Plato Partnership, the not-for-profit member association at the forefront of driving innovation in the equities marketplace, is pleased to announce the addition of a new buy-side member: Point72.
The admission of Point72, a global asset management firm led by Steve Cohen, marks a significant milestone as the first hedge fund to join Plato Partnership as a buy-side member. Their participation underscores the growing importance of bringing together a diverse set of collaborating firms to drive equity market innovation and efficiency.
Mike Bellaro, CEO of Plato Partnership, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Point72 to Plato Partnership. Point72’s innovative approach and esteemed reputation in the investment community will bring invaluable perspectives and expertise to our collective efforts. Together, we can continue to drive meaningful improvements in the equity markets for the benefit of all participants.”
Simon Steward, Buy-Side Chair of Plato Partnership, and Head of European Equity Trading at Capital Group said: “Having Point72 on board is a testament to the collaborative spirit that Plato Partnership embodies. Their participation highlights our commitment to fostering an inclusive and forward-thinking platform where diverse viewpoints converge to shape the future of equities trading.”
Niall Hession, Head of Trading for Europe at Point72 said: “We’re proud to be the first hedge fund to join the Plato Partnership, bringing our culture of collaboration and innovation to such a critical and forward-thinking association. We look forward to contributing to the ongoing dialogue and initiatives that aim to enhance and protect market integrity and efficiency.”
Plato Partnership continues to expand its membership with leading firms and organisations dedicated to improving the equity trading landscape. The addition of Point72 reinforces the organisation’s commitment to excellence and innovation.
As we shift towards digitally driven private markets, it’s crucial to know the nuances that distinguish digitising, digitalisation, and digital transformation. Alexander Green, Co-Founder and CCO of Globacap dives into each component and shares how they can give funds a competitive edge.
The year 2024 has marked a turning point for private markets.
They have seen a 170% increase in capitalisation in the past year, and assets under management (AUM) will reach $65 trillion by 2032, growing twice as fast as public markets AUM.
As private markets gain more visibility, there is a growing interest among investors looking to secure their share of the opportunities. The key to unlocking these opportunities is digitisation but terms like “digitising,” “digitalisation,” and “digital transformation” are often and mistakenly used interchangeably. Each represents distinct stages of a company’s journey towards integrating technology into its operations.
Understanding these differences is critical for firms looking to remain competitive and future proofing their business.
Digitising: converting physical information into a digital format
At its core digitising involves converting analogue or physical information into a digital format.
While digitising primarily focuses on efficiency gains and cost reduction, it lays the groundwork for more advanced digital strategies.
When talking about digitising, also known as the foundation, it’s important to recognise the key considerations:
Efficiency enhancement: streamlining manual processes through automation.
Cost reduction: decreasing operational costs associated with manual tasks.
Data accessibility: improved access to digitised data, enabling faster decision-making.
These are the essential advantages that digitising delivers.
Digitalisation: optimising processes
Digitalisation takes digitising data one step further by leveraging technology to optimise processes and enable data-driven decision-making. This involves the use of analytics, artificial intelligence, and data integration to gain insights and create actionable strategies.
This means harnessing data analytics to optimise investment portfolios, enhance risk assessment, and refine client engagement strategies. Key aims and achievements for this element include:
Data integration: combining data from various sources for comprehensive analysis.
Predicative analytics: utilising AI and machine learning to forecast trends.
Customer insights: enhancing client relationships through data-driven personalisation.
Digital transformation: reshaping business models
Digital transformation represents the apex of the digital evolution spectrum. It involves a holistic and strategic overhaul of an organisation’s business model, culture, and operations, driven by technology, such as the adoption of blockchain for transparent and secure transactions, or the implementation of customer-centric platforms to enhance engagement.
The key considerations for digital transformation include:
Cultural shift: fostering a digital-first mindset throughout the organisation.
