April 2019: Welcome to the New WatersTechnology

For 25 years, Waters has stood at the intersection of financial technology and data, directing readers to the correct highway of information that they need to do their jobs. Today, with the new-look WatersTechnology—incorporating the former Inside Data Management magazine—we’re doing that and more, combining our trading technology and data insights in one place to bring you what we hope you’ll view as the “fintech bible.”

Ever since the emergence of electronic markets, technology—from traders’ execution systems and now algorithmic trading applications through risk management to back-office clearing and settlement functions—has had a symbiotic relationship with the data that powers it: One cannot exist without the other, and this new magazine reflects that.

Fittingly, several of the articles in this first combined issue address the over-arching theme of the last decade, which continues to exercise an enormous influence on financial firms’ technology and data strategies and spend: regulation.

A perfect example of the impact of regulation on data and technology is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new N-PORT form for funds reporting. Though the form does not necessarily ask for new data points, it does require more data, and for that data to be reported more frequently than in the past. To achieve this, financial firms must locate and pull together datasets that previously didn’t need to communicate, and have needed to employ automated data capture mechanisms to eliminate manual processes that would not have been efficient under the new requirements.

With regulatory compliance—and its impact on technology—a costly burden, it’s no surprise that the profile this month is a lawyer: Nausicaa Delfas, head of international at UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who is tasked with heading its policy on Brexit and implementing a technology roadmap that will give the FCA confidence in its ability to fulfill its regulatory obligations outside the auspices of the European Union.

US regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also feeling confident about its ability to meet the challenges ahead—the result of a budget increase to $281 million for this year, $86.5 million of which is for the agency’s Office of Data and Technology. CFTC chair J. Christopher Giancarlo, who is expected to step down this year, says the budget will allow the agency to become the quantitative, big data-focused regulator that it needs to be, to oversee firms with far greater resources in this area than its own.

Whether you’re a regulator, bank, asset manager, exchange, vendor or any other participant in today’s complex capital markets ecosystem, as you stand at this intersection of technology, data and regulation, searching for the correct route forward, WatersTechnology stands beside you as a trusted partner to help navigate these uncertain highways, and we look forward to accompanying you on your fintech journey.