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Chris Kentouris
What It's Worth
October 28, 2011
Custodian banks think they should be charged less for "low value" data, than high. What a concept.
Cost-Basis Reporting: Know Thyself
October 21, 2011
Self assessment can be tough. Now comes cost-basis reporting. Here's how to inspect yourself.
Cost-Basis Reporting: Know Thyself
October 21, 2011
Self assessment can be tough. Now comes cost-basis reporting. Here's how to inspect yourself.
Taking Control of Swap Contracts
October 14, 2011
Why it would be easy for a "rogue" employee to take control of a payment for a swaps contract.
Registration Countdown: 10 Days to Go
October 7, 2011
It's time to notify FINRA who you will register as an ops professional.
What We Have Here is Failure to Confirm
September 30, 2011
Exchange-traded funds were not at fault in UBS’ $2.3 billion loss from unauthorized trades. The failure to confirm that there were counterparties to the trades was.
Global Identifiers: What SIBOS2011 Revealed and Didn't
September 22, 2011
There are still a lot of unanswered questions, as the system for identifying entities worldwide moves ahead with rapidity.
Global Entity Identifier: What to Ask At SIBOS 2011
September 16, 2011
SWIFT has dedicated several panels to the legal entity ID at its SIBOS conference next week. We asked a dozen data management and operations experts what they were hoping to hear.
What to Ask BNY Mellon
September 9, 2011
Here are six questions which fund managers and fund boards should be prepared to ask the world's largest custodian bank after its sudden switch in chief executives.
Risk Measurement Gets Real. And Fast.
September 2, 2011
Measuring risk is getting serious. And happening in real time. There’s no turning back.
Taking Action on Corporate Actions
August 24, 2011
Pulling together information on corporate actions is not easy.
Fail to Settle on Time? Fine
August 15, 2011
Traders in U.S agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities soon won't be able to get away with failing to settle their transactions on time.
Downgrade Fallout
August 8, 2011
Operations executives will be awash in the ripple effect of Standard & Poor's decision to drop the triple A rating of U.S. government debt a notch, to AA-plus.
Reporting Misdeeds Gets Tougher
July 27, 2011
Complying with the new FINRA benchmarks on violations of broker-dealer rules won’t be easy.
Getting Tough in U.K.
July 20, 2011
The United Kingdom will soon have a tougher and bolder regulator responsible for monitoring fund managers, broker dealers and banks. Its name? The Financial Conduct Authority.
Striking Out on Values
July 13, 2011
If you don't document how you value complex securities, you will face the music now. From the SEC.
Outsourcing Ops, Broker Style
July 6, 2011
Five ways brokers can control costs and get predictable operating procedures.
How to Catch a Thief, UK Style
June 27, 2011
Preventing money-laundering activities is one of the key regulatory responsibilities of banks and broker-dealers. They are supposed to know just who they are doing business with and where their money is coming from.
Yet not all are up to snuff. Too many in the City of London just don't have sufficient operational procedures in place so they are allowing high risk customers to pass under the radar. …
European ETFs: Pretty Unsettling
June 21, 2011
Unlike most European equities, European ETFs are listed in multiple markets -- up to five. And unlike in the U.S., where there is only one depository system – the Depository Trust Company -- there are dozens in Europe. This creates an operational nightmare for broker-dealers when settling trades.
Making Friends, With Cost-Basis Reporting
June 15, 2011
The IRS may have just found another reason for mutual fund operations executives to reach out and make new friends. Necessity.
Hedge Funds Facing ‘Massive Data Project’
June 6, 2011
Just how difficult will it be complete not just Form ADV, but Form PF? The operational pleasures of registering at the SEC.
EC Call on ID Fees Not Good Enough, Siebel Says
May 31, 2011
Trade organizations representing European fund managers, banks and brokerage firms are concerned that a recent EC decision may not go far enough in protecting their use of international securities identification numbers. Rudolf Siebel, managing director for Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management, spoke with Securities Technology Monitor.
