Open source
KUDOS* to the Humble Spreadsheet (*KUDOS = Known and Unknown Dependency of Spreadsheets)
Firms don’t often think of spreadsheets as big contributors to their data budget. But they’d be mistaken. And not only can these be drains on data resources; they can also present tricky problems when updating them to ensure they are properly consuming…
Derivatives Reform: Preparing for an Uncertain Data Landscape
A shift to derivatives, coupled with the creation of swap execution facilities and the potential “futurization” of swaps onto exchanges will make location key for derivatives markets and brokers seeking to bolster the value of their data, says Patrick…
Striking a Balance on Operational Risk
The culture within the financial services industry has, unsurprisingly, become much more risk aware since the 2008 crisis. Under such conditions, how can fund administrators balance managing operational risk against achieving efficiencies, while at the…
Open Platform: Intelligent Approaches for a Changing Sell-Side Landscape
The growth in market complexity, combined with decreasing trading volumes and an unrelenting churn in global regulation, has had a fundamental effect on traditional sell-side business models. Downward pressures on revenues are accompanied by the soaring…
Open Platform: Don’t Just Track the Cost of Market Data, Track the TCO of Market Data
Asset managers need a structured method for measuring the full cost of market data ownership, which is often unknown, or is poorly or inaccurately calculated. With data budgets still under pressure, it’s time to ditch the spreadsheets and find the hidden…
Open Platform: Products Don’t Sell Themselves
Great developers build great products, but aren’t necessarily good business people. Those who recognize this—and are willing to hand over responsibilities to others with the right skills for each function—stand a better chance of their product achieving…
Open Platform: New Windows on Financial Technology
Ease-of-use platforms such as Windows 8 offer new ways in which we will interact with work away from the desk, argues Paul Higdon.
Open Platform: The Front Office in the Cloud
The need to cut costs without compromising client service and business performance is putting tremendous pressure on businesses, spurring them to evaluate their internal processes and consider moving some of these to a managed services model. The past…
Time to Ditch the Spreadsheets
The IT function, which spends somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of a company’s revenues—as much as $5 billion in some large financial services companies—still produces managerial accounting, budgeting, planning, and performance reporting on spreadsheets…
Open Platform: The Data-Centric Approach
As institutions seek to generate alpha in a low-interest rate environment, there has been an explosion in the types of investments firms are engaging in, including derivatives and alternatives. As a result, many front-office solutions providers have…
Open Platform: Assembling the Big Data Puzzle
Harnessing the potential of Big Data will require financial firms to invest in a combination of solutions that include unstructured data analytics, visualization tools, cloud compute and storage, along with a full understanding of the challenges that…
Open Platform: Short Sighted on Short Selling
Today, the ban on short selling in the European Union comes into force. It will have potentially harmful effects on market quality, while producing few benefits.
Open Platform: How to Tackle Digital Investigations
Internal investigations, underpinned by a unified investigations solution, can help financial services firms meet the demands of multiple regulations and frameworks. By Frank Coggrave
Open Platform: Index Data License Spend's ‘Period of Enlightenment'
Index licensing is an area of rising cost and complexity that firms with investments linked to specific indexes cannot easily escape. But many are ignoring tools and practices already in use for managing real-time data, impacting their ability to control…
Open Platform: The Evolution of the Smart Broker
The past couple of years have seen broad structural changes to the world’s financial markets, which have resulted in a permanent and profound shift in the role and operating environment of sell-side firms. James Blackburn discusses how success can no…
Open Platform: Don’t Get ‘Owned’ By Data Ownership
The future of financial firms’ market data organizations will be defined by effective governance of external data and proprietary prices. But lack of standards and myriad disparate policies is creating opacity, confusion and potential liabilities, says…
Open Platform: A Risk-Intelligent Bank?
In a period of heightened regulation resulting from the financial crisis, banks are facing more intense scrutiny than ever. History dictates that regulators will always be behind the curve, taking a reactive approach to risk management. With this in mind…
Open Platform: When Applying for Opportunities, Find Opportunities to Apply Relationships
The job market for financial technology and data experts is improving as market forces create new opportunities. However, individuals seeking to capitalize on any upswing must be ready to approach the job hunt in new ways and understand how their talents…
Open Platform: Big Data, Minus Big Delays or Big Storage
With data volumes constantly rising, and firms looking to apply Big Data analytics to gain value from even more datasets, is there such a thing as too much data? Speed requirements and storage limitations demand a smarter choice for capturing Big Data,…
Open Platform: To Avoid Indecent Exposures, Go Big (Data) or Go Home
Managing risk exposure requires a wealth of market and position data, and the ability to monitor it effectively. Firms have this data, but may still be exposed to catastrophic risk if they don’t have sufficient data capacity and analytical processing…
Recording Regs Add to Big Data Burden
UK-based financial institutions have been subjected to increased regulatory scrutiny as the FSA now requires them to record and archive all SMS and voice communications. Paul Metcalfe explains how this requirement has exacerbated firms' Big Data…
Open Platform: Heading for the Cloud
The cloud has been around for sufficient time for its presence to have permeated every technology-reliant industry vertical. But as Hani Suleiman explains, the financial services industry is way behind the curve in terms of its adoption and must get its…