Innovation: embracing emerging technologies to create new revenue streams
Agility: adapting quickly to market changes through digital capabilities
Why digital transformation should be a priority
With such vast volumes and substantial growth on the way, many asset managers are vying to capture a greater share of the market.
However, many are preoccupied with other challenges such as performance and rising costs and overlooking the critical need for digitisation which will help solve these issues and more.
There are many areas within private markets that are ripe for digital transformation. There are many manual, repetitive processes, reporting consists of a patchwork of disconnected and manual systems including Excel spreadsheets, and incompatible formats, settling a transaction can take months while distribution has a variety of pain points including investor onboarding and communications.
By leveraging automation, fund managers can streamline these tasks, reducing the reliance on manual intervention, increasing efficiency, speeding up timelines, slashing costs and, most importantly, freeing up resources to focus on alpha generation.
Asset managers that do this will be well-positioned to capture a bigger piece of the lucrative private markets pie; those that don’t will get left behind.
A path to long-term success
Private markets have now evolved beyond a hedge against inflation; they have become a strategic imperative for institutional investors and as they continue to grow, understanding the distinctions between digitising, digitalisation, and digital transformation becomes increasingly essential.
Private markets are a $25tn market, that is relatively untapped. Firms that understand and strategically implement these stages will not only level up their current processes but also position themselves to capitalise on future opportunities within the growing landscape.
As the industry continues to draw more attention and investment, it’s essential to recognise that each phase of digital evolution serves a specific purpose and offers distinct advantages.
It is the combined integration of digitalisation, digitalisation and digital transformation that truly unlocks the transformative power of technology in private markets.
TECH TUESDAY is a weekly content series covering all aspects of capital markets technology. TECH TUESDAY is produced in collaboration with Nasdaq.
Last week marked another significant advancement in the integration of digital assets into mainstream finance.
On Friday, September 20, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s filing for options on iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the first approval of its kind for options on a spot Bitcoin ETF.
“We are pleased with the SEC’s approval of IBIT options,” said Sean Feeney, Head of US Options at Nasdaq. “We believe that the ability to list and trade options on IBIT will benefit and protect investors, providing them with an additional, lower-cost risk management tool for exposure to spot bitcoin in their portfolios.”
Sean Feeney, Nasdaq
Back in January, the digital assets industry reached a milestone when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The long-awaited regulatory approval enabled U.S. investors to access bitcoin via established and transparent investment vehicles that trade on regulated exchanges.
Since then, volumes in bitcoin ETFs have soared. For example, since IBIT commenced trading on Nasdaq on January 11, the security is now the world’s largest and most liquid bitcoin ETF, with over $22B in AUM and trading over 25 million shares a day*.
SEC approval is the first step to getting IBIT options listed and trading. Nasdaq continues to work with the industry for the remaining regulatory approvals as quickly as possible.
Creating tomorrow’s markets today. Find out more about Nasdaq’s offerings to drive your business forward here.
For some capital markets firms, manual data reconciliation adds millions of dollars in expenses every year, according to Audrey Costabile, Senior Analyst for Coalition Greenwich Market Structure & Technology.
The growth of electronic trading, the creation of new products and strategies, and a surge in market volatility are all contributing to the boom in data.
“Across the industry, firms must embrace innovative data tools if they are to meet changing regulatory and operational demands while also ensuring data privacy, accuracy and efficiency,” Costabile said.
Many of the capital markets firms participating in the study are still using decades-old methods including email and FTP file transfers to share data in bulk, typically once a day at close of trading.
As a result, over 90% of study respondents at large banks and asset management firms view periodic batch reports as problematic.
The use of traditional data-sharing methods is slowing workflows, imposing huge costs, and introducing risks stemming from unwieldy data pipelines and/or stale data.
According to the findings, over half of data consumers still use Excel (64%) and FTP/SFTP (53%) for bulk trading and post-trade reports.
At large firms, 83% of respondents believe extract, transfer and load (ETL) solutions are challenging due to growing volumes of data, complicating efficiency and increasing the risk of errors.
