Waters/Feature
Emerging Technologies and Avoiding Analysis Paralysis
In part four of this five-part series on emerging technologies in the capital markets, based on a recent virtual roundtable, we look at the challenges facing CIOs when it comes to evaluating emerging technologies, and typically how they go about making…
Assessing the Implementation Challenges Associated with Emerging Technologies
In parts one and two of this five-part feature, we looked at the the technologies that typically fall under the "emerging technologies" moniker, and the operational benefits of deploying such technologies. In this section, we look at the complexities and…
Measuring the Operational Benefits of Embracing Emerging Technologies
In part two of this five-part feature on emerging technologies, participants discuss the business and operational opportunities around embracing emerging technologies, specifically the reduced cost and speed to market offered by on-demand consumption of…
Emerging Technologies and the Advantages they Offer Early Adopters
In a recent virtual roundtable on the benefits and challenges around the adoption of emerging technologies, respondents discussed how capital markets firms might evaluate such technologies with the view to creating a competitive advantage. In part one of…
KKR's Colorful Personality: CIO Ed Brandman
Ed Brandman’s friendly quirks don’t conjure the conventional image of an IT chief, especially at KKR, one of the more white-shoe firms in a space famous for them. But don’t let the CIO’s charms fool you. He effectively redefined enterprise-grade…
Take Away Spreadsheets? From My Cold, Dead Hands
Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will continue to be widely used at asset management firms for the foreseeable future. But new regulations, technological advancements, and risk management concerns are leading buy-side firms to examine ways to lessen their…
All Eyes on Outsourcing
After UBS announced last month that it would outsource most of its fixed-income trading platform to Murex and Ion Trading, Marina Daras looks at how financial services firms intend to manage their IT costs by reassessing their outsourcing options.
Real-Time Risk: Keeping It Real
Pitches for real-time risk solutions focus more on the sell side than the buy side. Jake Thomases set out to determine how much hedge funds and asset managers care about calculating risk in the blink of an eye. Some do, but it’s largely dependent on…
Europe Takes First Steps Toward Electronic Derivatives Trading
With provisional agreement on the Mifid II text by European political authorities, electronic execution of derivatives is set to spread over the Atlantic Ocean in the near future. In terms of equivalence, interoperability, and mutual recognition, how…
Kotch's Confidence: CTO Mary Kotch Balances Family with AIG's Rebuild
AIG CTO Mary Kotch sits down with Anthony Malakian to discuss her ascent up the technology ladder to her current position, and how she manages to find a work–life balance while helping the insurance giant to restore its brand post-2008. Photos by Amy…
Asset Management Shift Inspires IT Transformation Among Middle Eastern Banks
While markets along the Persian Gulf have conspicuously built up financial infrastructure in recent years to attract foreign firms and capital, local banks elsewhere in the Middle East are bolstering their technological capacity to do precisely the…
Fund Managers Gear Up for AIFMD Costs, Compliance
With only six months to go until the July 22 deadline for fund managers to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, Marina Daras looks at how the industry is gearing up in the homestretch.
Derivatives Trading Firms Weigh Audio Recording Approaches
Thanks to the latest Dodd–Frank provision in which derivatives transactions will be more closely monitored, many US traders will now have their conversations recorded. Jake Thomases investigates how that recording will be done and what will happen to the…
BofA's Bessant Embraces BYOD, Eyes Big Data's Interest vs. Impact
At a time when few institutions can countenance a wholesale technology reform program, Bank of America is storming ahead on the mobile front, in addition to undertaking a total infrastructural transformation and the goal of developing single platforms…
Bohemian Rhapsody: CIO Michal Sanak Leads Prague's RSJ with Smart Speed
RSJ, tucked on the left bank of the Vltava River in the Czech capital of Prague, has quietly become one of the world’s most active proprietary trading firms, despite its boutique size. As CIO and shareholder Michal Sanak tells Tim Bourgaize Murray, the…
License to Kill: The Complexity of Circuit Breakers
As regulators collaborate to review different concepts to protect the integrity of the US financial markets and reduce potential technology failures, Marina Daras looks at the technical challenges of implementing circuit breakers for brokers and…
Japan Eyes Further Transformation after Exchange Merger
The Japanese capital markets have undergone a series of changes over the past few years, first in response to the natural disasters that affected Asia’s regional hub, and later with the merger of the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange…
Portfolio-Compression Algorithms Proving Useful in New SEF Landscape
As SEFs’ swaps execution gets off the ground, post-trade activities like portfolio-compression algorithms are proving increasingly popular as dealers and their futures commission merchant clearing arms cope with new demands, and potentially, new styles…
Network Effects: Allianz CIO Ralf Schneider on the New Hard Sell
Whether dramatically reducing Allianz’s datacenter footprint, looking for ways to better incorporate its increasingly sizeable capital-markets subsidiaries, or picking off the right talent, group CIO Ralf Schneider brings unique inspiration─and new…
Technology Aids Sharia Compliance for Islamic Finance's Rise
Islamic finance is the fastest growing segment of the global financial system. With an increasing Muslim population and a reputation for being more resilient to crisis than conventional finance, the Islamic financial sector is now facing great demand…
Change Management: CIFC's Enrique Smith on IT and Finding God
From the day he walked through the door at CIFC, Enrique Smith was tasked with rebuilding the asset manager’s technology stack. Making big changes isn’t an issue for him, if his personal life is any indication. By Jake Thomases with photos by Amy Fletcher
Letters from Geneva: EFG International's COO Mark Bagnall
Contemporary private banks are more engaged with capital markets and regulatory authorities than ever before, which some say spells their demise—and yet the need for their services grows, fueled by emerging affluence in new parts of the world. It is a…
Filling the Void: Buy Side Steps into Shadow Banking
As banks back out of the direct lending sector due to capital constraints, buy-side firms are filling the void. While that has provoked growing concerns from regulators, the returns have been solid for hedge funds in particular, but it has also required…
Pulling Weeds: Sell Side Confronts Technology Stack Upgrades
Despite the current era in the capital markets as one of tight budgets, firms across the sell side are waking up to the fact that radical changes are needed to their technology stacks. From banks, to brokers and exchanges, questions remain around how…