Opinion
APAC’s hidden opportunity is in the hands of wealth managers
Asia-Pacific’s financial firms have lofty growth ambitions that will come with high cost and complexity. To succeed, they’ll need a quality portfolio toolkit and a connected technology architecture, writes BlackRock’s James Verner.
A new market data hope or an expanding Empire
Market data is now part of systemic infrastructure rather than just a commercial product. Tim Versteeg questions if market data is becoming too powerful to fail.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 351: MarketAxess’s Lee and Alexandre
This week, Spencer Lee and Julien Alexandre from MarketAxess join the podcast to discuss AI in fixed income trading.
What firms get wrong when changing investment operations technology
Without operating redesign, governance, and clear accountability, modernization can amplify risk instead of reducing it, writes Patrick Conroy.
The race to ‘financialize’ GPU compute set to ratchet up
The Waters Wrap: Anthony looks at two companies aiming to bring efficiency and transparency to the GPU compute market.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 350: AI but make it about data basics
This week, Tony and Shen discuss how it’s all about getting back to basics, aka the data.
The rise of AI politics
Whether they like it or not, firms are operating in the era of AI politics. David Hardoon says those who ignore that and treat AI as just another technology risk losing ground to others.
Re-engineering reconciliations: User-initiated AI cuts recs from days to minutes
Reconciliations have long been tied to batch scheduling. Prasanna Anandan explains how one bank broke down bottlenecks by embedding an AI-driven, user-initiated interface.
Taking tokenization from pilot to playbook
IMD Wrap: Firms eager to use tokens should find specific use cases that bring immediate value, rather than try everything at once, Wei-Shen writes.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 349: The other Amsterdam and more Cusip drama
This week, Reb joins Shen to give an update on the latest legal fight involving Cusip Global Services.
24X National Exchange faces uphill battle in exemption fight
The Waters Wrap: 24X wants exemption from the requirement that the SIP be operational during overnight hours for its overnight session to proceed. Nyela explains why that’s asking a lot.
T+1 in Asia-Pacific: Preparing post-trade operations for what’s ahead
There are benefits of Asia-Pacific markets moving to T+1, but there are unique complexities to tackle, says DTCC’s Val Wotton.
AI is coming for complexity … and trading depends on it
While AI may be able to recreate interfaces, the value is in messaging networks, low-latency data, and unique information flows.
After the shuttering of Wilshire Indexes, the indexes space is a little tighter
The IMD Wrap: Max analyzes the winding up of Wilshire Indexes, a venture not yet three years old, and what the move means for the index industry and its consumers.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 348: FIA Boca, prediction markets, and the stupidity of Chatham House rules
This week, Nyela talks about her trip to Florida to cover the FIA Boca event and Tony goes off on a screed at Chatham House rules.
Florida and folly: Boca attendees forecast the future of market structure
Prediction markets, 24-hour trading, and tokenization were the topics du jour at FIA Boca this year, indicating that markets are getting more comfortable with the unconventional.
Broadridge’s agentic strategy takes its lessons from past AI winters
The Waters Wrap: Anthony looks at a real-world agentic project underway at the post-trade giant to see what others can learn.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 347: Brennan Carley
This week, Brennan Carley, who has spent more than 40 years working in financial technology, joins to discuss the hidden risks and untapped potential of agentic AI in the capital markets.
Geopolitics hits Middle East datacenters and firms’ operations
The IMD Wrap: Wei-Shen examines recent disruptions to AWS datacenters in the Middle East linked to the US-Israel strikes on Iran, and what it means for data and businesses operating in the region.
Bloomberg Terminal’s agentic play shows rapid change in trading tech
Waters Wrap: The data giant’s conversational AI interface might seem novel, but others say having one is becoming a bare minimum in the world of trading technology.
Data heads scratch heads over data quality headwinds
Bank and asset manager execs say the pressure is on to build AI tools. They also say getting the data right is crucial, but not everyone appreciates that.