Guest Contributor: Jane Conway, Ph.D., Chief Information Officer, Infonic AG Nearly 30 years ago, a US President said, “Information is the oxygen of the modern age.” While that statement is perhaps even more appropriate today, there’s an important impact to consider. Just as oxygen can be deadly in too small or too large a quantity,
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
Compliance
Social Media without the Compliance Headaches
Guest Contributor: Stephen Marsh, CEO & Founder, Smarsh, Inc. A number of registered firms have prohibited the use of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks due to the perceived compliance complexities, and this isn’t anything new. According to a survey of financial professionals conducted last year by American Century Investment, 47 percent of respondents
Buy-Side
Overcoming the Challenges of Managing Separately Managed Accounts
Guest Contributer: Joseph Amarante, Senior Vice President of Professional Services, NorthPoint Hedge fund managers often seek additional AUM by providing access to their investment strategies through the on-boarding of separately managed accounts (SMAs). In this scenario, a manager allocates assets, usually pari passu, between the fund’s internal investment vehicles and an investor’s managed account. Additionally,
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
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
Cloud
Cloud Computing: Welcome to the Buy-Side
Guest Contributor: Mike Wilkins, Industry Expert Cloud computing’s impact on financial technology is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days, from the pinstriped bankers on Wall Street to the hoodie and jeans crowd on LaSalle Street. As the geek humor bit goes, we all know the cloud’s gone mainstream when Microsoft is running commercials
Dodd-Frank
#WhyTwitterIsUsefulForWork
Guest Contributor: Dorothy Friedman, Vice President, Marketing, Fidessa People at work are often shocked to learn that I am on Twitter. They ask, “Why would you do that?” Or say, “Wow, that’s a huge waste of time”. Many of them do not realize how valuable Twitter can be from a business perspective, if used properly.
Back-Office
Performance Fees – Good or Bad?… Part II
To read Part I of this article please click here. carl baconGuest Contributor: Carl Bacon, Chairman, StatPro Some critics of performance fees make the claim that asymmetric fees in particular encourage managers to take more risk if performance is poor because they have little further downside and considerable upside. This is not my personal experience.
Back-Office
Performance Fees – Good or Bad? Part I
Guest Contributor: Carl Bacon, Chairman, StatPro After a brief lull during the credit crisis, performance (or incentive) fees are again becoming increasingly high profile. An excellent time therefore to pose two questions: Are they a good thing? And if used, how should they be structured? Supporters of performance fees would suggest that they are desirable
