Sometimes crime pays well on Wall Street. But the SEC is doing what it can to show that honesty can also pay. In fact, the SEC’s whistleblower program is handing out its “highest-ever Dodd-Frank whistleblower awards” to two claimants that will share “nearly $50 million,” and a third claimant that will get more than $33… Read More >>
FTF News to Cover ISITC Ops Summit
I am very happy to announce that FTF News has been named the sole media sponsor for the ISITC 24th Annual Securities Operations Summit, to be held in Boston from Sunday, March 18, to Wednesday, March 21. FTF will be hosting a booth and will be looking forward to talking to as many securities operations… Read More >>
Buy-Side IT Spending Up as Traders’ Compensation Shrinks
Are buy-side firms starting to shift more funding toward IT and data for trading and securities operations and away from compensation for front-line traders? The most recent answer appears to be in the affirmative, according to a new report from market research firm Greenwich Associates, which chronicles how “technology spending is crowding out trader pay… Read More >>
CISOs Must Leverage Their Key Role in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is definitely (and finally) on the radar of executives and boardrooms of securities trading firms, and financial chief information security officers (CISOs) should make the most of their greater influence upon the top decision-makers, according to the first cybersecurity trends survey that the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) conducted upon its… Read More >>
Ready for CCAR & Stress Test Season?
Just in case you forgot, we are entering Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and Dodd-Frank Act stress test season. Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Board released scenarios for the 2018 CCAR and Dodd-Frank Act stress test exercises and has published instructions for firms that face CCAR compliance. In particular, the CCAR process covers… Read More >>
Cybersecurity Comes to the FIX Protocol
The FIX Trading Community, the standards body behind the Financial Information eXchange electronic trading protocol, is taking on cybersecurity via the release of the FIX-over- the Transport Layer Security (TLS) (FIXS) standard and guidelines. The effort is to help users of the FIX Protocol meet security requirements “as it introduces a basic level of security… Read More >>
The Regulators Didn’t Really Shut Down
The federal government shutdown lasted only three days but it looks as if the regulators for the securities industry were pretty much on the job whether or not the legislative geniuses of Washington, D.C. had reached an agreement. The SEC, for instance, has an operations plan, 18 pages long, that looks as if it was… Read More >>
Will the Buy Side Accept Disruptive Technologies?
The securities industry is at an interesting crossroads. It is facing some of the most exciting trends in IT in many years: artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), the realities of Big Data and cloud computing, and the much hyped emergence of blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT). Even the mysteries and controversies… Read More >>
Helpful Resources for Your MiFID II Journey
The new era of MiFID II/MiFIR has officially begun and it’s not entirely clear if all the financial services firms across the globe that are impacted by the European regulatory reforms actually are in compliance. It looks as if it’s a mixed bag of some firms that are highly compliant while others are getting there…. Read More >>
PIMCO and Bill Gross Sign Peace Accord
While I was hoping for more fireworks, the mutual fund giant Pacific Investment Management Company, a.k.a. PIMCO, quietly closed the William H. (Bill) Gross Departure chapter, which was the cause for a great deal of publicity and turmoil for Gross and the firm. To say the least, Gross and the firm he helped found have… Read More >>
