Oversight Pointers: Fund managers will soon have practical guidance for best practices in overseeing outsourced operations contracts with custodian bank, fund administrators and other post-trade service providers. The ISITC, trade group representing operations specialists from over 100 buy and sell-side firms, is publishing a white paper with its recommendations in the fall. The guidelines, ISITC officials […]
Common Tax Reporting Standards: The Tower of Babel
When US lawmakers decided to force foreign financial institutions to ante up the names of all their customers and investors that might owe unpaid US taxes, maybe they knew that they were burdening these financial firms with a complex and costly reporting burden. But who could have foreseen that they were launching a global fad among tax […]
FinOps Takes a Byte out of the News — 3/17/2015
A few news items that may be of interest to our readers… CalPERS Pioneering: US pension giant California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has become the first pension plan to join a fully committed repo facility at Chicago-headquartered derivatives clearinghouse OCC. The repo facility provides contingency liquidity in the event of a member default or […]
Cybersecurity in the C-Suite: A Matter of “Need to Know”
Cybersecurity has been described as everything from a top-down corporate mission to a shopping list for software packages that monitor networks and systems for suspicious activity. Given the breadth and complexity of even identifying the risks, it’s no wonder that all sorts of management are discovering they’re now riding the cybersecurity bus. Nowhere is this accumulation of corporate […]
Liquid Alt Funds: Five Tips to Survive New SEC Scrutiny
A regulatory fine of US$50,000 might seem like a slap on the wrist for a large fund manager, but when an enforcement action from the US Securities and Exchange Commission makes its way into the agency’s press release and headlines from multiple media outlets it becomes a big concern for compliance and operations managers. In a new […]
Central Clearing for US Sec Lending: Coming Soon?
Central clearing: it’s a well-established concept for settling equities, fixed-income and now swap transactions. But not in the US securities lending market, where Eurex Clearing now wants to establish a new service, but could face an uphill climb, despite enlisting two of the world’s largest custodian banks BNY Mellon and State Street to help out. Granted, OCC in […]
PBOR for Fund Managers: Innovation or Brand Grab?
Performance book of record or PBOR for short. A white paper just released by Eagle Investment Systems has fueled talk among investment operations professionals on just what PBOR is and how seriously the concept should be taken. The two critical questions which top the discussion list: just how substantially it differs from the investment book of record (IBOR) and how it […]
Custody Network Management: The Rise of the Super Risk Manager
Second article of our two-part series on third-party risk management. For the first article, click here. Hands-on relationship manager. System Analyst. Recruiter. Negotiator. Risk Manager. Hatchet man. Whoa! Too many job descriptions requiring far different different personalities and skills. They couldn’t possibly all be handled effectively by any single individual. These are just a some of […]
Vendor Risk Management: Financial Firms under the Gun
First of a two-part series on third-party risk. For the second article, click here. Activities can be outsourced, liabilities can’t. Financial firms may understand the legal distinction, but when it comes to managing the risk involved with using external technology providers, they are too often falling asleep at the wheel, warn operations and IT experts. The reason: […]
Stock Connect: Will Fund Managers Hop on the HK-Shanghai Express?
Mainland China is trying to make it easier for foreign fund managers and other investors to access the local market, but so far teething pains are preventing a huge uptick for the so-called Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program launched last November. Although heavily hyped by China and the international financial press, legal and operational experts caution […]