Waters Wavelength

This week on the podcast, Wei-Shen talks with Victor Alexiev, director and head of programs and strategic partnerships for Citi Ventures APAC. They talk about some of the challenges and opportunities within banks and how D10X—Citi Venture’s internal entrepreneurship program, which looks at moonshot projects—tackles them. 3:30 – Victor joins the podcast and gives an overview of Citi Ventures and its three pillars—investment, exploration, and learning. 10:30 – Then he delves into some of the projects D10X has worked on recently. 13:00 – Most of the solutions don’t necessitate using emerging technologies. 15:00 – Defining the problem comes first. 20:00 – Challenges and themes Citi Ventures and D10X are looking at. In Asia, Citi is interested in the lifecycle of tokenized securities. 28:30 – Victor explains how the team at D10X is expandable. 32:00 – The team is looking at advanced data analytics, ML, and NLP to mine external content for signals.

After a couple late postponements, Wei-Shen and Tony just spend the show having a conversation about Tony’s new pool cue and other nonsense (start of podcast), some conversation about the current M&A market (5:00), and then they get into politics (18:30). Enter at your own risk. (Editor’s note: This was recorded last week, but I—Tony—am lazy and took forever getting this posted…back soon this week with a guest.)

On February 3, 2020, it was publically announced that Bill Murphy—Blackstone’s CTO for almost a decade—would be leaving the firm at the end of March. Bill rejoins the Wavelength podcast—for a record fifth time—to discuss some of the lessons he learned while working at the private equity giant, and the next phase of his career. (2:00-47:00) At the backend of the podcast, Wei-Shen and Tony discuss Refinitiv’s plans going forward after the launch of Workspace (47:30-end). https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7692821/of-refinitiv-and-old-rivalries 3:30 Bill discusses his decision to join Cresting Wave. 7:15 For those who have fared well during the pandemic, what went right? 10:30 What are the dangers of making knee-jerk tech decisions to answer Covid-related needs? 13:30 When it comes to the buy v. build debate, are banks more wary of taking the lead on moonshot projects? 19:00 Do banks and asset managers risk falling behind if they hand too much off in the innovation space? 21:00 What interests Bil

This week on the podcast, Wei-Shen talks with Hans Brown, head of enterprise innovation and chief information officer for corporate technology at BNY Mellon. The two delve into the topic of innovation and what that word means today compared to pre-coronavirus. Before that, Tony highlights two big stories posted on WatersTechnology.com from the past: Refinitiv’s new Workspace platform and what this rollout means for Eikon and Thomson One, and a deep-dive into Bloomberg’s Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI). The interview begins at the 5:00 min mark. https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7689651/refinitiv-begins-move-away-from-eikon-thomson-one-with-debut-of-workspace https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7690251/bloombergs-figi-a-case-of-red-light-green-light

Once again, Wei-Shen and Tony are poaching a panel from the inaugural WatersTechnology Innovation Exchange. This week, the conversation centers around data: lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic; why banks are increasingly embracing the cloud; a look at whether or not disaster recovery will change after Covid; and our panelists wrap it up by looking into their crystal balls and predict one major trend that will develop in 2021. Skip to the 5:00 mark if you don't want to hear about Tony's birthday weekend and just want intelligent conversation about data. Michael Ruttledge, chief information officer and head of technology services, Citizens Bank David Wright, chief data officer for North America, Commerzbank Andrew Foster, chief data officer for the Americas, Deutsche Bank

This week, Wei-Shen and Tony step aside and turn the podcast over to a panel of AI experts. Last week, executives from Bank of America, Prudential, FactSet, and University College London were on a panel at the inaugural WatersTechnology Innovation Exchange. They talked about a range of topics pertaining to AI and machine learning, including issues around explainability, where banks struggle to implement AI, and the buy-v-build debate. https://events.waterstechnology.com/innovation-exchange Laura Hamilton, global head of treasury technology, Bank of America Michael Natusch, global head of AI, Prudential Emine Yilmaz, department of computer science, University College London (UCL) Ruggero Scorcioni, principal machine learning engineer for cognitive computing, FactSet

This week on the podcast, Clare Flynn Levy, founder and CEO at Essentia Analytics, joins to talk about her shift from the buy side to going “native”. Before that, Wei-Shen and Anthony talk about the WatersTechnology Innovation Exchange, which starts on September 9. To register for the three-week virtual event, use this link: https://events.waterstechnology.com/innovation-exchange/book-now * Clare joins the podcast and explains the reason for starting Essentia Analytics and what it means to “go native”. (5:30) * Using analytics to trust your gut, or let you know if your gut is wrong. (15:00) * How can understanding behavioral biases help push active managers forward? (16:30) * Clare discusses how AI biases play into the fund management process. (32:00) * For those on the buy side not using behavioral analytics, what’s holding them back? (38:00)

Since it’s the end of August, Tony and Shen—mainly Tony—ramble incoherently about Covid tests and influencers. Come September, we’ll be back with guests and (hopefully) informative conversations about fintech. This one is more about laughs and fun.

