Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) has launched the nomination process for the 2024 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition, which recognizes the operational excellence of professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, and industry bodies that had significant achievements in the 2023 calendar year. The winners of the FTF Awards competition are chosen by their peers in… Read More >>
Time to Buy Not Build an OMS?
(Global banks and other sell-side firms face “a technological fork in the road” when it comes to order management systems (OMSes), according to a recent report, “The Future State of Global OMS,” from market research firm Datos Insights. “Sell-side firms … will need to reevaluate the value proposition of their existing OMS architecture and determine… Read More >>
Davy Capital Markets Deploys Torstone Platform
Dublin-based brokerage Davy Capital Markets has gone live with the Torstone Post Trade Platform for middle- and back-office processing to bolster the Davy Group division’s operational efficiency and regulatory compliance, officials say. The Software as a Service (SaaS) platform is from Torstone Technology, a post-trade securities and derivatives processing provider, based in London. “This successful… Read More >>
FinTech Brief: BNY Mellon Taps Proxymity for U.K. Proxy Voting
BNY Mellon clients in the U.K. can use the digital proxy voting service, Proxymity Vote Connect Total (VCT), in time for the 2024 voting season, officials say. The joint effort with Proxymity is intended to “improve transparency, accuracy, and speed for our clients,” says Adam Watson, head of commercial product, custody services at BNY Mellon,… Read More >>
Cyber Threats Seen as a Major Risk for 2024
Securities firms are foreseeing cybersecurity risks as one of their top concerns for next year as cybers-attacks remain one of their top five risks as revealed in an annual Systemic Risk Barometer Survey done by DTCC officials. Cybersecurity concerns constitute one of the top five risks identified in every survey since 2013 when the DTCC… Read More >>
Regulators & Policies Decide ESG Plans for Pension Funds
Regulators and policymakers will have greater impacts on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies of pension plans than the pushback against ESG investments, according to two recent reports. The findings about regulators and policymakers are based on the Amundi/CREATE-Research annual global survey of pension investors and their investing concerns. For 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 >>
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 >>
Open Source Projects Hit Their Stride on Wall Street
The open source movement for financial services firms on Wall Street and beyond is hitting its stride, says the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), which reports there is widespread adoption of open source software, standards, and best practices. And more open source projects are going into production, FINOS says. For instance, Morgan Stanley and Wellington… Read More >>