Global Harmony: Fair But Not Easy
May 24, 2011
Figuring out the "fair value" of financial instruments will, very soon, have to meet international standards.
Transferring Transfer Agents
May 17, 2011
Migrate or move. That’s the choice facing companies which use Bank of New York Mellon to keep track of shares in registered investors’ accounts, send dividend checks, mail proxy materials and ballots and count up votes. Here is what to think about.
Keep It Simple, Issuers
May 10, 2011
Getting the data right to keep track of a financial instrument throughout its life is not easy. Don't make it harder than it has to be.
Five Guidelines for Measuring Counterparty Risk
May 4, 2011
How to measure counterparty risk correctly is a difficult task.
Mobile Compliance, On Call
April 27, 2011
To catch more instances of insider trading, the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority now wants City of London firms to record calls made on mobile phone and other “relevant devises” for at least six months as of November 14.
Here's Some Advice, Advisers: Don't Wait (to Register)
April 19, 2011
July 21 may seem like over four months away. But it really isn’t for investment advisers who have to be registered by that date with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When Licensing and Outsourcing Collide
April 12, 2011
Brokers will have to license their senior operations executives. How many of them will not actually be their employees?
Ticked Over Tick Fees
April 6, 2011
Have NYSE Arca and Nasdaq OMX finally won a five-year battle with a group of Internet companies and SIFMA over how much they can charge for proprietary market data?
Settling on Settlement Instructions
March 30, 2011
Failures in standing settlement instructions are the most avoidable triggers of failed trades, say investment operations experts.
Verifying the Verifier
March 22, 2011
Investment managers live and die by how well the funds they manage are performing. But who can check on whether they are providing investors with the right calculations?
ID Codes: ANNA Suits Up
March 14, 2011
The Association of National Numbering Agencies has thrown its hat in the ring to set a standard for identifying financial entities, to help guard against systemic risk. But ANNA is vying for anointment by the Office of Financial Research in apparent competition with one of its own members, CUSIP Global Services.
Business Conduct, Swaps & You
March 8, 2011
Swap dealers and major swap market participants could soon have greater operational and legal issues to worry about than whether or not they clear their transactions through a centralized clearinghouse.
FIXing Trade Execution Reports
March 1, 2011
A committee of buy-side firms released a set of recommendations on what information and data formats broker-dealers should include when sending reports on executed orders to fund managers.
What Brokers Don’t Know About Muni Bonds
February 22, 2011
When it comes to municipal bonds, broker-dealers face an unusual challenge that is beyond their control.
DTCC and SWIFT: Code Collaborators
February 15, 2011
Until recently, the two were competitors when it came to creating identification codes for business entities. What changed?
Lost Shareholders & Hot Water
February 8, 2011
Broker-dealers will be surprised, if they think that meeting potential requirements set by the Securities and Exchange Commission tracking down lost shareholders won’t be that difficult. If they don’t cross-their T’s and dot their I’s in how they communicate to the holders of unclaimed securities accounts they could find themselves in hot water with a state agency. …
Brokers, Find Your 'Lost' Shareholders
January 31, 2011
The SEC on Jan. 27 said broker-dealers have to track down “lost” shareholders. It’s an outgrowth of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act which puts them on a level playing field with transfer agents.
The Merits of Mexico’s New Settlement System
January 25, 2011
Indeval chief risk officer Jaime Villasenor discusses the central securities depository's new Model III settlement system and how it works.
Tech Spending: Buy Side's Biggest Bets
January 18, 2011
Fund managers are also realizing they can’t avoid automating procedures -- or continuing to rely on what their trading counterparts and third-party service providers are telling them.
Getting Real (Or Near-Real) in Mexico
January 12, 2011
With the help of IBM, Mexico has just laid claim to creating the world’s most efficient securities depository. How is that?
Top Priorities for Tech Spending in 2011
January 5, 2011
Here are the top five priorities for spending in the coming year, based on interviews conducted with about a dozen operations and technology executives, as well as software vendors who serve them.
