Profile of Cory Levine

Blog Posts: 239

CyberTech Releases New Call Center Monitoring Solution

6/23/2008
CyberTech Pro 5.1 enables the simultaneous recording and replay of PC monitors and telephone calls.

SunGard Introduces New Compliance Module Within Asset Arena

6/23/2008
Asset Arena Compliance improves compliance workflow and data management from the front to the back office.

Quantitative Analysis Could Have Helped Investors During the Subprime Crisis

6/20/2008
Quantitative analysis to determine the return distribution of funds could have helped investors actually earn a return during the subprime crisis, Riskdata reports.

MEGA Improves Its GRC Suite

6/20/2008
Version 3.0 of MEGA International's governance, risk and compliance software offers solutions designed to appeal to different types of users and ensure integration with current systems.

Older Advisers Just as Likely to Tap the Web as a Business Tool

6/19/2008
A new report dispels the myth that older advisers spend less time using the Web as a business tool than their younger colleagues.

Stopping ID Theft With Biometrics

6/19/2008
Accenture recommends the use of biometric solutions — specifically, fingerprint readers — to prevent identity theft.

Firms Resist Outsourcing Content Security

6/19/2008
New AIIM survey shows that firms are reluctant to adopt an out-of-house model for content security.

Transition Managers Become Increasingly Popular

6/19/2008
Transition managers are now charged with 45 percent of all mandates to mitigate risks associated with moving portfolios, TABB Group reports.

Risk Management IT Spending Will Rise With Increased Commodities Markets Volatility

5/29/2008
The growth of global commodities trading volumes will require new compliance systems that address the entire trading chain.

Latency Risk Exposure On the Rise

5/29/2008
In 2008, 16 percent of all U.S. institutional equity commissions are exposed to latency risk, totaling $2 billion, according to a new report from the TABB Group.

Goldman Sachs Enhances REDIPlus EMS

5/23/2008
Version 8.0 of GSET's REDIPlus proprietary execution management system includes a revamped front end, additional foreign languages, and expanded algorithmic offerings.

Capgemini Partners With Teradata to Create Compliance and Operations Platform

5/22/2008
The new platform will enable holistic regulatory reporting and monitoring of trade status issues.

Riskdata Offers New Version of FOFix

5/22/2008
For version 3.1 of the risk management service for hedge funds, Riskdata partnered with hedge fund database vendors.

Optimizing the Web for Sales

5/22/2008
Fund companies should view the Web as a 24/7 wholesaler that can extend a broader reach to investment advisers than the distribution team of any single asset manager, says kasina.

Trading Positions to Plunge Due to Subprime Crisis

5/22/2008
In North America and Western Europe, markets are expected to have 20,000 fewer trading positions in the next three years.

Client Relationships Are Key for Wealth Managers

5/22/2008
Aite Group study finds that subject matter expertise and listening skills are most important to clients in building a strong financial planning relationship.

Business Analysts Are In Demand

5/22/2008
Business analysts with derivatives experience and knowledge of exotic products can expect a higher boost in salaries.

Interdealer Brokers Should Be Feeling Good About Themselves

5/22/2008
The top interdealer brokers (IDBs) will see revenue growth as volume in over-the-counter (OTC) markets continues to increase. In addition, barriers to entry will keep the IDBs fairly safe from the threat of new competition.

Outsourcing Losing Its Luster

4/15/2008
Broker-dealers will be able to offer primary and multicustodial brokerage and direct-to-fund account opening from one system.

CDC Releases New CRM Platform as a Software-as-a-Service Offering

4/15/2008
The solution can be used on an on-demand basis through a Web portal or deployed internally by the client.

Quod Releases Solution for Buy-Side Execution Management

4/15/2008
Advanced Smart-Order Router (ASOR) uses the algorithms in Quod's sell-side solution to bring new levels of routing capabilities to the buy side, the vendor says.

Gartner Offers Financial Institutions Tips to Broaden Client Relationships

4/14/2008
By helping customers better manage their finances with access to external data, financial institutions can broaden their customer relationships and meet some of their own short-term cost and revenue challenges.

Direct Market Access to Continue Steady Growth

4/11/2008
Celent estimates that 15 percent to 18 percent of current U.S. equities flow goes through direct market access (DMA) pipes, a number that is expected to increase to 20 percent by 2010.

