Opinion
SEFs Are Only One Part of the Swaps Equation
When it comes to untangling the emergence of swap execution facilities (SEFs), it's sometimes easy to feel like Theseus navigating the labyrinth. Whether the regulators play the parts of Daedalus and Icarus, or the Minotaur, of course, depends on your…
Burning Issues: For Exchanges, it's Diversify or Die
Editor Max Bowie takes a well-earned vacation this week, leaving Faye Kilburn to discuss how exchanges are diversifying their offerings in light of falling market data revenues.
Aleynikov's Ripple Effect
This week Michael Lewis brought a national spotlight to the Goldman Sachs case against Sergey Aleynikov. Will this change the way programmers conduct business in the future?
Light and Shade In LEI Outlook
Shifts in legal entity identifier guidelines attract attention to the differences between countries on how to implement the identification standard
IRD's Editor on Catalyzing Corporate Actions
Industry demand or a regulatory action will be needed to push through automation of corporate actions processing, an effort that has not yet reached critical mass in the industry
Marking Your Own Homework
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma) sent a request for a review into the structure of the exchange self-regulatory model (SRO) last week, in a move that may force regulators to take an enhanced role in market oversight.
Burning Issues: Could an Instant Message Be Worth a Thousand Bloomberg Terminals?
Max Bowie takes a well earned vacation this week, leaving Faye Kilburn to discuss Markit's Open Federated Chat, a potential alternative to Bloomberg's Instant messenger
JOBS Act Implications Significant, Just Not for Technology
The JOBS Act could present new opportunities─and challenges─for the hedge fund industry, but Anthony questions whether there's a significant IT angle to be found.
Open Platform: Planning for the Inevitable with T2S
Harmonization of the European securities settlement landscape is gathering pace. The single settlement platform Target2-Securities (T2S) and the forthcoming CSD Regulation (CSD-R) – which could impose T+2 settlement Europe-wide and require an electronic…
Battling Inertia In Corporate Actions
Automation efforts in corporate actions processing have stayed at stagnant levels, according to Inside Reference Data webcast surveys. Industry professionals are looking for a catalyst to spur improvements
Eze Software Group Enjoys Stellar Six Months
Six months is a long time in the life of a software company. Take the Eze Software Group as an example: The fledgling buy-side focused vendor – born in January this year after $56 billion private investment firm TPG stumped up the capital to acquire…
IRD's Editor on Harnessing Big Data
Author Douglas Rushkoff advocates "personifying" the management of big data. What path will the financial industry take?
Open Platform: Value at Risk - The New Data Challenge
Following the financial crisis, the industry is reevaluating how it uses and calculates Value at Risk. But more accurate and frequent VaR needs the ability to capture and analyze more frequent underlying data, requiring a new approach to risk data…
The Magic Roundabout
Policy and regulatory discussions often end up eating themselves.
Soul of a New Data Machine
Ideas about how to harness the power of big data for data management purposes can come from unlikely sources. A conversation between an author and a podcaster inspires consideration of the value of human assessment in big data processes
Max Bowie: Will the Early Heads-Up Get the Thumbs-Down?
Innovation inevitably comes at a price, and premium services come with a premium price tag. So, Max asks, what’s wrong with paying a premium to get an advantage—so long as that advantage is used in the appropriate place?
Michael Shashoua: Valuing Data and Making Data a Value
Costs and resources for data management take precedence in reference data. Michael says firms must develop a palette of strategies in addition to centralization, sourcing, and prioritization to make the most of what they have.
Anthony Malakian: No Reconciling Dependency on Excel
According to some reports, 70 to 80 percent of reconciliations at major financial institutions still take place through the use of manually intensive, spreadsheet-based platforms. Anthony says that in today’s environment, this is simply unacceptable.
James Rundle: Cross-Country Marathons
Operating across regulatory jurisdictions is never easy, but in some areas, it’s practically impossible to do so efficiently. Even when regulators prove accommodating there are challenges, James says.
IRD's Editor on ISO 20022 and LEI Developments
Support for the ISO 20022 messaging standard could be wavering in the industry. In contrast, a maneuver by the US Office of Financial Research could improve the LEI's prospects
LEI Up, ISO 20022 Down
If identifier and messaging standards were stocks, adoption of the legal entity identifier would be rallying, while the ISO 20022 messaging standard dropped. Support for adoption of ISO 20022 for corporate actions messaging is not appearing as strong as…