A majority of all respondents (85%) prioritize restricting third-party vendors from accessing their data, emphasizing the importance of data privacy.
In an ideal world, the number of participants that would opt to receive trading or post-trade reports in real time versus the current once per day set up showed a 125% increase.
“As regulators apply more scrutiny to firms’ operational processes, data formats and governance, mitigating operational risk has become top-of-mind for management teams, and technology and process improvement have become critical industry-wide goals,” commented Costabile.
Technology solutions promising to alleviate these data sharing and management issues are slowly gaining traction as participants are indicating a strong preference to receive trading or post-trade reports in real time or throughout the day versus just once per day.
These are important developments as operations professionals try to get in front of exceptions management issues faster and with fewer manual touches.
The report presents the full results of a 2024 study that analyzes the data-sharing practices of capital markets firms, including “consumers” of data (buy-side firms, banks and broker-dealers that receive bulk trading or post-trade reports) and data producers (exchanges, trading venues, market data providers, fintechs, and central counterparty clearing houses) in the U.S. and the U.K.
Cboe BIDS VWAP-X, a trading service allowing participants to source and match liquidity at a forward benchmark price is due to launch in Europe before it is extended to other geographies. The service is scheduled to launch on 21 October 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.
Natan Tiefenbrun, Cboe
Natan Tiefenbrun, president, North American and European equities at Cboe Global Markets, said in a statement: “We’re excited to be bringing this first-of-its-kind service to the European equities market and help enhance execution outcomes for end investors.”
Stephen Berte, president of BIDS Trading, the independent subsidiary of Cboe Global Markets, told Markets Media: “We have listened to our participants in Europe and the challenges that they have in sourcing scheduled liquidity and think this is a really innovative way to solve a specific problem.”
Cboe maintains BIDS as an independently managed and operated trading venue and broker/dealer, separate from and not integrated with the Cboe U.S. securities exchanges.
There is an opportunity to provide solutions for non-point-in-time crosses, given that many systematic and automated strategies rely on schedule-based algorithms, according to Berte. Schedule-based algorithms are executing based on logic the broker-dealer has defined within their suite, but fund managers are still looking for natural buyers and sellers who match on common criteria. Many broker algorithms follow a volume-based trading schedule, meaning they participate in proportion to anticipated market volume, with a transaction split into many small child orders that are fed progressively into the market.
Cboe BIDS VWAP-X will cover Cboe Europe’s full range of pan-European equities from across 15 countries and Berte thinks it will be used across a wide universe of stocks.
“The subset of liquidity that is moving into more automated channels is typically easier orders in more liquid stocks that do not necessarily require human intervention,” added Berte. “However, there is also a challenge for high-touch traders who are actively looking for contra liquidity in more difficult names.”
As a result, the protocol is likely to be used for liquidity-challenged names where traders are not necessarily looking for a point-in-time cross , but want to consume liquidity in a more continuous and frequent way.
Berte said the service is first being launched in Europe due to the significant first-mover advantage in the region, and the belief that systematic trading will continue to grow in the region.
“In Europe we want to be the leading trading solutions provider for those going down that path,” he added. “The US is probably next in line and we have a lot of demand from our users and participants in Canada.”
He highlighted that there are some incumbents in the US, and so BIDS wants to offer a differentiated value proposition.
Interval VWAP benchmark
At launch, the only benchmark being provided by Cboe BIDS VWAP-X is a five-minute interval VWAP (volume weighted average price). VWAP represents the average price a security has traded at throughout a given time period, based on both volume and price. It is commonly used as a trading benchmark by investors seeking to trade participatively with volume, and who want to determine whether they bought or sold a stock at a good price.
