FIF is pleased to announce that Pragma LLC has joined the FIF Community!

FIF Back Office Committee

On Tuesday, January 19th at 11am ET, Steven Prosperi from DTCC will present on Project Whitney. DTCC’s proposals are contained in two case studies that advance the organization’s efforts to evaluate new ways to enhance post-trade processes through the digitalization of assets. The case studies – Project Ion and Project Whitney - are the latest efforts by DTCC to examine the potential use of DLT, asset digitalization and other emerging technologies. Project Ion, which we've previously covered on the December Back Office call, seeks to build on DTCC’s successful efforts over the past several years to further optimize the settlement process in the public markets, while Project Whitney considers opportunities to provide increased levels of digitalization throughout the private market asset lifecycle.

FIF Tax Spotlight: Virtual Currency Update

On Thursday, January 21st at 11am ET, Wolters Kluwer will host a spotlight discussion on Virtual Currencies from a tax information reporting point of view. This will be part one of a two part spotlight series on the topic.

FIF Spotlight on Executive Order 13959

On Monday, December 21st at 11am ET, FIF will be hosting a meeting on the recent Executive Order 13959, which will prohibit certain transactions in publicly traded securities of any Chinese military company or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to, such securities. Robert Dura and Satish Kini of the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm will present. FIF has invited Front Office and Back Office Committee participants to join the call.

FIF Front Office Committee: SEC Market Data Infrastructure Rule

On Tuesday, December 22nd at 11am ET, Larry Tabb will present on the Market Data Infrastructure Rule recently adopted by the SEC.

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.

FIF Year-End CAT Webinar

Please join us this afternoon at 4pm ET for a webinar and panel discussion where we will be looking ahead to the major CAT initiatives of 2021 and beyond. The expert panel includes: Will Leahey (Refinitiv), Shelly Bohlin (FINRA CAT), Christopher Bok (OTC Markets), Jacki Van Moer (Goldman Sachs), Douglas Craig (Fidessa/ION Group), Ron Jordan (Kingland) and Jeremy Kahn (Jane Street). FIF would like to thank Refinitiv for sponsoring this event. Please register here. If your firm blocks Zoom, please email the Program Office at fifinfo@fif.com for dial-in details.

FIF Cybersecurity Working Group

On Tuesday December 15th at 11am ET, Al Berg from Endava will discuss the wide variety of tools and techniques attackers have at their disposal today. In the presentation, you will gain insight from real life incidents targeting the financial and government sectors. Al will dive into what techniques have paid off for the attackers and what defensive strategies defenders can deploy to get the most bang for their security buck.

FIF Tax Information Reporting Working Group

On Wednesday December 16th at 11am ET, our Co-Chairs from Refinitiv and guest speakers from Ernst & Young will present on the current state of withholding for broker-dealers and provide an overview on the current state of reporting and filing practices for broker-dealers.

FIF Spotlight on Executive Order 13959

On Monday, December 21st at 11am ET, FIF will be hosting a meeting on the recent Executive Order 13959, which will prohibit certain transactions in publicly traded securities of any Chinese military company or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to, such securities. Robert Dura and Satish Kini of the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm will present. FIF invites Front Office and Back Office Committee participants to join the call.

FIF Front Office Committee: SEC Market Data Infrastructure Rule

On Tuesday, December 22nd at 11am ET, Larry Tabb will present on the Market Data Infrastructure rule recently adopted by the SEC.

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Login/Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.

FIF featured the following spotlight presentations this past week:

• FIF Front Office Committee Spotlight on OTCBB (Monday, November 30). Chris Bok of OTC Markets discussed FINRA’s proposal to retire the OTCBB and enhance oversight of OTC equity markets.
• FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs (Thursday, December 3). FIF conducted a call for Back Office Committee members that focused on the recent SEC no-action letter relating to fully paid lending (FPL) programs (programs in which broker-dealers borrow fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers). Nihal Patel from the Cadwalader law firm provided background on the rule proposal.

FIF will feature the following spotlight presentations on upcoming Committee and Working Group calls:

• Back Office Committee Spotlight on DTCC Project ION. On Tuesday December 8th at 11am ET, John Abel from DTCC will discuss DTCC's Project ION on FIF's monthly Back Office Committee meeting. 
• Tax Information Reporting Working Group Spotlight. On December 16th at 11am ET, our co-chairs from Refinitiv and guest speakers from Ernst & Young will present on the current state of withholding for broker-dealers and provide an overview on the current state reporting and filing practices for broker-dealers. 
• Cybersecurity Working Group Spotlight. On Tuesday December 15th at 11am ET, Al Berg from Endava will discuss the wide variety of tools and techniques attackers have at their disposal today. In the presentation, you will gain insight from real life incidents targeting the financial and government sectors. Al will dive into what techniques have paid off for the attackers and what defensive strategies defenders can deploy to get the most bang for their security buck.

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.