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 […]
Hedge Funds: Beating the Lost-Administrator Blues
You’re the chief executive or chief operating officer of a small or mid-sized hedge fund manager and have just received a call, visit, or letter from your brand-name fund administrator. The message: Sorry, we love you, but can no longer afford to take care of you, because you are too small to be profitable for us. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Private Equity Funds: Coming Clean with Expenses, Fees
With the US Securities and Exchange Commission calling private equity fund managers to the carpet for their fees and expenses, managers had better start preparing to be a lot more forthcoming about their practices to investors. Regulatory exams are just around the corner, warn operations and legal experts. At issue is what expenses should be absorbed by private […]
2015: Top Ops Goals for Surviving the Regulatory Crush
With the beginning of 2015 just hours away, middle and back office operations specialists across the globe should count on a visit from C-level executives to set the tone for the new year. Forget about praise for all the hard work in 2014. Everyone now has to roll up their sleeves to address a host […]
AIFMD Annex IV Reporting: Risk Scrutiny on Deadline
The Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive Annex IV. The long phrase describes at least three hundred points of reference data and other risk metrics alternative fund managers must provide regulators if they want to grab a “passport” to market their funds across European borders. That passport allows them to operate by a single set of rules, rather than […]
Corporate Actions: Solving the Operational Disconnect
A capital charge, stock dividend, reverse stock split, tender offer or voluntary distribution. Those are just a few of the dozens of types of corporate action events — many of them them voluntary corporate actions in which a decision must be made — that management firms have to handle on a daily basis. Who has to deal with […]
Fund Managers: Turning Investor Relations Into Big Bucks
If we make money for them, investors will be beating down our doors. That conventional wisdom for fund managers is starting to look a little bit stodgy and a lot less wise. Welcome to the new new world of investor relations for institutional and alternative fund markets. The standard of communication considered de rigueur for public firms, vulnerable to […]