Waters Wavelength

Happy New Year, dear listeners. This week, Tony and Shen reflect on how this podcast started, the guests we’ve brought on, the changes in music (and co-hosts), and the topics we’ve covered and will be covering looking ahead.

Eliot talks to Carlo di Florio, president of financial services advisory company ACA Group, about the SEC’s key decisions this year, as well as the future of the regulator with current SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s tenure at the helm of the top US financial services regulator coming to an end in 2025. di Florio joined the SEC in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and while there, headed up the regulator’s examinations division. Note to listeners: This episode was recorded before Paul Atkins’ SEC nomination. 6:30 – Carlo joins Eliot on the podcast 13:00 – Striking a balance 14:30 – The Gensler administration vs. future direction of the SEC 18:00 – New regulatory ideas around crypto, and other emerging technologies 19:30 – Pause on rulemaking 23:00 – Enforcement of off-channel communications 29:00 – The future of the Consolidated Audit Trail

Reb and Shen discuss Reb’s article about how generative AI will impact the market data industry and how that will also creep into the reference data space. Reb also details a market data framework by Substantive Research, the drama around reference data identifiers, and a preview of her next story. https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7952088/ai-set-to-overhaul-market-data-landscape-by-2029-new-study-finds?ref=header-search https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7951990/industry-seeks-to-avoid-future-clashes-over-data-costs https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7951982/new-working-group-to-create-open-framework-for-managing-rising-market-data-costs

Tony and Wei-Shen talk about five essential things you need to know when interacting with us as a source. 1. On the record/on background/off the record 2. Don’t be a drone 3. Give tangible examples 4. We may need help understanding the subject matter 5. Why you want to talk to the media

This week, Tony and Shen discuss the first article from the Voice of the CDO series, as well as their thoughts on the Jake Paul v. Mike Tyson fight. https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7952103/chief-data-officers-must-get-it-done-but-differ-on-what-that-means

This week, Steve Grob, founder of Vision57, joins Tony on the podcast. Together, they chat about interoperability and the future of the OMS. 5:00 – Steve joins the podcast. They kick things off with firms’ appetite for AI 9:00 – Rubbish in, rubbish out 13:00 – Fix the standardization and availability piece 15:30 – The state of the interop movement 20:30 – Cloud is a pre-requisite 22:30 – What the future OMS isn’t going to be 26:30 – Dealing with the “sprawl” problem

This week, James Leong, CEO of Grasshopper, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss the market reforms the Singapore Exchange and the Monetary Authority of Singapore are considering. 9:30 – James joins the podcast and gives an overview of Grasshopper and its journey since 2006 12:00 – They discuss why the SGX and the MAS are looking at market reforms 14:30 – Liquidity is fundamental 16:00 – How much government intervention should there be? 18:00 – Increasing retail trading? 23:00 – Singapore’s position as a regional trading hub 28:30 – Market making is somewhat misunderstood in Asia 32:30 – James’ background in psychology and how to manage egos

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