This week saw the official launch of a new lobbyist body focused on promoting data transparency within regulatory and government quarters. Dubbed the Data Transparency Coalition (DTC — not to be confused with the other DTC), the group is spearheaded by ex-Securities and Exchange Commission legal eagle and government counsel Hudson Hollister. According to the PR, the group is all for “advocating for common sense initiatives that encourage the productivity and transparency necessary for government reform”; hence, the legal entity identifier (LEI) initiative has been added to the group’s list of objectives. The DTC (no, not that one) is a firm … Continue Reading →

One thing I learned during my recent research effort on the road traveled thus far toward establishing a new global legal entity identification (LEI) standard was that there are still real hurdles ahead of the ISO-proposed standard on the table. Much like previous efforts gone by in the area of data standardization, adoption of ISO 17442 beyond its use as a mere cross-reference point for regulatory reporting will be key if it is to make a difference to financial institutions’ risk teams and their day jobs or client account management or, well, anything else. Regulators and the data management community might … Continue Reading →

The European Commission has published a list of deadlines it “expects” will be met before the end of the year, the most interesting of which, from a capital markets technology standpoint, are related to new data retention rules, a pan-European framework for electronic identification, amendments to UCITS, the Securities Law Directive, close-out netting, central securities depositories (CSDs), resolution and recovery arrangements, and data and metadata related to statistics. The EC is proposing a review of (later to be turned into an update of) directive 2006/24/EC, which relates to: “minimum harmonisation that the directive ought to bring (period of retention, types of data … Continue Reading →

There’s no doubt that the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) Target2-Securities (T2S) planned single platform for settlement across Europe (well, not including settling in currencies like U.K. sterling or Swiss francs) will be a game-changer. The endless delays that have beleaguered it, however (after numerous delays over the last five years, it is now slated to go live in the summer of 2015), and the constant barrage of regulation in other areas of the market have kept most market participants rather distracted. There is still a perception among many that T2S is too far off to care about — other things, like … Continue Reading →

Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has fined US$300,000 and issued a cease-and-desist order to UBS Global Asset Management (GAM) for not following fair valuation procedures in three of its mutual funds (check out the full SEC order against UBS on the regulator’s website here). The infractions took place in June 2008 and involved 48 of the firm’s 54 fixed income securities valuations (non-agency mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations, to be exact) during that month. The SEC deemed that all but six of the 54 securities were valued in excess of … Continue Reading →

The U.S. Fed has set up a taskforce to look into how the industry can further automate the US$1.6 trillion triparty repo market as part of its overall push to bring down levels of systemic risk in the financial markets. Good thing then, that the Asset Managers Forum (AMF) and the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC US) have been working on updated guidelines for the market practices underlying the triparty repo market over the last couple of years. Back in September, the associations indicated that they had completed an updated market practice for triparty reverse repurchase agreement … Continue Reading →