Now that Earth Day has come and gone again, it might be an appropriate time to consider the right-wing conservative backlash against public pension funds and their ESG investing. “ESG,” as FTF News readers know, stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance.” ESG is meant to ensure that boardrooms and shareholders consider factors beyond simple fluctuations… Read More >>
A Prime Broker for Digital Assets & Other News
Finansiv Offers Link Between Fiat & Crypto Trading Finansiv, a digital asset prime brokerage that caters to retail and institutional investors in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets, reports that it has gone live and is executing over-the-counter (OTF) client trades. Finansiv officials say that in addition to offering “access to fiat spot markets,” they… Read More >>
U.K. Authorities Push for Post-Trade Ops Overhauls
An influential U.K.-based task force focused on post-trade operations has issued a report calling for major changes in three “core areas:” non-economic trade data, client onboarding, and uncleared margin management. In addition, a key U.K. authority, the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards Board (FMSB), has promised to act on the recommendations. The FMSB… Read More >>
SIFMA Urges T+1 Start After Labor Day 2024
One of the leaders in the push for T+1 settlement, SIFMA has relayed in a letter to the SEC its recommendations for the start date of a shorter settlement cycle — Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024 — and for rule changes that would mitigate “potential adverse consequences.” SIFMA, the Investment Company Institute (ICI), and The Depository… Read More >>
WFE Paper Spotlights Human Rights Aspects of ESG
The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), an industry group for securities exchanges and central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs), has published a briefing paper that focuses on human rights protections and spotlights the need for definitions of “responsible business” and human rights protections — key social aspects of ESG investing. The paper points out that “while… Read More >>
Yellen Urges a Cautious Approach to CBDCs
The concept of digital currencies run by central banks is counter to the chaos-driven cryptocurrency movement. But central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are now seen in a very favorable light because of the protections and order they could bring to the crypto world. Even so, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen earlier this month… Read More >>
DTCC to Explore Clearing & Settlement for U.S. CBDC
As cryptocurrencies and their inherent distributed ledger technology (DLT) gain ground in global markets, the U.S. government, among others, is exploring the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that would provide more protection for investors and financial services participants. Looking ahead to the onset of a CBDC, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp…. Read More >>
CalSTRS to Apply Proxy-Voting Powers to ESG Goals
CalSTRS, the influential California State Teachers’ Retirement System that tallies $318.1 billion in assets under management (as of February 28, 2022), is putting its money where its values are. The public pension fund has declared that it will be using its proxy voting power to make sure that the companies it invests in actually live… Read More >>
Goldman Sachs Veteran Joins Bosonic & Other News
Bosonic Hires Paddy Boyle from Goldman Sachs Bosonic, which characterizes itself as a “decentralized Financial Market Infrastructure (dFMI) business with a real-time clearing and settlement service for crypto and digital assets,” reports that Goldman Sachs veteran Paddy Boyle has joined the firm as its global head of clearing and derivatives. Boyle, an industry veteran, is… Read More >>
FINRA Clarifies When It Will Charge a CCO
Is a chief compliance officer (CCO) at a broker-dealer automatically on the hook for any regulatory mishaps at a firm? Not necessarily, says FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers. FINRA officials issued a regulatory notice last month that sets out to clarify a CCO’s role. The notice focuses on the scope of Supervision… Read More >>
