This week, Richard Blore, CEO of KY3P, a company of IHS Markit, joins Tony on the podcast. They talk about the challenges of vendor due diligence, particularly during this tumultuous time. Then, they discuss some of the broader trends firms need to address, including automation, cyber resilience, and the possibility of some fintech startups running into cash flow issues.

3:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about how machine learning models have performed leading up to the pandemic (https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/7524721/covid-19-tumult-tests-ai-fund-returns), and how this time is testing ground for these models, and also for emerging technologies.

11:30 – Richard joins the podcast and gives an overview of his career and how he stumbled into the capital markets. Before joining IHS Markit in late 2019, he spent 10 years at Goldman Sachs, and before that, at Coca Cola, International Aero Engines, and Rolls Royce.

15: 30 – Then, he explains how KY3P’s Significant Event Notification and Tracking (SENT) capability works.

19:00 – Richard talks about how for the Covid-19 outbreak, KY3P identified and asked six questions relating to the pandemic. He discusses some of the common pain points firms have.

25:30 – Tony and Richard review some wider trends that firms need to address. Will automation projects receive more attention and investment?

30: 30 – What are the unique challenges that fintech startups face in light of cash flow constraints?

32:30 – They talk about how firms should pay greater attention to cybersecurity issues when it comes to vendor due diligence.

37:00 – Richard says firms will need to stay closer to their core vendors and better understand the full supply chain of the organization.

39:30 – Then, he previews some projects KY3P is currently developing.

This week on the podcast, Ofir Gefen, head of Asia-Pacific at Swedish trading and technology provider Itiviti, talks with Wei-Shen about some of the coronavirus lessons Itiviti in Asia has provided for its other office locations. Then, they talk about how Itiviti has been handling migration projects from those coming off the Bloomberg SSEOMS solution, which is ending in April 2021. (https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/4314076/itiviti-looks-to-capitalize-on-bloombergs-sseoms-exit)

1:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about how the podcast will be a platform for thought leadership, and where firms can speak about their ongoing projects.

5:00 – Ofir joins the podcast and talks about his background and some of his experiences from ITG, Ullink, and then at the combined entity Itiviti.

9:00 – Then, he talks about how Itiviti in Asia entered the BCP mode, following the coronavirus outbreak, and how Itiviti’s other offices could learn from example.

15:00 – Ofir gives his wide, and narrow view of how markets have been reacting to this pandemic, compared with the dotcom bubble in the early 2000s, and the global financial crisis in 2008/2009.

20:00 – How are clients looking to outsource, and in their efforts to automate, have their priorities shifted?

25:30 – The Bloomberg SSEOMS solution is coming offline in April 2021 (https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4248511/bloomberg-plans-to-exit-sseoms-kyc-business-lines), and migration can take anywhere from one to eight months. Ofir cautions that some decisions, even during these turbulent times, can’t be put off.

33:00 – Ofir gives an update of how Itiviti has been handling Bloomberg SSEOMS migration projects, and the measures Itiviti has put in place to speed that process up.

42:00 – What is the worst that could happen, once Bloomberg’s SSEOMS service ends?

45:30 – Ofir talks about Itiviti’s plans and what it is investing in moving forward.

This week, Wei-Shen and Tony talk about BlackRock chairman Larry Fink’s recent letter to shareholders. They then wonder if some roles may be at risk following the coronavirus development, and how technology could play a part. Later, they chat about enhancements being made to the podcast, WatersTechnology, and themselves.

3:00 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about Larry Fink’s letter to shareholders and how he positions BlackRock will be adapting to the coronavirus situation.

5:00 – Are ETFs technology? They delve specifically into fixed-income ETFs and what BlackRock will focus on following this situation.

11:00 – What is the buy-side doing to catch up in their technology transformation, particularly in this new environment?

13:00 – Are front-office roles at risk, and what about third-party vendors?

21:00 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about how we’ll be enhancing the podcast, and our coverage on WatersTechnology.

25:30 – Then, they talk about how we should use this time also to improve and better themselves.

29:00 – Wei-Shen discusses some of the pitfalls of working out at home.

35:00 – Then, Tony talks about how people need to figure out a work-life balance while working from home.

37:40 – Wei-Shen decides to annoy Tony by suggesting he watch FRIENDS.

