North America
Waters Wrap: The rise of AI washing… and regulation washing?
The SEC recently levied fines against two investment advisors over “AI washing”. Anthony takes issue with the announcement.
‘Founder’ banks join EDM Council program to benchmark data management
The Data Excellence Program—the first to recognize data management at an enterprise level, rather than being an accreditation program for individuals—will help firms solidify data management as a program rather than a series of projects.
Elephant in the room: Balancing AI innovation with cloud projects
Voice of the CTO: While generative AI is today’s hot topic, bank technologists explain how they’ve spent years planning for this day, even if cloud had been the main focus. And to be sure, skeptics remain.
Waters Wrap: T+1 and too many proposals
Anthony believes that there’s a growing chasm emerging between regulators, senior business execs, and technologists—which is especially evident when it comes to the T+1 debate.
Amazon expects $900M+ per quarter from extending server life
The cloud provider is following the server lifespans imposed by rivals Google and Microsoft last year, in a move expected to yield more than $900 million in Q1 2024.
MarketAxess sees returns from new trading tools
Recently added portfolio trading, automation, and algo offerings drove the vendor’s revenue growth in Q4 2023.
Trade reporting challenges require data re-think
Data accuracy issues are hampering some firms’ regulatory reporting abilities. So why aren’t data professionals more involved? And how can compliance costs be turned into revenue drivers?
Waters Wrap: The end of Cobol?
With the rise of generative AI, Anthony wonders if the days of Cobol are numbered.
Domain-specific AI: the hot topic of 2024?
Generative AI is increasingly being applied to specific domains within finance. But experts are divided on whether targeted models will take over from their general-purpose cousins.
Regulators’ FRTB estimates based on faulty premise—industry study
US market risk capital requirements could more than double if banks abandon IMA
The IMD Wrap: As crypto rises, yes, reference data is VERY important
With the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, Max explains why reference data will take on greater importance—whether non-data people know it or not.
BlackRock developing AI copilots for Aladdin
The world's largest asset manager hints at new AI assistants for investment management clients.
Waters Wrap: A glimpse of 2024 through the looking glass of 2023
Anthony examines some of the biggest stories from the past year to preview what might be ahead.
The IMD Wrap: AI efforts will force renewed focus on data in 2024
Machine learning and generative AI offer a tremendous opportunity to help users obtain more insights from raw data, but these tools first need perfect datasets on which to base their decisions.
Quant shop preps NLP-powered index for physical climate risk
Sharp rise in extreme weather events prompts PGIM Quant to aim for better climate-risk pricing
Waters Wrap: Big Tech’s capital markets expansion continues
Anthony looks back at some of the major cloud and AI projects involving the likes of Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and/or Snowflake in 2023.
The IMD Wrap: Exchange, data vendor audits continue to rankle end-users—what will change in 2024?
While the data auditing process has been contentious for a long time, Max looks at some of the positive improvements made in 2023 and explains why more improvements need to be made in the New Year.
Waters Wrap: On EMSs, regulation, and (among others) BlackRock Aladdin
Regulators in the US and Europe have turned their sights on execution management system providers. Anthony examines some of the questions the industry is trying to answer.
Firms step up non-compete use to protect tech, data IP
US states are increasingly banning or limiting the use of non-compete contracts, but financial firms are using them more frequently to safeguard proprietary tech and data assets—including the knowledge of the individuals who work on them.
What is Aladdin Trader? BlackRock’s fixed-income tool still a mystery
Sources tell WatersTechnology that Aladdin Trader will expand on the platform’s ‘limited’ execution functionality.
Waters Wrap: Examining ASX’s CHESS do-over
The Australian exchange was the first exchange to be all-in on DLT—and the project failed. Anthony speaks with ASX’s Tim Whiteley to discuss the lessons learned and why he thinks the second attempt will succeed.