Market Structure Advice

Building An Exchange To Challenge Short-Termism

GMAG was engaged by a leading Silicon Valley entrepreneur and his team to help build their strategic vision for a new equity marketplace that would fundamentally change Wall Street’s focus on short-term results over long-term growth.

GMAG was able to introduce this transformational company to new potential partners, technology providers and to potential key prospective employees most able to execute their vision. The engagement led to the announcement of a strategic partnership and to the build out of their team to move their plans into the next phase of implementation.

Facilitating Investments For Environmentally-Conscious Investors

GMAG was retained by an entrepreneur to explore building a ratings platform that will facilitate and streamline investments in issuers who are committed to ESG (environmental, social and governance) standards, thereby capitalizing issuers’ commitments to ethically responsible business practices.

GMAG was able to articulate a strategic plan for the company to follow in executing its vision.

Modernizing A Flagship African Stock Exchange

A leading African Stock Exchange engaged GMAG to modernize its Listings rules and procedures to bring them in line with worldwide standards.

GMAG has established a close working relationship with this large Exchange to help it meet its goals for the 21st century.

Building An ATS

An entrepreneur came to GMAG with a vision of establishing a new equity trading venue, focused on unlocking long term benefits for market participants, listed companies, and the market place in general, hired GMAG.

Capital Markets Advice

Emerging Growth Company

GMAG was asked to assist a Chinese firm in exploring the development of a pre-IPO incubation platform composed of emerging growth companies based in China.  GMAG reviewed the firm’s business plan, recommended strategic enhancements and guided the firm through various operational and regulatory scenarios. GMAG leveraged the vast capital markets experience of its members to opine on the various considerations related to listing in the U.S.

Pre-IPO Corporate Governance Advice

A Chinese beverage company interested in going public in the U.S., engaged GMAG to assist with their IPO process. GMAG presented a webinar to the company’s senior management on U.S. rules and regulations covering the formation of corporate board/committees, governance, and code of conduct requirements. In addition, we introduced potential candidates for Board of Director positions.

Regulatory and Compliance Advice

Compliance Advice For A Broker Dealer

A large broker-dealer retained GMAG to provide expert compliance advice and assistance in connection with regulatory inquiries/responses related to Regulation NMS Rule 607, best execution, payment-for-order flow, and other regulatory concerns.

GMAG provides ongoing compliance advice and has helped the firm with its FINRA and NYSE regulatory filings, updating its policies and procedures and providing general compliance advice.

Reviewing OMS Functionality And Procedures

A high frequency trading firm engaged GMAG to perform a review of the design and functionality of their order marking system and the written supervisory procedures. The review included sample testing of the algorithmic order marking program and surveillance systems.

Research Reports Review

GMAG was retained by a research firm to perform an assessment of the research reports distributed to their clients. The review included an analysis of the disclosures statements and drafting new disclaimer language for inclusion in each report.

Training

Compliance Implications Of Cloud Migration

GMAG was invited to provide training to a leading CSP’s financial services sales team on compliance and cloud migration. This course covered the various regulatory and compliance considerations of financial services firms migrating applications and processes to the cloud (private, public, and hybrid). This included observations on hurdles to cloud adoption, and potential solutions for cloud service providers to address firms’ reservations.

Comprehensive Markets Training For Compliance

GMAG is currently developing a comprehensive compliance training program for the U.S. compliance team at a major international investment bank. This 60-hour in-class program provides an in-depth look at a broad range of financial topics designed to equip compliance professionals with cross-functional knowledge and insights.

International Training

GMAG’s professionals have partnered with the New York Institute of Finance to provide market structure training to international clients in China and the U.S., including an overview of the U.S. equities markets and high-frequency trading.

Compliance Skills Training

GMAG is partnering with Fitch Learning to develop and roll-out a worldwide training program for compliance professionals at a major international bank on investigative and other compliance-specific writing and presentation skills.

Training For Corporate Directors

GMAG professionals provided training to the board of directors of one of the largest stock exchanges in Africa regarding the process for setting regulatory policy and drafting rules for the market, as well as the benefits and regulatory considerations around exchange demutualization.

International Finance Training

Working with the NYIF, GMAG professionals developed and delivered in-depth training to the Nigerian Pension Commission on public infrastructure investment, including public-private partnerships, private equity investments, valuation, and related topics.

Regulatory Technology

Enabling Cloud Outsourcing

GMAG was retained by a major cloud service provider to assist in its penetration to geographic locations across the globe. Many international regulatory regimes have not updated their technology and third-party outsourcing requirements and GMAG was hired to draft suggested language which could be used for this purpose. GMAG focused on cloud migration hurdles common among many of these jurisdictions and included: Outsourcing, Audit Standardization, Subcontracting, DR/Business Continuity, Security, Privacy and Data Protection to name a few.

Cloud Migration

Getting Smart About Cloud Compliance

GMAG was asked to participate in a cloud migration training session for a major cloud service provider’s global financial services team. In doing so, GMAG covered the various regulatory considerations associated with migration and how strategic data transfer could be achieved by implementing GMAG’s defined process. The presentation was streamed to various teams in countries across the globe.

Reg-SCI in Cloud

GMAG was retained by a major Cloud Service Provider to review its financial services offerings as they relate to Regulation-SCI. GMAG consultants provided an overview of the regulatory expectations around system availability, security, incident avoidance and incident management. GMAG assisted this CSP with shared responsibility considerations and SLA design and implementation.

FSI Cloud Adoption

GMAG has worked with a cloud implementation vendor to develop an FSI cloud adoption process which includes a roadmap for implementation. GMAG consultants designed a process that ensures continuity of key compliance systems and controls, preserves key dependencies, identifies compliance systems that are not being migrated, plans QA/regression testing for all compliance functions (including interoperability with functions that will not migrate) and ensures visibility into the functioning of critical compliance controls.

FS-ISAC Briefings

GMAG has delivered regulatory and compliance briefings to the Financial Services sales staff of a major CSP, and to the Financial Services – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) Working Group on Compliance, focusing on emerging regulatory trends in cloud migration and adoption for financial services firms.