Stephen Berte, BIDS Trading
Traders flag conditional indications of interest (IOIs) to Cboe BIDS VWAP-X, so that they can potentially be matched based on common criteria. The conditional IOIs need to be firmed up in a bilateral trade negotiation, and the interval-VWAP price is calculated by consuming a consolidated market data feed. If that pricing cycle is successfully completed, then the protocol provides the VWAP fill at the end of the interval. Trades will be reported as off-book, on-exchange executions in real-time, allowing them to be centrally cleared through Cboe Europe’s interoperable clearing model.
“We wanted to narrowly define what we were looking to achieve through an interval VWAP,” said Berte. “However, we think we can take this protocol and apply it to other types of intervals such as VWAP over the day or percentage of volume on market close.”
At launch, the protocol is a sell-side service. The exchange will create a sample set to understand how the protocol is being used, with the ultimate goal of being able to allow the buy side to directly place IOIs at a future date through a sponsored broker model.
Participants for launch
Cboe said in a statement on 2 September that early adopters of Cboe BIDS VWAP-X include Bernstein, BNP Paribas, BMO Capital Markets, Instinet Europe, Jefferies, KCx and Virtu Financial.
Berte said there are numerous others also working towards go-live readiness. He added: “This is a huge testament to the creativity and the innovation of this service and certainly exceeded our initial expectations.”
Salvador Rodriguez, EMEA head of global execution services, at Instinet Europe Limited, said in a statement that benchmark crossing is an encouraging innovation in EMEA that should improve the ability for algos to find high quality counterpart liquidity.
Salvador Rodriguez, Instinet
“The approach and implementation should allow for agency algos to trade versus multiple benchmarks at a fair price with a good balance of simplicity, as well as allowing more complex control features based on differing client interaction requirements,” Rodriquez added.
Eric Stockland, co-head of global electronic trading at BMO Capital Markets, told Markets Media that trajectory crossing exists in the US on a couple of different platforms. He said: “We hear a lot from clients on how much they like them.”
Stockland said that in the US trajectory crosses are a small but “really important part” of the equities market for clients who want to achieve an average price, which they consider to be fair, by agreeing to trade at a market price at a forward point in time.
He used the analogy of buying an apartment in a building with 80 floors and 10 apartments on a floor. The buyer and seller may agree to use the average price of the next 10 sales, as they both consider this to be fair.
“We really like these mechanisms and clients really like these mechanisms,” said Stockland. “There is nothing like it in Europe so Cboe is bringing something that is really going to benefit the industry, so it is a great innovation.”
Stockland highlighted that other venues that provide trajectory crosses in the US, including PureStream and OneChronos, also have ambitions to launch in Europe.
“It is great to see this cross pollination of US market structure coming to Europe and vice versa because we are all global,” said Stockland. “The firms are global, the operators are global, the clients are global and we are realizing that import and export work.”
Eric Stockland, BMO
He expects new growth in this type of product as there is more adoption across the sell side. BMO Capital Markets is going to update its algorithms to include the new service and gather data and analysis, and make sure that the empirical case aligns with client needs.
“We trust but verify, and clients will be really keen to see early data coming out of this,” Stockland added.
If it becomes cheaper for systematic firms to implement trades, they may trade more which Stockland described as a “win win,” and could help increase trading volumes in Europe.
“The venue is going to get some marginal business, the brokerage community and clients are going to get improved performance, and hopefully we are all just trading more and happier with the outcomes,” said Stockland.
Love this from @dgt10011 on bitcoin ETF options. In particular, the section about bitcoin's volatility smile and "negative vanna" is really important. The "banana zone" just got even more slippery. https://t.co/MrZY9cCGX0
The approval of options on Blackrock's Bitcoin ETF will bring more institutional adoption of the asset, which will lower volatility & limit explosive upside of bitcoin.
Bitcoin will be a great asset going forward.
Just don't expect the same returns as in past years.
