For securities firms, custodian banks and service providers, reconciliation encompasses accounting and data clarification processes that are intended to prevent confusion and loss caused by the complications of securities transactions. The financial accounting aspect of reconciliation involves the confirmation of the balance of securities and cash that will fund a financial transaction. The most frequent
Data Management
“What Is” Complex Event Processing (CEP)
Complex Event Processing (CEP) technologies enable firms to discover trends by analyzing large volumes of data, also known as events, such as major trade flows. Enterprise-wide architectures that are event-driven or service-oriented can then be built to react and take advantage of the identified trends. CEP-based reviews can spot patterns and decipher the impacts of
Data Management
“What is” Big Data?
A fairly new buzzword, “Big Data” generally describes large sets of key information that present many businesses with major management challenges. The nearly overwhelming volumes of Big Data make it difficult for IT managers to capture, store and analyze it. The volumes are often too large to process via traditional IT infrastructures. The typical dataset
Compliance
“What is” Form PF?
Form PF (private fund) is a new SEC rule that requires private fund advisers to report regulatory assets under management, dubbed RAUM, to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), an organization established under Dodd-Frank in order to monitor risks within the financial sector. The Form PF requirements are intended to provide risk exposure statistics regarding
Corporate Actions
“What is” Reference Data?
The term reference data is most commonly used by information technology (IT) professionals in the financial sector to categorize data that describes financial transactions and helps identify the participants in those transactions. Reference data was established by regulatory agencies in order to increase trade efficiency and to help firms manage risk. In short, reference data
What is series
“What Is” a Corporate Action?
A corporate action is a step taken by a publicly traded company that usually sets off a process that impacts the shareholders of a stock. Generally, corporate actions provide investors with more transparency into a public company’s financial state by letting investors observe how each action influences the price of a stock. Ultimately, it should
Derivatives
“What Is” Dodd-Frank?
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, most commonly referred to as Dodd-Frank, is a major piece of federal legislation established in response to the Great Recession of 2008-09. The crisis was primarily fueled by the housing bubble and under-regulated, risky trading in mortgage-back derivatives and related securities by many major financial services
What is series
“What Is” Mark-to-Market Accounting?
The term “mark to market (MTM),” also referred to as fair value accounting, is the practice of updating the value of an asset or a liability to reflect its real market value rather than the initial cost of the asset or liability. For financial firms, the mark-to-market value is established by discovering the price of
Data Management
Finger on the Pulse
FTF News recently polled our readers and asked, “What is Big Data?” Here’s what our readers said: The new buzzword from The Matrix– 89.27% A fat version of the Star Trek android – 1.13% The father of Baby Data –1.69% Polite term for the paper piles of hoarders– 1.13% Five NYC phone books– 1.69%
What is series
“What Is” XBRL?
The eXtensible Business Reporting Language, commonly referred to as XBRL, is a variation of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which allows for the exchange of different types of digitized information. A user-friendly markup language, XBRL does not require any previous XML experience or a background in information technology (IT). The global standard, established by the
