On November 23, 2021, FINRA filed SR-FINRA-2021-029 with the SEC, “Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 6732 (Exemption from Trade Reporting Obligation for Certain Transactions on an Alternative Trading System)”. On December 1, 2021, FINRA filed SR-FINRA-2021-030 with the SEC, “Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 6730 to Require Members to Append Modifiers to Delayed Treasury Spot and Portfolio Trades When Reporting to TRACE.” FIF has scheduled the next call for the TRACE Working Group for Tuesday December 14 at 2pm ET to continue the Working Group discussion of...

The FIF Back Office Committee will meet on Tuesday, December 7 at 10am ET to review applicable FICC, DTC, NSCC, SEC, MSRB, OCC, IRS and FINRA updates during the past month.

On November 30, 2021, FIF had a call with FINRA to discuss FIF member questions relating to the Supplemental Liquidity Schedule (SLS) recently adopted by FINRA (see FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-31). The SLS takes effect on March 1, 2022. If you are interested in participating in discussions with other FIF members on this topic, please send a note to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Wednesday December 15 at 10am ET Alaina R. Clark, Assistant Director for Stakeholder Engagement at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will present to a joint call of the FIF Cybersecurity and Compliance Working Groups. CISA is an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Clark will discuss the role and functions of CISA, CISA’s current areas of focus, recommendations for industry members on cybersecurity processes and management and reporting of cybersecurity incidents, and opportunities for enhanced cooperation between the industry and federal...

FIF Securities Lending Transparency Working Group. The Securities Lending Transparency Working Group discussed the SEC’s recent rule proposal to create a new regulatory reporting system to enhance transparency in the securities lending market. FIF TRACE Working Group. The TRACE Working Group discussed two recent filings by FINRA relating to TRACE reporting for ATS trades, delayed Treasury spot trades and portfolio trades. FIF Rule 606 Working Group. The Rule 606 Working Group provided final comments for the FIF comment letter on FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-35, “FINRA Requests Comment on...

In the global FX marketplace, no firm is an island unto itself. In fact, that’s the very reason that trading firms are referred to as market participants – because every trading firm is a participant in the global marketplace. David Brown, IPC’s Chief Commercial Officer, explains how every market participant has a place in the greater market structure, which is itself an interdependent network. In this article, David Brown delves into topics such as: Connectivity for a fragmented market Accessing innovation in a changing marketplace Extranets in the time of Covid-19 A new...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc said it has partnered with Amazon Web Services Inc to create a software for cloud-based data and analytics for financial institutions. The new product will allow hedge funds and asset managers, among other firms, with data management, analytics and security services, the bank said. The bank is opening up access to its trove of market data and software tools to hedge funds and asset managers in an offering designed with Amazon’s cloud division. The move, the result of a two-year collaboration with AWS, puts Goldman in the unusual position of being a provider...

BNY Mellon’s Pershing has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire direct indexing solutions provider Optimal Asset Management. Closing of the acquisition is subject to customary conditions and is expected to occur before the end of 2021.  Optimal Asset Management’s patented software offers customizable direct indexing solutions to investors looking for personalized portfolios which match with their values. In addition, the firm addresses increasing client demand for improved investment customization by choosing individual equities in an index solution, which includes options to...

Northern Trust Front Office Solutions has been pursuing four avenues of digitizing alternative investment documentation and the next step is to use machine learning to retrieve more unstructured data. In a story in MarketsMedia news Melanie Pickett, head of Northern Trust Front Office Solutions, said that clients who own alternative investments receive information about their holdings in completely disparate formats – so if they have 150 managers, they get data in 150 different ways. “So they have been clamoring for help to make that process of ingesting and managing their documents more...