AFTAs 2016: All the Winners and Why they Won

For the first time since the American Financial Technology Awards were launched back in 2005, technology vendors had a section all of their own in Waters' longest-standing awards program. This year we added 13 vendor-only categories to the awards line-up, which, as expected, resulted in a record number of entries across all 32 categories (there were 16 end-user categories and three individual categories this year).

Christie Rampone ─ former captain of the US women's national soccer team, three-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup winner ─ handed out the trophies. This year's four highest-profile awards ─ three individual categories and one team award ─ were won by Steve O'Hanlon (Numerix, best third-party technology vendor CIO or CEO); Bob Greifeld (Nasdaq, best technology executive, sell side); Scott Murray (Northern Trust, best technology executive, buy side), and JP Morgan Asset Management, which won the highly-coveted award for the best IT team.

Below is a list of this year's category winners with links to individual stories explaining why they won. Write-ups are by Anthony Malakian (AM), Dan De Francesco (DD), John Brazier (JB), Emilia David (ED), Aggelos Andreou (AA) and Victor Anderson (VBA).

Vendor categories 

Best Middle-Office Initiative: Data management, reconciliation and clearing ─ Indus Valley Partners
Best Middle-Office Initiative: Risk, compliance and performance ─ UBS Delta
Most Innovative Third-Party Technology Vendor: Risk, security and compliance ─ Axioma
Most Innovative Third-Party Technology Vendor: Communication, operations and data management ─ Asset Control
Most Innovative Third-Party Technology Vendor: Trading and analytics ─ ChartIQ
Best Third-Party Technology Vendor IT Team ─ Vela Trading Technologies
Best Partnership or Alliance ─ MTS Markets & Bloomberg
Best Communication Infrastructure Provider ─ IPC Systems
Best Use of the Agile Methodology ─ StatPro
Best Front-Office Initiative ─ Broadridge
Best Back-Office Initiative ─ SmartStream
Best Trading Infrastructure Provider ─ Trumid Financial
Best Collaboration Initiative ─ MTS BondsPro & Bloomberg

End-User Categories
Best Global Deployment ─ Northern Trust
Best Infrastructure Initiative ─ Northern Trust
Best IT Integration Initiative ─ Bank of America
Best Cloud Initiative ─ LaSalle Investment Management
Best Cross-Asset Trading Initiative ─ UBS Neo
Best Mobile Strategy Initiative ─ Pershing NetX360
Best Risk Management Initiative ─ JP Morgan Asset Management
Best Compliance Initiative ─ JP Morgan Chase
Best IT Team ─ JP Morgan Asset Management
Best Reporting Initiative ─ Credit Suisse Client 360
Best Data Management Initiative: Sell Side ─ Deutsche Bank DQ Direct
Best Data Management Initiative: Buy Side ─ Rotation Capital
Most Cutting-Edge IT Initiative: Sell Side ─ Credit Suisse CPA
Most Cutting-Edge IT Initiative: Buy Side ─ Blackstone
Best Analytics Initiative: Sell Side ─ Morgan Stanley SPG Access
Best Analytics Initiative: Buy Side ─ JP Morgan Asset Management (Sparta)

Individual Categories
Best Third-Party Technology Vendor CIO or CEO ─ Steven O'Hanlon (Numerix)
Best Technology Executive, Sell Side ─ Bob Greifeld (Nasdaq)
Best Technology Executive, Buy Side ─ Scott Murray (Northern Trust)