The US mutual fund managers may soon be following in the footsteps of their European peers in adopting swing pricing, but how ready are they to overcome the operational and compliance challenges? If the tone of discussions at a recent standing-room-only event hosted in New York City by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) is any indication, the answer is […]
Europe’s New AML Directive: Keep Digging for Customer Data
As if knowing the basics about your customer weren’t difficult enough, how about knowing a lot more, verifying what you think you know, and doing the same when it comes to the customer’s direct and indirect investors and controlling parties. That is what European regulators will eventually require from financial institutions doing business in the […]
Fund Managers: On Countdown for New Uncleared Swaps Margins
US banking regulators might not have directly overseen the activities of fund management shops in the past, but when it comes to uncleared bilateral swap contracts, that stance is changing fast. The new arrangement will come at a hefty cost for heavy users of the bespoke deals. Under final rules released October 22, a host of […]
KYC Onboarding: Taking a Global Centralized Approach
Name, rank and serial number. That’s what national military organizations across the globe use to identify their members. Too bad the same simplicity can’t be used by financial firms when it comes to identifying their customers and counterparties, bemoan operations and compliance specialists. Instead financial firms must deal with a hodgepodge of regulatory requirements across […]
SEC to Mutual Funds: Get Your Liquidity in Order
New proposed rules from the US Securities and Exchange Commission requiring mutual funds to ensure they have the necessary liquidity and correct pricing to accommodate a potential onslaught of redemptions could pose operational and IT challenges for fund management firms. That is the initial reaction from a group of ten fund management compliance, operations and […]
US T+2 Settlement: The Long Journey Officially Begins
What a difference a day makes. Until September 16, the US financial industry had only been talking about a two-day settlement cycle. Only a preliminary roadmap of the stepping stones to T+2 had been completed, indicating that at least 30 operational workflows will be affected, requiring rule, behavioral and technology changes. On that day Securities and Exchange Commission […]
Fighting Financial Crime: Making Due With the Omnibus Account
A bank or broker-dealer opens an account in its name with a securities depository. One of its customers — a fund manager, broker-dealer or other firm — is involved with either money laundering activities or violating regulations involving sanctions against an individual, country or corporation. Even worse, one of their clients did the dirty deed. […]
FATCA Reporting Round One: The Scorecard
Wrong client classification, missing documentation proving country of citizenship, and incomplete information on investor income and account values. Those are the top three mistakes offshore fund managers tell FinOps Report they experienced when trying to send information to their local tax authorities to comply with the recent first round of reporting for the US Foreign Tax […]
Registered Investment Advisers: FinCEN Says Welcome to the AML Party
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 […]
Basel III: How Hedge Fund Managers Must Leverage Prime Brokers
“How important is this relationship to you?” That question is often asked by concerned spouses or romantically involved parties to get a status check on just how well their relationship is faring. For the first time ever, hedge fund managers could be forced to pose the same question to their prime brokers, thanks to the […]