While there has been a lot of hype over disruptive technologies and trends, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) could have the biggest impacts upon securities operations, according to a survey of asset managers, conducted by vendor Eagle Investment Systems and the Hegarty Group, a market research firm. The report’s authors acknowledge that while… Read More >>
Ops Staffs to Heed the Call of Disruption in 2017
(The word “disruption” has been noted by pundits as one of the most over-used in 2016. However, the term still accurately describes the changes underway in securities operations — and across financial services — that shook multiple groups, disciplines and conventional wisdom. To appease linguists and help operations staffs, FTF News in this final installment… Read More >>
Cobalt DL Wants to Take Ops Out of the Dark Ages
Financial technology vendor Cobalt DL has kick started the beta testing on its distributed ledger network, which it hopes will streamline post-trade processes and create a singular database for foreign-exchange (FX) transactions. Spearheaded by former Citi and Deutsche Bank executive Andy Coyne, the platform, which is backed by eight of the world’s largest players in… Read More >>
Barclays Pushes to Keep its Blockchain/DLT Edge
Although there have been a host of reports questioning the viability of blockchain, banks are still forging ahead, reviewing different ways to deploy cutting-edge, systems that exploit distributed ledger technology (DLT), if the recent Smart Contract Templates Summit is anything to go by. Barclays, for example, is striking partnerships with start-ups and testing its own… Read More >>
Wall Street to Spend $1B on Blockchain/DLT Projects
Securities trading firms and financial technology vendors are likely to spend $1 billion or more exploring blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT), underscoring how important they think the DLT push has become. “Financial service firms and technology providers around the world will spend more than $1 billion in 2016 in the race to bring blockchain to capital… Read More >>
Nasdaq Launches ‘Watershed’ Blockchain Framework
The Nasdaq Stock Market reports the launch of its Nasdaq financial framework (NFF), a new software solution that bundles “business functionality across the trade lifecycle” — and that includes a blockchain. The NFF is immediately available to its more than 100 market operator clients who maintain and run the infrastructure of the world’s capital markets,… Read More >>
SWIFT Urges a Cautious Embrace of DLT
The financial messaging and systems cooperative SWIFT is urging a cautious embrace of the much-hyped blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) while acknowledging that it is engaged in many R&D and proof-of-concept projects. SWIFT is laying out its response to the DLT phenomenon via a position paper written with global professional services provider Accenture, and via the… Read More >>
Blockchain for Clearing and Settlement to Be Gradual: Report
The emergence of blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) could led to “a new global clearing and settlement infrastructure” for domains that are “currently poorly served by existing infrastructure or facing poor value for money,” according to a new report from GBST, a securities transaction and fund administration software vendor. However, it’s likely to be a gradual… Read More >>
Blockchain’s Great Promise Faces Great Hurdles
The distributed ledger, or blockchain, as today’s hot financial services technology is also known, may lead to an Internet of Value. But first, important issues have to be resolved. So says Lael Brainard, one of the Federal Reserve’s seven governors. In a recent speech entitled “The Use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Payment, Clearing, and… Read More >>
More Global Banks Test or Explore Blockchain
The bandwagon for blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) is getting crowded as four major global banks have just completed a battery of tests in which the cutting-edge technology played a key role in credit default swap (CDS) processing. At the same time, key players in Japan led by Nomura Research Institute (NRI) officials are… Read More >>
