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2021: The year when Big Tech ‘Googled’ the financial markets and liked the results
Now that cloud has become widely adopted by financial firms, Big Tech companies are seeking to leverage their other services to become more ingrained in the workflows of the capital markets.
Waters Wrap: The biggest disruptors facing the capital markets as we head into 2022
In Anthony’s mind, eight topics will dominate the headlines in the New Year. They are…
Clouding the issue: blurred lines divide banks and servicers
Banks are increasingly clashing with the big three cloud service providers over data security and configuration errors.
Slow burn to a big bang: How the new wave of tech is changing market data platforms
For decades, market data platforms have been critical components of financial firms’ trading infrastructures. But with changing user needs and emerging technologies gaining ground, will the platforms of the past be replaced by upstart challengers—or can…
Cloud promises cost savings, but users still overspend
Cloud overspending and overprovisioning is a pervasive problem as cloud usage is poised to grow in 2022.
NLP for investment management: quants face a grab bag of words
Training models to interpret text can be dull; but doing it poorly can be costly.
Post-trade in the cloud: Startup RQD aims to reimagine clearing
With the post-trade space poised for major change, startup clearing firm RQD says a new cloud-based platform will help it respond to client needs and new business opportunities.
Waters Wrap: CME & Google—the first domino falls
Anthony explores some of the unanswered questions—and potential ripple effects—that come with the new partnership between CME and Google.
Banks seek greater clarity from regulators on cloud risk
Regulators have been reluctant to specify cloud risks, despite warnings of overreliance on three big providers.
Waters Wrap: On cloud migrations and VCRs
Financial services firms are increasingly embracing public cloud offerings, but there have been stumbles along the way, including around scalability, throttling, and a lack of true multi-cloud connectedness. These are lessons that must be learned if…
Bank of Montreal begins 2nd phase of cloud migration and development strategy
Similar to its competitors, BMO wants the future development of financial services tools to be cloud-native. The bank expects 30% of workflows to be moved to the cloud within three years.
From burst to bust: What happens when cloud runs dry?
After years of initial resistance, the capital markets have come to depend heavily on the compute capacity of the public cloud. But increasing market volumes are rapidly outpacing the cloud capacity that organizations thought would be sufficient for…
This Week: Deutsche Borse; State Street; IHS Markit; MSCI; & more
A summary of the week's financial technology news.
Cloud: Capital markets’ Swiss Army knife
The best uses of the cloud so far have been as an enabler of performance and innovation. The best uses yet to come could reshape AI. So, Max warns, if you think cloud is about cutting costs, you’re thinking about it all wrong.
Waters Wrap: Owning the data & doing something unique with it—the ultimate alchemy
Based off of Max Bowie’s recent deep-dive feature, Anthony says that the world of alt data M&A—and the factors that drive these deals—is likely to change in the near future. For an analogy, just look to sushi.
Waters Wrap: Some random thoughts about Big Tech disruption and M&A in Q4
Anthony looks at what he thinks will be the biggest topics during the last quarter of 2021.
Waters Wavelength Podcast: Episode 241 (Big Tech and the capital markets)
Wei-Shen and Tony explore the idea of big tech companies disrupting the traditional Wall Street vendors.
A tale of two titans: Microsoft vs. Bloomberg
Bloomberg has fended off rivals to its business for years but Jo believes a more credible threat may be emerging.
Waters Wrap: Cloud, AI, Interop: The evolutions driving fixed-income progress
Anthony believes these advancements will provide the opening for Big Tech firms to created outsized influence that will change financial technology forever.
FactSet, Microsoft collaborate on voice-activated analytics
The data vendor has deployed machine learning across its ETF and fund screening datasets, and plans to interoperate with other big tech firms in the future.
Waters Wrap: Google-Symphony—Something to see here?
Anthony wonders if there are any tea leaves to be read as a result of Symphony migrating its platform from AWS to Google Cloud.
Waters Wrap: On outages, teamwork & greed (And ESG innovation & consultants)
Anthony examines a proposed protocol in Europe that would help keep liquidity flowing if there’s a major exchange outage. He also discusses innovation in the realm of ESG, and Esma’s new data analytics platform.
Accenture wins contract for Esma’s big data analytics project
The consultancy will provide on-demand tooling for analyzing data collected from Data Reporting Service Providers.
Symphony’s Seven-Year Itch
After seven years and half a billion dollars in funding, Symphony has made strides but arguably has not delivered the “big win” of living up to its early hype as a Bloomberg-killer. Max asks how long its investors will continue to back the venture,…