Feature
Challenge Accepté: AXA Investment Managers CIO Hervé Morel-Derocle
During one of his frequent trips to London, AXA Investment Managers CIO Hervé Morel-Derocle spoke to Marina Daras about the bold moves he made when faced with the looming obsolescence of the firm’s desktops.
The Rise and Rise of HTML5
Thanks to enhanced browser functionality and an explosion of open-source tools, HTML5 is supplanting Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash as the go-to language for trading application development and mobile functionality. While roadblocks still exist,…
Herd Instinct: Financial Firms Combat Information Overload with Social Networking Tech
As financial firms deal with ever-increasing levels of information, some are starting to look at a fusion of different technologies to harness true value from the noise. As innovative uses of concepts that have traditionally been associated with social…
BMO Launches an IBOR
A merger of three investment managers had just been announced when BMO Global Asset Management made the decision to revamp its portfolio accounting procedures. What followed was a near three-year project that made the company the proud owner of an IBOR,…
Emerging Technologies: The Risks and the Rewards
In the final part of this five-part feature on emerging technologies in the capital markets, we look at the risks and the rewards associated with adopting and implementing such technologies, and how to go about striking that delicate balance between…
Emerging Technologies and Avoiding Analysis Paralysis
In part four of this five-part series on emerging technologies in the capital markets, based on a recent virtual roundtable, we look at the challenges facing CIOs when it comes to evaluating emerging technologies, and typically how they go about making…
Assessing the Implementation Challenges Associated with Emerging Technologies
In parts one and two of this five-part feature, we looked at the the technologies that typically fall under the "emerging technologies" moniker, and the operational benefits of deploying such technologies. In this section, we look at the complexities and…
Work in Progress
Big data has become a familiar topic in the financial information industry, but what success have firms had in implementing technology to derive value from the increasing volumes of structured and unstructured data being generated, asks Nicholas Hamilton
Timeliness is Money
Data policy recommendations by a FISD working group accept new or higher fees for real-time data but assert that data with lesser timeliness should not see fee increases. Michael Shashoua explores the ramifications of the group’s proposal
Measuring the Operational Benefits of Embracing Emerging Technologies
In part two of this five-part feature on emerging technologies, participants discuss the business and operational opportunities around embracing emerging technologies, specifically the reduced cost and speed to market offered by on-demand consumption of…
Emerging Technologies and the Advantages they Offer Early Adopters
In a recent virtual roundtable on the benefits and challenges around the adoption of emerging technologies, respondents discussed how capital markets firms might evaluate such technologies with the view to creating a competitive advantage. In part one of…
Managing the Front Office - Back Office Data Gap
Firms’ leadership and front offices tend to harbor skepticism about back-office handling of reference data. Michael Shashoua hears from users and providers on how front- and back-office staff can have constructive dialogue and work together instead of at…
Trade Identifier Tangle
Unique trade identifiers have quickly emerged as the most complicated element of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation’s trade reporting requirements, which came into effect on February 12. Nicholas Hamilton finds out why using the new identifier…
KKR's Colorful Personality: CIO Ed Brandman
Ed Brandman’s friendly quirks don’t conjure the conventional image of an IT chief, especially at KKR, one of the more white-shoe firms in a space famous for them. But don’t let the CIO’s charms fool you. He effectively redefined enterprise-grade…
Take Away Spreadsheets? From My Cold, Dead Hands
Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will continue to be widely used at asset management firms for the foreseeable future. But new regulations, technological advancements, and risk management concerns are leading buy-side firms to examine ways to lessen their…
All Eyes on Outsourcing
After UBS announced last month that it would outsource most of its fixed-income trading platform to Murex and Ion Trading, Marina Daras looks at how financial services firms intend to manage their IT costs by reassessing their outsourcing options.
Real-Time Risk: Keeping It Real
Pitches for real-time risk solutions focus more on the sell side than the buy side. Jake Thomases set out to determine how much hedge funds and asset managers care about calculating risk in the blink of an eye. Some do, but it’s largely dependent on…
Europe Takes First Steps Toward Electronic Derivatives Trading
With provisional agreement on the Mifid II text by European political authorities, electronic execution of derivatives is set to spread over the Atlantic Ocean in the near future. In terms of equivalence, interoperability, and mutual recognition, how…
Quality Time for Counterparty Data
A recent report by an international group of market supervisors has expressed concern about firms’ ability to report on their counterparties. Why does this area of data management remain so challenging and what should firms do to a get a handle on it,…
Applying Wikis To Data Management
The financial services industry has been slow to adopt the wiki technology that has changed the way people produce and share information. However, industry participants believe wikis have the potential to improve data quality in the financial industry,…
Kotch's Confidence: CTO Mary Kotch Balances Family with AIG's Rebuild
AIG CTO Mary Kotch sits down with Anthony Malakian to discuss her ascent up the technology ladder to her current position, and how she manages to find a work–life balance while helping the insurance giant to restore its brand post-2008. Photos by Amy…
Asset Management Shift Inspires IT Transformation Among Middle Eastern Banks
While markets along the Persian Gulf have conspicuously built up financial infrastructure in recent years to attract foreign firms and capital, local banks elsewhere in the Middle East are bolstering their technological capacity to do precisely the…
Fund Managers Gear Up for AIFMD Costs, Compliance
With only six months to go until the July 22 deadline for fund managers to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, Marina Daras looks at how the industry is gearing up in the homestretch.
Derivatives Trading Firms Weigh Audio Recording Approaches
Thanks to the latest Dodd–Frank provision in which derivatives transactions will be more closely monitored, many US traders will now have their conversations recorded. Jake Thomases investigates how that recording will be done and what will happen to the…