(The securities industry is jumping on the distributed ledger/blockchain technology bandwagon at a record pace and with widespread support. The underlying backbone of cryptocurrency Bitcoin-based transactions is having a life of its own among major Wall Street firms and industry organizations. FTF News got a few minutes with industry analyst Dr. Anshuman Jaswal, who is… Read More >>
A Look Back at the Tops in Ops
It’s that time of year when FTF News pauses to review the top securities operations trends of great interest to our readership in the year that was 2015. It’s been a year in which major banks and other financial institutions were slammed with penalties by the regulators. Mergers and acquisitions were rampant among big industry… Read More >>
Misys Platform Targets Data Silo Transformation
Misys is launching a platform that it hopes will help firms transform their data-siloed environments, starting with post-trade processing, “the logical first step,” say vendor officials. “Streamlining back office processes will not only increase efficiency and reduce risk; it also represents a new revenue stream for those banks who take a utility model approach and… Read More >>
Tighter Budgets Make Trading Ops Utility Model More Attractive
Cost-cutting and the crush of regulatory compliance are making a utility model for processing and sharing the costs of trade operations, including core post-trade systems, more likely, according to a new study from by Broadridge Financial Solutions. The utility model, which would incorporate reference data, reconciliations, trade expense management, corporate actions, and tax and regulatory… Read More >>
Firms Battle Black Mondays and ‘Monstrous Spikes’
Caution was the mantra for most securities firms as global markets are still roiling in reaction to China’s economic woes and the sudden devaluation of its currency. As for the impact on post-trade operations, the crashing and soaring volumes are straining firms that rely too heavily on staff and manual systems for processing, especially as… Read More >>
Sell Side Adapts to FIX for Confirmations, Affirmations
It appears that sell-side firms are becoming more comfortable with the extension of the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) electronic trading protocol for post-trade purposes as 75 percent of broker/dealer respondents in a new survey say they use FIX for confirmation/affirmation workflows. The FIX Trading Community, the standards body for the protocol, conducted the Global Post-Trade Survey… Read More >>
Electra’s New Office to Provide BCP/DR Support
Back-office financial technology vendor Electra Information Systems reports that it has opened an office in St. Petersburg, Fla., to provide itself with more options for operations, and to provide its clients with more business continuity planning and disaster recovery (BCP/DR) support. Andy Gnibus, Electra’s manager of data services, will oversee the office, which will initially… Read More >>
Special Report: FIX Moves Into Post-Trade Processing
Buy- and sell-side firms are reassessing their post-trade infrastructures and looking for cost-effective ways to streamline operations. Firms are finding a new ally in their post-trade quest: the venerable FIX protocol, which is extending nicely from the front office into middle office functions. Technology vendors and service providers are moving fast to meet a growing… Read More >>
Bringing IM to Post-Trade Processing
An industry-wide instant messaging initiative could have many uses for post-trade operations, according to the backers of Markit Collaboration Services, a communication network that has gone live with the support of BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.Market data and news giant Thomson Reuters and Markit,… Read More >>