This week’s podcast is something of a preview for next month’s WatersTechnology Innovation Exchange. Tony, Wei-Shen, Max Bowie, and Joanna Wright got together for a Microsoft Teams video call to help promote the event, but the conversation was good (and long) so we decided to put the full thing up on the podcast. Max kicks things off talking about how banks might look to turn their office spaces into something of a WeWork for fintechs (8:30). Joanna has been writing a lot about ESG of late, both from a regulatory perspective, as well as looking at actual use cases, so she delves into how ESG is being used in today’s markets (14:00). Wei-Shen looks at innovation in the APAC region and how Asia may be ahead of North America and Europe when it comes to tools that allow employees to work remotely (19:00). Finally, Tony asks some follow-up questions of the three editors (26:00-55:00). To register for the Innovation Exchange, which will be held over the course of three weeks—September 9-22—click here: https://eve

This week, Wei-Shen and Tony talk about a recent story published on WatersTechnology (link below) where tech execs from UBS, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, and Nomura discuss where they're directing their IT budgets (2:00). The gist is that so-called innovative moonshot projects are being put on the backburner...Tony and Shen take a contrarian view. Also, what happens if banks cut back on their metropolitan office footprints (15:30)? To wrap things up, Tony and Shen discuss what their own personal moonshoots are (20:00). https://www.waterstechnology.com/management-strategy/7666226/moonshots-shelved-banks-spend-on-home-working-tech https://www.waterstechnology.com/management-strategy/7552636/space-exploration-how-will-banks-handle-unwanted-costly-real-estate-post-covid

This week, Wei-Shen and Tony share their thoughts on new alternative datasets relating to the pandemic, and how investment firms are taking advantage of it. 2:00 – Tony talks about how he’s putting together the August issue of the WatersTechnology magazine, focused on our coronavirus coverage. 4:00 – They discuss Jo Gallagher’s story on vaccine tracking data as an alt dataset, and how it can signal potential “winners” to investment professionals. (https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7660636/vaccine-tracking-data-the-next-big-alt-dataset) 8:30 – Advancements in NLP and sentiment analysis has helped give these new datasets a leg up. 10:00 – Tony talks about geolocation data is used to monitor foot traffic in and out of hospitals. (https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7534286/geolocation-data-spotlights-covid-recovery) 13:00 – Then, they discuss the privacy issues associated with geolocation data, and how many don’t realize the personal data they’re giving away. 19:30 – They wonder

This week on the podcast, Simon Maughan, Liquidnet’s head of trading alpha, joins (3:00-35:30) to discuss the current landscape in the agency-broking space and the buy side’s need for strong analytics in today’s trading environment. Then Wei-Shen and Tony jump back on (35:30) to discuss a documentary that they both watched, and somehow they try to connect it to the world of AML/KYC. (Note: There's a bit of an awkward cut as Wei-Shen and Tony went longer than anticipated talking about a documentary, so we tacked that on at the end.) 3:00 Simon joins the podcast. 7:00 He first talks about the state of agency trading and cost-of-trade issues. 10:30 How have the needs of the buy side changed? 19:00 Over the past few years we’ve seen agency brokers use block trades to drum up business, employ nifty algos to attract clients, while incorporating transaction-cost analysis and other data points as value-adds. Is there a point where the road runs out on what an agency broker can offer? 23:00 He then explains the

This one is more of a therapy session for Wei-Shen and Tony. No tech on this one, folks. On the show, Wei-Shen vents her frustration over Hong Kong’s third wave of coronavirus-related lockdowns (0:00-8:30). Tony vents his frustration over how the United States is handling the pandemic (8:30-12:00). Tony proceeds to ramble about the need for human contact…where he’s going this, no one really knows (12:00-15:00). Next they both talk about the need for empathy, and what that means…and Tony rambles some more (15:00-35:30). To finish things on a much lighter note, they seamlessly transition to a vastly more important topic: the TV show “Search: WWW” (39:00). (Editor’s Note: Stay for the last five seconds to hear Tony admit that he was rambling too much.)

This week Nikolai Larbalestier, head of cloud strategy at Nasdaq, joins Tony on the podcast. They discuss cloud adoption, Nasdaq’s cloud data service, and the impact coronavirus has had on attitudes towards the cloud. 3:00 – Tony talks about his new weekly free-to-read roundup article published on Sundays. (https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/7654121/the-race-to-the-cloud-and-more-on-name-changes-reg-reporting-covid-data) 6:00 – Nikolai joins Tony on the podcast. They talk Nasdaq’s multi-cloud strategy and running workloads in the cloud vs. on-premise. 13:30 – Nasdaq’s cloud data service is taking its core, real-time data to the cloud. Nikolai explains the latency profile of streaming data in the cloud. 23:00 – Not all exchange technology is ready to go to the cloud. Nikolai talks about the technologies that will likely migrate in the next few years. 26:30 – How far can Nasdaq go with the cloud, and how can it prepare for the future state? 33:30 – Nikolai talks about the expansion of da

