they stay the same when it comes to corporate actions processing. Although financial firms as a whole are adopting more automation to communicate with each other and investors on income and dividend payments as well as reorganizations such as mergers, tender offers and takeovers, fund managers are trailing their sell-side peers, […]
US T+2 Settlement: The Long Journey Officially Begins
What a difference a day makes. Until September 16, the US financial industry had only been talking about a two-day settlement cycle. Only a preliminary roadmap of the stepping stones to T+2 had been completed, indicating that at least 30 operational workflows will be affected, requiring rule, behavioral and technology changes. On that day Securities and Exchange Commission […]
Transfer Agents: Preventing Fraud a Delicate Balancing Act
The work of stock transfer agents may require a lot of detail management, as well as complex interactions with issuers, shareholders and various intermediaries, but the field isn’t likely to be associated with investor fraud. That is, until now. Two commissioners at the US Securities and Exchange Commission are urging the agency to take a harder look […]
DTCC Embraces ISO 20022 for Corporate Action Elections
Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s corporate actions transformation project could well become a gamechanger for the US market by including the use of ISO 20022-compliant messages for elections, as well as notifications on corporate events. Beyond the obvious reduction of operational risk in the stickiest aspect of corporate actions processing, the expanded use of ISO […]
Crime Prevention: Breaching the Veil of Omnibus Accounts
For operations and compliance professionals, the definition of financial crime is rapidly expanding to meet the threats of cyber crime, but the more common threat is money laundering or fraudulent wire transfers conducted by unscrupulous companies or individuals. For depositories and custodian banks, this traditional abuse of the financial system has acquired an additional level of […]