Back-Office Technology
Putting a price on your head (of data): The ROI of a CDO
The chief data officer has become recognized as a key role in a financial firm’s ability to manage its data assets, and reduce costs and risk. So why is it also so notoriously short-lived?
AI proves helpful for banks facing new cash penalties for settlement failures
According to one report, banks have been hit with penalties of up to €5 million per month under new CSDR settlement rules. As a result, banks are turning to AI to help.
Industry participants: ‘Digital Token Identifier’ aims to increase interop, usage
While some trading firms are welcoming the use of a new non-proprietary code for identifying digital tokens, the onus will be on local regulators to enforce its adoption.
Brown Brothers Harriman unifies busy suite of AI products
It’s a new world, contend BBH’s Kevin Welch and Josh Fine. After a few years of experimentation that yielded several AI products for the bank and its clients, it was time to put the puzzle pieces together to serve a different way of working post-Covid.
Bank-backed Versana takes aim at syndicated loan tech
Born from a consortium that includes JP Morgan and Bank of America, Versana aims to bring up-to-date and permissioned data to the syndicated loan market—the first step to a more transparent and faster operating market.
The year identifiers wanted some attention too
Cusip! Figi! Isin! BTC! LEI! Taylor Swift? How did we get here and where do we go now?
Data analytics dominate M&A agenda for exchanges in 2022
While there weren’t many headline-grabbing acquisitions in 2022, the year contained a handful of deals that point to expanding trends in the exchange technology industry.
Post-trade still struggling from underinvestment, but purse strings are opening
Bloomberg, Broadridge, BNP Paribas, and a handful of startups are working to address manual processes in the back office.
In 2022, cloud shows true potential to displace legacy data platforms
Once wary of the cloud, financial firms, their suppliers and the marketplaces where they trade are openly embracing it. And there are more signs of big tech firms accelerating buy-in by literally buying in to clients’ migration projects.
State Street looks to bolster Charles River, Alpha platforms with FundGuard integration
State Street’s partnership with FundGuard will provide clients with multi-book accounting, allowing them to see two sets of records in one system.
Industry mulls identifier schema for digital assets
As crypto markets face a reckoning in the wake of the FTX scandal, standard-setters and industry participants say identifiers for tokens are key for the industry’s stability.
OTC Markets rescues Edgar Online, plans ‘comprehensive’ US disclosure data service
Edgar Online’s new owners discuss their plans for the financial data and filings provider, and how owning the data will be key to expanding the range of services it can offer.
Waters Wrap: Banks explore new avenues for cloud cooperation
As banks and asset managers move more workloads to the cloud, they’re trying to find ways to cooperate to cut costs and exert more influence over the likes of AWS, Google and Microsoft. Anthony wonders if these early efforts will yield beneficial results…
Symphony wants to be Wall Street’s phone book—but smarter
As Symphony strays further from its original purpose of being a chat platform, WatersTechnology sat down with Brad Levy at this year’s Innovate conference to discuss his vision for the firm.
End of Bloomberg’s pandemic provision sparks opportunity—for BBG and terminal upstarts
Middle- and back-office staff at banks and buy-side firms who have become accustomed to remotely accessing Bloomberg terminals at home under a disaster recovery provision could set off a surge of new remote data terminal subscriptions.
Waters Wrap: Where have all the (data) cowboys gone?
Industry veterans says there’s a dearth of market data management talent in the lower ranks. Following Max Bowie’s coverage, Anthony explores some other reasons for this brain drain.
SmartStream Sibos 2022 Series Part 4: Innovation and Change Management
Vincent Kilcoyne, executive vice president, product management at SmartStream, chats to Victor Anderson about what innovation and change mean practically to SmartStream and its clients.
SmartStream Sibos 2022 Series Part 1: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Jethro MacDonald, product manager for artificial intelligence & machine learning at SmartStream, chats to Victor Anderson about the firm's AI/ML-based products in its stable.
SmartStream Sibos 2022 Series Part 2: Managed Services
Mark Morris, head of managed services at SmartStream, chats to Victor Anderson about the significant uptick in demand for managed services from firms across the industry in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
SmartStream Sibos 2022 Series Part 3: Cash & Liquidity Management
Peter Dehaan, new business director, cash and liquidity management at SmartStream, chats to Victor Anderson about how SmartStream is helping its clients manage a range of challenges on the cash and liquidity management front.
Data brain drain may prompt move to managed services for market data management
A shortage of data professionals with suitable experience to run large financial firms’ data organizations could drive firms to completely outsource the management and administration of their third-largest expense.
Mainframes still mainstream: How financial markets are embracing and evolving 'legacy' IT
Tech giant IBM is targeting security, AI, and portability in the modernization of the mainframe as firms report still retaining “the workhorse of the back office.”
Gold standard: Are golden copies losing their luster?
The concept of a “golden copy” is well established. But what happens when buy-side firms want to differentiate themselves by launching new services, only to find themselves maintaining multiple “single” sources of data—or worse, none at all?
Reflections on a decade of post trade
After years of neglect, back-office processes are finally getting attention. Wei-Shen wonders how much innovation can truly take place in the back office and how processes will actually improve.