Thomas P. DiNapoli, the comptroller for the state of New York, is challenging the portfolio companies of the New York State Common Retirement Fund on several diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) fronts via a series of shareholder proposals and related initiatives. The New York State Common Retirement Fund (the Fund) was valued at $242.3 billion… Read More >>
FTF & the VX Launch the FTF Research Institute!
FTF officially launched the FTF News service on Valentine’s Day 2011, and I’m happy to say that 12 years later, we are still going strong. Perhaps for the sake of inviting good luck, on Valentine’s Day 2023, FTF and the ValueExchange (the VX) officially launched the FTF Research Institute, formed through a new partnership with… Read More >>
SEC Approves Amendments to Allow T+1 Settlement
The SEC’s commissioners voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to pass a set of amendments and new rules that would facilitate an industry-wide move from the current trading day plus two (T+2) settlement cycle to the shorter, one-day, T+1 time frame for U.S. equity markets. The vote also endorsed a compliance date of May 28,… Read More >>
Northern Trust Consolidates Firefighter Pension Funds & Other News
300 Pension Funds Rolled into FPIF Northern Trust played a key role in a pension consolidation project that pulled together the assets of 300 firefighter pension funds across Chicago and other parts of Illinois and led to the creation of the Illinois Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund (FPIF), officials say. The Northern Trust Transition Management team… Read More >>
Corporate Actions Processing Needs Standards & Uniformity: SIFMA
U.S. corporate actions processing needs more standards and that will require more regulation focused on the timing of corporate actions notifications, submissions, disclosers, and supporting activities, according to a new report from industry association SIFMA and consultancy Ernst & Young (EY). Smoother corporate actions processing would also be in line with the securities industry push… Read More >>
Life After the Crypto Winter
As the winter of our discontent with cryptocurrencies continues, it’s clear that changes have to be made and that the next crypto spring will either not happen at all or it will be a radical rejection of the Wild West status quo. One path is an outright ban. Some like Charlie Munger, the vice chairman… Read More >>
State Street to Use AWS & Azure for Overhaul & Other News
Two State Street Data Centers to Move to AWS State Street Corp. has picked Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud services and data center provider while simultaneously expanding a current contract with Microsoft’s Azure cloud services in order to give clients real-time data access across State Street tools and third-party services thus streamlining investment… Read More >>
SimCorp Faces a Horse Race in North America: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Investment management solutions vendor SimCorp, based in Copenhagen, recently announced that it had hired John Needham to be its next managing director for SimCorp North America. An industry veteran with 25 years of experience, Needham had been working for trading and risk management provider Murex in a senior leadership position before joining SimCorp…. Read More >>
BNY Mellon Targets Buy Side via Outsourced Trading & Other News
New Services Offered via BNY Mellon Capital Markets BNY Mellon is targeting buy-side firms with a new outsourced, multi-asset, global trading service that the custodian bank says will help clients cut spending on data, trading infrastructure, analytics, reporting, and associated trade execution support functions. With asset managers and asset owners also in mind, the… Read More >>
USAA Outsources Fund Accounting to SS&C & Other News
USAA to Shift 60 Staff Members to SS&C GlobeOp SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. reports that it has entered into an “outsourced administration arrangement with USAA Real Estate.” Based in San Antonio, Texas, USAA Real Estate acquires, develops, finances, and manages real estate assets in North America and Europe, and manages approximately $35 billion in net… Read More >>