While the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF) is not in trouble, it is “severely understaffed” and needs to pay its staff more to avoid future problems, according to an independent advisor for public retirement systems that specializes in governance, operations and risk intelligence. Key pension fund officials agree that these issues need to… Read More >>
SWIFT Gets on the Blockchain Proof-of-Concept Bus
Financial messaging and services cooperative SWIFT is providing more details about its R&D efforts, including proof of concept efforts, for blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) in a white paper it just completed with global consultancy Accenture The two have combined efforts for a position paper, “SWIFT on Distributed Ledger Technologies: Delivering an Industry Standard Platform through… Read More >>
Blockchain’s Great Promise Faces Great Hurdles
The distributed ledger, or blockchain, as today’s hot financial services technology is also known, may lead to an Internet of Value. But first, important issues have to be resolved. So says Lael Brainard, one of the Federal Reserve’s seven governors. In a recent speech entitled “The Use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Payment, Clearing, and… Read More >>
Lack of Global Standards Impedes Trade Repositories: ESMA Report
The lack of global standards in the trade repository space (TR) could hinder the repository process, a finding of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in its recently published 55-page 2016 annual report, which outlines its supervisory priorities for credit ratings agency (CRA) governance as well as the quality and data access for TRs…. Read More >>
Asia-Pacific Firms Resist FATCA Compliance
Financial institutions across Asia Pacific are trailing behind their Western counterparts in preparations for evolving global tax reporting regulations due to cultural and regulatory issues, according to a new report by compliance software specialist Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and the GRC Institute (GRCI), the association for Asia-Pacific governance, risk management and compliance professionals. Canvassing 40… Read More >>
GLEIF Takes Charge of the LEI Effort
Editor’s note: The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), the body overseeing the Global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) System, has taken center stage in the effort to promote the usage of the LEI standard. In fact, GLEIF has just launched the Global LEI Index, “a golden copy of all past and current LEI records including… Read More >>
Does Markit Have a ‘Game-Changer’ for Mitigating Third-Party Op Risk?
(Editor’s note: Markit, a financial information services vendor, has launched a seminal offering, dubbed the Know Your Third Party (KY3P) service. It’s a centralized, cloud-based data hub intended to help financial services firms better manage the operational risk that comes with third-party risk providers. The service, hosted by Dell Cloud Services, can be used for… Read More >>
GLEIF’s New Rules May Reject Current LEI Issuers
The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) will be taking over the accreditation process for organizations that issue Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) via a new program that supersedes the efforts of the LEI Regulatory Oversight Committee (LEI ROC), say GLEIF officials. However, the new accreditation process is retroactive and could mean that some of the… Read More >>
ISDA and ICE Take On Margining for Non-Cleared Derivatives
A key subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of NYSE and other exchanges, has been tapped by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) to help market participants meet new margining rules for non-cleared derivatives through the usage of a crowdsourcing utility. By reaching out in this way, the ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA)… Read More >>
Top Wall Street Firms Begin Overhauls for T+2
Some of the largest buy- and sell-side firms have begun the hard work needed to revamp infrastructures, workflows and budgets to facilitate the move to the shorter T+2 settlement cycle, according to participants at the recent T+2 Symposium, hosted by the Securities and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). Key industry players, including SIFMA, the DTCC and… Read More >>