Josh Schiffrin will become Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Financial Risk for Global Banking & Markets – Public, Goldman Sachs, in addition to his existing responsibilities. In his current role as Global Head of Trading Strategy, Schiffrin has been focused on deepening client engagement and enhancing risk management capabilities. Previously, he was global co-head of Interest Rate Products Trading and co-head of US Interest Rate Products and also supervised the Global Short Term Macro and Global Repo Businesses. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 as an analyst, and was named managing director in 2009 and partner in 2012.
Bharat Masrani
TD Bank Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Masrani, has announced his intention to retire on April 10, 2025, after 38 years at the Bank and more than a decade as CEO. Masrani will continue to serve as an advisor to the Bank until October 31, 2025. Raymond Chun, Group Head, Canadian Personal Banking will be appointed to the Board of Directors and become Chief Operating Officer, TD Bank Group, reporting to Masrani, effective November 1, 2024, with responsibility for all of TD’s lines of business. The Board also announced its intention that Chun will become Group President and Chief Executive Officer, TD Bank Group, on April 10, 2025, at the Bank’s next Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
Julie Andress
Julie Andress, Managing Director, KeyBanc Capital Markets, has been appointed to serve as the 2025 Board Chair for the Security Traders Association (STA). Andress has served on the STA board for six years. Previously, she served as the STA Board Vice Chair and Women in Finance Co-Chair. Andress has more than a decade of institutional equities sales and trading experience at KeyBanc Capital Markets. During her career, Andress has leveraged KBCM’s best-in-class equity research with real-time inputs to deliver tailored solutions and performance driven execution for her clients.
Igor Zelenberg has been appointed to XTX Markets, an algorithmic trading firm, focusing on building out the firm’s ETF efforts. Zelenberg is based in New York. He has over 16 years of dedicated experience in ETF trading, most recently at Goldman Sachs. He also held similar roles at Getco/KCG, HRT, and XR Trading.
Duco has named Lyuba Brouillard as Chief People Officer to lead the company’s Human Resources organization. She has over two decades of experience in leading global teams across the US, EMEA, and APAC. Prior to Duco, she held the position of Chief People Officer at Broadway Technology, which was later acquired by Bloomberg LP. Brouillard has also served as Chief People Officer at TradingScreen and Ullink, and has held senior leadership roles at the New York Stock Exchange and AIG.
Crystal Intelligence, a provider of digital asset compliance and risk management has appointed Dominic Schaffer as Vice President of Growth for the U.S. and Nick Steegmans as Vice President of Training and Investigations for North America. Schaffer brings over 20 years of experience in B2B sales, focusing on web3/crypto, financial services, fintech, and technology services. Before joining Crystal Intelligence, Dominic held senior roles at companies including Provenir, Yodlee, Salesforce, and IBM. Steegmans, with over five years of experience in crypto forensics, is a leading expert in the field. He has contributed to numerous civil and criminal investigations, working with global agencies to support their work.
If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at alyudvig@marketsmedia.com
By Alastair Watson, Managing Director, EMEA, TNS Financial Markets
Alastair Watson
As we near the end of the year, the long-standing debate of what to handle in-house and what to outsource will reemerge. In the financial services industry, and specifically for banks, many functions like IT and staffing can be outsourced. But a key area worth considering is trading infrastructure. What was once a proprietary advantage for banks to build on their own now offers little competitive advantage and can often be more expensive to maintain. With the rise of cloud technologies and advancements in risk management services, has the time now come not to build, but to buy – or partner with – a proven Managed Service Provider (MSP) for banking infrastructure?
Why Banks Traditionally Built Their Own Infrastructure
First, let’s take a step back – why do banks rely on their own infrastructure? Historically, banks built their own trading infrastructure to maintain full control over the technology stack, enabling high-performance optimization and customization to suit their needs. Proprietary systems were seen as a competitive advantage, allowing banks to offer differentiated services. However, as the industry has evolved, it’s become increasingly difficult for banks to provide once-unique solutions without the assistance of an MSP. A decade ago, few third-party providers could offer the advanced solutions banks needed, but today that is no longer the case.