This week Gabriele Columbro, founder and executive director of Finos, joins the podcast. He and Wei-Shen discuss how the capital markets’ perception and attitudes towards open source have changed. Then they talk about the foundation’s expansion plans with a particular focus on APAC. 4:00 – Gab touches on the opportunities in the financial services industry for open source technology. 9:00 – Open source technology has shifted in recent years as adoption continues to increase. 14:00 – It’s much easier to be a good open source citizen as an individual. Corporations often come with strings attached. 19:00 – They discuss whether there is a difference between how the buy-side and sell-side use open source. 25:00 – Gab talks through how Finos is encouraging more buy-side members to join. 44:00 – They wrap up discussing projects Finos is working on, and the foundation’s expansion plans into APAC.

This week, Pete Cherecwich, president of asset servicing at Northern Trust, joins the podcast to talk about how outsourcing has bled into the front-office, as well as how perception towards outsourcing has changed. The last time he joined the podcast, Pete spoke about the challenge firms face offering convenience while ensuring those services are secure. https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4250291/wavelength-podcast-episode-160-peter-cherecwich-of-northern-trust 4:00 – Tony and Wei-Shen briefly discuss the interview with Pete. 9:30 – Pete joins the podcast and explains how firms see value in outsourcing technology. 14:00 – There can be positive and negative ripple effects from outsourcing non-core functions. 17:30 – Pete says outsourced trading uptake is driven by firms looking to strike a balance between costs and alpha generation. 20:30 – Covid-19 has changed the way people trade, and the concept of a physical trading floor. 29:00 – Pete talks about Northern Trust’s expansion pla

This week Sanjna Parasrampuria, head of Refinitiv Labs in Asia, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast to talk about unstructured data and the new SentiMine product. 1:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony talk about Josephine's breaking story on Deutsche Börse exiting its regulatory reporting businesses. https://www.waterstechnology.com/regulation/7564716/deutsche-boerse-to-exit-regulatory-reporting-business 6:00 – Sanjna joins Wei-Shen on the podcast and they discuss the work from home environment Sanjna has experienced at Refinitiv in Singapore. 10:00 – Unstructured data can be confusing. Sanjna explains that unstructured data could be categorized as anything that doesn’t fit into a generic excel spreadsheet. 20:00 – Then, Sanjna talks about being in a position to understand positive and negative sentiment behind unstructured data at Refinitiv. She also discusses the financial strain of a data lake. 24:30 – What are the challenges that unstructured data solution providers face when trying to service clients? 30:00

To mark the 200th episode of the podcast, Wei-Shen and Tony bring back Dan DeFrancesco and James Rundle. Together they reminisce on the beginnings of the Waters Wavelength podcast, and how they tried not to screw things up too badly. Then, they discuss how technology in the capital markets has evolved over the years, from the ‘Flash Boys’ era to the emergence of fintechs, blockchain, and cloud technology. They wrap up by talking about TV series and movies they’ve watched in the past few months. Here’s to the next 200 episodes!

This week Marshall Saffer, vice president and head of Americas sales at Hazeltree, joins Tony on the podcast to talk about software development issues that have arisen since the start of coronavirus and controversies around Microsoft Excel. 2:30 – Wei-Shen and Tony discuss his recent article on the Stevens Institute of Technology, which is creating an artificial exchange aimed initially at the HFT crowd. https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/7556791/stevens-institute-capco-lay-out-commercialization-efforts-for-new-artificial-exchange 9:30 – Marshall talks about his role at Hazeltree, which includes building out the sales organization around treasury management for buy-side firms. He then discusses some of the challenges of working remotely. 18:00 – Looking at software development from a sales perspective, Marshall says that Covid-19 has been the reason many projects were put on hold or delayed. 22:30 – Then, they discuss working with Excel, both on a personal and company-wide level. Despi

Jennifer Peve, managing director of business innovation at the DTCC, joins to discuss two new projects the company is working on in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) space, and how the Trade Information Warehouse (TIW) replacement is coming along. 3:30 – Jennifer joins the podcast, and gives an overview of her role at DTCC. 6:00 – Next, she explains how the Project Ion and Project Whitney case studies came about. https://www.waterstechnology.com/operations/7549201/dtcc-future-of-settlement-revamp-depends-on-industry-appetite 11:00 – Does the industry have an appetite for a full-fledged DLT revamp to optimize the settlement process in the public markets? What happens if the appetite isn’t there? 16:30 – What is the education component here? 18:00 – What are the next steps that will take place for Project Ion? 21:30 – Jennifer talks about Project Whitney being a whitespace opportunity for the DTCC and how tokenization plays a key role in digitizing the private market asset lifecycle. 25:30 – Sh