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
Dodd-Frank
“What is” a Hedge Fund
A hedge fund is a private partnership investment fund that uses complex investment strategies with the goal of maximizing returns on the funds’ underlying investments. Accredited investors run hedge funds and pool money in order to make risky, yet profitable investments. Therefore, despite the fact that “hedging” implies risk reduction, hedge funds tend to be
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
Fun Friday
“What Is” The Flash Crash?
The Flash Crash, which happened after 2:30 pm EST on May 6, 2010, was a sudden, massive drop and recovery in securities prices. During the crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by nearly 1,000 points and bounced back within 20 minutes. The Flash Crash ranks as the biggest one-day, point decline in the Dow’s
Uncategorized
“What Is” the Sell Side?
The sell side consists of financial services firms such as broker-dealers, investment banks and market makers that offer securities and investment services to money managers working on behalf of pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies, also known as the buy side. The sell side can offer a wide variety of financial instruments. The sell
Uncategorized
Outsourcing Data Management and Performance Measurement to Minimize Operational Risk
Guest Contributor: Jamie Verrengia, Senior Vice President at DST Global Solutions & Arthur Fryar, Global Product Manager – Investment Performance, Attribution & Data Management Solutions, DST Global Solutions The importance of a firm’s performance measurement team, from the output they produce, to their ability to interpret results, is growing at a rapid pace under today’s
What is series
“What Is” the Buy-Side?
In short, the buy side consists of firms looking to purchase assets or securities from the sell side, which offers these assets and other investment opportunities. The buy side mostly refers to the major institutions such as pension funds and insurance companies that are focused on maximizing the financial assets of their investors via purchases
Compliance
What Can Hedge Fund Administrators Learn from Madonna?
Guest Contributor: George Michaels, CEO, G2 FinTech One could say Madonna owes a great deal of her multi-decade success to her ability to “reinvent” herself and keep pace with the ever-changing music scene. The hedge fund administration industry could learn a thing or two from this strategy. Hedge fund “admins” are perfectly poised to capitalize
What is series
“What Is” Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning?
Disaster recovery and business continuity planning (DR/BCP) for financial services firms are terms that refer to the pre-planning, regulatory requirements, revival processes, IT techniques, testing and certification that help firms survive natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other emergency events, and then return to business. Although disaster recovery and business continuity planning are related, they are
Guest Blog
Areas of Focus for Private Equity Managers in 2013
Guest Contributor: Amelia Stoj, Vice President of HedgeOp Compliance, an IMS Group company As it is 2013, it is important for SEC registered private equity managers to focus on upcoming filing deadlines and on-going compliance issues for the year ahead. All registered private equity managers should note that there are two large filing deadlines looming
