Waters
Cloud Computing's Critical Mass
Cloud computing is having a profound impact on society. Although relatively slow to adopt this technology—mainly due to security fears—more investment management firms are turning to the cloud to achieve scale, cut costs and improve client communication…
Credit Trading Gets a Kick
Icap Electronic Broking expects to see dramatic performance improvement in its BrokerTec credit-trading platform, as the firm nears the end of a two-and-a-half-year project to roll out the new global matching-engine architecture. By Rob Daly
Try Before You Buy: Firms, Vendors Employ Proofs of Concept
Technology vendors were once loath to give away their ideas for free. Financial service firms were similarly unwilling to invest in a project that might be a sunk cost. However, attitudes are changing, and it is now standard for companies to pay for…
60 Seconds with ...
Patrick Lastennet, director of marketing and business devlopment, financial services, Interxion
Risk and Compliance: Driven by Data
The efficacy of risk management and compliance practices across the buy side and sell side, two of the most high-profile business drivers for the foreseeable future, is entirely contingent on the quality and consistency of the data feeding those systems…
Numbers Game: Gauging the Impact of Big Data
Big Data is growing and is clearly a driving topic in 2012. As with many recent innovations, however, its definition is amorphous. In the first of a two-part feature, Waters examines exactly what constitutes Big Data, where it comes from, and why it’s…
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Nothing Succeeds Like Success
The American Financial Technology Awards, now in their seventh year, recognize financial technologists from the buy side, the sell side and market centers who inject innovation into the capital markets through technology. Waters salutes the 2011 winners.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best IT Team: Barclays Capital
JUDGE’S COMMENT: Barclays PRS turns data across multiple asset class into meaningful information. It also seems to put that information in the hands of the right people ... and gives Barclays the ability to create new reports and distribute them with…
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best CIO: Catherine Bessant, Bank of America
JUDGE'S COMMENT: Bessant's diverse background provides an invaluable perspective for one who has to oversee the technology needs for a corporate, investment and retail banking institution.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best IT Integration Initiative: State Street
JUDGE’S COMMENT: It is a great innovation on the part of the staff to develop the Virtual Integration Architecture (VIA). I particularly like how this State Street technology effort led to reusable “process improvements and a project-governance approach.”
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best OTC Trading Initiative: JPMorgan
JUDGE'S COMMENT: This project was very challenging in terms of the business logic and integration it needed with various systems to create a single, consolidated statement for all cleared and bilateral asset classes.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Green IT Initiative: State Street
JUDGE’S COMMENT: This is a simple, yet effective solution that leaves lots of potential for the firm to make additional savings in other areas.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Most Cutting-Edge IT Initiative: JPMorgan
JUDGE’S COMMENT: This project identifies a perfect use for performance-enhancing FPGA technologies in an area where throughput and processing requirements outstrip latency concerns, which, until now, was the primary driver for FPGA adoption.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Infrastructure Initiative: Investment Technology Group (ITG)
JUDGE’S COMMENT: This is a good long-range project that already has seen a nice payoff and will continue to do so.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Cloud Initiative: State Street
JUDGE’S COMMENT: I have always been impressed with how State Street has been a leader in the realm of cloud computing. This is a prime example of how to exploit the technology to its fullest.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Data Management Initiative: Knight Capital
JUDGE’S COMMENT: This is the promise of enterprise data management: being able to leverage all of the firm’s data in order to drive greater profitability through identifying new opportunities, while reducing unprofitable investments.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Reporting Initiative: Credit Suisse
JUDGE’S COMMENT: The dynamically applied ad-hoc and flexible reporting capability makes this project truly stand out.
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Risk Analytics Initiative: LCH.Clearnet
JUDGE’S COMMENT: The re-write of LCH.Clearnet’s legacy system and improvements of the risk management system is pretty dramatic given its old infrastructure. Now that the platform can calculate daily margin runs in 10 minutes rather than an hour,…
AMERICAN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best Global Deployment: BNY Mellon
JUDGE’S COMMENT: Simplifying OTC client reporting is an important goal for any firm, but having this live in more than 10 countries at this point in time is a job well done.
Olympian Capital Management's Renaissance
After Michael Levas started Olympian Capital Management from his kitchen table in Fort Lauderdale back in 2003, he found that in order to turn the firm into the hedge fund of his dreams he would have to find the right partner. Enter Arun Kaul. By Anthony…
January 2012: There Will Be Blood ...
Victor places his bets for 2012
Rob Daly: Financial Technology’s Future Is in the Cards
What is in store for the industry for the coming year? Rob turns to a centuries-old practice to find out.
Anthony Malakian: The Year in Quotes
George W. Bush once said that leadership means listening from time to time. Anthony did a lot of listening in 2011 as he interviewed the industry’s top CIOs, CTOs and CEOs for profiles that appeared on the covers of Waters throughout the year. Here, he…
Michael Shashoua: Central, But Not Inflexible
Centralization of data management to better support data analysis is gaining acceptance. Michael finds that the practice is becoming more nimble, and industry professionals are using or developing certain resources and technologies for central data…