This week, Mazy Dar, CEO and co-founder at OpenFin joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. First, they talk about how the developing coronavirus (Covid-19) situation impacts the workforce, and how OpenFin is communicating with clients. Then, they discuss financial institutions’ adoption of the Financial Desktop Connectivity (FDC3) standards, and what’s holding them back.

1:00 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about industry-scale project delays, such as ASX’s CHESS replacement (https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/7511931/asx-reconsiders-chess-replacement-timeline-as-coronavirus-bites), and also the delay of deadlines for the CAT (https://www.waterstechnology.com/regulation/7506926/industry-given-cat-relief-due-to-coronavirus), due to the coronavirus (Covid-19).

7:00 – Mazy joins the podcast and talks about the working from home and schooling from home situation, and how OpenFin continues to communicate with clients throughout the disruption caused by Covid-19.

13:00 – Then, he discusses how cloud is becoming more topical as financial institutions start to realize how an on-premise approach can be problematic.

19:00 – Has OpenFin experienced any push backs in projects? Are clients focusing on other things?

25:00 – As interoperability (https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/4753016/for-the-app-interoperability-movement-2020-will-be-a-big-year)continues to seep into capital markets, how will OMS and EMS platforms of the future look like?

26:30 – Mazy elaborates on the state of adoption of the Financial Desktop Connectivity (FDC3) standards, and why some firms are holding back.

37:30 – Where are the opportunities for interoperability in the middle and back-office?

41:00 – What are some new innovations OpenFin is working on, following its last funding round?

46:00 – Mazy wraps up with the two things he’d like to see happen for interoperability this year.

This week, Kelly Mathieson, head of enterprise solutions, and Dan O’Prey, chief marketing officer of Digital Asset, join Tony on the podcast to talk about some of the issues facing blockchain in the capital markets. Before joining Digital Asset, Kelly spent more than two decades at JP Morgan, while Dan was the CEO and the co-founder of Hyperledger, the first permissioned ledger.

1:30 – Tony talks about the coronavirus (Covid-19) situation in New York, and how we should keep a positive mindset, amid the doom and gloom outlook. We will take on a slogan from the US Marine Corps: Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.

9:30 – Dan and Kelly join the podcast and address the difficulty of cutting through the hype of blockchain.

15:30 – Then, Kelly talks about three themes she sees on how the technology is being used practically, versus the opportunity of learning and understanding it.

21:00 – When it comes to capital market blockchains, how have they evolved from the previous definitions and ideas of blockchain?

28:30 – Looking back, where could the capital markets have done better with communicating some of the potential issues about blockchain?

32:00 – Dan explains the ins and outs of smart contracts, and then, Kelly talks about how clients use the DAML programming language.

37:30 – Then, they talk about some of the major trends for blockchain and smart contracts

46:00 – How are firms pushing on their blockchain projects while making sure their existing systems are running well, as they deal with the strain brought on by Covid-19?

This week, Joanna Wright, our London editor, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast to talk about her feature on how transformer models are benefitting the field of natural language processing (NLP). Then, they talk about having fun at the workplace, and how companies can help provide a sense of fulfillment to their staff.

https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/4870381/transforming-nlp-a-look-at-new-tools-being-used-by-banks

1:00 – Joanna shares why she thinks mobile phones are the worst thing to happen to our society in the past 20 years.

4:30 – Then, they talk about AI conversational agents (or chatbots) like Google’s Meena, and Mitsuku.

7.30 – They discuss why Google hasn’t released Meena to the public for now, and the issue of bias encoded within AI models.

12:00 – What is a transformer model, and how has it helped with the development of the NLP field?

18:00 – How are data providers like Refinitiv and Bloomberg using transformer models like BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)?

24:30 – What are some limitations that exist when using transformer models?

28:30 – They talk about an interesting link (https://daringtolivefully.com/have-fun-at-work) that Jo came across, and how it would be fun to beat our editor-in-chief Tony in a foam sword fight.

38:30 – Wei-Shen and Jo wrap up by discussing how employers could provide satisfaction and fulfillment to employees in other ways, instead of following a how-to-have-fun-at-work type of list.

