Waters Wavelength

This week, Tony and Reb discuss the industry's reaction to the FDTA proposed rules around identifiers, what that could mean for the ongoing Cusip lawsuit, and the Opera.

This week, Shen speaks with James Crosby, co-founder and CEO of data management provider Fencore. They discuss the evolutionary nature of the buy side’s approach to technology platforms and data and how it has come full circle. 9:30 – James joins, and we discuss the buy-side operating model 14:30 – How it has evolved 16:30 – Are we repeating old mistakes, and why that’s a problem 21:00 – How should firms put an EDM in place 23:30 – A future-proof model 26:00 – What is a good organizational operating model

Tony and Wei-Shen get a little philosophical in this episode. Tony tries to articulate an idea, and then it becomes about what it takes to be a good journalist versus what it takes to be a good columnist.

This week, Nyela brings on Valerie Bannert-Thurner, EVP and chief revenue officer for the financial technology division at Nasdaq. They talk about Nasdaq’s approach to fintech and its strategy moving forward. 6:00 – Valerie joins Nyela on the podcast and talks about Nasdaq’s evolution 12:00 – What makes up fintech at Nasdaq 15:30 – The Street’s demands 21:30 – Integration pain points 24:30 – Valerie explains Nasdaq’s cloud and AI journey 29:00 – How Nasdaq is looking ahead for fintech 30:30 – On the Adenza integration

After a brief introduction from Wei-Shen and Tony, Nyela Graham joins the podcast to discuss her week spent in Austin, Texas, covering the World Financial Information Conference (WFIC), arguably the world’s largest conference dedicated solely to financial data-related issues. Nyela talks with Tony about the panels that received the most attention, the silliness of Chatham House rules, how delegates responded when told they were speaking to a reporter, and her favorite parts of Austin and the conference itself.

Hello, dear listener. It’s your favorite host, Wei-Shen, writing this. Let’s be honest. My co-host, Tony, and I have not given this podcast the love it deserves. We realize that and are looking to change and improve on it to give you a better listening experience with more episodes—and more importantly, more guests and analysis—on a regular basis. To do that, we are committed to producing an episode Every.Single.Week from here on out. That’s with the exception of holidays, but we will inform you of that in advance. Not only will we be featuring more guests, but we’re also excited to introduce new voices from the rest of the WatersTechnology editorial team. We hope this shake-up will bring a fresh perspective and more depth to our content. As always, we would love to hear from you if you have any feedback or suggestions for us. You can contact us at Wei-Shen.Wong@infopro-digital.com or Anthony.Malakian@infopro-digital.com We look forward to bringing this podcast to new heights. Till next week, take care.

This week, Brian O’Neill, COO for transformation, technology & operations, and global head for group transformation at Standard Chartered, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss a cloud-first and a cloud-value strategy, monitoring cloud costs, and maintaining resiliency. 5:30 – Brian joins the podcast and gives an overview of his background and current role at the bank 8:30 – He delves into Standard Chartered’s cloud strategy 12:30 – The cloud value framework 14:30 – Brian talks about managing multi-cloud partnerships 16:00 – Planning for disruptions 21:00 – The importance of an internal cloud services management team 22:30 – Optimizing cloud usage and costs 28:00 – Brian talks about some ‘no-go zones’ 34:00 – Thinking about resiliency

This week, Boon-Hiong Chan, Asia-Pacific head of securities and technology advocacy and industry applied innovation lead at Deutsche Bank, joins the podcast. They discuss the importance of blockchain interoperability and go into some methods and key requirements to achieve that. https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951853/ace-high-or-busted-flush-digital-assets-mixed-fortunes-mirror-dlt-adversity https://www.db.com/news/detail/20240607-deutsche-bank-collaborates-with-industry-partners-to-launch-paper-on-blockchain-interoperability?language_id=1 https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951849/deutsche-bank-works-on-standardized-protocols-for-asset-tokenization 7:00 – Boon joins the podcast and gives an overview of his current role 10:30 – They discuss why interoperability between different blockchains is important 16:30 – Interoperability can mean two things 18:30 – Boon explains the highlights from the whitepaper Deutsche Bank contributed to 22:30 – Centralized hub vs. bridg

