Josh Brodman must be a little nostalgic for the time—only about a year ago—when the fine print of the clearing and execution reforms for derivatives trading was still being finalized. At the time, he was an operations manager for a multi-strategy, event-driven fund with several billion under management. Life is much different now for Brodman,… Read More >>
Buy Side Avoiding SEFs
Buy-side firms have made great strides in the past five years in revamping their over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading infrastructures and processes even though they are avoiding swap execution facilities (SEFs) as often as they can, says Cynthia Meyn, executive vice president and senior operations manager for bond fund manager PIMCO, who spoke during a panel… Read More >>
The CFTC’s Case for More Cops
The CFTC has been fairly aggressive in writing and launching new regulations, particularly for the clearing and execution of over-the-counter derivatives — a key reform of the Dodd-Frank Act. Getting the follow-up support from Congress to effectively oversee these reforms has been a major challenge for the regulator. Undaunted, Mark P. Wetjen, the acting chairman… Read More >>
Demand Soars for Recs IT as SIFMA Pushes LEI Usage
Reconciliation Technology ‘Explosion’ in Europe & U.S., Says Aite No longer is reconciliation technology “solely applied” to reconciling cash accounts. That’s the word from market research firm Aite Group’s latest report, “Reconciliation Technology Solutions in 2014: Recs Get Ready to Rumble,” which also takes note of the “explosion in the number of different vendor solutions… Read More >>
CFTC to Revamp SDR Push as Aite Predicts CCP Woes
CFTC Calls for Comments for New SDR Rules The CFTC is taking its first major step in an overhaul of its swap data recordkeeping and reporting requirements with a call for public comment. The swaps data gathering is mandated by provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This step follows the… Read More >>
Digital Magazine Winter-Spring 2013 ~ FTF’s Top Five Predictions for 2013
Winter/Spring 2013 This was FTF News’ very first completely digital magazine. For this edition, we made some major predictions for 2013. We correctly forecast a revival in reconciliation systems. On other fronts, we chronicled a new push for enterprise-wide control of operations data, surveillance strategies for social media interactions and the operational demands of cleared… Read More >>
Getting Ready for Newly Minted SEFs
The CFTC has today published the final rules for swap execution facilities (SEFs) with the Federal Register, giving swaps dealers and other firms two months to register with the CFTC for approval of their venues for cleared and executed over-the-counter transactions.Most of the new rules will become effective August 5, 2013 and the official compliance… Read More >>
Bloomberg Takes CFTC to Court
Bloomberg is challenging the CFTC in court over a new rule for margining that the media giant says favors futures over swaps. The legal move is seen as an effort to thwart a potential market shift away from swaps transacted via forthcoming swap execution facilities (SEFs) and toward established futures exchanges.Bloomberg, which is laying the… Read More >>
FTF News Prediction #3: The Industry Faces A Rocky Road to the New World of OTC Trading
(Editor’s Note: This story is running in our first-ever FTF News Winter/Spring digital issue that features our top five predictions on industry trends that are likely to be the focus for many securities operations and technology professionals throughout 2013. We will be running our prediction stories from the digital issue throughout the Spring. The digital… Read More >>
A Standard for Collateral Management Settlement?
SWIFT, the DTCC and AcadiaSoft, maker of a margin messaging platform, are exploring ways via preliminary tests with clients to standardize an infrastructure for bilateral and tri-party collateral management settlement. But some industry observers want independent industry groups without a profit motive to lead these much-needed efforts to end manual processes and reduce systemic and… Read More >>
