Monticello Join's CFA Society New York's Annual Fintech Week

The Monticello team attended the CFA Society New York’s Fintech Week, a 3-day series to learn from industry experts about the impact of innovation and technology on investment practitioners. The panelists discussed various topics such as new career paths in the field of digital transformation, innovation of AI, data science in investment management, and the accelerated growth of blockchain and digital assets in financial services. The panelists emphasized the importance of combining quantitative and fundamental analyses to create successful models for investments. Another hot topic included disruptive innovation - where it was revealed that approximately 1% of the worlds GDP is tokenized and expected to account for 10% of the world GDP by 2027!  

Monticello’s team realizes the importance of participating in thought leadership discussions to support digital transformation and change throughout the financial services industry. We look forward to working with our clients to support their digital transformation efforts in 2021 and beyond.

Monticello Joins Risk.net Conversation on Market Risk Management

The Monticello team attended the Risk.Net "Modifying market risk management – a year after COVID-19" webinar today to hear from industry experts on the impact COVID-19 has had on existing risk management processes and practices during the height of market volatility in 2020 and 2021. The panelists discussed impacts to existing internal models, technology infrastructure, and further considerations into cloud-based technology. Monticello realizes the importance of participating in emerging finance and risk topics as thought leaders in financial services, banking, and technology. We look forward to working with our clients to support their middle office risk initiatives in 2021 and beyond. 

ALPFA NY (Association of Latino Professionals for America) Ventures Speaker Series

Monticello Consulting Group happily joined the ALPFA NY (Association of Latino Professionals for America) Ventures Speaker Series this week highlighting a Hispanic female business leader, Carmen Palafox. Carmen is is the Founder and Managing Partner at 2045 Ventures, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles.  This event focused on how startup funding works as well as Carmen's story and her path into the Venture Capital ecosystem - this was a very interesting conversation and it was great to see Carmen’s success thus far!

Monticello's Digital Transformation Team Explores RPA for Capital Markets

Monticello’s Digital Transformation team gathered recently to learn more about UIPath, an innovative Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool with the ability to transform the way we work with clients across the financial services industry. Monticello’s Bob Adams demonstrated how RPA promises to significantly reduce the time and cost of tedious, manual processes while reducing errors and increasing efficiency. By pairing traditional robotic process tools with a suite of artificial intelligence capabilities, UIPath and other RPA platforms are already having a significant impact on many organizations!

Supporting High Water Women Org - Financial Literacy Training

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Monticello was pleased to support the High Water Women Org to help continue their vital programs, including the Financial Literacy Training program here in NYC.  Over the years, we have partnered with this women led, run, and founded organization with their various initiatives.  Their Financial Literacy program, where volunteer instructors teach low-income teens the skills necessary to manage money responsibly and lay the groundwork for a more secure financial future has been one of our favorite and most rewarding activities to join them on! If you’d like to learn more about the HWW, please visit: Financial Literacy Education | High Water Women

Inwood House/Children's Village Spring Educational Luncheon - March 2021

This year’s Inwood House/Children's Village Spring Educational Luncheon was virtual but just as impactful as in year’s past. This year our expert panel dove into how COVID exposed problems in systems across NYC, from sharing stories of COVID related impacts within families, foster care programs, and the CV’s residential facilities, to sharing solutions as we move forward. The Inwood House/Children’s Village Annual Luncheon supports their work throughout the NY metro area, including work with pregnant and parenting teenagers - thank you to all of you who joined this conversation and who continue to support this vital organization in our community.

New York Fed & AARP Virtual Seminar – The State of the 50+ Entrepreneur

Monticello joined the New York Fed & AARP Virtual Seminar – The State of the 50+ Entrepreneur to gain some insight into this segment of the market and to understand resources available today for those who have been impacted by COVID. Many members from the NY FED, including CEO John Williams and Claire Kramer Mills shared various strategies on how to government is aiming to support Entrepreneurs here today!

CFA Society of New York - LIBOR Transition Series

The Monticello team attended Part One of the CFA Society of New York's LIBOR Transition Series yesterday. This roundtable virtual discussion included a distinguished group of panelists discussing the current state of the LIBOR transition and the challenges that exist. In addition, this discussion included key operational considerations market participants can take from a technology standpoint to mitigate risks and financial losses. With the USD LIBOR extension of 5 of the 7 tenors announced earlier this year, the group of panelists shared key insights on documentation review and renegotiation tactics to assist in transitioning from USD LIBOR to SOFR. This included recommendations on how to amend fallback language provided by the ARRC and how to deal with the complexities found in loan contracts.  The Monticello team continues to support and advise our clients on the LIBOR transition to ensure they receive the latest and most up to date market information as possible to ensure readiness.