This week, Samar Sen, head of Apac at Talos, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss how institutional tools for the digital asset space have grown in the last few years and the tools Talos is building on. 1:30 – Samar explains how he moved from the sell side to working with digital assets 6:30 – How the SEC greenlighting spot bitcoin ETFs impacts Talos 9:30 – The evolution of institutional tools for the digital asset over the last two years 12:30 – The Cloudwall and D3X acquisitions 17:00 – Building from an institutional background 19:30 – How Talos built Sonic and how it minimizes slippage 21:30 – Steps to consider before trading in digital assets 26:00 – The buy vs. build debate 34:00 – Other areas Talos is looking to enhance

Tony McManus, global head of Bloomberg’s enterprise data division, joins the podcast this week. They discuss Bloomberg’s approach to AI and GenAI from a data perspective, getting the infrastructure and architecture right to leverage these technologies, and the skills necessary for graduates interested in joining Bloomberg. 5:30 – Tony McManus joins the podcast and gives an overview of his role 10:30 – How Tony keeps up with everything 14:00 – They discuss the biggest challenges from a data perspective 16:00 – What ‘data quality’ means 18:00 – Cloud’s role in evolving access to data 22:30 – Getting the foundations right 28:00 – How Bloomberg deals with point-in-time data 31:00 – The interconnectedness of data 36:30 – Skills and talent necessary for Bloomberg

Nyela Graham brings Frank Tarsillo, CTO at S&P Global Market Intelligence, on the podcast this week. They discuss S&P’s approach to AI, the need for “ready-to-use” data, and how the firm’s Kensho and IHS Markit acquisitions are helping accelerate innovation. 2:00 – Frank joins the podcast and explains S&P’s approach to AI 9:30 – How Kensho has shaped S&P’s data 12:30 – Tech acquisitions act as accelerators 14:00 – How IHS Markit’s datasets are showcased within S&P 17:30 – S&P in the cloud 20:00 – Frank’s background in the data vendor world 28:00 – The future of datacenters

This week, Joseph Lo, head of enterprise platforms at Broadridge, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They talk about Broadridge’s thinking behind BondGPT and OpsGPT, and some of the challenges firms face when experimenting with and using LLMs. https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951726/broadridge-ceo-we-intend-to-be-a-leader-in-ai To register for Nafis: https://www.financialinformationsummit.com/na?__hstc=38704124.d831b3a5059d7f6dad405472a82d7543.1685513017409.1713495877131.1713511796301.655&__hssc=38704124.46.1713511796301&__hsfp=2222243772 3:00 – Joseph joins the podcast and talks about his background and current role at Broadridge 6:00 – He walks through Broadridge’s GPTs and the thinking behind them 10:00 – Some of clients’ feedback 11:30 – OpsGPT’s value proposition 13:00 – Joseph explains how the GPTs were trained and the datasets involved 21:00 – Memory like your Netflix account 24:00 – Biggest challenges for firms experimenting with and using LLMs 29:30 – Incremental vs. transfor

Joining Wei-Shen on the podcast this week is Val Wotton, managing director and general manager for Institutional Trade Processing at the DTCC. They talk about the time left to US T+1, the assessment of firms’ readiness, as well as the SEC’s rule on affirmation rates. 5:30 – Val joins the podcast and gives an overview of his role at the DTCC 7:00 – The T+1 finish line is in sight 9:00 – Val walks through the status of affirmations in the industry 12:30 – Investment managers have three options 16:00 – FX funding is another challenge 19:30 – The SEC’s targets, potential consequences, and focus on adhering 31:00 – Move to T+1 in Europe, the UK and Asia

This week, Daniel Liebau, founding chairman of Lightbulb Capital, a research and advisory firm related to blockchain, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss decentralized finance technology, and also Dan’s DeFi 2034 paper, as well as some possible future scenarios for TradFi and DeFi. https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockchain-scholars-podcast/?viewAsMember=true https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42521-023-00088-8#:~:text=Decentralized%20Finance%20(DeFi)%20is%20a,relying%20on%20traditional%20centralized%20intermediaries. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-021-00539-9 2:30 – Dan joins the podcast and walks through his background and his company 6:30 – Dan gives a preview of the DeFi 2034 research paper he’s working on 9:30 – Common misunderstandings on how DeFi will impact TradFi 12:30 – Dan explains some of the tools he used to utilize the data for his paper 14:00 – Possible future scenarios for how DeFi will play out 22:30 – Sending analog signals into a digital world 31:00

