Tony and Wei-Shen get a little philosophical in this episode. Tony tries to articulate an idea, and then it becomes about what it takes to be a good journalist versus what it takes to be a good columnist.

This week, Nyela brings on Valerie Bannert-Thurner, EVP and chief revenue officer for the financial technology division at Nasdaq. They talk about Nasdaq’s approach to fintech and its strategy moving forward.

6:00 – Valerie joins Nyela on the podcast and talks about Nasdaq’s evolution

12:00 – What makes up fintech at Nasdaq

15:30 – The Street’s demands

21:30 – Integration pain points

24:30 – Valerie explains Nasdaq’s cloud and AI journey

29:00 – How Nasdaq is looking ahead for fintech

30:30 – On the Adenza integration

After a brief introduction from Wei-Shen and Tony, Nyela Graham joins the podcast to discuss her week spent in Austin, Texas, covering the World Financial Information Conference (WFIC), arguably the world’s largest conference dedicated solely to financial data-related issues.

Nyela talks with Tony about the panels that received the most attention, the silliness of Chatham House rules, how delegates responded when told they were speaking to a reporter, and her favorite parts of Austin and the conference itself.

Hello, dear listener. It’s your favorite host, Wei-Shen, writing this. Let’s be honest. My co-host, Tony, and I have not given this podcast the love it deserves. We realize that and are looking to change and improve on it to give you a better listening experience with more episodes—and more importantly, more guests and analysis—on a regular basis.

To do that, we are committed to producing an episode Every.Single.Week from here on out. That’s with the exception of holidays, but we will inform you of that in advance.

Not only will we be featuring more guests, but we’re also excited to introduce new voices from the rest of the WatersTechnology editorial team. We hope this shake-up will bring a fresh perspective and more depth to our content.

As always, we would love to hear from you if you have any feedback or suggestions for us. You can contact us at [email protected] or [email protected]

We look forward to bringing this podcast to new heights. Till next week, take care.

This week, Brian O’Neill, COO for transformation, technology & operations, and global head for group transformation at Standard Chartered, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss a cloud-first and a cloud-value strategy, monitoring cloud costs, and maintaining resiliency.

5:30 – Brian joins the podcast and gives an overview of his background and current role at the bank

8:30 – He delves into Standard Chartered’s cloud strategy

12:30 – The cloud value framework

14:30 – Brian talks about managing multi-cloud partnerships

16:00 – Planning for disruptions

21:00 – The importance of an internal cloud services management team

22:30 – Optimizing cloud usage and costs

28:00 – Brian talks about some ‘no-go zones’

34:00 – Thinking about resiliency

This week, Boon-Hiong Chan, Asia-Pacific head of securities and technology advocacy and industry applied innovation lead at Deutsche Bank, joins the podcast. They discuss the importance of blockchain interoperability and go into some methods and key requirements to achieve that.

https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951853/ace-high-or-busted-flush-digital-assets-mixed-fortunes-mirror-dlt-adversity

https://www.db.com/news/detail/20240607-deutsche-bank-collaborates-with-industry-partners-to-launch-paper-on-blockchain-interoperability?language_id=1

https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951849/deutsche-bank-works-on-standardized-protocols-for-asset-tokenization

7:00 – Boon joins the podcast and gives an overview of his current role

10:30 – They discuss why interoperability between different blockchains is important

16:30 – Interoperability can mean two things

18:30 – Boon explains the highlights from the whitepaper Deutsche Bank contributed to

22:30 – Centralized hub vs. bridges and key requirements

29:30 – On and off chain interoperability

33:00 – Cybersecurity considerations

36:30 – Other blockchain challenges

This week, Samar Sen, head of Apac at Talos, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss how institutional tools for the digital asset space have grown in the last few years and the tools Talos is building on.

1:30 – Samar explains how he moved from the sell side to working with digital assets

6:30 – How the SEC greenlighting spot bitcoin ETFs impacts Talos

9:30 – The evolution of institutional tools for the digital asset over the last two years

12:30 – The Cloudwall and D3X acquisitions

17:00 – Building from an institutional background

19:30 – How Talos built Sonic and how it minimizes slippage

21:30 – Steps to consider before trading in digital assets

26:00 – The buy vs. build debate

34:00 – Other areas Talos is looking to enhance

Tony McManus, global head of Bloomberg’s enterprise data division, joins the podcast this week. They discuss Bloomberg’s approach to AI and GenAI from a data perspective, getting the infrastructure and architecture right to leverage these technologies, and the skills necessary for graduates interested in joining Bloomberg.

5:30 – Tony McManus joins the podcast and gives an overview of his role

10:30 – How Tony keeps up with everything

14:00 – They discuss the biggest challenges from a data perspective

16:00 – What ‘data quality’ means

18:00 – Cloud’s role in evolving access to data

22:30 – Getting the foundations right

28:00 – How Bloomberg deals with point-in-time data

31:00 – The interconnectedness of data

36:30 – Skills and talent necessary for Bloomberg

Nyela Graham brings Frank Tarsillo, CTO at S&P Global Market Intelligence, on the podcast this week. They discuss S&P’s approach to AI, the need for “ready-to-use” data, and how the firm’s Kensho and IHS Markit acquisitions are helping accelerate innovation.

2:00 – Frank joins the podcast and explains S&P’s approach to AI

9:30 – How Kensho has shaped S&P’s data

12:30 – Tech acquisitions act as accelerators

14:00 – How IHS Markit’s datasets are showcased within S&P

17:30 – S&P in the cloud

20:00 – Frank’s background in the data vendor world

28:00 – The future of datacenters

This week, Joseph Lo, head of enterprise platforms at Broadridge, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They talk about Broadridge’s thinking behind BondGPT and OpsGPT, and some of the challenges firms face when experimenting with and using LLMs.

https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7951726/broadridge-ceo-we-intend-to-be-a-leader-in-ai

To register for Nafis: https://www.financialinformationsummit.com/na?__hstc=38704124.d831b3a5059d7f6dad405472a82d7543.1685513017409.1713495877131.1713511796301.655&__hssc=38704124.46.1713511796301&__hsfp=2222243772

3:00 – Joseph joins the podcast and talks about his background and current role at Broadridge

6:00 – He walks through Broadridge’s GPTs and the thinking behind them

10:00 – Some of clients’ feedback

11:30 – OpsGPT’s value proposition

13:00 – Joseph explains how the GPTs were trained and the datasets involved

21:00 – Memory like your Netflix account

24:00 – Biggest challenges for firms experimenting with and using LLMs

29:30 – Incremental vs. transformative benefit

34:00 – They close out talking about ‘DJ Jo’