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FCMs: Fund Managers Swap One Cost for Another

October 23, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

Fund managers can no longer assume all is well in their relationships with their futures commissions merchants. As many face changing or even lost relationships with their FCMs, the big question they are forced to answer: What do we do now? Their choices: either find another FCM, reduce the number of centrally-cleared swaps transactions they trade, or […]

Filed Under: Clearing, Compliance, Derivatives, Margining, Outsourcing, Post-Trade, Risk, Risk, Settlement, Slider, Technology, Trading Tagged With: Brokerage Ops, Clearinghouses, Compliance, Fund Ops, Investment Ops, Middle Office Ops, Outsourcing, Reporting, Swaps

BNY Mellon’s NAV Snafu: What Was and Wasn’t Learned

September 10, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

When technology glitches take place, cleanups can be embarrassing and messy to say the least. When it comes to critical applications they can be downright dangerous as well. The recent case involving the possible mispricing of over one thousand mutual funds and exchange-traded funds valued at over US$400 billion by BNY Mellon using SunGard Financial’s […]

Filed Under: Funds, Investors, Outsourcing, Slider, Technology Tagged With: Custodians, Fund Ops, Investment Ops, Outsourcing, Valuation

Registered Investment Advisers: FinCEN Says Welcome to the AML Party

September 3, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

Registered investment advisers may have it a little easier than their banking brethren when complying with long-awaited anti-money laundering rules just proposed by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), but they shouldn’t feel too relieved. They will still have to go through most of the same hoops to ensure their clients are not engaged in […]

Filed Under: Compliance, Outsourcing, Risk, Rules, Slider Tagged With: AML, Compliance, Fund Ops, Hedge Funds, KYC, Outsourcing, Private Equity, Regulators, SEC

Operational Due Diligence: Right Questions, Right Answers

July 21, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

Do you have a policy to prevent cyber breaches? Do you allow employees to work remotely? Do you have a policy for valuing hard-to-price assets? Do you allow multiple parties access to your compliance system? Do you have a procedure to mitigate risk? Look familiar? These are questions drawn from questionnaires that asset-owners — pension plans, […]

Filed Under: Corporate Actions, Funds, Margining, Operations, Ops Risk, Outsourcing, Post-Trade, Regulations, Security, Slider Tagged With: Collateral, Compliance, Corporate Actions, Custodians, Fund Ops, Middle Office Ops, Ops Risk, Outsourcing, Post Trade, Security, Valuation

Recent SEC Compliance Fines: What to Watch Out For

July 8, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

Four recent enforcement actions by the US Securities and Exchange Commission each highlight a different area of concern by the regulatory agency and each sends a loud and clear message in hefty fines and professional punishment. We think they offer valuable lessons to readers of FinOps Report on how to steer clear of legal landmines. Conflict […]

Filed Under: Compliance, Derivatives, Funds, Investments, Outsourcing, Rules, Slider, Standards, Trading Tagged With: Brokerage Ops, Compliance, Custodians, Fund Ops, Hedge Funds, Investment Ops, Outsourcing, Private Equity, Regulators, SEC, Standards, Valuation

News to Use: Omgeo, SEI, and Broadridge

April 21, 2015 By Chris Kentouris 1 Comment

Custodians on Alert: Custodians and prime brokers will be able for the first time to input standing settlement instructions (SSIs) to Omgeo’s ALERT database, potentially reducing the number of trades which fail to settle on time. SSIs refer to the last leg of the post-trade communications process when asset managers tell their custodians or prime […]

Filed Under: Analytics, Compliance, Custody, Funds, Outsourcing, Post-Trade, Settlement, Slider, Trading, Uncategorized Tagged With: Compliance, Fund Ops, Middle Office Ops, Outsourcing, Post Trade, Settlement

News to Use: Whistleblower Update, Lending vs. Voting, and New TA Utility

April 13, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

SEC Chills Pre-taliation: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement of rules against whistleblower retaliation has just taken another giant step forward with the US regulatory agency’s first announcement it has penalized a firm for restrictive language in an employment agreement. Although the US$130,000 fine was against KBR Inc., not a financial services firm, attorneys specializing […]

Filed Under: Compliance, Corporate Actions, Funds, Reporting, Rules, Sec Lending, Slider, Technology Tagged With: Compliance, Corporate Actions, Dodd-Frank, Fund Ops, Hedge Funds, Outsourcing, Regulators, Reporting, SEC

News to Use: ISITC, BNY Mellon, Custom House and More

March 23, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Clearing, Derivatives, Funds, Margining, Outsourcing, Post-Trade, Settlement, Slider Tagged With: AIFMD, Brokerage Ops, Clearinghouses, Collateral, Custodians, Fund Ops, Middle Office Ops, Ops Risk, Outsourcing, Post Trade

SunGard’s New Derivatives Processing Utility: Panacea or Pipedream?

March 18, 2015 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

SunGard’s outsourced business model for handling post-trade functions in the listed derivatives and swaps market might sound like a dream come true for futures commission merchants and given that it has already nabbed its first mega client it’s off to a great start. But whether the initiative will gain widespread industry buy-in remains to be […]

Filed Under: Clearing, Derivatives, Margining, Ops Risk, Outsourcing, Slider, Uncategorized Tagged With: Clearing, Derivatives, Middle Office Ops, Outsourcing, Swaps

Fund Managers: On the Hunt for New Cybersecurity Officer

September 22, 2014 By Chris Kentouris Leave a Comment

With the Securities and Exchange Commission now requiring registered investment advisors to prove they are doing their best to reduce the risk of data and other security breaches, hedge fund managers are quickly waking up to the need to assign a dedicated chief security information officer (CISO) to the task. Although the SEC’ s guidelines […]

Filed Under: Compliance, Ops Risk, Outsourcing, Slider, Standards, Technology Tagged With: Compliance, Fund Ops, Hedge Funds, Outsourcing, Regulators, SEC, Security

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