Monticello Joins Gartner Discussion on RPA

The Monticello team joined Gartner’s Panel Discussion today to learn more about how to unlock the business value of robotic process automation in the financial services industry. The esteemed panelists, Saikat Ray and Arup Roy, emphasized the fast growing demand for RPA in the financial services industry as RPA has seen a significant growth of 63% over the last 2 years. RPA was originally a mere UI instrument; however, we have seen it evolve over time to include new features such as API, process mining, AI, ML and Intelligent Document Processing. Additionally, the discussion took a deep-dive into how to apply the four golden rules of RPA to jump-start the automation journey and metrics that can be used to measure the benefits, costs, and risks of implementing RPA. Monticello looks forward to working with our clients help to them leverage RPA to build value as they accelerate their digital transformation efforts in 2021!

Monticello Celebrates St. Patrick's Day 2021

The Monticello team gathered yesterday evening to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Rebecca Smith hosted another great social event and the team wore their best orange, green and white while they enjoyed a virtual tour of Ireland, Irish music and a pint. It was great to validate our knowledge of the history of Ireland by a special guest or two as well as our very own Camillus Fitzpatrick and Ireland native. The team especially enjoyed our Scavenger Hunt and the number of people with top hats, gold coins, potatoes, and lucky charms was impressive! Cheers to another great event !

The Economists' Climate Risk Summit: North America 2021

The Monticello team is attending The Economists' Climate Risk Summit: North America 2021 where panelists will discuss how business leaders can measure, manage, and mitigate the impact of physical and transition risks posed by climate change.  This four-day event will cover a wide array of climate change topics from both government and industry participants with aim to converge on recommendations and guidelines. These recommendations and guidelines will underpin the risk disclosure reporting standards which will support banks in embedding climate risks into everyday business models, enterprise-wide risk frameworks, and the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.  Monticello realizes the importance of participating in emerging finance and risk topics as thought leaders in financial services, banking, and technology. We look forward to working with our clients to support their climate risk reporting initiatives in 2021 and beyond.

Trickle Up International Women's Day Gala Celebration!

One of our favorite events Monticello joined this week was the Trickle Up International Women’s Day Gala Celebration! Trickle Up is a valued nonprofit international development organization whose mission is to create breakthrough opportunities for women living in extreme poverty across the globe.  With extreme poverty (defined as less than $1.90 daily income) on the rise for the first time in 20 years, their work is now more than ever so important and needed for empowering this community. Some of the highlighted appearances included Judith Heumann, International Disability Activist Vanessa Williams; U.S. Senator for Illinois, Tammy Duckworth; and Vanessa Williams, multi-platinum recording artist and star of film, theater, and television for this celebration of trailblazing women. Thank you for your continued selfless work that you do for those in need - please join us to learn more about this wonderful group! Home - Trickle Up

Monticello Women's Virtual Happy Hour (Throwback Thursday Pic!)

The Monticello ladies joined together virtually this week to celebrate International Women’s Day, Women’s Month, and the Women in our industry as a whole! While we haven’t been able to be together in person for over a year, (the picture above was a throwback from pre-Covid days), our networking must continue! Cheers to all the Monti ladies and the women who work together to create more professional opportunities, equality and growth for women in finance.

100WF's Celebrate 20 Years of 100WF with a Market Closing at NASDAQ

On International Women’s Day, Monticello joined virtually 100WF's Celebration of 20 Years of 100WF with a Market Closing at NASDAQ, which was very exciting! Throughout 2021, 100 Women in Finance will celebrate its twentieth year of operations with special events and recognition of the member volunteers who have built 100WF into today’s leading organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the global finance industry. Since its founding in 2001, 100WF’s pillars of Education, Peer Engagement and Impact have established a foundation of purpose, achievement and confidence that will guide the organization's future growth and focus on attaining its 30x40 Vision in the next twenty years. We’re so pleased to be involved with this growing and vast women’s focused organization, who not only offers education and support, but an opportunity for women in finance to grow their professional networks - keep up the great work and we look forward to more wonderful events in the year ahead.

Celebrating International Women's Day!

Monticello celebrates International Women’s Day as we commemorate the valued cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of all women and look forward to the continued progress women are making in our society! As a minority owned business, we not only celebrate but fully support growth for women in our firm and appreciate all the women who work with and partner with our team. Cheers to the many more Women’s Events we will be enjoying together over the month ahead…progress and history is being made!