Challenges of Managing In-House Infrastructure
Managing in-house infrastructure has arguably become more challenging, especially post-pandemic as costs have surged. Whether it’s staying competitive in terms of performance or hiring competitive talent to manage your infrastructure, maintaining in-house infrastructure is increasingly expensive. Additionally, the upkeep of static or aging systems can restrict the scalability and speed required for efficient trading operations, making it difficult to meet tight delivery deadlines – something no bank can afford.
The situation is further complicated when multiple asset classes – such as equities, derivatives, and FX – share the same infrastructure. Conflicting requirements can lead to prioritization issues, resulting in inefficiencies and suboptimal performance as the infrastructure struggles to balance the diverse needs of each asset class while aiming to achieve overall operational goals.
Key Factors Driving the Shift to MSPs
It’s more than timelines and speed that are driving the shift to MSPs. There’s a variety of factors from margin compression to cloud migration and expertise that are propelling this trend forward.
First, margin compression. As banking profits narrow due to commission compression, cost-efficiency is critical. High infrastructure maintenance costs are also hard to justify, prompting banks to explore outsourcing models.
Second, many banking activities have already migrated to the cloud, making on-premise infrastructure maintenance less appealing. MSPs offer scalability, performance, and reliability in a cloud environment, backed by a track record of efficiency gained from working with multiple parties over extended periods.
Third, MSPs like TNS offer deep industry knowledge and specialized technical capabilities. Moreover, they deliver this expertise at scale.
The Benefits and Future of Partnering with MSPs
As banking evolves, the advantages of partnering with MSPs are becoming more apparent. MSPs like TNS already have infrastructure in key locations like New York and Chicago, helping to enable faster implementation times. Setting up in a new colocation site can take weeks with an MSP, rather than several months.
MSPs can mutualize infrastructure costs across multiple clients, while also protecting each bank’s proprietary data. Providers like TNS can offer risk management and security frameworks, implementing robust measures that ensure data protection and regulatory compliance.
What’s Next for MSPs and Banks?
As the industry evolves, MSPs will continue to play a key role in shaping the future of banking infrastructure. The institutional trading community should consider evaluating the areas where MSPs can offer enhanced solutions.
Cloud Hybrid Models: As banks increasingly adopt hybrid models that blend on-premise and cloud services, MSPs can be valuable in bridging these environments. Their hybrid models provide scalable, virtualized solutions to meet evolving demands.
Buy by Proxy: The expertise required to manage trading infrastructure will continue to shift to MSPs, further solidifying their role in the banking ecosystem. Banks may adopt a “buy by proxy” approach, where MSPs are trusted to manage most of their infrastructure leaving banks to focus on strategic oversight.
More Than a Provider: As MSPs demonstrate higher levels of expertise, they are evolving from providers to true partners and consultants for financial market clients. Over time, the “P” in MSP will shift from “provider” to “partner.”
The advances MSPs have made in security, speed, and scalability are clear, and any remaining trepidation is gradually fading. By partnering with a trusted provider like TNS, banks can access cost-effective, scalable, and secure infrastructure solutions that allow them to focus on what they do best – trading.
Alastair Watson, TNS Financial Markets, Managing Director, has over 20 years’ experience delivering technology solutions for Equities global markets. He brings banking sector insight, having worked for UBS, where he was latterly responsible for building market leading execution technology and growing the UBS quantitative client base in EMEA.
FILE PHOTO: A Canadian dollar coin, commonly known as the "Loonie", is pictured in this illustration picture taken in Toronto, January 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo
The securities regulatory authorities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) have provided an update on their work related to the recent rule changes announced by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
These rule changes follow the SEC consultations launched on December 14, 2022, on four proposals to change certain fundamental elements of U.S. market structure (SEC Proposed Amendments).
