The US Internal Revenue Service is turning tax operations and compliance departments into data and paperwork geeks when it comes to meeting their requirements for FATCA and QI. Did your tax operations department withhold the correct amount of tax for the right account and file the form correctly by deadline? That’s what an IRS auditor […]
Cryptoasset Valuation: Fair Value or Fair Game?
Fair value– the term used by accountants to refer to the correct valuation of assets for financial reporting purposes — should’nt be taken at face value by fund managers or investors when comes to cryptoassets. Anyone who comes to the table unprepared for a potential dispute is foolish as shown in a recent lawsuit involving […]
SEC’s New Rule 606: Execution Transparency At a Cost
For brokerage trade operations, compliance and IT managers, giving fund managers a lot more details about where and how their trades were executed to fulfill the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s enhancements to Rule 606 could turn into a major operational headache. At issue is how much data broker-dealers have readily available, how much they […]
Unclaimed Assets: Delaware Lawsuit Resurrects Ops Headaches
Unclaimed property operations managers at US financial firms need to stay proactive when it comes ensuring correct administrative and reporting procedures, warn compliance experts. The costly alternative: whopping state fines. A recent lawsuit filed by Illinois-based chemical supplier Univar against the state of Delaware provides ample evidence that Delaware is being even more vigilant in […]
Reg Compliance 2019: Tips to Ease Data Pain
When it comes to handling the data challenges inherent in regulatory compliance, 2019 will no exception for middle and back-office buy and sell-side operations, compliance and technology managers. While the rules of MIFID II and EMIR likely took up much of their attention over the past few years, a survey of about fifty operations, compliance […]
Trump’s Iranian Sanctions: New Policing Compliance Twists
What’s old is new again when it comes to US sanctions against Iran. Well almost, for anti-money laundering compliance managers and analysts at US banks. US President Donald Trump’s resurrection of sanctions against Iran in August and last month will force wire departments and correspondent banking units at US banks to dig deeper into the […]
US Withholding Agents Face the FATCA Music
The US Internal Revenue Service is spreading its love for the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to US shores. US tax operations and corporate tax directors at US banks and broker-dealers serving as US withholding agents must now deal with the IRS’ request for more information on their compliance with FATCA. If they haven’t done […]
IRS Creates Legal,Ops Headaches for Escheated IRAs
(Editor’s Update on November 29, 2018): Tax operations, compliance and technology managers at US financial firms now have until January 1, 2020 to implement the Internal Revenue Service’s rule to withhold taxes on unclaimed individual retirement accounts. The IRS’ one-year extension is far less than the 18 months requested by the securities industry but provides […]
Europe’s CSDR: Custodians Face Reporting Headaches
The European Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) is quickly turning into a misnomer for the legislation. Operations and IT managers at custodian banks must quickly develop new data consolidation and message reformatting workflow and technology to deliver the right information on settled and unsettled trades to local regulators in July 2019. Given that the pan- […]
CUSIP ID Codes Enter World of Blockchain
Equities and bonds have identification numbers so why not tokenized asset offerings (TAOs). That’s the premise of a new agreement between blockchain startup Templum Markets and CUSIP Global Services (CGS) whose goal is to promote liquidity and post-trade operational efficiency for TAOs. North America’s national numbering agency will now issue CUSIPs or nine-digit alphanumeric codes […]