Monticello Joins Bloomberg's International Women’s Day Event

The Monticello team was excited to join Bloomberg’s ‘Girls Who Invest’ event in honor of Women’s History Month. The esteemed panel discussed topics around investing during the pandemic, racial injustice affecting the U.S., and gender equity.  

The panelists unanimously agreed that while the ‘E’ in ESG has been the primarily focus of the financial world across the last several years, it is ‘S’ and ‘G’ that will now gain momentous attention globally. Investment firms are rolling out roadmaps on ESG issues and will incorporate it to frame their overall strategic investment goals. Additionally, more than ever before, clients are now interested in knowing the diversity ratio and initiatives taken across gender and race prior to making any investment decisions.  

Monticello Consulting Group is committed to ensuring a fair and inclusive work environment for our exceptional team. We also look forward to supporting clients on their diversity and inclusion goals.

Monticello Participates in GARP Virtual Risk Convention

Last week the Monticello team joined the top minds in risk and finance for the first-ever GARP Virtual Risk Convention. Cutting-edge risk topics like operational resilience, cyber, climate change, liquidity, and geopolitical risk were discussed. In addition, critical conversations were held on people, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability to discuss how risk management relates to an organization’s corporate culture during an era of seismic change. Our team welcomed the opportunity to learn more about how risk management teams across the financial services industry are addressing these issues and rising to the moment.

CFPB Webinar: Unpacking the Black Wealth Gap

Today’s CFPB Webinar: “Unpacking the Black Wealth Gap - Historical Lessons of Credit Discrimination” was a truly informative and valuable conversation to join. Our team gained insights from many industry leaders on this important topic, as this dialogue was shared to help financial practitioners understand the history of unfair practices and to breach the topic on how to better service African American clients today. “Know your stakeholders” approach continues to be relevant here, but also knowing the true history helps work through new and more fair standards!

Monticello Team Convenes to Discuss the Regulatory Landscape in 2021 & Beyond

Over the past year, much of the world’s attention has been consumed by the persistent COVID-19 pandemic, the controversies surrounding the US Presidential elections, and the late stage finalization of Brexit trade negotiations. In the meantime, the transition away from LIBOR rates continued across all impacted currencies, and Phases 5 & 6 of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) are targeted for completion in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to improve the overall strength of the global financial system. Both international governing bodies and US regulators have issued Operational Resilience guidance and are moving quickly towards final regulations on this topic. Similarly, the global impact of climate risks has emerged as an industry hot-topic and is likely to prompt further regulatory guidance for financial institutions in coming months. Lastly, the emergence of virtual forums that target specific market positions in a coordinated fashion (i.e. GameStop short-squeeze) has triggered calls for regulatory action, including renewed focus on accelerating the implementation of the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system. It is all but certain that impactful regulatory changes are on the horizon and many of them are seeking to address non-traditional risks that will challenge bank executives’ problem solving skills.

As consultants, our ability to exchange knowledge and bring different perspectives gives us the ability to pose different scenarios to our clients.  As we continue to support our clients on their regulatory initiatives, we look forward to identifying solutions that leverage our world class capabilities at the intersection of Financial Services Advisory, Change Management and Digital Transformation.

For the latest news, insights, and transition timelines, please visit our Regulatory Advisory page to stay on top of the latest requirements through expert advice and support. You can also download the full 2021 Regulatory Update here.

Monticello Joins CFTC call with 100 Women in Finance

The Monticello team joined an exciting “100 Women in Finance” chat with Sharon Bowen, former CFTC Commissioner, today. Sharon Bowen spoke about her journey from being a corporate lawyer in the private sector to being a part of the Obama Administration.  The key discussion points evolved around diversity, inclusion, and ESG. Even though the financial services industry is finally making progress on gender diversity, there is a still a long way to go to create an industry in which women have equal access to opportunities. Thus, from a social perspective, corporations have an obligation to incorporate and disclose diversity without waiting for regulators to implement rules and policies. To reduce the gender gap, New York Stock Exchange requested CEOs to nominate women who they believe are board-ready - this database is available to companies who are looking for a diverse board of directors. Sharon’s parting advise was that it is critical for companies to create an inclusive culture for success and she emphasized that companies should report metrics around D&I similar to financial metrics. Monticello looks forward to attending many more of these types of events and supporting clients to help create a gender diverse and inclusive culture.