Top 5 Nightmares in 2011
December 27, 2010
As 2010 draws to a close, operations executives are trying to wrap up their reports to senior management of just what went wrong and why. And here's what worries them about 2011.
Top Ten Operational Risks to Avoid
December 17, 2010
When glitches happen in the processing of trades on Wall Street, those in charge are sitting in "middle" and "back" offices. Here are the risks they (and you) face, front and center.
Bloomberg’s Openness on Symbology
December 14, 2010
Just because Bloomberg is giving away its method for identifying securities does not mean it will become a standard.
Mortgage-Backed Securities, Fail No More
December 8, 2010
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that from October 28 through November 24, 2010 about $3.1 trillion worth of mortgage-backed securities were not delivered on time. A fix is in the works.
In the Clean Up Spot: Data Management
November 30, 2010
Financial firms still have a long way to go to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the data they store about the transactions they execute and the customers and trading parties they deal with.
It's the System's Fault? Not.
November 23, 2010
Why cutting corners won't cut it with regulators, for back-office executives.
Identifying Securities: At What Cost?
November 16, 2010
Are complaints about CUSIP fees being sent up the wrong tree? The SEC is not a utility commission. It does not regulate rates or fees or prices.
Who Really Benefits from Proxy Reform?
November 9, 2010
As is always the case with regulatory reform, there are winners and losers. In reforming the distribution of proxy materials, however, the identification part gets hard.
FINRA & Fiduciary Standards: Are Advisers Next?
November 5, 2010
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority already is coming up with some nitty gritty disclosure requirements on fiduciary care for broker-dealers. Watch out, investment advisers.
Hung Jury on Proxy Reform?
October 26, 2010
The SEC is not likely to force significant change in the proxy distribution process, in the estimation of an Avondale Partners analyst.
Tower of Babel, in Messaging Standards
October 19, 2010
Six trade associations have come up with their own investment roadmap for securities messages with a slight twist – All existing types will live on.
A Taxing System for Foreign Accounts
October 12, 2010
Financial firms were hoping the IRS would make it easy for them to withhold tax on U.S. customers buying foreign securities. They didn't get their wish.
A Taxing System for Foreign Accounts
October 12, 2010
Financial firms were hoping the IRS would make it easy for them to withhold tax on U.S. customers buying foreign securities. They didn't get their wish.
Market Data’s Carte Blanche
October 5, 2010
Has the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act given U.S. exchanges carte blanche to charge whatever they want for distributing market data to their members?
The Cost of Settlement: 20 Eurocents and Counting
September 28, 2010
What will it really cost to settle transactions through Target2Securities, Europe's aborning "single platform" for settlement?
Lots of Data, No Standards Equals Little Value
September 21, 2010
Financial firms are centralizing management of their data and paying extra to make sure it is accurate. But its value is being lost, by lack of standards.
Clearing Up Securities Lending
September 13, 2010
If equity exchanges and fixed income deals are cleared through central clearinghouses, so should securities lending transaction
Same-Day Affirmation … or Same-Day Matching?
September 7, 2010
Fund managers need to reduce the number of trades which don’t settle on time or are settled erroneously.
Fund Managers: Expand Best Execution to the Back-Office
August 31, 2010
Fund managers try to provide their institutional clients with best execution, but are falling short of the mark in one key area- back office settlement fees. Thanks to a technology company and broker-dealer called ESP Technologies, they don’t have to.
Wanted: Chief Data Officer. Data Skills Not Necessary.
August 24, 2010
Pretty soon the U.S government will have the equivalent of a chief data officer. This will be the person who occupies the post of director of the Office of Financial Research. The OFR is new agency that will be for the collecting of data from financial corporations what the Internal Revenue Service is for taxes. This newly created department will be responsible for collecting whatever data is needed from financial institutions so that the industry as…
Get Real Data. Go Virtual.
August 17, 2010
When you can’t find the information you actually want, virtual data may be the best answer.
Who Will Pay for Client-Directed Voting?
