Opinion
Fatca: The End of the Beginning
Practitioners have spent many months preparing for key aspects of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act that come into effect this week. But few will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when the US anti-tax evasion measure goes live, as similar…
How the West Was Won
In most asset classes, electronic trading is beginning to win the day for regulators. James looks at how e-trading encourages oversight, as well as innovation.
Opening Cross: Forget ‘Keep it Simple, Stupid.’ Think KIDD—’Keep it Diversified, Dummy"
The market data business is increasingly governed by the need to diversify to respond to market and investment trends. Trading firms seeking exposure to new opportunities diversify the datasets they consume in search of the one that will give them an…
July 2014: Beware the Snake Oil Salesman
The importance of technology in the capital markets cannot be understated, but when it comes to IBOR implementations, Victor says firms should be wary of vendors peddling all tech and no support.
Max Bowie: Data Wizards Must Be Ready For an Unexpected Journey
The level of innovation among providers of data tools and services is often measured by the new products they create. But Max says innovation also takes place at the end-user level as firms find increasingly creative ways put those products to new and…
Michael Shashoua: Critical Mass
Even as data quality and governance work becomes more demonstrably valuable for firms, the time that has passed since the 2008 events that spurred rules changes could be eroding its momentum. Michael hears professionals’ reasons for staying the course.
Tim Bourgaize Murray: In Search of Spanish Treasure
Bad banks have gained preference in recent years both as a way to unwind toxic assets and as entities for buy-side firms to invest in. With each opportunity, the industry has sorted and implemented these mechanisms faster and faster—often with outsourced…
James Rundle: How the West Was Won
In most asset classes, electronic trading is beginning to win the day for regulators. James looks at how e-trading encourages oversight, as well as innovation.
Fixed Income's Dead? Long Live Its Technology
SEC Commissioner Mary Jo White hinted last Friday that fixed income might be the next technology rabbit hole the Commission jumps down. That seems like good news for the buy side—but is it?
The Singapore Sling, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Conferences
APTAS 2014 and BST Asia lead this week's coverage.
Opening Cross: What’s the Most Important Tool in Your Box?
The most useful article in my toolbox isn’t a wrench or a multi-tool: it’s a magic potion originally invented to support the space program, known today simply as WD40. Though its inventors may not have envisaged it becoming a household name, the spray…
Open Platform: Weathering the Perfect Storm of Cost, Complexity and Regulation
As the importance of data rises, so does the attention paid by regulators to how it is managed, increasing the data management burden on buy-side firms and prompting them to consider new models, such as managed services, says Steve Cheng, global head of…
Personnel Choices
Managing resources is increasingly being seen as an important part of efforts to improve data quality and consistency. This will require unorthodox and creative approaches to organizing and deploying data staff
Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying ... IBOR
The investment book of record (IBOR) made its way back into discussion this week both in conversations at Sifma's technology conference, and in Waters' pages. The result, Tim says, was equal parts colorful and enlightening.
Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
FCA chief’s remarks and the UK’s moves to regulate FX lead this week’s coverage.
Opening Cross: Make the Right Entrance and You Won’t Need a Graceful Exit
The ability to make a graceful exit is a talent I don’t have: ask anyone who’s participated in a fire drill with me. Nor, it seems, does the annual SIFMA technology exhibition, which straggles doggedly on this week, despite a much smaller exhibitor list…
The CFTC's Coup(e) du Monde
At a Waters Breakfast Briefing this week, the ostensible topic was over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, but much of the focus was instead on the cross-border provision of the Commodity Exchange Act. Tim ponders whether the problem can be addressed, and if…
Attention Getters
Around the Toronto Financial Information Summit this week, talk about how to improve data quality and governance included the possibility that a major market blow-up would be required to hasten such efforts
Toronto FIS: IRD's Editor Shares Highlights
Inside Reference Data editor Michael Shashoua notes key themes discussed at the Toronto Financial Information Summit on June 10
Spin, Hype and Hyperbole
Collateral management surveys and foreign-exchange oversight lead this week's coverage.
LEI's Big Payoff
While the legal entity identifier is starting to produce value for data management operations, Fatca and BCBS 239 could follow suit in similar fashion
Opening Cross: Data Can Fix Problems, Not Just Fixings
With the Libor-rigging scandal still fresh in our memories, pay gaps widening, and the current furor raging over the merits and fairness of high-frequency trading, it’s no surprise that the capital markets have something of a perception problem among the…
Long Live the King
With thoughts of royal abdication on his mind, Tim Bourgaize Murray pays his due respect to Anthony Malakian, and highlights what he'll be covering going forward.