Newsletter May 2007: Equity derivative dealers make clean-up progress

NEW YORK – Eighteen of the largest US and European banks and investment firms claimed in a mid-May letter to Tim Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, that they are making “substantial progress” in improving the back office systems that process their rapidly expanding equity derivate operations. They committed themselves to meeting new efficiency targets. Responding, the New York Fed welcomed these new commitments, but reminded the firms that they still faced significant challenges in automating their equity derivative infrastructure.