MSIM to White Label BNY’s LiquidityDirect Custodian BNY Mellon reports that Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) is the first white-label client of BNY’s LiquidityDirect, a liquidity management solution that combines technology, connectivity, and client service, officials say. Financial services firms can offer short-term investments by using LiquidityDirect’s technology and services “through a single sign-on for their… Read More >>
SmartStream Picks a New CEO & Other News
Akber Jaffer Replaces Haytham Kaddoura as CEO SmartStream, the post-trade operations solutions provider, has appointed Akber Jaffer as its new chief executive officer (CEO), effective September 19. Jaffer replaces Haytham Kaddoura, who has stepped down from the CEO post. Kaddoura will join SmartStream’s board. Jaffer has “spent several years immersed in both start-up and scaled… Read More >>
DTCC & Others Want Ops Standards for Digital Assets
Clearing agencies DTCC, Clearstream, and Euroclear on September 18 called upon the financial services sector to develop industry standards for digital assets, including blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) for trading digital securities and tokenized securities. Without industry standards, the growth of digital assets in the financial sector will slow and even stall, argue the agencies, which… Read More >>
Is Tokenized Gold the New Collateral?
(Anoushka Rayner, head of growth — commodities, at Paxos, maker of a regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, wants financial services firms to think about how their dormant assets like gold could become collateral alternatives to the U.S. dollar. Paxos officials say that their system, which offers “multilateral payment netting and simultaneous settlement for the… Read More >>
DLT-Based Ops Will Need Guardrails: Report
As more securities operations use distributed ledger technology (DLT), policymakers, regulators, and market participants need to identify regulation, supervision, and risk management practices that “support appropriate stability and protections for all industry stakeholders,” according to a new report, “The Impact of Distributed Ledger Technology in Global Capital Markets.” The report is the result of a… Read More >>
FTF Unveils Winners of the 2023 FTF Awards
With nods to established players and voter enthusiasm for other providers hitting their stride, Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) has unveiled the winners of the 2023 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition. The 30 winners of the FTF Awards competition — now in its 12th year — are being honored for achievements during 2022. “It’s not… Read More >>
Scotiabank & HSBC Fined for Recordkeeping & Phone Woes
Using a mobile phone can get pricey if you’re not careful. That’s a lesson two banks have learned the hard way, each paying multi-million dollar penalties for alleged “recordkeeping and supervision failures for widespread use of unapproved communication methods.” The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed and settled charges against the Bank of… Read More >>
Firms Can Consolidate Ops Silos: Q&A
(In early March, financial information provider SIX announced that its global pricing, market, and reference data can be delivered to investment accounting platform FundGuard’s investment book of record (IBOR), accounting book of record (ABOR), and net asset value (NAV) solutions. The partnership means that FundGuard has access to SIX’s end-of-day market prices, core security master… Read More >>
Regulators Crack Down on Swaps Data Reporting: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Goldman Sachs recently settled charges of alleged swap-trading violations with the CFTC for $15 million. Our story about the matter can be found here: https://bit.ly/41Xa3Jx. The regulator alleges that the firm did not provide clients with “the transparency that the regulations require.” The CFTC also alleges that Goldman Sachs “failed to disclose dozens… Read More >>
Voting Begins in the FTF Awards Competition!
We are pleased to announce that voting has begun for the nominees of the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards 2023, a competition overseen by Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) and the news service. Industry participants pick the winners. Voting began on March 20 when we officially unveiled the nominees and will end on April 28. We… Read More >>
