Oh, what a tangled web we weave, or make that what regulators weave! If the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has its way, back-office operations executives at fund managers, custodians and broker-dealers will be working overtime to track down hoards of data on securities lending and repurchase agreements with no certainty it will be of any […]
FATCA: Cost-Overruns Come With the Territory
Red might be a festive color for the approaching holiday season, except for the red ink many fund management shops are facing in cost overruns complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), foisted by the US Internal Revenue Services on financial institutions around the world. With the end-of-year deadline for arranging new budgets coming up fast, it […]
FINRA: New CARDS Does Little to Ease Data Collection Concerns
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) may think that putting new CARDS on the table will help clearing and introducing brokers comply, but they are still not too happy about the hand they’ve been dealt. Granted, in its new version of the so-called CARDS initiative, FINRA has bowed to industry demands with some changes to its initial […]
Regulatory Reporting: It’s All About the Process
As the regulatory reporting mandates keeping coming, there is no question fund management shops are feeling overwhelmed. But they are also realizing that offloading the management of the tsunami of reporting tasks onto third-party service providers isn’t working out as well as they expected. Both sides are on a steep learning curve in handling the mission-critical function and fund managers are learning the […]
Aggregating Swaps Data: Putting the Cart Before the Horse?
How can we effectively monitor systemic risk in the swaps market? That is the question now facing regulators around the world, and if financial firms were to have their way a federated approach to aggregating data would be the best option, they tell FinOps Report. Whether this scenario — one of the options now under review by […]
Solvency II Creates Big Data Challenge for Fund Managers
If regulations such as AIFMD, EMIR and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act weren’t enough to prompt fund managers to shore up any deficiencies in their data management capabilities, Solvency II could finally do the trick — and quickly. Called the Basel III of insurance firms, Solvency II has also been called a “data nightmare” by […]
US FINCEN: Digging Deeper into Beneficial Owner Identities
Financial firms have it hard enough verifying the identity of their customers. They have to make certain to ask all the right questions and hope they get the right answers. It is an error-prone process, but at least the main thing the bank, broker-dealer, or mutual fund has to know is just who it is directly […]
US Cost-Basis Reporting: Easing the Taxing Final Lap (Updated)
FinOps takeaway: You can’t second-guess the investor; be ready for everything. Although the third phase of the US Internal Revenue Service’s new rules on cost-basis reporting — those affecting accounts in debt instruments — technically became effective in January 1, 2014, broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries have plenty more operational blood, sweat and tears to spill […]
Hedge Fund Managers: The Big Headache of Healthcare Reform
FinOps takeaway: Your count of “full-time employees” may not be what the IRS says it is. Mainstream attention on the controversial US healthcare legislation has focused on how difficult or financially affordable access to health insurance may be for individual people. For employers, there is a far larger and only slowly emerging story in the huge difficulty and cost they […]
Money Market Fund Managers: SEC Ships New Operational Challenges
After years of uncertainty about how regulatory reform would play out, money market fund managers may be relieved to know finally how they will be regulated by new rules adopted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. But the news won’t be particularly comforting to the operations, compliance and technology staff of the funds, which represent a third of […]