Options Traders Lack TCA Tools

4/11/2008

Electronic Trading Drives FX Market Growth

4/11/2008
While the eventual replacement of telephone and voice-based trading is a foregone conclusion, the industry conversion to electronic trading is happening even faster than expected. Research from CME Group predicts that by 2010 more than 80 percent of all cash business will be executed electronically.

Watching the Value of IT Assets

4/11/2008
Companies are constantly acquiring, disposing of and moving physical IT assets, making it exceptionally difficult to keep an up-to-date record of the value of fixed assets. Assetware recommends conducting a physical audit.

Hedge Funds Say Technology Is Critical to Business

4/11/2008
Hedge funds are focusing their technology efforts on improving automation around OTC derivatives, as well as adding collateral management technology and exerting better control over prime brokerage charges and rates, according to a new Aite survey.

Finding Qualified Tech Professionals Is Difficult

3/19/2008
New survey finds that in areas like Web development, database management, wireless networking and applications engineering, qualified professionals are in short supply.

Lack of Standardization in Data, Reporting to Hinder Basel II Compliance

3/18/2008
Nearly half of the more than 100 financial services and compliance professionals who participated in an FRSGlobal survey indicate standardization of their business reporting processes is insufficient.

Identity Fraud on the Decline

3/18/2008
Despite the hype, identity fraud is on the decline, according to a new survey. But as fraudsters return to traditional channles, such as phone lines, to steal the trusting public's personal information, few financial instituions have implemented multifactor authentication for telephone banking.

Identity and Access Management Market to Reach $12.3 Billion in 2014

3/18/2008
Forrester predicts that the largest area of growth will be in user account provisioning technologies, which is expected to be a $7.9 billion market in 2014.

SunGard Targets Alternative Investment Firms

3/14/2008
The new release adds equalization credit/contingent redemption functionality as well as support for unitized funds.

Reuters Delivers New Derivatives Pricing Service

3/14/2008
The new offering is part of Reuters' overall strategy to speed up the valuation process for complex instruments.

BioPassword Monitors Rhythm of Typing

3/14/2008
Authentication provider adds improved monitoring and reporting capabilities to its authentication platform, which monitors the typing rhythm of users.

Excel Still Fastest and Most Flexible Trade Capture System

3/14/2008
Traders are sticking to Excel because it empowers them to create new structure products without relying on the support of the IT organization, says TABB Group.

Wealth Management Firms Need Tech Upgrade

3/14/2008
As 73 million baby boomers begin to hit retirement in 2008, a massive shift is occurring from accumulation of wealth to distribution, according to a report from Celent. But in order to effectively serve retired clients, wealth management firms are going to need to upgrade their technology.

Hedge Fund of Funds Grow in Popularity

3/14/2008
In 2007, Aite said global assets of HFOFs reached over $1.3 trillion, and are expectd to grow to .2 trillion by 2011.

Weather Derivatives Traders Get Starter Kit

2/19/2008
YellowJacket, Risk Management Solutions and MDA EarthSat Weather combine their offerings to create a suite of services designed to enhance weather trading operations.

Reuters Releases Data Feed Direct for OPRA

2/19/2008
RDFD offers high-performance exchange feed connectivity, as well as daily reference data maintenance and hardware, software and service monitoring.

Ecora Releases New Auditor Professional

2/19/2008
Auditor Professional 4.5 discovers, collects, analyzes and reports on configuration data from a company's infrastructure.

Aite Reveals Top 10 Investment Trends

2/19/2008
Hot topics in 2008 include OTC derivatives processing, international market fragmentation, and corporate actions processing.

Stock Exchanges and ECNs Fight for Liquidity

2/19/2008
TABB Group reports that faster ECNs are leveraging aggressive pricing models to build equity volume.

Offshore Outsourcing of IT Positions Loses Popularity

2/19/2008
According to a recent survey, 94 percent of participating CIOs say their companies currently are not outsourcing technology positions outside the U.S.

More Financial Firms Join Industry Consortium Trade Ideas

2/19/2008
London-based utility Trade Ideas Limited (TIL), established by Citi, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort and Merrill Lynch, reported an increase in membership of 88 percent in 2007.

