Registered investment advisers might find it operationally a lot harder and a lot more expensive to value hard-to-price assets held by mutual funds if the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed modernization of fund valuation practices is adopted. Appointing a chief valuation officer could become necessary to handle the laundry list of new requirements. The […]
Coronavirus: How CCOs Can Manage (Virtually)
For chief compliance officers at financial firms, following the five Ps — prioritize, plan, protect, preserve, and paper– with the help of IT managers will become critical to ensure employees working remotely meet corporate and regulatory requirements. “Even the best designed business continuity plans likely didn’t take a global pandemic into account,” says Kristin Koloniaris, […]
SEC: CAT Reports Can Omit Some Customer Data
Data management units at US broker-dealers and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will be creating bogus codes for sending trade execution reports required by the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) to conceal the identities of investors and mitigate potential damage from cybersecurity breaches. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-awaited decision earlier this month to […]
New Trade Execution Transparency Tests Data Exchange
Complying with a new US regulatory requirement for brokers to give investors more information on trade routing decisions under the amended Rule 606 could come down in the short-term to technologists creating the right packaging as much as operations managers finding the right data. With less than a month left to prepare for the April […]
Vote Confirmation: Devil in the Operations Details
Determining whether a vote was actually counted at a corporate meeting has resurrected a sparring match among transfer agents, financial intermediaries, issuers and Broadridge Financial over how to operationally get the job done. Among the participants on a new end-to-end vote confirmation committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission to address the issue, […]
BNY Mellon Gives Fund Managers New NAV Agent
Fund managers no longer have to rely on their fund administrator’s backup plan or their own when striking or validating a net asset value. BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank, says it can save the day by doing all the operational work using Milestone Group’s pControl platform which also allows for accurate backup NAVs […]
Suspicious Activity Reports: Should Absolute or Qualified Immunity Apply?
US anti-money laundering compliance managers may have to think twice before filing suspicious activity reports (SARs) depending on what the Supreme Court decides in a case involving Fidelity Brokerage Services. The petition filed by AER Advisors and two of its clients William J. Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits in White Plains, New […]
SEC’s Proxy Voting Guidance: What About Corporate Actions?
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent guidance on proxy voting may have unintentionally raised the issue of whether fund managers are meeting their fiduciary obligations when they vote in one-off voluntary corporate action events. Compliance managers at several US fund management firms tell FinOps Report that following the publication of the SEC’s publication of […]
SEC: Old Transfer Agent Rules Apply to New Blockchain
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to register blockchain-enabled transfer agents has resurrected the issue of how it can apply securities laws to a nascent unproven technology. San Francisco-based Securitize has laid claim to being the first “agent” registered by the SEC to have developed an open-source blockchain based protocol for shareholder recordkeeping with […]
Rule 606: SEC Redefines Discretionary Trades
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to broadly define what makes a trade execution discretionary will force introducing and executing brokers to walk a thin tightrope when complying with its new Rule 606. They will have to make some tough choices on how much information the executing broker can release on a trade order […]