Even as we continued to scratch our heads about the logic of Thomson Reuters Markets’ proposed sale of its Enterprise risk business, the company announced plans to make all of its various trading platforms compliant with incoming regulations affecting over-the-counter derivatives. The move – combined with the release of some informal research that suggested that banks are focusing on four key areas of OTC derivatives regulation – may indicate that rather than giving up on the space, Thomson Reuters is merely redirecting its energies.
Ex-Financial Services Authority (FSA) head and British economist Howard Davies’ comments at this week’s SunGard City Day in London highlighted the seriousness with which firms should be treating Basel III, even if full implementation is eight years away. Davies called the new incoming regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy and liquidity “the most significant change ahead of the financial services industry in the next few years,” noting that its “onerous” requirements could put many out of business if investments in risk and capital management are not made in time.
Bowing to market pressure, it seems that the SEC has given the financial trading community a little extra time to implement the so-called Market Access Rule covering pre-trade risk. Instead of a July 14 deadline, trading firms, brokerages and exchanges now have a November 30 date to work to. No doubt a welcome move for those working at those organisations, who can now have a beer or two this coming holiday weekend.
Every few years I feel the compulsion to write a rant – known these days as a blog – about the problem with standards, and in particular standards relating to financial information. Usually, this is sparked by some new initiative to get competing vendors to live together peacefully so the marketplace can reap the benefits of streamlined systems communication and reduced opportunity to price gauging.
While we’ve been somewhat puzzled by Thomson Reuters’ decision to sell of its Enterprise risk management business, the half a billion dollars some have speculated its sale will raise, combined with proceeds from Thomson Reuters’ planned sale of its healthcare division – perhaps closer to $1 billion – could give the company a significant war chest with which to re-enter the risk business in a big way, should it be so inclined.
In Europe, cross-market competition makes technology upgrades critical to survival.
In the time that it takes you to read this sentence, approximately 10,000 equity orders and quotes will be sent to the main European equity venues. Approximately 75% of those messages, according to the Financial Times, will be high-frequency trades: short-term positions held for a period of milliseconds or, at most, seconds, and every one of them automatically generated and tracked by a computer program.
Hot on the heels of Colt’s protracted courtship of MarketPrizm comes yet another corporate action in our beloved low-latency infrastructure segment. This one caught us by surprise, but not because it was unexpected. It’s been expected for so long that we’d forgotten about it, to be honest.
This time last week I was in New York chairing our Data Management for Risk, Analytics and Valuations (DMRAV) conference in front of a packed audience clamouring to hear more about the Office of Financial Research (OFR) from the Fed’s own CDO John Bottega (see news of his secondment to the Treasury agency 
Filling a longstanding void at the top of its Sales & Trading business unit, Thomson Reuters has named former IBM general manager for banking and financial markets Shanker Ramamurthy as president, Sales & Trading, effective June 20. The top slot at Thomson Reuters’ largest operating unit, with revenues of $3.5 billion and 2,700 staff, had been open since the departure of Mark Redwood almost a year ago (see more 
As this edition of Risk-Technology.net was going to press, the Great and the Good of Big Data for Capital Markets were gathering themselves and their thoughts in preparation for A-Team’s Data Management for Risk, Analytics & Valuations conference in New York on May 17. It will come as no surprise that risk features prominently both in the event’s programme, and in the thoughts of our speakers, presenters and panellists who have generously offered to share their expertise in this burgeoning field. It promises to be a unique event.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the period from 2009 through 2010 saw liquidity risk rise from relative obscurity to a position of prominence on regulatory agendas worldwide. One year on, liquidity risk management remains high on the agenda for institutions across the global financial services industry.
The last thing I expected to hear during a panel on low latency technology deployment at this week’s Business & Technology of Low-Latency Trading (catchily dubbed BTLLT by fellow A-Teamers) conference in London was speakers talking about reference data quality. But that’s what happened. Everywhere I go people are talking about data quality.
The idea that Google would be interested in – and is indeed seeking to – acquire Thomson Reuters Markets first came to my attention at the London Stock Exchange, oddly enough. I was there for a function, and after a panel discussion about the future of the exchange marketplace, I got chatting with a gentleman from hedge fund Marshall Wace, who suggested Google could solve our market’s connectivity and hosting issues at the drop of a hat; it just needed a catalyst to show it how the world works.
As preparations for our Data Management for Risk, Analytics & Valuations event in New York on May 17 gain momentum, so too does the market’s interest in risk, analytics and valuations and the enterprise infrastructure that’s increasingly demanded to manage them.
The industry continues to awaken to the IT challenges posed by the new risk management requirement, whatever that is. As Risk-Technology.net finds its feet in the brave new world of systems integration for risk, others are contributing to the debate.
A-Team Insight Events combine A-Team's expertise in financial markets IT with thought leadership from world-class technology innovators and practical experience from financial market practitioners. In 2011, a quality constituency will once again gather for these focused events in London and New York City.
This afternoon I conducted my first ever twitterview (a twitter interview conducted via my handle @virginieateam) with Marcus Cree, director of risk solutions for SunGard’s capital markets and investment banking business (@MarcusCreeRisk), and Michael Versace, director of global risk at analyst firm IDC-Financial Insights (@versace57). Amusingly, given the format, the topic of conversation was the challenges facing the risk function beyond technology: governance, profile raising and general cultural changes. It included lessons that could equally be adapted to the data management function, as well as risk.
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As a long-time former employee of Thomson Reuters (over 14 years), I took little pleasure in seeing the changes announced last month. It has been a difficult period following the acquisition of Reuters by the Thomson Corporation and it has not been made any easier by upheaval in the world’s financial markets and economies.
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