When stress, disruption, and uncertainty strike, are you prepared to weather the storm, and are you set up to turn adversity into opportunity? Operational Resilience (OR) has emerged as an industry hot-topic almost overnight as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreThe Future of Collateral Management
The concept of collateral has been around for decades, with borrowers pledging cash and/or securities to their counterparts in the event of a possible default. After the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in 2007-2008, U.S. regulators began to introduce sweeping regulatory reform and recommendations for how collateral should be managed going forward. This included rules and regulations across various asset classes and traded products, including simple and exotic derivative products actively traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) marketplace.
Read MoreDigital Trends to Watch for Capital Markets Operations in 2021
The pandemic of 2020 has profoundly impacted our global communities. The need for social distancing has impacted every aspect of our daily lives from the way we work, how our children attend school, and how we socialize with family, friends, and colleagues. Besides holding up to COVID economic shocks, including record market drawdowns, volumes, and volatility, the fact that capital markets operations carried on without major disruption is a testament to industry resilience. Such results were made possible through past business continuity planning and more recent investments in remote working and collaborative infrastructures.
Read MoreDesign Thinking – The Secret to Financial Services Firms Winning with Customers
Prior to the global pandemic, most banks and financial institutions were already on a path towards digital transformation. Enterprise-wide operations are now streamlining processes and leveraging automation at an accelerated pace to meet the needs of employees and partner organizations. Digital is everywhere, but success is by no means guaranteed. To improve success rates, many organizations have turned to design thinking as a key ingredient. But what is design thinking and how are organizations leveraging the approach to outpace the competition and win with customers, employees and partner organizations?
Read MoreBasel IV - The End of an Era?
“Basel IV” marks the final phase of Basel III implementation. Rather than further changes to capital requirements, these reforms are intended to “restore credibility in the calculation of risk-weighted assets (RWAs) and improve the comparability of banks’ capital ratios” by remedying issues the BCBS identified following the initial implementation of Basel III guidelines.
Read MoreGetting to Yes: Managing the Renegotiation of LIBOR-based Agreements
Currently, there are in excess of $5 Trillion in US business and consumer loans outstanding that rely on LIBOR benchmarks. Every single lending agreement underlying these exposures will need to be remediated prior to the LIBOR end date. For a single agreement, negotiations with borrowers and legal representatives can take months. Creating a framework that balances the inherent complexities of moving to a new benchmark rate, client interests and preferences, and banks’ resource constraints is a delicate task.
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