“Electronic trading has moved from an efficiency to a competitive advantage – resulting in equity volume tripling in the last year,” Stuart Breslow, CEO Townsend Analytics told delegates at the closing session of SIFMA in New York yesterday. Exploding equity volumes coupled with demands to access dark pool liquidity and multi-asset trading practices is forcing ongoing management of trading infrastructures.

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Increased volatility and automation are straining system capacity from a market data and transaction processing perspective. So says a panel featuring Michael H. Boston, Principal, Trade Support Group Operations Manager Securties, Bank of America, Jacob Granek, Managing Directory, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and Thomas J. Jordan, President & CEO, Jordan & Jordan at SIFMA yesterday.

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Continuing advances in all aspects of information technology, including virtualization, web 2.0 social/business communities and highly scalable server grids are driving the emergence of powerful IT infrastructures that will increase the numbers of consumer and business services by several orders of magnitude, revealed Jeffrey M. Birnbaum, Managing Director, Chief Technology Architect and Global Head of Architecture and Engineering, Merrill Lynch and Dr. Tom Bradicich, IBM Fellow and VP Systems Technology, IBM Corporation at the SIFMA workshop “Emerging Computing Infrastructures – Supply Side and Demand Side Perspectives” Wednesday afternoon.

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New options in symbology is set to increase trading opportunities and is likely to increase quote traffic by between 50 and 100 per cent, with transactions likely follow suit consistent with current trade-to-quote profiles, suggested a panel of experts at SIFMA today.

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Financial Services is the leading spender in the $650 million software security industry, with fin tech firms using security as a business differentiator, Gary McGraw told delegate this morning.

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Despite recent billion dollar write-downs and thousands of personnel reductions, technology spending is the one area that is going to be largely unaffected by cost-cutting, according to a recent survey. The survey was conducted by IBM (booth # 2213), in conjunction with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), to better understand attitudes toward both recent business and IT challenges in the industry and the priorities for future IT spending, given current market conditions.

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Restoring confidence to worried financial markets will require more than just the infusion of new capital such as that sought earlier this week by Lehman Brothers, Don Tapscott, influential business strategist and co-author of the best-selling business book Wikinomics, told delegates at SIFMA in New York this morning. While new money and updated regulations are necessary, said Tapscott, they are not sufficient to restore timely trust to the marketplace. Time heals all wounds, but in a competitive world, to restore confidence in the marketplace the US will quickly need to establish unprecedented levels of transparency amongst marketplace buyers and sellers.

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The NYSE Euronext’s (booths # 1436, 1438 and 1764) Head of US Markets and Trading Technology, Larry Leibowitz, told delegates at SIFMA yesterday that technology is driving change and the newly created “NYSE Euronext has the chance to make a difference by rolling out technology”. “We’ve reinvented the NYSE legacy model to reinvent the trading model,” he said.

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The industry must make a coordinated effort to tackle areas of serious risk in the market such as the controls surrounding the ratings agencies, explained SIFMA CEO Tim Ryan during today’s opening general session. Investors are reliant on these agencies and every financial institution has a responsibility to help reform them.

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IBM (booth # 2213) believes that growth in quantity of financial data now follows trajectory and will continue to rise. “Moore’s law is tipping over,” Steve Mills, SVP and Executive, IBM Software Group told the opening session of the conference.

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Steve Mills is Senior Vice President and Group Executive of IBM’s software business, which numbers $20 billion in revenues and 50,000 in employees. Over recent years, acquisition has been a key component of the growth of the software portfolio. Most recently, Infodyne was acquired to add low latency capabilities. We found out some more about the breadth and depth of IBM’s software offerings, and how they can be leveraged to kick start growth in the financial markets.

Steve will be presenting as part of the opening keynote session on Tuesday afternoon, from 2pm.

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Larry Leibowitz is leading NYSE Euronext’s new mission to offer standardised access to markets globally, while lowering the cost to clients of the technology infrastructures required to participate in today’s increasingly fast and electronic execution venues. That mission will be unveiled at this year’s SIFMA conference and show.

Naturally, A-Team has the inside scoop with an exclusive interview. Visit A-Team’s booth # 2101 to pick up the latest A-Team Insight Quarterly, or subscribe here to read all about the NYSE’s plans, as well as other news analysis and thought leadership from A-Team’s experts.

Larry will be presenting as part of the opening keynote session on Tuesday afternoon, from 2pm.

Liquidnet Founder and CEO Seth Merrin is a serial entrepreneur who requires little introduction to those in the securities industry. So we decided to dig a bit deeper and find out more about his thoughts on low latency, raising capital and social responsibility.

Seth will be presenting the opening keynote on Tuesday afternoon, from 2pm.

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Julio Gomez has a diverse history in the financial and technology markets, as a trader, as the founder of an e-Commerce website ranking service and as an IT analyst. Named as one of Time Magazine’s “Digital 50,” his latest venture, Gomez Markets, was launched in the spring.

Julio will be presenting a workshop on Wednesday afternoon, at 1.45pm and 3pm.

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Larry Tabb is the founder and CEO of TABB Group, the financial markets’ research and strategic advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets. Founded in 2003 and based on the interview-based research methodology of “first-person knowledge” he developed, TABB Group analyzes and quantifies the investing value chain from the fiduciary, investment manager, broker, exchange and custodian, helping senior business leaders gain a truer understanding of financial markets issues. Larry has published industry research analyzing ECNs; fixed income, equity and foreign exchange trading systems; back-office trade processing systems; broker workstations; analytical trading tools; infrastructure development tools; and foreign and emerging market technologies.

Larry will be presenting a workshop on Wednesday morning, at 9.45am and 11am.

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The Chairman of the nGenera Innovation Network, Don Tapscott is an internationally sought authority, consultant and speaker on business strategy and organizational transformation. He served as founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera, co-wrote 2007’s highly praised Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, and currently works as an Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Toronto’s Joseph L. Rotman School of Management.

Don will be presenting the general session on Wednesday morning, from 8am to 9.30am in the Trianon Ballroom. We caught up with him to get some background and his thoughts on recent market developments.

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