We are hearing a great deal about how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics — applied individually or via combinations — are going to take over the world, eliminating securities industry jobs and maybe even entire professions. Yet I suspect (my Luddite impulses aside) that disruptive technologies may yield services that we hadn’t anticipated… Read More >>
Reasons to Celebrate the Spring Holidays
Suddenly, we’re moving toward the Spring holidays for many religions (and Spring breaks for many schools). While these are times for fun and adventure with loved ones, they are also opportunities for reflection. As for the securities industry, there are many good reasons to be anxious. Firms and Ops staffs are facing the next wave… Read More >>
SEC Whistleblower Program Proves That Honesty Can Pay
Sometimes crime pays well on Wall Street. But the SEC is doing what it can to show that honesty can also pay. In fact, the SEC’s whistleblower program is handing out its “highest-ever Dodd-Frank whistleblower awards” to two claimants that will share “nearly $50 million,” and a third claimant that will get more than $33… Read More >>
No Bonus Again for Deutsche Bank Execs
It appears that a CEO of a major, global bank is suggesting that for the second consecutive year executive managers do not exactly deserve a bonus. By contrast, the CEO is indicating that the rank and file employees should get one this year. John Cryan, the CEO of Deutshe Bank, made these declarations last week… Read More >>
FTF News to Cover ISITC Ops Summit
I am very happy to announce that FTF News has been named the sole media sponsor for the ISITC 24th Annual Securities Operations Summit, to be held in Boston from Sunday, March 18, to Wednesday, March 21. FTF will be hosting a booth and will be looking forward to talking to as many securities operations… Read More >>
Buy-Side IT Spending Up as Traders’ Compensation Shrinks
Are buy-side firms starting to shift more funding toward IT and data for trading and securities operations and away from compensation for front-line traders? The most recent answer appears to be in the affirmative, according to a new report from market research firm Greenwich Associates, which chronicles how “technology spending is crowding out trader pay… Read More >>
CISOs Must Leverage Their Key Role in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is definitely (and finally) on the radar of executives and boardrooms of securities trading firms, and financial chief information security officers (CISOs) should make the most of their greater influence upon the top decision-makers, according to the first cybersecurity trends survey that the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) conducted upon its… Read More >>
Ready for CCAR & Stress Test Season?
Just in case you forgot, we are entering Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and Dodd-Frank Act stress test season. Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Board released scenarios for the 2018 CCAR and Dodd-Frank Act stress test exercises and has published instructions for firms that face CCAR compliance. In particular, the CCAR process covers… Read More >>
Cybersecurity Comes to the FIX Protocol
The FIX Trading Community, the standards body behind the Financial Information eXchange electronic trading protocol, is taking on cybersecurity via the release of the FIX-over- the Transport Layer Security (TLS) (FIXS) standard and guidelines. The effort is to help users of the FIX Protocol meet security requirements “as it introduces a basic level of security… Read More >>
The Regulators Didn’t Really Shut Down
The federal government shutdown lasted only three days but it looks as if the regulators for the securities industry were pretty much on the job whether or not the legislative geniuses of Washington, D.C. had reached an agreement. The SEC, for instance, has an operations plan, 18 pages long, that looks as if it was… Read More >>
