How much difference can it make that a US trade group representing mutual fund advisors adds its support to longstanding efforts by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. to move the US to a two-day settlement cycle? Enough to make it clear that the ball is now rolling, and deadlines are being considered. The […]
FIXing the Post-Trade Communications Process
Reducing time, risk and cost. That’s the mantra the FIX Trading Community promoted at an event it hosted in New York last week when recommending its message tags and workflow be used for locally matching post-trade instructions in all asset-classes. It’s also the beginning of a battle to win the hearts and minds of fund managers […]
Latin America’s MILA: Solving Settlement Quagmire
Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano, or MILA, sounded like a great idea. Announced in September 2009 and launched in May 2011, the initiative was supposed to bolster trading volumes in three stock markets, which historically languished in the shadows of Brazil and Mexico. The exchanges of Colombia, Chile and Peru would become the new Euronext. Or so […]
Harmonizing European Depositories May Be a Bumpy Ride
In trying to harmonize the operations of European securities depositories, regulators may well be creating unintended operational and financial burdens for the settlement houses and their members in dealing with trades which fail to settle on time. “The shorter timetable for settlement and the fines for late settlement will be far more difficult to implement […]
Reconciliation Moves Into Fee Accounting
Once viewed strictly as a matter of matching up cash, positions and transactions, the middle-office task of reconciliation is quickly moving into the trade-execution and post-trade space. The reasons are self-evident: not only are regulators demanding better control of operational risk, but C-level management are requiring more precise analysis of the bottom line for each unit. “It’s all […]