Luminaries from financial services operations will be celebrated tonight for their achievements at the fourth annual FTF News Technology Innovation Awards.

Luminaries from major facets of financial services operations — including former CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, Smarsh CEO Stephen Marsh and Pimco executive vice president Cynthia Meyn — will be feted tonight for their 2013 achievements at the fourth annual FTF News Technology Innovation Awards.

Honorees can expect a sea-going gala on a deluxe yacht plying the New York harbor at night. Is there a better way to celebrate the noteworthy achievements of financial services professionals?

It was good enough for Leonardo DiCaprio, playing Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. But his yacht, accommodating just 10, would be swamped in the wake of the Hornblower Infinity, the new, luxuriously appointed 245-foot vessel, where 250 or so financial-world insiders will celebrate the award winners by sailing to the Statue of Liberty.

This year’s awards again celebrate and recognize the professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, industry bodies and regulators that have made significant strides and noteworthy achievements in operational excellence in the past year.

And while there aren’t any Hollywood-style Belfortian shenanigans planned for those on board, you can expect an elegant evening — cocktails, a jazz band, dinner, a comedian and the awards presentations — all while cruising the waters that around Manhattan island.

This year’s awards nominees were suggested by the industry professionals themselves — including technology and services providers, consulting firms, industry utilities, industry bodies, regulators, exchanges, and financial services institutions such as investment banks, broker/dealers, custodians, and buy-side and sell-side firms.

In each case, the nominator was required to explain the submission, in detail and in 300 words or less, focusing on how the entry fit the category, and on specific post-trade operations achievements and innovations made during the year. “The more detailed and original the entry, the better,” the FTF Awards editorial team specified.

The result?

“We had more diversity in 2014 than in past years among the nominees and the winners,” Eugene Grygo, the chief content editor of FTF News, says. “We are seeing more players getting into the middle- and back-office spaces, and the good news is that innovation is turning out to be the deciding factor for success.”

The complete list of this year’s winners follows:

Best Financial Crime-Fighting Solution

(cites the provider that demonstrates how its offerings help financial services firms detect money laundering, comply with domestic and international sanctions and implement strategies to counter illegal interactions with organized crime and terrorist groups)

Fiserv

Best Buy-Side Operations Solution

(recognizes the IT solution or service that exemplifies the best the industry has to offer for buy-side firms as they strive for operational excellence)

Eagle Investment Systems

Best Clearing and Settlement Solution

(rewards the solution provider that has achieved a level of excellence in the efficient clearing and settlement of market transactions)

TCS BaNCS

Best Client Reporting Solution

(honors the provider that has advanced the complex process of client reporting)

Advent Software APX

Best Cloud Provider

(acknowledges the cloud provider that has advanced the scalable access to computing resources and IT support)

Liquid Holdings

Best Collateral Management Solution

(spotlights the system that consistently offers innovations to mitigate the risks and costs associated with collateral and margin management and the clearing of derivative transactions)

Omgeo ProtoColl

Best Regulatory Compliance Solution for Operations

(awarded to the supplier that delivers distinguished offerings to help clients meet their critical compliance and regulatory responsibilities)

Sapient Global Markets CMRS

Best Consultancy for Operations

(honors the consultancy that has established itself as a thought leader on critical issues that operations professionals in capital markets encountered in 2013)

Sapient Global Markets

Best Corporate Actions Processing Solution

(spotlights the solution provider that has improved corporate actions processing for the industry)

Fidelity ActionsXchange

Best Cutting-Edge Solution

(recognizes the supplier that is committed to developing innovative financial technology solutions for middle- and back-office operations)

LCH.Clearnet SMART

Best Derivatives Operations Solution

(cites the provider that has achieved excellence via superior services and solutions that greatly improve operations for processing listed and/or over-the-counter derivatives)

Tradeweb

Best Enterprise Data Management Solution

(rewards the provider that has successfully applied effective data management capabilities via new or updated offerings for middle- and back-office operations)

SmartStream Reference Data Utility

Best Operational Data Provider

(areas of consideration in this critical category include, but are not limited to: corporate actions data, settlement instruction support, entity identifiers, financial messaging, reference data ops support, and support for data standards)

RIMES Reference Data Service

Best FinTech Ops Start-Up

(recognizes a financial technology start-up, founded within the past five years, with a focus on operations that has devised innovative technology or services that enable end-user firms to differentiate themselves in the market)

Liquid Holdings

Best Middle-Office Solution

(spotlights providers that do an exceptional job of offering services and solutions for middle-office operations such as IT resources, risk management, client reporting/management, client and security master database support, and services for the coding, figuration and verification of trades)

DST Anova

Best Operational Risk Management Solution

(recognizes the provider that has shown the most creativity in mitigating operational risk, whether it is related to collateral management, data management, anti-money laundering, disaster recovery, corporate governance or another issue that has a critical impact upon operational risk management)

SmartStream TLM Cash & Liquidity Management

Best Outsourcing Provider

(cites the provider that can illustrate superiority in providing valuable, reliable, cost-effective and efficient outsourced services to the buy side)

SEI

Best Performance Measurement and Attribution System

(focuses on the performance measurement solution that offers exemplary calculation of returns for benchmarks and composites portfolios, calculation of attribution effects for equity and fixed-income portfolios, and calculation of ex-post risk, absolute and relative)

BI-SAM

Best Pricing or Valuation Solution

(recognizes the service supplier that offers the broadest product coverage, partners that contribute pricing, and the best methodology and specificity for the buy side)

Numerix CrossAsset

Best Reconciliation Solution

(focuses on the flexibility, completeness, ease-of-use and innovative features of a solution for automating and managing reconciliation and exceptions management process)

Gresham CTC

Best Social Media and Compliance Solution

(focuses on a solution’s ability to monitor multiple streams of social media activity and aid clients in flagging and averting potentially harmful or illegal information posted to social media sites)

Smarsh

Service Provider of the Year

(celebrates extraordinary client support, cooperation with fellow market participants and extraordinary leadership in the industry)

SS&C Technologies

FinTech Person of the Year

(recognizes a behind-the-scenes individual who has been highly effective in advancing a financial technology issue that has had a major impact upon the industry)

Steve Marsh, CEO, Smarsh

Ops Business Person of the Year

(honors an executive-level individual who has advanced the cause of financial technology innovation from the business side)

Cynthia Meyn, executive vice president, operations, PIMCO

Editor’s Choice Award

(honors an individual, user firm or user group that has embarked upon a successful financial IT project or initiative that greatly improved operations)

Bart Chilton, former CFTC commissioner

(Editor’s Note: FTF News is hard at work on an editorial supplement that highlights the winners who attended the awards ceremony.)

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