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 >>
A Quick Warning About ‘Selling Away’
It’s the start of a new year and many investors will be reviewing their financial portfolios. Some of them may soon be reaching for antacids or for lower-shelf martinis. Given the volatility of global financial markets, investors at all levels will have to be forgiven if they’re a little vulnerable to the power of suggestion… Read More >>
A.I. for Recs Will Need Human Oversight: Q&A
(Editor’s note: The financial services industry “is unique and will always require human interaction to cover things like reviews and approvals. It is, however, possible that robots could cause somewhat of a disruption in the financial industry, especially in technology sectors,” says Julian Trostinsky, global director of customer success for Gresham Technologies, in this second… Read More >>
UBS Australia Deploys Syn~Ops Suite & Other News
FNZ Scores Sixth Win in Australia UBS Australia and vendor FNZ report that the bank has deployed the Syn~Ops post-trade securities processing product suite across multiple asset classes in markets around the globe — the sixth Australian firm to migrate to Syn~Ops. The FNZ’s Syn~ product suite offers “real-time trade and settlements processing capabilities at… Read More >>