Guest Contributor: Mike Molaro, Managing Partner, NorthPoint Financial Some of what were perceived to be the riskiest securities of the pre-financial crisis are back. The Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) market indicators are pointing to a profitable resurgence and growing inventory for these instruments. CLOs are special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with securitization payments in the form of
Data Management
Regulations: Cure or Calamity?
Guest Contributor: James Wells III, Marketing Communications Manager at Imagine Software Just as Form PF transformed the alternative investment segment by adding a massive operational burden and forcing firms to reassess their risk management practices, new CFTC regulations are reshaping the clearing industry. By adding a slew of rules intended to increase customer access to
Guest Blog
SEC Socializes Public Disclosure
Guest Contributors: Eric Hazard and Jade Faugno, Intermarket Communications In the immortal words of Heraclitus, “change is the only constant,” and once again the financial services industry – and those who communicate about it – will find ourselves evolving with the ever-changing technological landscape. On April 2, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued
Guest Blog
The Salesperson’s Role in the IT War
Guest Contributor: Jim Muir, Financial Management Expert; Director, API Software, AutoRek Recent dynamics on financial services businesses – such as small margins, political pressures and an influx of new regulations – have stretched technology resources to, and in some cases beyond, breaking point. However, with IT spend forecast to have an average Compound Annual Growth
Guest Blog
Innovation goes East – Dawn of the Technology Spring
Guest Contributor: Neil Vernon, Development Director at Gresham ComputingI’m writing this from Singapore, identified last year by Insead as the 3rd most innovative country in the world and in March 2013 named “Top Innovation City” in a Wall Street journal report. Financial Institutions and Corporates operating in this region need modern technology solutions that can
Guest Blog
The Rising Voice of Transparency and Control in Fund Operations
By John Herlihy and Geoff Hodge, Milestone Group Boards, auditors, management and shareholders have been making their voices heard: among the alphabet soup of new fund management regulations, transparency and control are the common themes. We are now indisputably at the point where they are a required core competency among fund managers and operators. On
Guest Blog
The Dark Art of Magic Quadrants and Pitching Analysts
Guest Contributor: Sally Yates, Head of Influence, Metia Tap in Magic Quadrant into Google and up pops a raft of press releases happily announcing the ‘winners’ in the latest two by two grid wars. Like them or loathe them, MQs have become a bit of a holy grail. Rarely do you come across a fintech
Guest Blog
Wealth Managers Look to New Service Models for 2013 and Beyond
Guest Contributor: Cheryl Nash, President, Investment Services, Fiserv 2012 was a turnaround year for the wealth management industry. Coming out of the prior crisis, last year was a period of regaining control for advisory firms — revisiting practices, revamping processes, implementing new technology and restoring investors’ faith— to regain growth and better serve clients. Firms
Back-Office
Lean and Efficient Best Practices: Utilities, Shared Services and Centres of Excellence in Reconciliations
Guest Contributor: David Penney, Executive Vice President , SmartStream Technologies Ltd Reconciliations are an essential part of back office processing throughout financial services and markets. Experience with our customers leads to the conclusion that Internal Utilities are already well established with a Centre of Excellence as best practice. I am convinced Shared Service Centres are
Guest Blog
Why Not T+0?
Guest Contributor: Jeremiah J. O’Connell, Chief Executive Officer & senior principal, Jeremiah Associates LLC The global industry is once again exploring the ideal settlement cycle. This has been a focus since an earlier change to T+3. The motivation for change is that a shorter interval of time between trade-settlement dates reduces the risks and costs
