Virginie's Blog

Internal teams intent on deciphering the operational impacts of the Dodd-Frank Act and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) have largely focused on the practicalities of developing connectivity to central clearing counterparties (CCPs) and supporting new risk models. An equal (if not as systemically important in terms of actual risk) challenge will be ensuring they … Continue reading →

For some bizarre reason – the majority of the securities industry’s post-trade focused events fall in the last three months of the year. Hence much of my public commentary on all things data, ops and regulation has been confined to 140 characters or less since September (outside of speaking gigs and report writing that is). … Continue reading →

I’ve spent the lion’s share of this week hanging out with the clearing and settlement crowd at TradeTech Post-trade in London, chairing various sessions on industry trends and if there was one thing to be gleaned from the event, it was that collateral management is one area in which all players in the capital markets … Continue reading →

If there’s one thing that vendor profiling has proved to me over the last three months, it’s that no two vendors approach a problem in exactly the same manner, especially when that problem is related to data management. I’ve seen previous analyst reports lump all vendors into a particular wave or generation, but that really … Continue reading →

This month, in lieu of a final decision on the framework for a new global legal entity data standard (including the structure of a potential issuance model), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finally bit the bullet and opted for a DTCC-Swift collaboration in order to support the registration of its interim identifier – the … Continue reading →

As I mentioned previously (see here), there is a fair amount of duplicative work going on within the industry with regards to standards and market practice developments. In order to highlight the work of a number of the key post-trade focused working groups from various associations and potentially connect the dots, I’m currently putting together … Continue reading →

For those of you working on programmes to facilitate reporting to current and planned trade repositories, the Financial Stability Board’s recent progress report on OTC Derivative Market Reforms (the third of its kind produced by the body) provides a list of these new market infrastructures, categorised by instrument type: FSB’s list of trade repositories The … Continue reading →

This week’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) vote to approve key definitions regarding what the US regulatory community determines to be a “swap” and a “swap-based security” (and what is exempt from incoming rules related to those instruments) sets into motion what will be a 60-day countdown for firms to get ready for new clearing … Continue reading →

As part of my efforts as chair of the standards working group, which sits under the Clearing and Settlement Working Group, I’m examining the current market practice and standards efforts of a range of post-trade focused associations in the capital markets sector (regional and global). The aim is to draw up a roadmap of these … Continue reading →

This week, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its consultation paper (CP) on OTC derivatives clearing and trade reporting – as would be required under the incoming European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). From a standards for reporting perspective (a subject that is top of mind for many firms at the moment), the … Continue reading →

As some of you know, I’m the chair of the industry Clearing and Settlement Working Group on Standards and this week’s meeting was particularly interesting in terms of discussions on broker matching and market infrastructure adoption of standard message protocols. Here are a few highlights: –          There are a number of groups under the umbrella … Continue reading →

This week’s G20 meeting saw the leaders publicly endorse the establishment of the legal entity identification (LEI) registration system by March 2013. But given that the LEI’s use has not yet been mandated (the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is using CICIs for now) and some big questions remain about how the registration process will operate, … Continue reading →

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has released 15 recommendations for derivatives market intermediaries (aka clearing counterparties, market makers and trading venues) to tackle points of potential systemic or counterparty risk – after all, recent regulation for these markets has all been about increasing transparency and tackling potential points of failure. Thankfully, the focus is … Continue reading →

A week can’t go by without someone asking me a question about the latest developments regarding the planned legal entity identifier (LEI) standard. So, for those of you that haven’t had time to read the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) latest statement (check it out here), here are the highlights: – The planned implementation of the … Continue reading →

Given the scattershot of regulation that is liberally peppering the industry (I prefer that analogy to a tsumani – one assumes a wave is in some way joined up), it is no surprise that firms’ back and middle offices have a long list of concerns to be addressed over the next couple of years. The … Continue reading →

Another one is swallowed up. Bloomberg’s acquisition of PolarLake this week (see the FT’s article in which I comment on the subject here) is yet more proof that data management is proving to be a draw for the vendor community at large. The fact that bigger fish in the data community (Markit, Bloomberg) are gobbling … Continue reading →

Spending on legal entity data and the management of that data is set to rise, no doubt about it. However, given significant under-investment in this area by most players in the financial markets, the figures involved remain a fraction of the investment in the reference data arena overall. Anyone that claims that top tier firms … Continue reading →

It’s true that I spend a lot of my time monitoring regulatory impacts on data standards, but another keen area of interest to me is the evolving post-trade landscape. How the move to central clearing will impact firms’ middle and back offices – margining, collateral, capital allocation etc. How much attention is being paid to … Continue reading →

It’s certainly an interesting time to be writing about the data management industry – not only are regulations and market infrastructure dynamics shifting on a monthly (if not weekly) basis, the vendor community is also experiencing a rather turbulent time. Rumour has it Netik is up on the block for sale, SmartStream is also rumoured to have … Continue reading →

My speaking slot at this week’s Swift Business Forum on the challenges and opportunities related to reporting to trade data repositories, during which I shared the stage with representatives from DTCC’s Deriv/Serv, Swift and Barcap’s derivatives back office, covered a range of serious issues for buy and sell side firms to consider over the coming … Continue reading →

One thing I learned during my recent research effort on the road travelled thus far towards 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 standardisation, adoption of ISO 17442 … Continue reading →

In lieu of a legal entity identification (LEI) standard issuing body, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has taken matters into its own hands by calling for willing participants to put themselves forward to act as an interim provider of compliant identifiers ahead of the 16 July 2012 deadline for swaps data reporting. Rather than waiting … 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 … Continue reading →

There’s no doubt that the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Target2-Securities (T2S) planned single platform for settlement across Europe (well, not including settling in currencies like UK sterling or Swiss francs) will be a game changer. However, the endless delays (it is now slated to go live in the summer of 2015 after numerous delays over … Continue reading →

Trading and clearing practices might have got the lion’s share of regulators’ attention (and the headlines) over the last few years, but it seems that the US Fed and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have adjusted their gaze further down the securities transaction lifecycle: namely, towards settlement. Now, it will be news to no one … Continue reading →

In August last year, I summarised the proposals contained within the consultative report on reporting requirements for the OTC derivatives markets by the Comittee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the technical committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Today, the pair have released the final version of that report, which essentially … Continue reading →

It seems that firms are gradually waking up to the potential headache that is likely to be caused by the incoming compliance requirements from the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA – though it looks like it’s missing an extra T on the end there…), the deadline for which is 2013. I’ve noticed a … Continue reading →