Over the years at our annual Corporate Actions conferences the issue of automation has continually been a hot topic on the agenda. While many operational procedures have been automated over time, corporate actions have stuck to a process which involves faxing and emailing. Over all, it is a system that leaves a lot of room
Back-Office
School is Back in Session for Ops Professionals
Well, it looks like senior ops professionals of securities firms might have to dust off their books and sharpen their pencils in the near future. On March 4th, FINRA filed a 134 page request for a new registration category that would require certain back-office professionals of brokerage firms to take a qualification exam. Yes, I
Back-Office
So Much Desktop Virtualization, So Little Time…
Guest Contributor: Simon Rust, VP of Technology, AppSense With desktop virtualization expecting to achieve a revenue of $1.5 billion by 2014, an increasing number of financial institutions are investing a great amount of time and energy into this up and coming technology as they are beginning to see the value of centralized management to help
Back-Office
Overcoming Tax Challenges for Fund of Funds
Guest Contributor: Ron Kashden, President, TKS Solutions Common wisdom holds that fund of funds ( hedge funds that invest in other hedge funds) are simpler to operate and manage than traditional funds because they don’t have the headaches of stock splits and mergers. While this may be true on the portfolio accounting side, book keeping
Back-Office
The Challenges of Corporate Actions
Corporate actions tend to be a difficult field to navigate and can present many challenges. Whether it is bond redemptions or the sending of messages between issuers and investors, each action comes with its own set of hurdles. Corporate actions are viewed as expensive, risky and inefficient, yet they are a necessity in today’s financial
Back-Office
The CIO – Your Translator for 2011
Have you ever had to call a tech-support line, whether it was to sort out a smart-phone issue or because your company web site just crashed? If yes, then I’m sure you can relate to the frustration this call can induce. You try to explain your problem in your best tech-savvy way i.e. “When I
Back-Office
Buy-Side Challenges + Opportunities in 2011
Guest Contributer: David Kubersky, Managing Director, SimCorp North America Against the backdrop of the global recession that engulfed the financial services industry over the last few years, the good news is the potential for 2011 looks bright. For the investment management industry in particular, this year holds a number of opportunities. While the recession’s impact
Back-Office
Post-Crisis Rebound & Hedge Fund Staffing
We’ve recently released the agenda for our upcoming 4th Annual Hedge Fund Operations & Technology Conference, which is scheduled to take place in NYC this April. One of the sessions added to the agenda this year is titled “Post-Crisis: Staffing your Hedge Fund Operations Team.” We felt this was an important topic to discuss because,
Back-Office
How Much is Too Much? – Measuring Your Firm’s Risk Appetite
The Senior Supervisors Group (SSG) has recently published a report that assesses the progress financial institutions have made in developing and building infrastructures to measure their risk appetite. This report is a follow up to their 2008 report which identified key weaknesses in many risk management practices. The risk team at any financial institution is
Back-Office
Financial Technologies Forum: The Year Ahead
Well, I have to admit, as much as I love the Holidays and our company-wide break between 2011Christmas and New Year’s (I know, aren’t I a good boss?), it’s good to be back at work and back to a routine. There are lots of exciting things in store for FTF this year and the team
