I think Derivatives are one of the toughest topics to master in the world of financial services. The complexity of derivatives is not only never-ending, but it is forever changing. Even now, as I sit here and type, there are changes and further uncertainty building around what derivatives operations and processing will look like in
Conference and Event Planning
Boston Here We Come
Financial Technologies Forum not only offers quality conferences each year, but we also offer a variety of instructional training courses for securities industry professionals. Originally, these courses only took place at our home base in the Wall Street district of New York City. Since then, however, we have expanded to the cities of Chicago, San
Back-Office
Fall Classes in Session
Well, folks, it appears summer is officially over. With that comes the start of a new training season. We here at FTF will miss the warm summer days but are looking forward to once again bringing knowledge and insight to Wall Street and beyond. So whether you want to travel to New York City, Boston,
Buy-Side
Buy-Side’s Laying Low on Derivatives Reform… For Now
I just saw an interesting video on Tabb Forum about where the buy-side lies regarding derivatives reform. Kevin McPartland from Tabb Group and Chad Wekelo from Actualize Consulting discuss this issue and comment that with the uncertainty surrounding Dodd-Frank and derivatives reform, not much is being done currently, outside of initial outreach, to industry vendors
Derivatives
A Derivatives Delay? What to Do for the Next 15 Months
Guest Contributor: Tony Scianna, deputy head of strategy, SunGard Last week we read that U.S. House Republicans voted to delay new derivatives rules by 15 months. Before we go into what this means for the derivatives industry, let’s take a look at how long 15 months really is: * 5 seasons will pass * We’ll
Derivatives
Proposed Derivatives Rules: Regulators Going Too Far?
Guest Contributor: John Jay, Senior Analyst, Aite Group The name of the game is derivatives regulation, and financial regulators are asking end users to ante up. While pursuing risk management activities, non-financial firms may be subjected to posting higher collateral requirements with their financial counterparties (i.e., banks) than are currently necessary. In part, these firms
Compliance
Regulators vs. Traders
Traditionally, OTC derivative trades are not required to take place over an exchange, but regulators are working on changing that very soon. The OTC derivatives market has been boisterously opposing the potential new regulations that will require them to now trade over exchanges because it will mean that they will need higher collateral and better
Clearing and Settlement
The Mysterious Role of the Clearinghouse
The idea of the clearinghouse is fairly simple. A clearinghouse acts as a middle man who will insure a financial transaction between two market parties. This definition may be simple enough, but in reality a clearinghouse is far more complex and, if it were to fail, the results could be disastrous for the economy. For
Derivatives
Technology Cuts: Bad News for the CFTC
So what would happen if the CFTC ran out of room to store data? Well we just might find out this October when, according to Scott O’Malia, a commissioner at the CFTC, they are on a path to do just that! The CFTC’s technology budget, like all government agencies, has been frozen for 2011 at
Clearing and Settlement
Another OTC Marketplace Moves Toward CCP Clearing
Guest Contributer: Jim Binder, Director, Public Relations, The Options Clearing Corporation In the aftermath of the financial crisis, and through the regulatory reform efforts it led to, central counterparty (CCP) clearing has drawn a lot of attention as a way to help manage risk in the over-the-counter markets. Afterall, listed markets with CCP clearing functioned
