Back Office Committee. On March 16, the Co-Chairs of the FIF Back Office Committee (Susan Crozier of FIS and Doug Gifford of Broadridge) will lead a discussion of the recent DTCC T+1 whitepaper, Advancing Together: Leading the Industry to Accelerated Settlement. Cybersecurity and Emerging Technology Working Groups. On March 23, Josh Burns of CitiHub will present on Secrets Management in the Financial Industry Using a Hashicorp Vault Implementation. Tax Information Reporting Working Group. On March 25, Stevie Conlon and colleagues at Wolters Kluwer will present Part 2 of their Spotlight...

At the request of FIF members, FIF has created a Working Group to focus on interpretive and operational questions relating to Regulation SHO and potential areas where FIF members might want to seek interpretive guidance. In order to join this group, update your working group subscriptions in your profile here: https://fif.com/index.php/profile. If you're having trouble, or forgot your password, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for assistance. The first meeting of this Working Group is scheduled for March 18 at 10...

During October 2018 FIF members presented recommendations to the SEC staff for the modernization of Rule 605. These recommendations, which were developed through the FIF Rule 605 Working Group, were focused on updating Rule 605 to reflect market changes since the adoption of Rule 605 in 2000.    At the request of FIF members, on February 25 FIF held a meeting for the FIF Rule 605 Working Group to discuss reviewing and updating these recommendations. The Working Group reviewed the proposals from October 2018 and agreed to proceed with updating the recommendations to present to...

Later this week, FIF will be submitting a comment letter on a rule proposal by the Federal Reserve to expand TRACE reporting to certain depository institutions that are not broker-dealers. The comment letter is focused on the potential impact for broker-dealers that currently report to TRACE.

FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group. The CAT Tech Specs Working Group discussed comments and questions for FINRA CAT raised by FIF Members relating to the following topics: Reporting Exception Code ‘C’; automatic investment programs; TRF reporting for IDQS scenarios; the Quote Modified event; reporting allocations for when-issued and when-distributed securities; pre-IPO symbols; and corporate actions. The Working Group submitted comments and questions to FINRA CAT. The Working Group discussed issues and questions raised by FIF members relating to partial cancel scenarios, the OFF...

Refinitiv has integrated its equity ownership data with the client relationship management (CRM) platform provider, Tier1. The integration will provide participants using the Tier1 platform with normalized holdings, profiles and contacts data, streamlining consumption of data for capital markets participants. Through the combination of the ownership data from Refinitiv and automatic updates provided by Tier1’s CRM technology, clients of the platform will receive data on ownership trends, investment managers, securities...

BNP Paribas has confirmed plans to fully acquire its long-standing partner and equity brokerage Exane in a bid to position itself as a leading provider in European equities. The investment bank said it will acquire the remaining 50% stake of Exane following a 17-year partnership between the two entities according to a story in The Trade news. Exane has operated the cash equities and research business, alongside equity capital market transactions for BNP Paribas since 2004. The deal to fully acquire the Exane brokerage will bring these activities back in-house at BNP Paribas. The...

Deutsche Bank announced the launch of GEM Connect, a component-based solution designed to address workflow challenges across collections, payments, funding and FX in APAC markets with capital restrictions. Developed by the bank’s Corporate Bank and Fixed Income & Currencies business units in APAC, GEM Connect links treasury processes together into automated workflows, simplifying complex processes for clients moving money to, from and across markets with capital restrictions. Using any combination of GEM Connect’s components, such as its rules-based FX execution tool and payment and...

State Street Corporation announced that Fund Connect ETF will now be open to support all exchange traded fund (ETF) issuers regardless of their service provider. The platform was previously only available to issuers receiving securities services from State Street. The Fund Connect platform has long served as a conduit between Authorized Participants (APs) and issuers. Fund Connect ETF, an integral platform within State Street’s GlobalLink product suite, is a global online trading portal for the creation and redemption of ETFs, designed as a single point of access to many sponsors. For...