Non-green, light green and dark green. Investment, compliance, and legal managers at fund management shops who must classify their funds in one of those three categories under Europe’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) are finding the road to explaining how their investments are helping or harming the environment and society paved with good intentions but […]
Cryptomarket Rejects New Certification for Trading, Ops Execs
Should Wall Street executives trading and processing digital securities transactions be legally required to pass licensing or mandatory in-house training programs? The answer to the question raised in a comment letter sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in April concerning its December 2020 framework for the custody of digital securities appears to be […]
Legal Experts Debate Personal Liability for Chief Compliance Officers
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 […]
Archegos Debacle Prompts Holistic Counterparty Risk Management
The recent implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management should renew interest in counterparty risk management and the need for a holistic program, say some broker-dealer risk management experts. By JP Morgan’s estimates the fallout may have cost some prominent prime brokers, such as combined as much as US$10 billion in trading losses. Archegos’ betting […]
Crypto Industry to SEC: Safe Harbor for Broker Custodians Isn’t Safe
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to give broker-dealers a five-year reprieve from any regulatory sanctions to custody digital security assets in a trial run under limited circumstances isn’t all that sound, caution some broker-dealers, cryptoasset market players, and legal experts. While praising the SEC’s effort, respondents to the SEC’s request for feedback and others discussing […]
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 […]
NYSE Puts FINRA in Hotseat For Proxy Distribution Fee Oversight
The issue of which self-regulatory authority will take over the job of setting the maximum fees issuers must pay broker-dealers and banks to mail proxy materials to beneficial shareholders has pitted the New York Stock Exchange against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. leaving proxy operations managers and corporate secretaries in a lurch. The NYSE, which […]
Rule 605 Reports: Next for Transparency Data Overhaul?
More transparency — the mantra which has taken hold regarding Rule 606 reports — needs to make its way to Rule 605 reports, say trade execution experts and buy-side representatives who are hoping the US Securities and Exchange Commission will take action this year. US broker-dealers which forward orders to trading venues or market makers […]
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 […]