Compliance Costs Grow Faster Than Net Income

2/19/2008
Compliance costs are eating up more and more net income, growing from 2.83 percent of net income in 2002 to 3.69 percent in 2006.

Financial Crossing Releases Liability Manager 3.0

1/24/2008
Liability Manager 3.0 features a customizable front end that can be configured for self-service on a Web portal.

TraceSecurity Launches Risk Manager Solution

1/24/2008
Risk Manager enables companies to protect confidential data from physical and electronic threats, as well as demonstrate a verifiable and repeatable methodology for security

Guardian Analytics Launches Easy Fraud Prevention Solution

1/24/2008
FraudMAP does not require fraud rules development or algorithm training, according to Guardian Analytics.

Brokerages Still Fail to Offer Full Web-Based Banking Services

1/20/2008
New Corporate Insight report suggests only 40 percent of brokerages can truly be considered a full 'bankerage,' defined as a brokerage that offers traditional banking products, including FDIC-insured savings and checking accounts, with all accounts accessible via a single Web login.

Financial Firms Need to Improve Their Use of Web 2.0 Technologies

1/20/2008
A new report by kasina argues that Web 2.0 technologies -- including blogs, wikis and mashups -- could yield powerful advantages and that firms are missing out on great opportunity.

6 Tech Issues Wealth Managers Must Address To Meet Client Expectations

1/20/2008
Wealthy clients are considering more-sophisticated strategies for managing their assets and are requiring a great deal more from their providers.

Fixed-Income Products Fail to Go Fully Electronic

1/20/2008
New research from Celent reveals that not all types of fixed-income securities are experiencing rapid electronification.

Back-Office Staffing Difficulties to Continue

1/18/2008
Hedge funds and mutual funds will continue to have difficulty staffing their back offices in 2008.

Data Consolidation Can Help Financial Advisers Gain Client Trust

1/18/2008
With wealthy individuals employing the services of multiple financial advisers, becoming the most-trusted adviser now requires a comprehensive picture of the client, Aite Group reports.

Salaries Expected To Increase For IT Professionals In 2008

12/19/2007
Compliance management solution MyComplianceOffice from TerraNua audits activities including attestations, policy review and updates and employee trading.

TKS’ Penny Gets a Pickup

12/12/2007
New York-based TKS Solutions has expanded the feature set of its flagship partnership and shareholder accounting software, Penny.

Dark Pools Don’t Translate in Foreign Markets

12/12/2007
Despite their increasing popularity in U.S. markets, dark pools of liquidity are finding few takers in foreign markets, according to a new market study from Celent.

Rule 22c-2 Won't Work, Says Study

10/22/2007
According to survey results released earlier this month, the recently effective SEC Rule 22c-2 may not be the end-all solution for mutual fund market timing abuses.

Lloyds TSB to Outsource Back Office to Wachovia

10/1/2007
Last week Wachovia and Lloyds TSB Bank announced that Wachovia's Hong Kong operation will take over trade back office processing from the UK bank. Details of the agreement were not released, but Wachovia did reveal that by early next year, it will fully take over trade processing.

Four Pump-and-Dump Scammers Plead Guilty

9/11/2007
Four men have pleaded guilty to charges relating to a pump-and-dump market manipulation scheme that netted more than $20 million in profit. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, securities of more than 15 publicly traded companies had their prices inflated through deceptive trading practices and m

SEC Appoints Lineberry, Plotkin Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

8/28/2007
The SEC's Office of Market Surveillance, which enforces regulation on U.S. markets, appointed a new head in Mark Lineberry. He steps in for Joe Cella, who resigned earliers this year, according to reports. Lineberry comes into the position during a flurry of activity surrounding insider trading. The SEC has of late stepped up its efforts to

Wall St. Opens It's Arms to Electronic 144A Marketplaces

8/15/2007
This week has seen a flurry of activity in the development of electronic platforms for trading equity offerings by private companies that fall under a href=" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_144A" target="_blank">Rule 144A of the U.S. Securities Act. The rule allows for the private resale of securities between institutional investors, which gives private companies a means for raising capital without listing publicly. Nasdaq

