Guest Contributor: Martin Hakker, EVP of Marketing, Fidessa and Managing Director, Fidessa Canada Corporation Technology investment is on the rise this year as firms look to capitalize on the new look trading environment. Despite many companies postponing infrastructure projects during the downturn, sophisticated tools with adequate flexibility are required to manage the raft of new
Regulation
What Should a Financial Services Firm’s Top Concern Really Be?
Surveys, studies and whitepapers are released on a frequent basis concerning the top priority of financial services firms in the current market climate. However, these results rarely reflect the same priority as being the “top priority.” This leads me to the question: What should a financial services firm’s main concern really be? Regulation, technology, staffing,
Conference and Event Planning
FTF Takes on Chi-Town
Next week, the FTF team will be leaving New York City for a few days to take on another famous city… Chicago. FTF has been coordinating a few events and training courses that will be taking place in Chicago throughout the next week. Our busy schedule is as follows: Monday, May 9th: – 3rd Annual
Financial Technology
A Battle Royal: Broker vs. Independent – The importance of 3rd Party Pricing Examined
Guest Contributor: Dario Cintioli, Products Director, StatPro The debate between referencing broker pricing or independent pricing has been raging among asset managers in recent years. Broker pricing is often arrived at through the averaging of assets, which can cause a biased valuation. On the other hand, pricing technologies haven’t kept up with the pace of
Cloud
Cloud Computing & Outsourcing
I read an article this week by Bob McDowall of Aite Group asking the reader “is cloud computing taking over Indian outsourcers?” Personally, I think it’s too soon to definitively say that the cloud is a threat to outsourcing as we currently know it, but nonetheless, it’s an interesting thought. Over the next few years,
Fun Friday
Happy Birthday to the Empire State…. Building That Is
All this week, news stations have been broadcasting round-the-clock coverage of the Royal Wedding. This morning, Prince William and Kate happily said their ‘I do’s’, so we thought now it’s time to celebrate something near and dear to New Yorkers’ hearts, the Empire State Building. For those of you who don’t know, the Empire State
Derivatives
Proposed Derivatives Rules: Regulators Going Too Far?
Guest Contributor: John Jay, Senior Analyst, Aite Group The name of the game is derivatives regulation, and financial regulators are asking end users to ante up. While pursuing risk management activities, non-financial firms may be subjected to posting higher collateral requirements with their financial counterparties (i.e., banks) than are currently necessary. In part, these firms
Compliance
Regulators vs. Traders
Traditionally, OTC derivative trades are not required to take place over an exchange, but regulators are working on changing that very soon. The OTC derivatives market has been boisterously opposing the potential new regulations that will require them to now trade over exchanges because it will mean that they will need higher collateral and better
Fun Friday
Happy Earth Day!
In honor of Earth Day, FTF wanted to bring some “green” to Wall Street… and no, not that kind of green, but rather some earth-friendly green knowledge! So here are three quick tips on how you can “Green” your office and help the environment! 1) Getting the Right Light On average the commercial sector uses
Clearing and Settlement
The Mysterious Role of the Clearinghouse
The idea of the clearinghouse is fairly simple. A clearinghouse acts as a middle man who will insure a financial transaction between two market parties. This definition may be simple enough, but in reality a clearinghouse is far more complex and, if it were to fail, the results could be disastrous for the economy. For
