Costco Wholesale Corp. has selected custodian bank Northern Trust to provide custody, daily valuation, and brokerage services for Costco’s defined contribution (DC) retirement plan, with $29 billion in assets, officials say. Costco, based in Seattle, is known as the world’s third-largest retailer and operates 861 warehouses, including 591 in the United States and Puerto Rico…. Read More >>
FCMs Want Automation Over Headcount for Recs
Futures commission merchants (FCMs) offering sell-side clearing have been making “significant progress in automating” post-trade reconciliation since 2021 and want to apply technology rather than staff members to recs problems, according to the fourth quarter edition of the “Acuiti Sell-Side Clearing Management Insight Report.” However, firms have “some way to go to fully optimize the… Read More >>
Buy Side Faces Big Risks via T+1 for FX
The push for shorter settlement cycles — trading day plus one, or T+1 — could pose major settlement and operational risks for buy-side participants in foreign exchange (FX) markets, according to guidance from the Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA), based in Washington, D.C. “The introduction of T+1 is not intended to increase FX settlement risk…. Read More >>
FinTech Brief: TCS Platform to Replace ASX’s CHESS
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has selected Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide a clearing and settlement platform for the Australian market based upon TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure that will replace ASX’s incumbent CHESS system. The TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure has been designed for central securities depositories (CSDs), central counterparty clearinghouses (CCPs), exchanges,… Read More >>
SEC Revamps Clearing for Security-Based Swaps
It looks like there will be new rules of the road for conflicts of interest at registered clearing agencies servicing securities-based swaps. The SEC has adopted rules intended to reform boards of directors or equivalent governing bodies for these clearing agencies. However, critics of the recently approved rules — which date back to the Dodd-Frank Act… Read More >>
Regulators Unravel the Mysteries of Beneficial Ownership
First, we turn to Investopedia for a definition of “beneficial ownership.” “A beneficial owner is a person who enjoys the benefits of ownership even though the title to some form of property is in another name,” according to the Investopedia website. “It also means any individual or group of individuals who, either directly or indirectly,… Read More >>
Firms Embrace A.I. to Fight Financial Crime
A recent report finds that artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies are not taking jobs from anti-money laundering (AML) professionals and that 86 percent of financial services professionals polled intend to increase their spending on A.I.-based technologies. In fact, the report, “Technology Transformation in Financial Crime Compliance,” from solutions provider WorkFusion and market research firm Celent, finds… Read More >>
GoldenSource Debuts Risk Factor Service for OTC Derivatives
GoldenSource, a provider of enterprise data management (EDM) systems, has launched a service that offers investment banks “a single risk factor taxonomy” for market rates used to price over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives instruments, officials say. The new Curve Master Definitions taxonomy service is intended to help banks “comply with market risk regulations and auditability requirements, including… Read More >>
TD Securities Picks Paxos Settlement & Other News
TD Securities to Settle Commodities via Paxos TD Securities is using a system from Paxos that simultaneously settles cash and commodities trades in an effort to achieve full automation for settlement and to streamline operations for traditional and digital precious metals trades, officials say. TD Securities joins many other firms that are part of Paxos… Read More >>
Asset Owners Struggle to Move Beyond Spreadsheets
Pension funds, public funds, sovereign wealth funds (SWF), superannuation funds, endowments, and life insurance companies want to move away from spreadsheets and internally developed solutions used for portfolio management and asset allocation but IT complexities coupled with a shortage of expertise are thwarting their attempts to complete their digital transformations. This is according to the… Read More >>
