Feature
An EU Consolidated Tape: Advancements made in 2021, but still far to go in ’22
The second half of the year saw some long-awaited progress in the mission to fill the void of a consolidated tape in the European Union.
From overhype to practical use cases: the DLT projects that gained ground in 2021
WatersTechnology reflects on some notable distributed ledger technology projects.
Quantum computing: kryptonite for bitcoin and cyber security
Race is on to secure new encryption algorithms for DeFi, before quantum computers become a present danger.
2021 saw market data’s quiet revolution
This year, the SEC pulled the trigger on competing consolidated tapes and a new market data governance plan. In 2022, we will know if some of it can go ahead, or remain stymied by legal battles.
Clouding the issue: blurred lines divide banks and servicers
Banks are increasingly clashing with the big three cloud service providers over data security and configuration errors.
Slow burn to a big bang: How the new wave of tech is changing market data platforms
For decades, market data platforms have been critical components of financial firms’ trading infrastructures. But with changing user needs and emerging technologies gaining ground, will the platforms of the past be replaced by upstart challengers—or can…
NLP for investment management: quants face a grab bag of words
Training models to interpret text can be dull; but doing it poorly can be costly.
The perfect climate risk metric does not exist
Buy-side risk survey 2021: Even the keenest searches fail to find a reliable system of climate disclosure.
FIS modernizes through modularity
The vendor has been in the process of overhauling its entire tech estate for almost seven years, with the aim of offering modular, flexible services.
Murky road ahead for consolidated tape plan administrator in the US
The business unit of the new equities data plan could revolutionize pricing and accessibility in the public feeds of NMS data, say hopefuls to the role, but litigation and lack of clarity obscure the path forward.
From burst to bust: What happens when cloud runs dry?
After years of initial resistance, the capital markets have come to depend heavily on the compute capacity of the public cloud. But increasing market volumes are rapidly outpacing the cloud capacity that organizations thought would be sufficient for…
Phase five margin queues spur calls for custody revamp
Custodians are being urged to update “antiquated technology” ahead of a three-fold jump in phase six initial margin onboarding.
Alt data’s second inning: Brace for a long M&A game
The alternative data sector is still relatively nascent, and as such buy-side firms have struggled with how best to incorporate these non-traditional sources of information. While sources say that there will be continued M&A in the market, how those…
The market data vending machine: The pros and cons of self-service procurement
Brokers and exchanges have begun rolling out “self-service” portals that allow clients to choose data and services on an a la carte basis. Opinions vary on whether they are the Holy Grail or a poisoned chalice.
Show your workings: Lenders push to demystify AI models
Machine learning could help with loan decisions—but only if banks can explain how it works. And that’s not easy.
McKenna’s Gold: The woman who raised the standard for standards
This year’s inductee into the Inside Market Data Hall of Fame is Karla McKenna, a 35-year Citi veteran and standards advocate who is now Americas managing director of LEI standards body Gleif.
Quants turn to machine learning to unlock private data
Replication could allow financial firms to use—and monetize—data that was previously off-limits
Deep XVAs and the promise of super-fast pricing
Intelligent robots can value complex derivatives in minutes rather than hours
Rights automation group to debut digital language for market data policy expression
Community group that includes JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Amazon, and the CME plans to showcase over a year’s worth of work in a bid to drive broader adoption of the digital rights language.
Quantum trading and the search for the perfect clock
Government push to overhaul satellite technology could improve time-stamping accuracy for trading firms—and for regulators.
Putting the ‘green’ in green data: Rise of impact investing drives ESG M&A
Socially responsible investors are putting their money where their mouth is—in ever-increasing amounts. With insatiable demand for new datasets and analytics to support these strategies, it’s not surprising that every data vendor wants a slice of the ESG…
In fake data, quants see a fix for backtesting
Traditionally quants have learnt to pick data apart. Soon they might spend more time making it up
Swipe left: repo reporting no match for Brexit, or collateral
A happier start than Emir, but SFTR honeymoon is over now that trades report separately in UK and EU.
Esma plan ‘won’t help’ fix Mifid swaps data problem
Dealers say proposal to force disclosure of all big-bank OTC derivatives trades won’t improve data.