From Sticky Notes to Success Stories: What It Really Means to Mentor the Next Generation of Capital Markets Professionals by FTF News
In this episode, FTF’s Maureen Lowe explores how artificial intelligence is transforming asset management. She’s joined by Madhu Rojukhirdu, Head of Fixed Income Performance Attribution and Global Benchmark Data at AllianceBernstein, and Che Guan, Principal Data Scientist, who leads the implementation of AI models that are redefining how AllianceBernstein delivers insights to clients. Together, they discuss how AI is reshaping investment strategies, improving operational efficiency, and tackling...
In this episode of the FTF Exchange Podcast, host Maureen Lowe sits down with Dawn Pischetola, Director of Investment Operations at Olmstead Associates, for her perspectives on why reconciliation processes—often overlooked but crucial to operational success—are now at a turning point in asset management. With transaction volumes surging and legacy systems struggling to keep pace, what does the future hold for firms still clinging to spreadsheets and manual processes? Dawn brings 25 years of fron...
In this podcast episode, Todd Juillerat, chair of the upcoming PMCR conference in New York City, shares his extensive experience and insights into the performance measurement and client reporting space. Drawing from his career trajectory that began in fund accounting and led to performance analysis at major institutions including JP Morgan, Juillerat discusses the evolving landscape of performance measurement and reporting. Key discussion points include: • The increasing convergence of performan...
In this episode of the FTF Exchange Podcast, host Nick Holland speaks with Hermine Wong, a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law and former policy leader at Coinbase, to discuss the evolving regulatory landscape of digital assets and financial services. Wong reflects on her career journey, highlighting the intersection of law, technology, and finance, and how her early exposure to the internet’s democratization shaped her approach to crypto regulation. The conversation delves into the shifting r...
In this episode of the FTF Exchange Podcast, hosts Maureen Lowe and Nick Holland dive into the findings of a recent industry survey conducted by AutoRek, shedding light on the current challenges and inefficiencies in asset management operations. Jack Niven and John Scappaticci of AutoRek provide expert analysis and first hand insight on the trends driving the push for automation, highlighting how firms can move past the inertia of outdated processes and embrace next-generation solutions that enh...
In this episode, Maureen Lowe and co-host Nick Holland sit down with Alex Shafran, Senior Vice President of Performance Analytics and Client Reporting at Cohen & Steers. Alex shares his career journey, from aspiring math teacher to financial services leader, and provides valuable advice for professionals navigating the evolving landscape of performance measurement and client reporting. Key discussion points include: • Career Insights: Alex's path into capital markets and his thoughts on taki...
Joe reveals how he was first introduced to GIPS over 20 years ago when his firm aimed to market its products in the U.S. His expertise and passion quickly positioned him as a trusted figure in the GIPS governance space, including roles as a CFA Society Ireland President and a longstanding member of multiple GIPS committees. The Role of the GIPS Technical Committee: Joe discusses his work on the GIPS Technical Committee, describing it as a "GIPS on steroids" group that tackles complex industry to...
The U.S. prioritized reducing settlement fails domestically but ignored the knock-on costs for international investors, which have gone through the roof.” So says industry veteran Gary Wright, director at ISITC Europe CIC, in the latest episode of the FTF Exchange podcasts. In this podcast, hosts Maureen Lowe and Nick Holland speak with Wright who delves deep into the contentious shift to T+1 settlement in capital markets, questioning whether the benefits truly justify the costs. With candid ins...
In this episode, Maureen Lowe and Nick Holland of the FTF Exchange podcast chat with Sanjay Lamba, Associate General Counsel at the Investment Advisor Association (IAA). They discuss the SEC’s marketing rule, which aims to modernize and standardize advertising practices for investment advisors. Sanjay shares insights into compliance challenges and the need for firms to adapt to evolving regulations around digital communications and AI use in marketing. The conversation also touches on collaborat...
Fixed income market participants are under pressure to develop systematic credit strategies and to improve their valuation and performance analytics capabilities. Yet Peter O’Connor, product manager, FINCAD Analytics Suite, Numerix, says it’s a data and computation problem much like other IT issues and firms will be able to catch up. O’Conner is the focus of the latest episode of the FTF Exchange podcast series. “When it comes to fixed income strategies, it’s a data problem. You can identify the...
In preparation for the November 7th FTF webinar, Find True North in Sanctions Compliance: Avoid Exposure to Securities Tainted by Sanctions, our Director of Event and Content Strategy, Nick Holland, spoke with Danny McGlynn, President and Chief Integrity Officer at the Institute for Financial Integrity, about the evolution of sanctions regimes and compliance strategies. They explore how sanctions have become a key tool for addressing national security concerns, with increased collaboration betwe...
The core of any client reporting challenge is inevitably a data problem, and the ultimate solution may be highly personalized self-service capabilities much like a media streaming service, says Andrew Barnett, chief product officer at Hub, a new provider for the global securities operations industry. Barnett is the focus of this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast. When asked about a new ecosystem for client reporting, Barnett focused on the new operating models that go beyond sending out PDFs, ...
Operations teams need to shift away from multiple outdated accounting systems and data warehouses and toward an ecosystem that allows for these and related systems to talk together in real time, says Kirk Littleton, sales director at FundGuard, in this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast. These changes will definitely yield firm-wide benefits, including those for performance measurement and client reporting teams especially if firms embrace updated application programming interfaces (APIs) and d...
Systems based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies will meet the demands of financial services firms looking for new features and IT capabilities for their performance measurement operations. It will also mean a disruption of the status quo. This is according to the latest FTF Focus podcast featuring Sean Murray, who is senior vice president, senior director, product management, at FactSet and Nina Mayers, who serves as director, performance product management, also at FactSet. “A.I. i...
