Waters Rankings 2019: All the Winners and Why they Won

At this year’s Rankings luncheon, held on July 10 at the Manhattan Penthouse in New York, Bloomberg walked away as the big winner, taking home four categories, followed by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which won three categories.

Perhaps most interesting, though, was the number of companies that won that were also involved in a major acquisition recently. The list includes SS&C Eze (formerly Eze Software), Charles River Development (now a part of State Street), and Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk business), while several other firms on the winners’ list added to their suite of services with strategic acquisitions. As the old saying (sort of) goes, why try and re-invent the wheel when you can make a smart purchase to add that expertise. It will be interesting to see if these companies continue to impress our readers, who voted on these awards, in 2020 following major shakeups.

This year’s Waters Rankings winners (click on the links below to access write-ups and additional content):

Best Agency Broker: ITG

Best Crossing Network Provider: Instinet

Best Reconciliation Management Provider: SmartStream Technologies. Click on this link for an interview with SmartStream’s Robin Hasson. 

Best Algorithmic Trading Provider: Clearpool Group. Click on this link for a video interview with Brian Schaeffer.

Best Artificial Intelligence Technology Provider: MarketAxess

Best Sell-Side Order Management System (OMS) Provider: Bloomberg

Best Buy-Side Order Management System (OMS) Provider: SS&C Eze. Click on this link for an interview with SS&C Eze’s Jeff Shoreman and on this link for a video interview with Frank Orzechowski. 

Best Portfolio Management System Provider: Charles River Development

Best Execution Management System (EMS) Provider: Bloomberg

Best Performance Measurement and Attribution System Provider: FactSet

Best Transaction-Cost Analysis (TCA) System Provider: Tradeweb Markets

Best Enterprise Data Management (EDM) Systems Provider: Eagle Investment Systems

Best Market Data Provider: Bloomberg

Best Reference Data Provider: Bloomberg

Best Alternative Data Provider: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Best Corporate Actions Solution Provider: SIX

Best Low-Latency Data Feed Provider: Refinitiv

Best Data Analytics Provider: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Best Distributed-Ledger Technology Provider: AlphaPoint

Best AML Compliance Solution Provider: NICE Actimize

Best Market Risk Solution Provider: Wolters Kluwer

Best Credit Risk Solution Provider: Numerix

Best Market Surveillance Provider: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Best Reporting System Provider: Moody’s Analytics. Click on this link for a video interview with Cedric Montlahuc.

Best Accounting System Provider: SS&C Advent. Click on this link for an interview with SS&C Advent’s Robert Roley and on this link for a video interview with Katherine Pearce.

Best Cyber-Security Provider: Eze Castle Integration 

Best Outsourcing Service Provider: Broadridge Financial Solutions

Best Trading Floor Communication System Provider: IPC Systems

Best Network Provider: BT

Best Mobile Solutions Provider: FIS

Best Cloud-Based Application Provider: SS&C Salentica

Best Cloud Infrastructure Provider: Genesis Global Technology Click on this link for an interview with Genesis’ Stephen Murphy and on this link for a video interview with him.