August 10, 2010
Suppose a broker-dealer or bank could come up with a way for retail investors – Mr. and Mrs. U.S. Citizen -- to cast their votes in corporate agendas. Who will pay for it?
Hedge Fund Managers: It’s Show Time
August 3, 2010
You’re one of the thousands of hedge fund managers who has accumulated enough assets to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission based on the new financial reform legislation. Now what?
Stating Their Cases For Hedge Fund Registration
July 27, 2010
You're a small startup hedge fund. You think you've avoided registration. Maybe with the SEC, that will be true. But not states, necessarily.
In Classifying Clients, Keep Track of the Data
July 20, 2010
European regulators are putting the practices of financial firms to the test by ensuring they know how to classify and update their counterparty records.
Disclosing the Costs of the Fiduciary Standard
July 13, 2010
No one’s said anything yet about it, but a fiduciary standard will mean not just keeping an investor’s interests ahead of one’s own. It will also mean making sure that customer knows what that is costing.
Supremes Rule: Back to Square One on Business Patents
July 6, 2010
A long-awaited ruling by the Supreme Court on June 28 didn’t do away with patenting business methods. But it did little to explain just what litmus test can be used.
Reform Should Not Panic Fund Managers
June 29, 2010
Fund managers will have to make some massive changes in handling trades of over-the-counter derivatives even though they are not specifically mentioned in the new legislation.
Don’t Let Your Operations Team Grow Up to be Traders
June 22, 2010
What you can learn from the "rogue trader" incident at Societe General, while attending the Securities Industry and Financial Market Association’s technology show this week.
Undertakings IV: The Scary Movie Trailer
June 15, 2010
UCITS IV its just around the corner. Yes, this sounds like the fourth version of that scary movie, the Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities.
The DTCC, Efficiency and OTC Collateral Management
June 8, 2010
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has set its sights on playing a role in the often neglected aspect of the OTC market – managing collateral. And it's eager to listen to your ideas.
Measuring Up: Do You Fail As Often As Your Peers?
June 1, 2010
North American fund managers find the most settlement failures occur in Eastern Europe. There, 23.4 percent of trades failed to settle on time. This is just one of the tidbits of information which investment managers will learn to help them avoid future settlement failures when they subscribe to a new service offered by Cutter Associates.
When Certifying Data is Accurate, Certify the Professionals
May 25, 2010
Data management executives handle one of the most critical aspects of the financial services industry – the information used to trade and process millions if not billions of securities transactions each year. But just how qualified are they?
Think, Before Building Pricing Platform From Scratch
May 18, 2010
Financial firms wanting to develop a system in-house to price their book of business in over-the-counter derivatives had better think twice.
Standardization: Not As Easy As It Sounds
May 11, 2010
When it comes to the reporting requirements of hedge funds, standardization could easily become costly, cumbersome and ill-advised, say data management experts.
More Regs on the Way: Get Ready for A Lot More Ops and IT Headaches (And Pull Out Those Wallets)
May 4, 2010
The worldwide economic crisis may not be over and regulations may not be finalized on how to prevent a recurrence.
Going to the Source for Corporate Actions
April 27, 2010
XBRL U.S., SWIFT and the DTCC say they have come up with a better game plan. They want to tag corporate actions in the eXtensible Business Reporting Language protocol. Who wouldn't want that?
Coexistence? Not as Great as it Sounds
April 20, 2010
"Coexistence" is a catch-all phrase used by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Communications as it moves from an existing message format to a new one. But it may be a costly existence.
Difficulty, Dread & Cost-Basis Reporting
April 13, 2010
If the U.S. securities industry thought switching to new options symbols in February would be operationally challenging and expensive – just wait until the Internal Revenue Service’s cost-basis reporting rules come into effect next year.
SEC to Bank CFOs: Do You Know Where Your Repos Are?
April 6, 2010
The Treasury, operations and financial accounting departments of some of the U.S’ largest banks are going to be pretty busy for the next few days, if not weeks.
Code Enforcement: Who Regulates the Regulator?