Kelli Sayres, senior managing director, head of Polypaths at Numerix, says that she is not surprised that some securities firms are lagging behind others in the “huge effort” to move past Libor. They have also had to deal with other shocks to the system such as higher interest rates and inflation. “From what I’ve seen, most of our clients have been able to rise to the occasion and they were able to meet both the logistical and technical challenges that are associated with this type of migration ...
Securities firms searching for liquidity in capital markets are facing many challenges and factors such as high interest and inflation rates. But this situation represents a huge opportunity for firms that have liquidity and are benefitting from better management of lending and hedging decisions. So says Gil Guillaumey, head of strategy for Capital Market Solutions at Adenza, in this latest edition of the FTF Focus podcast series. Some firms are finding that market conditions are making it chall...
Managed services clients and prospects of SmartStream Technologies are showing lots of interest in A.I.-based technologies and how they can impact securities operations, but there is a caveat to that evolving demand for A.I., says Nick Smith, executive vice president, managed services, SmartStream Technologies, in this latest edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series. “A.I. cannot work in a black box and nobody knows what it’s doing,” Smith says via the podcast. “It needs to be able to provide ...
A key requirement of the SEC’s marketing rule is the presentation of net performance data along with gross performance data, but many firms have processes in place only for gross returns, says Olivier Verburg, vice president, analytics manager at FactSet in this latest edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series. “Suddenly switching that to net will present challenges on the operational side of things,” Verburg says. The regulator says that the rule is intended to provide more transparency for in...
For this podcast, Alex Strekel, director of investment management solutions for Clearwater Analytics, focuses on the best definition of client reporting for 2023 and many other matters. When asked to define client reporting, Strekel acknowledges that he takes a broad view of client reporting from his days working as a portfolio manager. “I think about client reporting as anything that touches the hands of the client,” Strekel tells FTF News. “So, anything that a client is going to access via a W...
In this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series, Sue Sato from the Prime Settlement Services (PSS) department at Nomura Research Institute (NRI) focuses on why NRI is offering a combination of IT outsourcing, also known as ITO, and business process outsourcing or BPO. NRI provides system solutions and consulting services such as management consulting, systems integration, and IT management and solutions for financial services and other industries. NRI has offices in New York, London, Tokyo, H...
For this podcast, Alexander Sokol, founder, executive chairman, and head of quant research at CompatibL Technologies, focuses on how trading and risk models are getting an exponential boost from machine learning. For instance, the standard models for interest rates are based on incremental changes in rates but those models are falling short now as rates are in turmoil across the globe as central bankers raise rates to drive down inflation. “So, the new model types that we developed, which are ca...
The cost of data is exploding for securities firms and that may be due to inflation and firms being locked into a data platform that sometimes comes from the same data provider, says Roy Kirby, head of core products at SIX, in the latest edition of the FTF Exchange podcast from FTF and FTF News. “I would say that now we’re back in an inflationary environment. I think that some larger companies are … locked into software platforms that are also provided by data providers. And some of those data p...
Banks, broker-dealers, buy-side firms, and other capital markets participants are getting closer to their digital transformation goals as they put clients at the center of their journey, says Marc Natale, head of presales and marketing for America at Murex, a provider of financial software for trading, treasury, risk, and post-trade operations. Earlier this year, the Murex MX.3 platform won Software Solution of the Year in the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards. “We observed over the past two...
Cost pressures are dominating the agenda for many securities firms and they are likely to be seriously considering new ways to consolidate their post-trade operations, says Brian Collings, CEO of Torstone Technology, via a new FTF Exchange podcast. The new consolidation can take several forms and will be impacted by major market changes such as the push for shorter, T+1 and T-0 settlement, Collings says. There can be an operations consolidation across assets such as a common middle office for eq...
In this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series, FTF News speaks with David Kirk, the chief technology officer for QUODD and Justin Van Til, who serves as a senior vice president, product and strategy for QUODD. QUODD describes itself as a provider of market data on demand to the global financial services industry. The upstart serves clients by providing capabilities to stream, embed, look up, or download pricing data for equities, fixed income, indices, options, futures, and end-of-day prici...
Participants in derivatives trading markets are coping with the need for speed driven via two very challenging trends – market volatility and the need for a pre- and post-trade holistic view of risk management for each transaction. Both situations are compelling firms to look to cloud computing, data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and other cutting-edge technologies in an effort to keep up with the competition, say Satyam Kancharla, executive vice president and chief product officer for ...
Despite IT advances, many financial services firms still rely on manual processes to manage collateral and related operations because their existing systems were either built internally or procured via a third party and cannot support new levels of automation, says Neil Murphy, triResolve business manager at OSTTRA. Murphy and Joakim Stromberg, senior director, head of triResolve Solutions at OSTTRA, recently took part in an FTF Exchange podcast. (OSTTRA is the new home for the influential busin...
A key deadline is looming for the set of regulatory overhauls known as the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR), which began a phased-in approach in 2016. The sixth and final phase begins on September 1 of this year. Gemma Bailey, director, business management, for triCalculate, and Neil Murphy, business manager at triResolve, both part of OSSTRA, which is the new home of TriOptima, have been keeping an eye on UMR and its manifold impacts on financial services firms. OSTTRA encompasses the businesses of...
Financial services firms that want to meet investor requirements for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) compliance will find that it boils down to a data challenge that would be helped by greater transparency, says Todd Moyer, president and chief operating officer (COO) for Confluence, in a new FTF Exchange podcast “An area of focus for Confluence, and I think for the industry in general, is really ESG. We see ESG a data challenge at the core,” Moyer says. “Here at Confluence we’re real...