On September 18, 2024, the SEC announced its final rules with respect to two elements of the SEC Proposed Amendments, specifically (i) minimum pricing increments applicable to all trading and quoting of National Market System (NMS) stocks equal to or greater than USD $1.00 per share, and (ii) reduced access fee caps for NMS stocks (together, SEC Final Rules). At the same meeting, the SEC approved rules regarding transparency of certain odd-lot orders. The SEC Final Rules will come into force on November 3, 2025.
Following the announcement of the SEC Proposed Amendments, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and CIRO commenced a process to consider their impact on the Canadian equity market structure, and in October 2023, proactively sought feedback from stakeholders in joint CSA/CIRO Staff Notice 23-331. Twelve comment letters were received; a summary of comments is available.
With respect to the SEC Final Rules, commenters were generally of the view that, given the interconnectedness of U.S. and Canadian equity markets, Canadian trading increments for inter-listed securities, contained in CIRO’s Universal Market Integrity Rules (UMIR), should be harmonized with the finalized SEC minimum pricing increments. Commenters also supported harmonizing Canadian equity trading fee caps, contained in National Instrument 23-101 Trading Rules, with those finalized by the SEC.
The participating securities regulatory authorities and CIRO are currently finalizing work on their respective rule amendments and will publish them for comment. This is to ensure trading in Canadian inter-listed securities remains competitive, in light of the adoption of the SEC Final Rules.
With respect to the SEC Final Rules regarding transparency of certain odd-lot orders, commenters expressed little support for a similar change in Canada as such information is already sufficiently available. Accordingly, the CSA and CIRO are not considering changes to transparency rules at this time.
The British Columbia Securities Commission did not participate in this media advisory due to publication restrictions related to the upcoming B.C. provincial election.
The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, co-ordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.
CIRO is the pan-Canadian self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces.
Bloomberg Launches Virtual Data Room to Seamlessly Evaluate Its Extensive Catalog of Data for Faster Decision Making
New Virtual Data Room environment reduces the time it takes to discover, acquire and action Bloomberg’s Data License Content for enterprise-wide use
Hosted in the cloud via Python Jupyter Notebooks that come pre-populated and can be customized for robust analysis
Significantly cuts down on the time and resources it takes to evaluate data for a variety of investment research and operational workflows
New York, NY September 17, 2024 – Bloomberg today announced the launch of its new Virtual Data Room (VDR) environment where customers can immediately interact with Bloomberg’s extensive Bulk Data License datasets before they subscribe. Hosted in Python Jupyter Notebooks, a popular coding environment for data scientists, Bloomberg’s VDR makes it faster than ever to investigate the coverage, quality, and usability of Bloomberg datasets.
Traditionally, the process of evaluating data can take upwards of 90 days with more than half of the time spent on administrative tasks. Once access to the data is granted, customers have to spend significant time reading documentation, loading data, and then preparing the data for analysis to write Python code for executing common data testing tasks.
Bloomberg’s VDR cuts out all of these steps by providing a secure cloud-based environment where the data is preloaded with editable Jupyter notebooks so users can immediately review Bloomberg’s bulk datasets schema, linking abilities, coverage by country, currency, sector and more. In addition to common Python libraries, clients can edit the Jupyter notebooks to answer specific questions about their unique requirements, such as corporate actions, calculations and more.
“The Virtual Data Room is akin to test driving a new car before you buy it,” said Brian Doherty, Global Head of Data License at Bloomberg. “Firms are being inundated with more and larger volumes of data and they need a way to assess this data deluge. Bloomberg’s Virtual Data Room provides an opportunity for developers, analysts, quants, and data scientists to investigate the quality and usability of Bloomberg’s data so they can make data buying decisions faster and with more confidence.”
Bloomberg’s VDR is readily available where customers go to access their Data License content at data.bloomberg.com or by entering Data <GO> on the Bloomberg Terminal. With just a login to Bloomberg’s intuitive online data catalog, customers can begin testing Bloomberg’s bulk dataset spanning company data, sustainability data, pricing, reference data, and more. Bloomberg’s VDR is continuously expanding to include more bulk datasets available for testing to meet a variety of evolving use cases. To learn more, click here.
