Performance measurement vendor BISAM’s just announced acquisition of risk analytics specialist FinAnalytica is a response to growing demands among buy-side firms for a unified performance and risk approach, and industry observers are in agreement that the two disciplines are on a parallel and perhaps intersecting path. BISAM officials are not disclosing the financial arrangements for… Read More >>
Firms Battle Black Mondays and ‘Monstrous Spikes’
Caution was the mantra for most securities firms as global markets are still roiling in reaction to China’s economic woes and the sudden devaluation of its currency. As for the impact on post-trade operations, the crashing and soaring volumes are straining firms that rely too heavily on staff and manual systems for processing, especially as… Read More >>
Barclays Cuts 150 Staff from the Investment Banking Unit
Barclays is cutting approximately 150 employees from its investment bank, according to multiple media reports, the latest move in a broader push by big banks to wind down trading desks after profits have shrunk in the post-crisis landscape. While the layoffs are likely to be contained to the front office for now, industry observers say… Read More >>
Will Ops Cuts Follow Front Office Layoffs?
Traders on Goldman Sachs’ fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) desk are likely to be the latest victims of the post-financial crisis reality of a steep downturn in FICC trading profits, according to recent media reports. That reality has coincided with similar cuts at many of the world’s largest banks in recent years, and will… Read More >>
Getting Hired for Ops Gains New Respect
Things have changed in the back office. The operations staff no longer takes an automatic back seat to Wall Street’s big, bad money-making wolves on the trading desk. Not that it’s turned into models ’n’ bottles in operations. But not so long ago, those in operations were widely regarded as the Rodney Dangerfields of the… Read More >>
Q&A: Sindel Urges Stronger Ties to the Front Office
Philip Sindel is the executive director of Olmstead Associates, a Boston-based consulting firm that specializes in pre-trade, trade and post-trade operations and systems initiatives. Olmstead offers management consulting, project management, subject-matter experts and industry training. Sindel, who has more than three decades of experience in management and IT, and Ron Olmstead, president and CEO of… Read More >>
