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 […]
Alt Mutual Funds: Seeking Alpha under SEC Scrutiny
If it looks like a duck, but honks like a goose, is it a duck or is it a goose? As far as the US Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned, the duck can honk all it wants, it still has to live by duck rules. The regulatory agency is making certain that mutual funds that act like […]
Monitoring Proxy Advisory Firms: A New Compliance Challenge?
Proxy advisory firms are supposed to help fund managers decide how to vote their shares in annual or other corporate meetings and even cast votes for them. But that doesn’t mean fund managers should just let them do all the work and forget about it. Apparently that’s what the US Securities and Exchange Commission thinks […]
FATCA: Four Steps to Meeting IRS Reporting Requirements
When the US Treasury made foreign financial institutions responsible for catching potential American tax evaders overseas, it also gave them a major migraine they are now finding difficult to alleviate. Determining with certainty who is responsible for paying US taxes just became their job. If they choose not to cooperate with the US’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance […]
Cybersecurity: Monitoring Risk in the Supply Chain
Outsourcing providers may promote themselves as trusted partners to their clients, but when it comes to cybersecurity risk, financial services firms would be wise to treat them as an extension of their own business — with all the hard scrutiny and ongoing monitoring of vulnerability they do inside their own corporate walls. And maybe more, […]
Compliance Officers: Taking the Regulatory Heat, Personally
Chief compliance officers at financial firms have always had it tough. Working long hours to address changing regulatory, investor and internal requirements, are an accepted part of everyday life. Yet, chief compliance officers and legal experts now say that the stress is hitting closer to home on a personal level. Securities watchdogs are drawing even […]
Middle Office Takes Center Stage in Hedge Fund Valuation Fiasco
A recent fine of US$9 million the US Securities and Exchange Commission levied against a UK hedge fund advisor and its former US holding company shows the operational risk faced by alternative investment funds when middle-office controls fail to correctly handle the signs of a bad valuation. The settlement, announced on December 9, 2013 arose […]