In this day and age, it is rare to see someone without their blackberry or iphone attached to their hand as an additional appendage. Our days are spent corresponding with people electronically and we spend less time interacting in person. I often find myself over compensating for the lack of emotional tone in my emails
Uncategorized
Memorial Day Weekend
We here at FTF hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! And as you celebrate the “unofficial” start of summer we also hope you remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces and honor them as well. If you have a moment, check out this
Compliance
Is Your Fund Politically Intelligent?
Thanks to the upcoming presidential election, we have been flooded with campaign ads and promises from each candidate. So, I started to think about how the upcoming election will affect the financial services industry. With so much new regulation and legislation being put into place, can we even predict what will happen after November’s election?
Financial Technology
Onshore Outsourcing
Guest Contributor: Anil Budha, Managing Principal, GBP Financial Solutions A growing number of U.S. companies are saying goodbye to Bangalore, India and hello to America’s boondocks. Some IT organizations solicit domestic partners to supplement their offshore outsourcing projects, while others look to domestic providers to clean up messes created by offshore vendors or to avoid
Back-Office
The Future of Post-Trade Derivatives Processing
Guest Contributor: Laurent Jacquemin, executive vice president, post-trade derivatives, SunGard’s capital markets business In the derivatives industry, significant, year-over-year transaction volume growth has become the norm. With high-frequency trading driving up the volumes of trades to hundreds of thousands or even millions per day, derivatives market participants must be able to manage these higher volumes.
Buy-Side
Private Equity Outsourcing – The Next Frontier
Guest Contributor: Jane Conway, Executive Vice President for Alpha FMC, US Outsourcing particular business functions has been an established and growing feature of the more traditional asset manager landscape. Private Equity (PE) asset managers have to date largely shunned this trend – and with good reason. This is now set to change. The case for outsourcing is
Guest Blog
The Operational Due Diligence Opportunity for Hedge Funds
Guest Contributor: Jason Scharfman,, Esq., CFE, CRISC, Managing Partner, Corgentum Consulting In the past, many hedge fund managers may have cringed at the mere thought of an investor inquiring about conducting a distinct operational due diligence review. Such reticence represents a missed opportunity. Hedge funds often work hard over many years to develop strong operations and
Guest Blog
Social Media Golden Rules
Guest Contributor: Andrew Carrier, Deputy Managing Director of Cognito EMEA While the likes of Citi and American Express have embraced social media with aplomb on the consumer side of their businesses, the B2B financial services sector has been much slower to adapt these new channels. That’s understandable; it can seem like a daunting task. Where to
Compliance
6 Steps to Implementing Operational Control
Guest Contributor: Patrick Murray, President & CEO, STP Investment Services Enron WorldCom Lehman Brothers AIG Madoff MF Global… Due to disastrous events at companies like those listed above, increased regulation and strict compliance requirements for financial firms are here to stay, and will continue to change and grow more complex for years to come. Firms
Back-Office
Cloud IT Services: Changing the Game for Hedge Funds
Guest Contributor: Jason Elmer, Director of Business Development, Abacus Group The cost of owning and operating on-site IT resources has led hedge funds to adopt cloud-based IT solutions at an increasing rate. This momentum has been helped by a greater understanding of the compelling advantages in Scalability, Cost Predictability and Business Continuity associated with cloud-based
