While there has been a sharp drop in the cost of operations at securities firms since the Great Recession, it may only be the start of more streamlining to come, says Michael Alexander, president of North America wealth and capital markets solutions for Broadridge Financial Solutions.
“Since 2008, our industry has taken out over $40 billion in operational costs,” Alexander says in a video chat recorded at the FTF News awards gala in New York City on June 20.
Broadridge took top honors via the awards competition, winning Service Provider of the Year while Ops Business Person of the Year went to Charlie Marchesani, president, global technology and operations (GTO) for Broadridge Financial Solutions.
The awards gala, held at the Dream Downtown Hotel, was a celebration of the 2017 winners of the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards.
“In spite of those great [cost-cutting] achievements, it’s not enough. Firms are still under immense pressure from regulatory changes as well as ROE [return on equity] pressures. They also have less investment dollars available and less talent available to help them,” Alexander says.
As the cost and regulatory compliance pressures mount up, firms “have an increasing interest in taking advantage of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence,” Alexander says. Thus financial services firms have “an increased willingness” to look for providers to help them transform themselves to meet current and upcoming operational stresses.
CREDITS:
Video Production: Janene Knox and William J. Poznanski, Jr.
Interview conducted by: Eugene Grygo, chief content officer, FTF News
Co-Producers: Sarah Hathaway, vice president, Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) and Eugene Grygo
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