Guest Contributor: Dan Simon, Managing Director, US Operations, Cognito ‘Tis, once again, the season to be jolly. For the past couple of years it has been very popular to scale back parties or cancel them altogether. This year they are back with a vengeance. This week alone, Cognito is hosting three holiday parties in different
Financial Technology
Who’s Going to Consolidate All the Consolidated Tapes?
Guest Contributor: Steve Grob, Director of Group Strategy, Fidessa Couldn’t resist a smile this week when I read that NYSE Technologies will be producing a consolidated tape in 2011. This comes hot on the heels of a similar announcement from Thomson Reuters, stating that it too intends to provide a real-time feed of consolidated prices.
Back-Office
For Whom Should We Give Thanks?
Guest Contributor: Holly Miller, Partner & Founder, Stone House Consulting In a few days’ time, Americans around the globe will gather together with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. It is traditionally an occasion to reflect on the factors that contributed to our success, to speak of the people who helped us and to share
Back-Office
UCITS IV –Scared of Commitment?
Guest Contributer: Steve Carrier-Simon, Buy-side Sentinel Product Manager, Fidessa The implications of UCITS IV are being widely debated. And market watchers will all have their own areas of interest. What will be the tax issues? What will it mean for cross border mergers? How will master feeder structures be affected? Etc…etc The area that got
Back-Office
Derivatives – Devil or Angel?
Guest Contributor: Phil Sindel, Executive Director, Olmstead Associates, Inc. Say the word derivatives to some people and watch them begin to sweat, shake and think about widows and orphans being thrown out on the street. Derivatives appear to have pretty bad public relations! They have been blamed for everything from the current financial crisis to
Corporate Actions
If SWIFT Doesn’t Lead ISO20022 Will Stagnate
Guest Contributer: Gary Wright, CEO, BISS Research As everyone knows, in the securities market, ISO0022 messages are beginning to grab plenty of attention, but very little genuine activity, when it comes to implementation by financial services firms. Why? SWIFT has been instrumental in the introduction of ISO15022 into the world’s securities markets where bank to
Back-Office
Operational Risk – the Overlooked Necessity
Guest Contributer: Charles Garcia, Head of Sales, North America, Sophis As financial firms plan their budget allocations for 2011 and beyond, the one crucial area where some companies fail to focus, and which can wind up a costly mistake, is operational risk management. Following the global financial crisis’ industry-wide spending freeze, firms are now finally
Back-Office
Ramping up the Back-Office
Guest Contributer:Nolan Gesher, Senior Product Manager – Risk & Compliance, Fiserv The amount of attention the back office gets nowadays might mean it could easily be mistaken for the portfolio manager’s suite or the trader’s desk. Why? The increase in due diligence on back office operations by investors, especially when it comes to reconciliation processes.
Corporate Actions
Corporate Actions: There’s an App for That
Guest Contributer:Gerard Bermingham, VP of Product Strategy, Information Mosaic In the past decade, developments in technology have helped automate at least some of the areas of corporate actions processing. The evolution of XML-based middleware applications, for example, has assisted in the automation of data comparison functionality. In its pursuit of the elusive “golden copy” announcement,
Back-Office
The Devil in the Data, An Evolution that Won’t Be Televised
Guest Contributer:John Avery, Partner, SunGard Transparency, Efficiency and Networks (TEN) were three of the key themes for SunGard in 2010, and it’s no coincidence that this is the same year that the greatest set of reforms in generations became law in the US and will soon become law in other jurisdictions. With this new regulatory
