Banks and broker-dealer members of international securities depository Euroclear Bank in Brussels will now find it a lot easier to clean up trades which failed to settle on time. Euroclear, which specializes in settling Eurobonds and cross-border transactions of domestic equities and fixed-income instruments, is offering its participants a free cloud-based platform to communicate information […]
Blockchain’s Smart Contracts: What’s Smart, What’s Not
Can smart contracts be made smart enough to be accurate, ensure the right balance between confidentiality and transparency, and reach widespread acceptance? Yes, but not without a lot more work. That is the consensus of a group of blockchain developers, advocates and analysts that spoke and attended a recent event held by the Wall Street Blockchain […]
Accenture, Broadridge, Synechron on Blockchain
The financial world is spending countless hours — and millions of dollars — hypothesizing how blockchain — the new distributed way of storing information — could eliminate huge operational costs. Banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, and securities depositories have started exploring its potential vast use with the help of technology providers. Blockchain could theoretically be applied to […]
Fund Managers Outsource More Mid-Office Ops
Gone are the days when the middle office is maligned as being strictly a cost-center dragging down investment performance. Today more fund managers are concluding that more effective management of their middle office can not only reduce operating expenses, but also give them a competitive edge with investors and keep regulators at bay. Fund management […]
Blockchain for US Settlement: Three, Two, One, Takeoff? (Update)
(Editor’s Note: On Sept 14 itBit announced that its flagship Bankchain and other post-trade projects would be run out of a new firm Paxos with the same management. The former itBit, would be a division of Paxos, and continue to operate its crypto-currency trading platform). If US blockchain afficionados have their way, the technology […]
Reporting Securities Finance Deals: More is Less?
Say what, say who, say when? That’s the reaction of fund managers, custodians and market infrastructures to the European Securities and Market Authority’s request for feedback on a new regulation requiring reporting information on securities finance transactions to trade repositories. Market players complain that ESMA’s technical specifications for complying with the Securities Finance Transaction Regulation […]
Fund Managers to SEC: Change DTCC, ICE Swaps Rules
Fund managers are asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to force Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and ICE to adapt their rulebooks to match their limited reporting responsibilities for security-based swap transactions. The Asset Management Group (AMG) and Investment Company Institute (ICI) say that the DTCC’s Trade Repository and the ICE Trade Vault have overstepped the […]
Asset Owners Put Managers on the Operational Hotseat
How do you run your business? If it sounds like an open-ended question for pension plans, endowments and other institutional investors to ask fund managers, it is intended to be. Institutional asset owners hope it will elicit a lengthy discussion over the policies, procedures and technology the fund manager uses to make money before they […]
Hedge Funds to Prime Brokers: Getting to Yes
Once in the catbird’s seat when picking prime brokers, hedge fund managers are now faced with doing their own sales jobs. They have to persuade prime brokers to accept them as clients with expectations that align. With prime brokers becoming far more selective, hedge fund managers might not get their first choice of prime brokers or […]
Blockchain: DTCC Takes the Plunge with Repo Project
The decision of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to try out distributed ledger technology for processing repurchase agreements has drawn plenty of attention from Wall Street and blockchain enthusiasts. It also has participants in the repo business at the edge of their seats, watching to see how their bottom lines could be affected. The DTCC’s announcement […]