Pennsylvania + Wall

By Tom Price

Leaders in Financial Services operations and technology gathered on May 2-5, 2016, at the 43rd annual SIFMA Operations Conference & Exhibition to address industry challenges and share perspectives and strategies. SIFMA's Executive Vice President, Business Policies and Practices, Randy Snook, opened the conference by reflecting on the dynamic changes that are transforming the securities industry, "We are in the midst of several seismic shifts fundamentally changing financial services." Among the changes, three issues dominated discussions:

The Move to the T+2 Settlement Cycle - With detailed resources available, including the
T+2 Industry Implementation Playbook , experts generally believe that the transition to the shorter settlement cycle should proceed smoothly. However, for those firms not yet mobilized, the message was clear: work must start today. Coordination and collaboration among firms and agencies is the key to success..... Read more...

By Chris Morrison, PhD, ABPP

It might be easy to assume that financial exploitation and fraud are primarily perpetrated against cognitively compromised individuals - meaning individuals who suffer from conditions such as dementia or similar neurological disorders. However, this is not necessarily the case. The aging brain can be impacted by a variety of biological, psychological and environmental factors.  These factors can make even a healthy and apparently normal functioning individual compromised when it comes to financial decision-making. .... Read more...

By: Sean Davy and Rob Toomey

On May 24, SIFMA hosted the Fixed Income Market Structure Seminar, bringing together market participants to discuss the latest developments in fixed income markets including: new and future regulations; Treasury's RFI; liquidity and data transparency; and technology and electronic bond trading platforms.

U.S. capital markets are the deepest and most developed in the world; today, technological change and innovation has added to their complexity. Add to these developments, newspaper headlines on the "flash rally" of October 2014, and market structure and its regulation have become a hot topic. Market participants, policy makers, regulators and the public have a stake, and increasingly an opinion, on the ideal structure for our fixed income markets.  

Randy Snook, SIFMA's Executive Vice President for Business Policy and Practices, opened the Fixed Income Market Structure Seminar, noting the need for industry and regulators to work together to understand and adapt to technological changes in fixed income markets.

"One thing is very clear: there is change taking place in both infrastructure and in the profile of market participants. As is often the case, this change comes with a great deal  of innovation and experimentation, and that can be a healthy process as markets and participants adapt. The official sector plays a key role in overseeing our markets and by necessity seeks input from the industry to better understand how they can foster healthy markets."  

Snook further added that as new regulations are developed they must seek the right balance, calibrating policies that keep pace with an increasingly connected and technology driven financial marketplace..... Read more...