March 30, 2010
The Financial Services Authority apparently thinks that securities firms in the United Kingdom should do as it says and not do as it does. In managing its own house, it isn’t doing such a great job.
Preventing Disasters at Hedge Funds
March 23, 2010
Despite increased scrutiny, an analysis of 22 U.S. hedge funds found that hedge funds aren’t prepared for electronic disasters. They also allegedly aren’t keeping customer and trading data secure.
Money Market Funds Must Now Play Tag
March 16, 2010
Operations staff soon will be faced with the task of quickly reporting more information about the holdings in their money market funds. And they will have to do so using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tagging format.
Getting a Grip on Bilaterally Cleared Trade
March 12, 2010
The National Securities Clearing Corp. will soon launch a service called the Obligation Warehouse, which will offer its broker-dealer participants an automated way of reducing operating costs – and risk – with trades involving equities, corporate bonds, municipal bonds and unit investment trusts.
Creating A Global Data Repository: Who Will Blink First?
February 23, 2010
The Fed wants to take on the role of systematic risk overseer in the U.S. if not the globe. And it needs data to analyze to do it. How will it get it?
Developing Software? Be Forewarned and Forearmed
February 16, 2010
You think you have just achieved the American dream by producing a piece of software that the securities industry needs, wants and has to use. Nothing can go wrong, right? Not exactly. You have to protect your dream first.
Final Countdown to New Options Symbols: Get Ready (or Else)
February 9, 2010
There are only three days left until ticker symbols for U.S. options expand from five characters to as many as 21. Are you ready?
The Season for Fairer Value in Annual Reports
February 2, 2010
Operations executives, data analysts, valuation experts and IT staff will need to brace themselves to do even more work to do when it comes to valuing their securities correctly this year. Simply striking a correct price on assets held by a fund manager, bank or brokerage firm won’t be enough.
Bloomberg: It Can’t All Be Free
January 26, 2010
Last year, Bloomberg became the first data vendor to provide its unique, proprietary identification codes for stocks, bonds, options contracts and other financial instruments for free on a new website. But that doesn’t mean that Bloomberg wants to give everything away for free.
Dear CEOs: Get More Data for Risk Analysis
January 19, 2010
U.S. financial firms aren’t the only ones who need to worry about how to shore up their data management skills to comply with potential legislation for monitoring enterprisewide risk.
Who Pays for Proxy Reform?
January 12, 2010
Proxy reform. It’s on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s list of initiatives this year but just what it should spell will likely continue to be one of the most heated topics to cross the regulator’s desk.
Do You Really Need the Market Data You Want?
January 4, 2010
The race has begun. Algorithmic trading and other types of electronic trading with a wider range of liquidity providers will mean a lot more ticks flowing through applications, at record speeds. But can you afford all the data about markets you want, to support the trading?
Data Management 2010: The Ins and Outs
December 29, 2009
Effective data management will become critical in 2010, as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic scrutinize, identify and try to limit systemic risk. This means firms will have to keep a closer tab on risk within their own shops.
Data Tsunami About to Hit Shore
December 22, 2009
As financial firms consider just how to keep their budgets lean and mean in 2010, they will be facing pretty tough challenges in complying with the requirements of the so-called financial reform. Particularly when it comes to managing the data involved.
Transfer Agents and Investors Beware: When it Comes to Unclaimed Accounts, State Laws End Up Hurting Everyone (Except the State)
December 15, 2009
States are increasingly trying to pull a fast one on investors. In fact, you could say those investors could soon feel cheated on escheatment.
Next Up for Investigation: ID Codes for Counterparties?
December 8, 2009
The European Commission seems to think that identification codes for financial instruments should be obtained for free.
Will Free be a Four-Letter Word in ‘Licensing’ ID Codes?
December 4, 2009
The European Commission’s investigation into the licensing of identification codes for financial instruments by Standard and Poor’s CUSIP Global Services and Thomson Reuters has aptly generated several basic and underlying questions that have been long overdue.
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