Guest Contributer:Nolan Gesher, Senior Product Manager – Risk & Compliance, Fiserv The amount of attention the back office gets nowadays might mean it could easily be mistaken for the portfolio manager’s suite or the trader’s desk. Why? The increase in due diligence on back office operations by investors, especially when it comes to reconciliation processes.
Corporate Actions
Corporate Actions: There’s an App for That
Guest Contributer:Gerard Bermingham, VP of Product Strategy, Information Mosaic In the past decade, developments in technology have helped automate at least some of the areas of corporate actions processing. The evolution of XML-based middleware applications, for example, has assisted in the automation of data comparison functionality. In its pursuit of the elusive “golden copy” announcement,
Back-Office
The Devil in the Data, An Evolution that Won’t Be Televised
Guest Contributer:John Avery, Partner, SunGard Transparency, Efficiency and Networks (TEN) were three of the key themes for SunGard in 2010, and it’s no coincidence that this is the same year that the greatest set of reforms in generations became law in the US and will soon become law in other jurisdictions. With this new regulatory
Guest Blog
Women on Wall Street
Guest Contributer: Marianne Brown, CEO, Omgeo There have been several articles recently that have detailed the “exodus” of women from Wall Street. These articles stem from a statistic reported by the Bureau of Labor that “in the past 10 years, 141,000 women, 2.6% of female workers in finance, disappeared from the industry, while the ranks
Back-Office
What Does Separately Managed Account (SMA) Mean to You?
Guest Contributor: Philip Lawton, Stone House Consulting LLC What does the phrase separately managed account (SMA) mean to you? If you work for an investment management firm with institutional clients, you probably think of their individual, stand-alone portfolios. However, if your firm (or your part of the firm) offers wrap-fee products, you’re more likely to
Back-Office
Getting the Message Out – A New Development (Really!) in Reconciliations
Guest Contributor: Dayle Scher, TowerGroup When talking about reconciliations (which we all do, I know!), it seems as though there isn’t much new out there. Sure, there are nice dashboards and workflow tools, but have we really changed all that much? Don’t get me wrong – I don’t miss the days of ticking and tying
Compliance
Sell-Side Compliance: No Friends in the Coffee Room?
Guest Contributor: Denise Valentine, Senior Analyst, Aite Group I’m feeling sad today. In fact, I lay awake this morning reflecting on dozens of conversations I’ve had with compliance officers at asset managers, hedge funds, and broker/dealers. It’s difficult not to empathize. I don’t recall ever feeling this way after interviews in other functional areas… Here
Compliance
Investment Advisor Registration Requirements
Guest Contributor: Diana Kearns, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Accounting & Compliance International (ACI) An investment advisor is any entity that provides fee-based advice regarding the buying and selling of securities. Under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, investment advisors are required to register with either the SEC or the state – which one
Guest Blog
Economic Insights: Taxing Growth
Guest Contributer: Milton Ezrati, Partner, Sr. Economist & Market Strategist at Lord, Abbett & Co. Any more taxes will likely contribute to a slowing of the economy’s recovery. As the economy proceeds toward 2011, three forces will keep the recovery’s pace slow: 1) lingering financial and psychological scars from the 2008–09 crisis; 2) remaining debt
Back-Office
Technology in Markets – What is it Good For?
Guest Contributor: Renée Colyer, Forefactor Perhaps I won’t be the most popular girl in high school for pontificating about technology in the markets in a less than flattering way. But I will go ahead and say I believe we take ourselves too seriously when it comes to articulating its importance. Many times in the past
