Every summer, the best of the best in the trading industry gather in New York to talk technology. This year, the Securities Industry Association's annual Technology Management Conference will take place from Wednesday, June 19, through Friday, June 21, in New York City. The theme is "The New Reality," and attendees will hear securities industry experts and technology providers address topical issues in financial services and technology.
Just a few years ago, Y2K and the dot-com boom drove the industry's technology innovations/adaptations. Today, the industry is faced with budget constraints and a new set of business priorities that dictate its technology needs greatly impacted by a cooler economy and the events of September 11. These new priorities now "drive" the industry's technology changes and resources.
The New Priorities
Among the new priorities is establishing business continuity plans (BCP) for potential business disruptions. Firms must establish back-up plans, which requires a reallocation of money and time. In fact, the National Association of Securities Dealers recently issued for comment a proposal that would require firms to have BCP plans in place.
Meanwhile, the "playing field" is rapidly changing. Gone are the days when investors bought securities through an auction or through dealer markets. Not only are there new players, but the traditional lines that demarcate exchanges and electronic communications networks have blurred. And there are other factors that affect technology and financial services, too such as decimalization, new regulations and the industry-wide initiative of straight-through processing and T+1. As a result of all this, technology providers are confronting new, even unforeseen, changes in the industry's technology needs. Providers will need to adapt, evolve and provide technology solutions to these problems as well as future ones. This new challenge faces us all and reflects the "new reality."
Risk Management
Due in part to events over the past year, both political and economic, risk management technologies have increasingly come under the microscope. The market has been inundated with firms that are offering new systems and new technologies geared precisely to protect trading firms from the predicaments that can be brought on by unforeseen circumstances. "Anything to do with continuity planning/disaster recovery will be of great interest," says Art Trager, SIA vice president and managing director of Technology and Operations and staff adviser for the Technology Management Conference. "Security will be big, too (such as monitoring networks, intrusion detection, etc.). People are looking for ways to be more efficient and to save money, so the vendors are trying hard on all fronts to do that and help their customers do that."
Creating operating redundancies and secure contingency plans that can be seamlessly adopted in the event of a tragedy are crucial to many firms going forward. Firms that offer these kinds of technological solutions will be well represented at this year's SIA Conference.
The ECN Landscape
Meanwhile ECNs are still searching for new ways to gain access to the listed market. The Brut ECN, for example, recently joined the Nasdaq Intermarket Trading System (ITS) to gain access to listed equities. The ITS is a marketplace that Nasdaq created in the summer of 2000 to allow ECNs and market makers to electronically trade listed stocks. While the Brut ECN, along with Archipelago and MarketXT, has elected to utilize this trading platform, other major ECNs have chosen not to, citing inequities in the ITS, such as the "trade-through rule," which some ECNs claim can negatively affect the speed of transactions due to mandatory routing rules. Having already shown their strength in the Nasdaq market, providing customers with access to the listed market will remain an ongoing goal of many ECNs. The SIA Conference will provide these firms with the opportunity to divulge their strategies for continued growth going forward.
The Wireless Boom
In years past, wireless gadgetry has always been a popular draw at the SIA Conference. This year will be no different as many wireless providers are lined up and primed and ready to show what separates their wares from others in the wireless field. One new area that is beginning to develop more fully is the application of voice and speech technology to PDAs and other mobile devices. The industry is closer to adopting a speech-enabling standard language that will allow for devices to become "multimodal" and able to function in multiple formats, i.e. speech, stylus or keypad. In addition to initiatives like those based around speech, the wireless industry continues to try to bring more computing and processing power to increasingly smaller devices. As wireless technology has grown, traders have become more mobile and more connected, and this trend will continue to develop going forward.
Speaking Up
The SIA's annual conference will examine these and many other issues over the three-day conference. Guest speakers represent various divisions within finance and technology.
*Irving Weiser, chairman and CEO, RBC Dain Rauscher Corp., will
address industry consolidation. His company's recent merger may
serve as a good example for what to expect in a merger,
including when melding different sets of technologies.
*John A. McKinley, Jr., executive vice president and head of Global
Technology and Services, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., will examine how
the industry must face new technology needs with limited budgets.
Other featured speakers include:
*Marc E. Lackritz, president, Securities Industry Association
*Paul Otellini, president and COO, Intel Corporation
*Nicholas Negroponte, director, M.I.T. Media Lab
*Richard G. Ketchum, president, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.
Developed by the association's Technology Management Committee. TMC is designed for individuals within securities firms who have management responsibility for technology-based support activities, such as communications, market data, trading-room support, data processing, Web and Internet technology and information systems. The three general sessions, 20 workshops, luncheon and exhibit are aimed at helping attendees become more effective. Vendors of related industry-specific products and services will showcase their wares in a three-floor exhibit hall, which is the largest of its kind ever assembled. Last year, more than 9,000 individuals visited the hall.
The SIA expects more than 500 representatives from member-firms this year, as well as 200 more from non-members. "The exhibit has grown every year in both the number of exhibiting companies and the number of people who attend," boasts Trager. "Even though the exhibit hall is limited in space, we always seem to find a way to squeeze in another booth or two or three each year. I think our show is well known in all areas of the industry (by the brokerage firms, exchanges, banks, etc.), among the vendors (they don't want to miss the SIA show because it's a great place to do business), and others.
Covering All Bases
Panels will be held throughout the conference, comprised of key industry executives and others. Topics covered will include:
*T+1
*Business continuity planning
*Instant messaging technologies
*Hand-held support and remote access
*Securing firms' network infrastructures
*Market data session
*Customer relationship management
*Intrusion detection
*Risk management
*Distance learning
*SuperMontage, the alternate display rule and market data feeds.
Current exhibitor information is posted to the SIA Web site at: www.sia.com/conf_vendors/vendorSearchTMC02.html, and will continue to be updated. Vendors' contact information as well as the conference schedule can be found there.