John Schmidlin Resurfaces at NYSE Regulation

8/6/2007
Here's quick bit of appointment news from last week. Former JP Morgan Chase CIO, John Schmidlin has joined the board of directors for NYSE Regulation, the regulator announced. Schmidlin spent 35 years at JPMC, working his way up from management trainee to stepping down from the CIO position in 2004. Prior positions at JPMC included h

Diane Schueneman Plans for Merrill Lynch's Future

7/26/2007
Completion of infrastructure build-out creates "gobal support model", 70 percent of technology investments channeled into new development, Straight-through processing platforms for high-volume a priority

Instinet Sees Shakeup at the Top, CEOs Resign

6/11/2007
Interagency broker Instinet, a subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, Inc. will see three of its top leaders step down in a major overhaul of the boardroom. The firm announced last week that co-CEOs John Fay and Alex Goor will pursue other interests, while Chairman Ed Nicoll is stepping down from his post, and is in negotiations for a special advisor

SIFMA Chief Lackritz Testifies Before Senate

5/21/2007
Marc Lackritz, CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and the voice of the U.S. broker-dealer community, testified last week in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investments. In his testimony, Lackritz reaffirm

Bear Stearns Sounds the Death Knell for Its Specialists

5/14/2007
The next domino toppled today for floor-based specialists, as Bear Stearns announced it will write down the value of its specialist business, Bear Wagner, by $225 million. Firms all along Wall Street have been re-evaluating their specialist staff as the New York Stock Exchange has i

Wall St. Still Unprepared for Pandemic, SEC Mulls Action

5/7/2007
The United States Government Accountability Office released a report (PDF) on its latest year-long study on the resiliency of U.S. financial markets last week, and the results were mixed. After examining seven critical exchanges, clearing organizations, and payment processors, the <

JPMorgan Losing Data and Making Headlines

5/1/2007
Two disturbing reports of carelessness with customer data have surface out of JPMorgan Chase this week. The first is a video posted yesterday on YouTube which allegedly shows customers' in-tact personal financial informatio

Cuomo Wins Big on Data Privacy

5/1/2007
New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last week obtained the first settlement in court under the state's data breach notification legislation. While the punishment of the exposed company, Chicago-based claims management firm CS Stars, LLC, was relatively light, the development opens up new legal vulnerabilities fo

SEC Aims to Make AML Compliance Easier

4/16/2007
The SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) today announced the availability of a new online resource for anti-money laundering (AML) information. The "AML Source Tool" compiles and organizes all of the major rules and regulations surrounding AML. "We're hoping that this AML Source Tool will assist broker-dealers w

Citi Restructuring Focuses on Cutting IT Costs, Jobs

4/11/2007
Citi laid out its plans for a major restructuring as anticipated this morning. The financial supermarket expects to realize an extraordinary $2.1 billion in savings this year, which it expects to grow further, reaching $4.6 billion in 2009. While this news is stellar for shareholders, it is a dispiriting announcement for the bank's

ISE CEO Krell Announces Retirement

4/5/2007
International Stock Exchange boss and industry luminary David Krell announced his retirement this week, effective at the end of the year. While he will vacate the role of CEO, the exchange's Board intends to elect him as Chairman. He will be succeeded by current COO Gary Katz. Katz and Krel

22c-2 Compliance Date Nears

4/5/2007
The April 16 compliance date for SEC Rule 22c-2 is fast approaching, and in less than two weeks, mutual funds and their intermediaries will have to have fleshed out their information-sharing agreements. Last year, funds and intermediaries alike reported their struggle to develop these agreements, which should now be near

Schapiro: Regulatory Sea Change on the Horizon

4/2/2007
The very foundation of market regulation in the U.S. is under question, and could soon follow the model of European regulators, indicated NASD CEO Mary Schapiro at an industry conference last week. It seems as though rule-based lawmaking is slowly going the way of the buffalo and a principles-based approach, such as that utilized by the U.K.'s

NASD Gives BrokerCheck a Face Lift

3/19/2007
NASD announced today that it has updated and redesigned its BrokerCheck service -- a public, online service for reporting on the background of NASD member-firms. The update, says the regulator, should provide much-needed improvement in the usability and effectiveness of the service. Speaking from experience, the previous version of the

Tripwire Announces Enterprise Configuration Audit and Control Solution

3/19/2007

Scivantage Releases Automated Tax Reporting System

3/19/2007
The vendor says it hopes to attract financial advisers and individual investors who are searching for ways to reduce the complexity of the investment tax process.

