Peter O'Toole Joins Ignites Panel on Back Office FinReg Compliance

Citisoft's Peter O'Toole recently joined Ignites's managing editor Hannah Glover and State Street's EVP and head of specialized products group, Brenda Lyons, for the webinar "How Big Data Will Impact Back-Office Compliance." The panel, hosted by Ignites Exchange, discussed the effect of new modernization and liquidity rules from the SEC on mutual fund complexes. Due to the extensive planning needs and operational changes many firms face in order to ensure timely compliance with the new requirements, both Peter and Brenda stressed that asset managers should continue planning for adherence rather than counting on new administration to alter the rulings before they take effect. Peter advised: "I think you'd be a fool to put the brakes on anything and not keep working towards achieving compliance with these rules, because if you're thinking you're going to have a repeal and there's not, you'll be left well behind the times and put tremendous strain on your organization."

Peter gave an overview of some trends we're seeing in tech and data and their future impact on asset managers' back offices for compliance with these and other industry regulations. He discussed the upcoming role of robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and RegTech in meeting requirements, managing risk, and improving efficiency. As regulation and technology changes in our industry, Peter emphasized that it's crucial for asset managers to abandon a "silo" approach to data and "think about the data problem on an enterprise-wide level, so firms can harness power of their data, manage risk across the enterprise, and fulfill regulatory requirements globally." To this end, he gave some industry insight into what's happening with data enablement, service offerings, operating models, and governance.

State Street's Brenda Lyons then gave highlights of the new reporting modernization and liquidity requirements, in addition to a suggested timeline for firms' compliance planning and implementation by the 2018 deadline. For the full discussion, see the webinar here.