(The North American push for securities settlement within the trading day plus another day, a.k.a. T+1, is not going leave much time for fixing failed settlement efforts, says Jonathan Ehrenfeld, who is head of securities strategy for the Swift financial message cooperative. Ehrenfeld is responsible for Swift’s securities, foreign exchange, and digital assets strategies and… Read More >>
Financial Crime Fighting’s Price Tag Hits $206B
Financial crimes cost banks and other financial services institutions big bucks. This means that complying with the rules and processes meant to deter those financial crimes costs big bucks too. Makes sense, right? Now, thanks to our friends at LexisNexis and Forrester Research, we have a snapshot of the actual numbers. According to the report “True Cost… Read More >>
Baton Debuts Cash Settlement via DLT & Other News
Solution Uses DLT Workflows from Baton Systems Baton Systems has launched a real-time solution for cash settlement based upon distributed ledger technology (DLT), dubbed Core-Payments, which tracks and reconciles inbound cash settlements and helps firms “orchestrate the release of outbound cash payments,” officials say. The new solution, which Baton Systems says is being deployed by… Read More >>
Consultancy Issues Alert About QR Code Phishing
“What happened?” North Carolina-based Fairview asks about the “uptick” in phishing reported by its clients. Of course, it’s a rhetorical question. But there’s nothing rhetorical about the impact of an answer on the financial services industry. Fairview Investment Services is a consultancy, based in Raleigh, that offers support for investment advisers and other financial institutions… Read More >>
DTCC & Others Want Ops Standards for Digital Assets
Clearing agencies DTCC, Clearstream, and Euroclear on September 18 called upon the financial services sector to develop industry standards for digital assets, including blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) for trading digital securities and tokenized securities. Without industry standards, the growth of digital assets in the financial sector will slow and even stall, argue the agencies, which… Read More >>
Broadridge Explores Advancing Ops via Artificial Intelligence
Broadridge Financial Services is exploring how artificial intelligence technologies combined with the provider’s logical data model BRx can be applied to capital markets, including front-to-back-office applications across asset classes. The proof-of-concept (POC) effort has only been underway for the past three weeks, says Hugh Daly, general manager, data and enterprise solutions, at Broadridge. Daly told FTF News about the… Read More >>
CME & DTCC Ready Cross-Margining Offering & Other News
SEC & CFTC Approve Joint Effort for Treasuries & Futures The SEC and CFTC have approved a new cross-margining arrangement between CME Group and the DTCC that will “permit eligible clearing members of CME and the Government Securities Division (GSD) of DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC) to cross-margin an expanded suite of products,”… Read More >>
FBI, FINRA Alert Firms About Email Cyberattacks
A recent alert from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns financial services firms using Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliances, even those with “up-to-date security patches,” that they “remain at risk for continued computer network compromise from threat actors exploiting a zero-day vulnerability.” The FBI’s alert also referred to “suspected PRC Cyber Actors,”… Read More >>
ESG Data Will Be Normalized for Investing: Q&A
(Paul Fahey, head of investment data science, asset servicing, Americas, Northern Trust, took questions from FTF News about the concerns that operations staff have about the environmental, social, and governance [ESG] data and factors that they are likely to encounter as part of their support for the investment process. In his post at Northern Trust,… Read More >>
ISDA Docs Expert Launches Online Course & Other News
Course Targets Firms that Use ISDA Master Agreements Edyta Knizewska, a derivatives documentation expert, reports that she is offering an online course about “understanding and negotiating ISDA Master Agreements.” The master agreements “govern over-the-counter derivatives transactions,” and Knizewska, a legal consultant, negotiator and derivatives lawyer wants to offer her experience through her ISDA Lab course…. Read More >>