(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 >>
O’Malia and Those Hot-Button Issues
As we reported earlier this week, Scott D. O’Malia, commissioner for the CFTC, was the bearer of bad news about the regulator’s data gathering for its swaps data repository (SDR). Yet in his revelatory speech last week to SIFMA members O’Malia was very forthcoming about other thorny issues that got scant coverage.One of the thorniest… Read More >>
GFI Moves Into Mexico as RBC Capital Markets Hires from Barclays
GFI Launches Mexican Office GFI Group has launched operations in Mexico after its Mexican affiliate GFI Grupo Mexico, S.A. de C.V. met Mexican regulations, officials say.“We had been servicing our Mexican clients from New York for over 10 years and it is a pleasure for us to be able to service them locally,” says Nick… Read More >>
XSP Builds App for DTCC’s New Messages as CFTC Suffers Big Data Nightmare
XSP Readies App for DTCC’s Reengineered Services Corporate actions processing provider XSP is working on “another product purely focused on the capture and display of ISO 20022 messages from the DTCC,” says Daniel E. Retzer, chief technology officer (CTO), managing director for SunGard’s XSP.The product, likely to come later this year, is intended to help… Read More >>
No Valentine’s Day Kiss for SEFs
The CFTC isn’t giving over-the-counter derivatives reform a Valentine’s Day kiss as expected. The regulator has put off a key vote on swap execution facilities (SEFs) until maybe March 1 as, reportedly, it is still working out how SEFs will function. I hope the delay will refocus attention on firms that operationally are not ready… Read More >>
CFTC’s Sommers to Exit Early as XBRL Fills Out Board of Directors
Commissioner Jill Sommers to Leave CFTC Republican CFTC commissioner Jill Sommers announced last week that she will be leaving the CFTC after the first quarter of this year and before her five-year term is up.In a prepared statement, Sommers acknowledged “the hard work and dedication of my fellow Commissioners and the many talented staff with… Read More >>
Mary Jo White at the SEC
Former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White is likely to be nominated today as the new chairperson of the SEC, according to multiple news reports. This follows rampant speculation in Washington, D.C. over the past week about White taking the helm at the regulator. I am cautiously optimistic about this prospect and am hoping that her… Read More >>
Is the SEC Too Deadlocked to Function?
Back in November, I wrote about the misplaced attention to the horse race for the replacement of Mary L. Schapiro, who stepped down as the SEC chairman on Dec. 14. The focus should have been on quickly finding the right replacement and avoiding a deadlocked situation. Unfortunately, that’s not how it’s working out. As it… Read More >>
Things to Do After the Apocalypse
This might be my last Minding the Gap column ever as the ancient Mayan calendar points to the world ending on Dec. 21, 2012. However, my guess is that discerning an expiration date for humankind is tricky as multiple cultures have conflicting calendars. But, if the Mayans were wrong, we will have lots to do… Read More >>
OTC Overhauls Hit Home
Shortly after CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton declared at the 7th Annual OTC Derivatives Operations & Processing Conference last week that the Dodd-Frank reforms will deliver transparency, it became clear during a subsequent discussion that if firms haven’t done so, they need to get their IT architectures in place now to stay on top of the… Read More >>
