Chief compliance officers need a new operating model, not a new legal framework, to avoid being personally penalized unfairly by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for regulatory infractions, say some legal experts. The New York City Bar Association’s recent framework suggesting that the SEC be more understanding of the challenges faced by chief compliance […]
SEC’s New Fund Fair Value Rule: Ops and Fintech Solutions
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new fair value rule for how fund managers should price some of their funds’ assets is causing fund managers and board of directors plenty of angst which can be eased though the right operational workflow and finech solutions, says Milestone Group. The SEC in December 2020 scrapped all of its previous […]
Schwab’s $1.2 M Customer Account Transfer Mistake: Now What?
Whoops, it happened again. This time it was a software glitch that led brokerage Charles Schwab to erroneously transfer US$1.2 million from a former retail client’s account to the customer’s new brokerage account at Fidelity Brokerage Services which has left operations managers at rival brokerages scratching their heads and Schwab forced to go to court. […]
Preventing Pesky US Treasury Settlement Fails
For US broker-dealer operations managers failing to settle a transaction in US Treasury securities might never have been all that problematic, but with the number of fails rising dramatically during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic one megabank–BNY Mellon– has decided to offer a preventative service in a technology partnership with Google Cloud. As the […]
New IDs for Digital Assets: FIGIs or ISO-Backed Codes?
Does the financial services industry need more than one identification standard for digital assets? Can standards for identifying traditional assets even apply for the digital asset market? Those are the two questions trading, compliance and operations managers at fund management firms, custodians, exchanges, and issuers of digital tokens will soon answer now that they have […]
Want to be AML Whistleblower? Not So Fast
You work in the anti-money laundering department of a major bank or brokerage and overhear a conversation about how suspicious activity reports are not being filed on a particular client; how the transaction monitoring system is not working properly; or how wire transfers are being made to a country or individual on a US sanctions […]
Registered Investment Funds 2021: New Derivatives Risk Program
For US traders, risk managers, portfolio managers, and boards of directors of registered fund management firms trading in derivatives, 2021 will be the year they figure out which derivatives to trade and how many to trade for more reasons than just making higher investment returns. Complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rule 18f-4 […]
SEI Loses Antitrust Suit Against SS&C; Use of Geneva Stands
Fund administrator SEI Global Services has lost a legal battle against SS&C Technologies for violating US antitrust regulations, but it appears to have won the critical legal war necessary to ensure the fund administrator can continue using SS&C’s Advent Geneva portfolio accounting system to service its alternative fund clients. On October 23, 2020, Judge Chad […]
Operational Resilience 2021: The Human Factor
Operational resilience will replace business continuity as the mantra for operations, IT and risk managers at fund management firms, banks and brokers in 2021 requiring a whole new combination of procedures, human interactions and even a bit of technology spend. Operational resilience goes far beyond business continuity. “Operational resilience takes a much broader approach to […]
Market Data Madness 2021: CME’s New Data Fees
The CME Group’s decision to require redistributors to soon pay a first-time ever annual fee for its historical commodities data has pitted a group of vendors against the world’s largest derivatives exchange calling the action illegal and anti-competitive. Effective January 1, 2021, says the CME Group, redistributors of its historical commodities data will have to […]