Echoworx Releases Platform for Web-Based Communication Encryption

3/19/2007
EMX is designed for organizations that want to enable communication with their customers and partners using a secure, private label Web-based environment, the vendor says.

3/19/2007
Lobby groups have convinced the SEC to conduct a rare review of market-data fees, reenergizing a spirited debate.

BIDS Brings On Richard Levin as CCO

3/19/2007

Video

3/19/2007

TSX Group Hires Brenda Hoffman as CIO

3/19/2007

Investment Technology Provider DST International Taps Tom Abraham as Its New CEO

3/19/2007

The Proxy Plan: The Future of Shareholder Material Delivery Is Paperless

3/19/2007
The future of shareholder material delivery is electronic, and the SEC has laid out the plan to get there.

Aite Recommends Improving Advisor Productivity in Wealth Management Market

3/19/2007
Aite Group (Boston) recently released its evaluation of wealth management platforms and noted the importance of improving adviser productivity in an industry experiencing consolidation.

Celent Updates the Execution Quality Rankings of the NYSE and Nasdaq Exchanges

3/19/2007

Cox on SOX: No Need for Amendment

3/19/2007
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox didn't mince words last week when addressing criticisms of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) albatross. After this week's Chamber of Commerce suggestion that SOX be reeled in, Cox was definitive in his speech that alterations to the

Finding Liquidity in Derivatives Instruments Is Traders’ Biggest Challenge

3/19/2007
Recent numbers gathered by Westborough, Mass.-based TABB Group underscore equity derivatives traders' intense focus on finding liquidity.

TowerGroup Predicts Growing Demand for Defined Contribution Plans

3/19/2007
TowerGroup (Needham, Mass.) is urging CTOs to prepare for an influx in demand for defined contribution plans. According to the firm's recently released research on the effects of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 changes initiated by the Act -- such as automatic enrollment and deferral provisions -- will result in a doubling of participant contributions in U.S.-defined contribution plans, reaching $204 billion in 2011.

Getting the Daylight Savings Monkey Off Your Back

2/27/2007
On the list of forthcoming projects for CIOs is updating their systems to handle the changes in daylight savings time (DST) (DST). The Energy Policy Act of 2005 will cause DST to fall weeks earlier this year than in years past. With that in mind, industry analyst TowerGroup has issued recommendation

The Money's in MiFID

2/21/2007
U.K. recruitment firm Joslin Rowe released a notice this week of what it is calling a "recruitment timebomb" for MiFID consultants. With just nine months to go before EU financial institutions are expected to be compliant with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, demand is soaring for experts who can help firms reach compliance.

RSA Responds to Site-to-User Authentication Study

2/20/2007
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a study that seemed to prove that site-to-user authentication was a broken practice. Well, not surprisingly, the purveyors of such technologies took exception to the notion that their product was ineffective. What follows is a response written by Louie Gasparini, co-CTO of the consumer divisi

RFA’s eHarbor Backs Up Hedge Fund E-Mail

2/15/2007
New York-based hedge fund solutions specialist Richard Fleischman & Associates (RFA) released eHarbor, an e-mail data backup and restoration solution designed specifically with hedge funds in mind.

Paisley Consulting Released Its Enterprise GRC Platform

2/15/2007
To help firms break down the barriers between audit, risk and compliance groups, Paisley Consulting released its Enterprise GRC (governance, risk and compliance) platform.

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2/15/2007
The Content Technology Solutions division of Dow Jones (New York) has launched a Wealth Manager Web site that aggregates news feeds and presents wealth managers with reasons for making contact with clients, the company says.

Former Lehman Brothers CIO Kevin McGilloway Joins Diamond Consultants

2/15/2007
Former Lehman Brothers CIO Kevin McGilloway has joined Chicago-based Diamond Management & Technology Consultants as a partner.

Keeping Tabs

2/15/2007

Mayiz Habbal Joins Celent From Oracle-Siebel

2/15/2007

David Harris Is Named President of the CBOE Stock Exchange

2/15/2007
The CBOE Stock Exchange (CBSX) -- a soon-to-be-launched electronic, Reg NMS-compliant stock exchange from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) -- has named David Harris as its president.