About Bloomberg Enterprise Data
Bloomberg’s Enterprise Data business transforms the way customers extract value from data by providing comprehensive coverage and high data quality. Enterprise Data produces pricing, reference and regulatory datasets, real-time market, event and news data, liquidity analytics along with data management and distribution technologies.
About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.
Digitizing, Digitalization and Digital Transformation in Private Markets
As we shift towards digitally driven private markets, it’s crucial to know the nuances that distinguish digitising, digitalisation, and digital transformation. Alexander Green, Co-Founder and CCO of Globacap dives into each component and shares how they can give funds a competitive edge.
The year 2024 has marked a turning point for private markets.
They have seen a 170% increase in capitalisation in the past year, and assets under management (AUM) will reach $65 trillion by 2032, growing twice as fast as public markets AUM.
As private markets gain more visibility, there is a growing interest among investors looking to secure their share of the opportunities. The key to unlocking these opportunities is digitisation but terms like “digitising,” “digitalisation,” and “digital transformation” are often and mistakenly used interchangeably. Each represents distinct stages of a company’s journey towards integrating technology into its operations.
Understanding these differences is critical for firms looking to remain competitive and future proofing their business.
Digitising: converting physical information into a digital format
At its core digitising involves converting analogue or physical information into a digital format.
While digitising primarily focuses on efficiency gains and cost reduction, it lays the groundwork for more advanced digital strategies.
When talking about digitising, also known as the foundation, it’s important to recognise the key considerations:
These are the essential advantages that digitising delivers.
Digitalisation: optimising processes
Digitalisation takes digitising data one step further by leveraging technology to optimise processes and enable data-driven decision-making. This involves the use of analytics, artificial intelligence, and data integration to gain insights and create actionable strategies.
This means harnessing data analytics to optimise investment portfolios, enhance risk assessment, and refine client engagement strategies. Key aims and achievements for this element include:
Digital transformation: reshaping business models
Digital transformation represents the apex of the digital evolution spectrum. It involves a holistic and strategic overhaul of an organisation’s business model, culture, and operations, driven by technology, such as the adoption of blockchain for transparent and secure transactions, or the implementation of customer-centric platforms to enhance engagement.
The key considerations for digital transformation include:
Why digital transformation should be a priority
With such vast volumes and substantial growth on the way, many asset managers are vying to capture a greater share of the market.
However, many are preoccupied with other challenges such as performance and rising costs and overlooking the critical need for digitisation which will help solve these issues and more.
There are many areas within private markets that are ripe for digital transformation. There are many manual, repetitive processes, reporting consists of a patchwork of disconnected and manual systems including Excel spreadsheets, and incompatible formats, settling a transaction can take months while distribution has a variety of pain points including investor onboarding and communications.
By leveraging automation, fund managers can streamline these tasks, reducing the reliance on manual intervention, increasing efficiency, speeding up timelines, slashing costs and, most importantly, freeing up resources to focus on alpha generation.
Asset managers that do this will be well-positioned to capture a bigger piece of the lucrative private markets pie; those that don’t will get left behind.
A path to long-term success
Private markets have now evolved beyond a hedge against inflation; they have become a strategic imperative for institutional investors and as they continue to grow, understanding the distinctions between digitising, digitalisation, and digital transformation becomes increasingly essential.
Private markets are a $25tn market, that is relatively untapped. Firms that understand and strategically implement these stages will not only level up their current processes but also position themselves to capitalise on future opportunities within the growing landscape.
As the industry continues to draw more attention and investment, it’s essential to recognise that each phase of digital evolution serves a specific purpose and offers distinct advantages.
It is the combined integration of digitalisation, digitalisation and digital transformation that truly unlocks the transformative power of technology in private markets.