This week, Wei-Shen and Tony talk about two features recently published on the website. The first, written by Wei-Shen, is on how video game technology can be applied in the financial industry and some of the challenges there. The second feature is written by Rebecca Natale, our reporter based in New York, calling out data mining for what it is, and the importance of having a plan when dealing with alternative data.

https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/4858766/game-on-can-the-video-game-industry-teach-banks-something-about-visualization

https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4867276/data-mining-is-bullsht-an-examination

2:00 – Tony shares some of his thoughts on Bank of America’s approach to using gaming technology and the ongoing work on its prototype.

6:00 – Then, Wei-Shen talks about some of the similarities between professional gamers and traders.

10:30 – Where’s the balance between new edge technology and the risk of information overload?

16:00 – Then, they discuss Reb Natale’s feature on data mining and some of the existing challenges in approaching alternative data.

20:30 – Tony talks about how the buy-side is getting frustrated with promises from alternative data providers.

22:00 – Firms should have a plan, and talented people to work with alternative data, as well as the mindset of failing fast and moving on quickly.

23:30 – They talk about how humans have a natural need to make connections with data and how alt data providers take advantage of this.

26:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony wrap up chatting about their collaborative playlists on Spotify.

Mark Schlesinger, Broadridge’s CIO, joins the podcast to talk about Broadridge’s efforts in migrating its infrastructure to IBM Cloud, and how that will give the firm access to new capabilities to develop applications.

5:00 – What is The Broadridge Private Cloud?

9:00 – What does migrating a significant portion of Broadridge’s infrastructure to IBM Cloud mean to the firm, and its clients?

12:00 – What motivated this decision, and when will migrations happen?

18:00 – What are some of the new application development capabilities that IBM Cloud provides? Mark talks about the wealth platform, and the data intelligence platform that Broadridge will launch soon.

23:30 – A look into Broadridge’s blockchain efforts.

28:30 – Why is implementing a multi-cloud strategy easier said than done?

34:00 – Mark talks about his passion for squash and starting the day early.

This week, Tony and Wei-Shen talk about issues dealing with transforming the workforce while financial firms start to automate and digitize. They discuss some of the challenges firms face in upskilling existing staff. Later, they touch on the Coronavirus situation in Hong Kong.

1:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony start the podcast highlighting that registration for the North American Financial Information Summit 2020 (NAFIS) is now open. https://www.financialinformationsummit.com/na

3:30 – Then, they discuss Reb’s story (https://www.waterstechnology.com/management-strategy/4839456/the-retraining-conundrum-how-best-to-transform-a-workforce) on transforming the workforce. They address some challenges, both financial and non-financial firms facing in their efforts.

11:00 – Tony talks about how difficult it is to learn new skills and how it’s not as easy as it sounds.

17:00 – They get a little distracted and talk about the latest Korean drama series Wei-Shen is watching.

18:30 – Wei-Shen brings it back to the topic. It takes two to clap. Both the firm and the individual have to put in the work.

21:00 – Can firms prevent talent from leaving to potentially greener pastures despite giving them the toolkit to learn new skills?

24:00 – Wei-Shen speaks about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation in Hong Kong and some of the absurdities that have risen from it.

33:00 – They end the podcast by discussing what three items they would steal in such a situation.

This week, Tony and Wei-Shen talk about third-party resiliency and how interconnected systems are. They discuss how disruptive outages and vulnerabilities are to the industry and the implications on systemic risk.

https://www.waterstechnology.com/regulation/4818706/vendors-feel-heat-as-regulators-pile-pressure-on-third-party-resiliency

https://www.waterstechnology.com/regulation/4813941/google-exec-regulators-insisting-on-multi-cloud-for-financial-firms

https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4515601/the-future-of-cloud-regulation-the-authorities-are-taking-notice

1:00 – Tony starts by talking about how new laws in Europe will require fintech firms to scrutinize their control frameworks to deal with system failures.

3:30 – The challenge of understanding third-party and fourth-party vendor relationships.

5:00 – They delve into the complexities of validating their relationships with third-party vendors, and beyond.

7:00 – This is where the fight begins. How much will vendors push back on revealing potentially sensitive and proprietary information to the regulators?

9:30 – If regulators are asking firms to adopt multi-vendor strategies, what are the cost implications?

13:00 –Tony and Wei-Shen then talk about how it’s the small errors that lead to major blow-ups, and how monitoring that is a huge challenge.

17:30 – They wrap up the podcast discussing their favorite Oscar-nominated films, who deserved to win, and what’s next on their watch list.