WFIC Diary Day 1: Regulatory Delays Frustrate Industry, Force Collaboration

Regulation and economic rebound were the major themes of the first day's discussions among data industry participants at the FISD's World Financial Information Conference in San Francisco.

Regulation remains a key concern for end-users, though panelists at the event said they had expected regulation to be further towards being implemented between the previous WFIC event in 2009 and now.

Meanwhile, vendors are seeking to ensure that their clients are ready to meet upcoming regulatory requirements.

For example, Mark Hepsworth, president of institutional business at Interactive Data, says the vendor is striving to understand clients' workflow around data once it is received, and to help them be more efficient in performing various compliance-relate processes around data, such as providing more transparency around evaluated pricing services and enabling users to drill into prices and export their research.

Due both to regulatory requirements and a greater focus on cost controls in the current economic environment, vendors say they are working more collaboratively with clients to help firms derive more value from their data. In some cases, vendors are educating customers more about their products, while in other cases, data providers are repackaging content to maximize value for clients or even providing the flexibility to allow clients to customize their own packages and only pay for what they need.