Ben Parker, CEO at regtech firm Eflow, joins Theo on the podcast. They talk about the regulatory landscape in Europe, including the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation Refit. 4:00 – Ben joins the podcast and gives an overview of his background and eFlow Global 6:00 – They cover the main items on the European regulatory calendar this year 7:30 – What will Mica cover? 11:00 – What roles does AI have to play in regulation? 16:00 – Overview of Emir refit 20:00 – Are firms compliant with the original Emir yet? 24:30 – Ben chats about what keeps him up at night

This week, Expero’s managing director and financial services practice lead, Tim Baker, joins Reb on the podcast to discuss the ongoing Cusip case, the FCA’s wholesale market data study, and issues to do with copyrighting market data. https://www.waterstechnology.com/regulation/7951301/the-cusip-lawsuit-a-love-story 5:00 – Tim joins the podcast and talks about his interest in the Cusip lawsuit 12:00 – They ponder why more plaintiffs haven’t joined the suit 15:00 – Tim discusses details on the alleged violation of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act 19:30 – The European Commission’s 2011 decision on concerns with S&P’s licensing of US Isins 26:30 – They discuss the FCA’s wholesale market data study 36:30 – Is there meaningful innovation in market and reference data? 39:00 – Figi’s place in the identifier space 45:00 – Tim says there’s a lot of complexity in the market that should be much simpler

Tony speaks with Joe Wald, managing director and head of electronic trading at BMO Capital Markets. But before that, Tony and Shen discuss their story about BlackRock’s mysterious “new” fixed-income tool, Aladdin Trader. Shen also talks about her recent trip to London. Skip ahead to 18:00 for the interview with Joe. https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tech/7951509/what-is-aladdin-trader-blackrocks-fixed-income-tool-still-a-mystery 18:00 – Joe joins the podcast and walks us through his role at BMO 21:00 – They dive into the SEC’s market structure proposals, and the macro trend of systematic trading 27:00 – Joe summarizes the changes to market structure in the US since Reg NMS 30:00 – Joe discusses what he believes to be the most controversial piece of the proposals 34:30 – Playing devil’s advocate for the changes the SEC is proposing 36:30 – How should firms work with third-party providers to prepare for these changes? 40:00 – How the 2024 US presidential elections may affect these proposals

It’s Thanksgiving in the US, so we decided it’s time to revisit some of the dos and don’ts for PR people. Then, they discuss how Reb is settling into her new city. Here are Parts One (https://www.waterstechnology.com/management-strategy/2458851/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-18-dos-and-donts-for-pr-people), Two (https://www.waterstechnology.com/management-strategy/2479553/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-50-dos-and-donts-for-pr-people-part-two), and Three (https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3415496/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-85-cybersecurity-dosdonts-for-prs). And, here’s how to reach our London team: Rebecca Natale: rebecca.natale@infopro-digital.com Theo Normanton: theo.normanton@infopro-digital.com Eliot Raman Jones: eliot.ramanjones@infopro-digital.com Emma-Hillary Gould: emmahillary.gould@infopro-digital.com

This week, Bill Murphy, managing partner at Cresting Wave, joins Tony on the podcast to talk about the importance of putting the right foundations in place and having the right mindset before starting a technology project. 7:00 – Bill joins the podcast. 10:30 – They discuss the increasing pressure for quick wins. 14:00 – How important is it to get the foundations right? 20:30 – Bill walks through some lessons learned when looking at LLMs. 27:00 – How should firms quantify these projects? 34:00 – They discuss the move to cloud and the time it takes. 42:00 – Bill shares the major takeaway from his career so far. 48:30 – They close the episode, talking about the NBA finals.

This week, Yogita Mehta, commercial product director for corporate actions at SIX Financial, joins the podcast to discuss the existing challenges firms face in the corporate action lifecycle. 2:30 – Yogita joins the podcast and gives an overview of her career. 6:30 – They discuss the biggest challenges in the corporate action lifecycle. 13:00 – How do firms deal with these challenges? 15:30 – The talent pool is shrinking. 19:30 – Initiatives some exchanges are involved in to standardize the start of the lifecycle. 23:00 – Are there examples where automation can go wrong? 26:00 – Organizations that achieve 70-75% STP rates should pat themselves on the back. 30:00 – Yogita walks through some technology themes she sees within corporate actions.