(Anoushka Rayner, head of growth — commodities, at Paxos, maker of a regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, wants financial services firms to think about how their dormant assets like gold could become collateral alternatives to the U.S. dollar. Paxos officials say that their system, which offers “multilateral payment netting and simultaneous settlement for the… Read More >>
DLT-Based Ops Will Need Guardrails: Report
As more securities operations use distributed ledger technology (DLT), policymakers, regulators, and market participants need to identify regulation, supervision, and risk management practices that “support appropriate stability and protections for all industry stakeholders,” according to a new report, “The Impact of Distributed Ledger Technology in Global Capital Markets.” The report is the result of a… Read More >>
FTF Unveils Winners of the 2023 FTF Awards
With nods to established players and voter enthusiasm for other providers hitting their stride, Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) has unveiled the winners of the 2023 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition. The 30 winners of the FTF Awards competition — now in its 12th year — are being honored for achievements during 2022. “It’s not… Read More >>
Scotiabank & HSBC Fined for Recordkeeping & Phone Woes
Using a mobile phone can get pricey if you’re not careful. That’s a lesson two banks have learned the hard way, each paying multi-million dollar penalties for alleged “recordkeeping and supervision failures for widespread use of unapproved communication methods.” The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed and settled charges against the Bank of… Read More >>
Firms Can Consolidate Ops Silos: Q&A
(In early March, financial information provider SIX announced that its global pricing, market, and reference data can be delivered to investment accounting platform FundGuard’s investment book of record (IBOR), accounting book of record (ABOR), and net asset value (NAV) solutions. The partnership means that FundGuard has access to SIX’s end-of-day market prices, core security master… Read More >>
Regulators Crack Down on Swaps Data Reporting: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Goldman Sachs recently settled charges of alleged swap-trading violations with the CFTC for $15 million. Our story about the matter can be found here: https://bit.ly/41Xa3Jx. The regulator alleges that the firm did not provide clients with “the transparency that the regulations require.” The CFTC also alleges that Goldman Sachs “failed to disclose dozens… Read More >>
Voting Begins in the FTF Awards Competition!
We are pleased to announce that voting has begun for the nominees of the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards 2023, a competition overseen by Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) and the news service. Industry participants pick the winners. Voting began on March 20 when we officially unveiled the nominees and will end on April 28. We… Read More >>
CFTC Mandates UPIs for Swaps Records & Reporting
Without much fanfare, the CFTC in mid-February ordered registered entities and swap counterparties to use the unique product identifiers (UPIs) supplied by the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) for swaps in the credit, equity, foreign exchange, and interest rate asset classes to bolster transparency and compliance with CFTC swap recordkeeping and reporting requirements. In addition, the… Read More >>
FTF & the VX Launch the FTF Research Institute!
FTF officially launched the FTF News service on Valentine’s Day 2011, and I’m happy to say that 12 years later, we are still going strong. Perhaps for the sake of inviting good luck, on Valentine’s Day 2023, FTF and the ValueExchange (the VX) officially launched the FTF Research Institute, formed through a new partnership with… Read More >>
CFTC Picks a New IT Infrastructure Contractor
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reports that it has transitioned core IT infrastructure and operations support services to GovCIO, an IT and digital solutions provider to the federal government, replacing General Dynamics IT (GDIT), which had been serving the regulator since 2015. The CFTC’s $139 million, 10-year contract with GovCIO is not an outsourcing… Read More >>