(Cloud computing got a major boost during the pandemic when most staff members at financial services firms were compelled to work remotely, says Olga Orekhvo, chief operating officer (COO) at CompatibL Technologies. In fact, many financial services firms have embraced more than one cloud provider, which presents a new set of challenges. Orekhvo joined CompatibL… Read More >>
AWS Outage Halted FINRA Systems on Dec. 7
Key online systems of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) were unavailable on Tuesday, Dec. 7, because of an outage at cloud computing provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) that lasted about seven hours, according to alerts from the self-regulatory organization and Amazon. AWS has become a major cloud provider for financial services firms, particularly those… Read More >>
Time to Rethink Your SFTR Reporting Efforts?
(To quote the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) “responds to the need to enhance the transparency of securities financing markets and thus of the financial system. The Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 23 December 2015.” For firms that do business in… Read More >>
Regulatory Burdens Don’t End in the Cloud: FINRA
Many securities-trading firms have shifted their IT infrastructures to the cloud, but that does not change their regulatory responsibilities and may lead to new ones, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for broker-dealers. In a new research report, FINRA officials acknowledge that while cloud computing models promise “the potential… Read More >>
Here’s How to Prevent a Ransomware Attack
Ransomware is on the rise across all sectors, including financial services, and in late June the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) provided some statistics that are disturbing. “From January 2020 through May 2021, DFS-regulated companies have reported 74 ransomware attacks. These attacks ranged in impact, from crippling days-long shutdowns to minor disruption… Read More >>
Equiti to Use FlexTrade’s FX Platform MaxxTrader
MaxxTrader to Bolster Equiti’s Prime Services Equiti, an online trading technology provider, will be using the MaxxTrader foreign exchange platform from FlexTrade Systems as the basis for its prime of prime services offering, officials say. MaxxTrader will help Equiti provide its prime of prime customers with “global FX liquidity aggregation, trade execution management, and institutional… Read More >>
BMO-AWS Partnership Covers Capital Markets, Too
BMO Financial Group will be using Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider for a “digital first” strategy that will be implemented across BMO as a “scalable and highly available” platform for many businesses, including capital markets operations. BMO will move “strategic workloads to AWS that support its retail and commercial banking, investment… Read More >>
The 2021 FTF Awards Winners Unveiled!
Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) is pleased to announce that operational excellence and major achievements in financial technology innovation surged in 2020 as evidenced by the winners of the 2021 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition. The winners of the FTF Awards competition, now in its tenth year, are being announced today, June 7, and they… Read More >>
Top Banks Test Drive Intraday FX Swaps Platform
Tests Involve DLT & Non-DLT Technology NatWest Group, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Ireland, and Banca Mediolanum have been working with treasury teams at other large banks to test a platform for intraday foreign exchange (FX) swaps trading that involves distributed ledger technology (DLT) and non-DLT systems, officials at Finteum say. “The banks’ initiative to create… Read More >>
Morgan Stanley Joins ICE Futures Abu Dhabi Exchange
IFAD Offers Hedging for Murban Oil Investment banking giant Morgan Stanley & Co. has joined the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi Exchange (IFAD), a new trading venue of exchanges operator Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), officials say. Morgan Stanley will be an exchange and clearing member. To offer ways to trade and hedge Murban crude oil, ICE launched… Read More >>