(Gone are the days when financial services firms could tightly control contact between staff and clients and limit the behavior that facilitates transactions. But, in 2022, firms have to capture a growing list of digital interactions such as unified communication (UC) and web collaboration platforms such as the popular Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Symphony, and Cisco… Read More >>
FTF Reveals the Winners of the 2022 FTF Awards
Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition and to confirm that there will be an in-person gala event later this year to celebrate the industry’s achievements in operational excellence. “I think it’s safe to say that it’s been a long two years. During… Read More >>
Yellen Urges a Cautious Approach to CBDCs
The concept of digital currencies run by central banks is counter to the chaos-driven cryptocurrency movement. But central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are now seen in a very favorable light because of the protections and order they could bring to the crypto world. Even so, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen earlier this month… Read More >>
SEC Gets Serious About Cybersecurity Risks
We know that Vladimir Putin commands an army of hackers that he’s unleashed before — to interfere in American elections and to spread social-media disinformation. The current media and intelligence-services consensus is that — in the wake of the multiple economic sanctions imposed on him and his henchmen over the war against Ukraine — he’s… Read More >>
Voting for the FTF Awards Starts March 14
We are very close to officially announcing the nominees for the highly competitive FTF News Technology Innovation Awards 2022, which means that the most important step is next — industry voters picking the winners. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, the voting process will begin on March 14 and end on April 22. The FTF Awards,… Read More >>
SWIFT Expels Key Russian Banks as Hackers Target Wall Street
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has caused the expulsion of key Russian banks from SWIFT, spurred multiple economic sanctions, and increased the chances that Russian hackers will retaliate via attacks upon financial services organizations. In response to Russia’s aggression, President Biden, European leaders, and Japan have imposed a series of global economic sanctions that… Read More >>
DTCC Launches Repo Markets Service & Other News
DTCC Treasury Kinetics Takes On Repo Market Transparency Post-trade infrastructure and systems provider DTCC is launching a service for accessing U.S. treasury transaction data, called DTCC Treasury Kinetics, which is intended to increase transparency into the repurchase agreement (repo) market, officials say. The DTCC Treasury Kinetics was crafted to deliver “comprehensive views of the repo markets… Read More >>
Gensler Mulls New Cybersecurity Rules via Expanded SCI
SEC Chair Gary Gensler wants to breathe new life into the fight against cyberattacks and is calling for a refresh of Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI) that might mean new cybersecurity hygiene and incident reporting rules for investment companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers. During his speech for the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s… Read More >>
Gensler Wants Proof That Firms Are Going Green
In the future, funds with a green sales pitch will need to prove that they understand and appreciate the importance of an ESG agenda. In other words, that it’s more than just a good story to con a customer to sign on the bottom line. “ESG” stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance, and it… Read More >>
Regulatory Burdens Don’t End in the Cloud: FINRA
Many securities-trading firms have shifted their IT infrastructures to the cloud, but that does not change their regulatory responsibilities and may lead to new ones, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for broker-dealers. In a new research report, FINRA officials acknowledge that while cloud computing models promise “the potential… Read More >>
