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Wednesday, March 19, 2025
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Outlook 2025: Lisa B. Saacks, Trillium Surveyor

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Lisa B. Saacks is President, Trillium Surveyor.

Lisa B. Saacks

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024? 

The key theme for our business in 2024 was navigating the complexities of evolving market conditions to ensure traders operated in a fair, transparent, and efficient environment. 

The expansion of overnight trading presented unique challenges, particularly around managing risks associated with low liquidity and potential market disruptions. For traders, this underscored the importance of maintaining dynamic and adaptable surveillance thresholds to keep pace with the rapidly shifting market landscape. 

Another critical focus was addressing the risks posed by low-price, low-volume securities, which drew heightened regulatory scrutiny due to their vulnerability to manipulative schemes like pump-and-dump tactics. With a notable increase in enforcement actions against firms failing to monitor trading in these securities, the need for robust, proactive trade surveillance became a top priority for ensuring compliance and maintaining market integrity. 

More broadly, the regulatory environment has evolved across asset classes, and we received more questions than ever on how our trade surveillance and reporting solutions can elevate the capabilities of internal compliance teams. With comprehensive detection filters, full depth-of-book market data, and new self-service features, the Surveyor platform offers a robust set of tools for effective risk mitigation. In addition to ensuring their compliance, these capabilities enabled our clients to adopt new asset classes and strategies with minimal disruption to existing compliance workflows. 

What was the highlight of 2024? 

The SEC’s adoption of amendments to Rule 605 of Regulation NMS in March was an important regulatory action this year. This update was aimed at enhancing transparency in order execution for NMS stocks, effective as of June 14, 2024, and with a compliance deadline of December 14, 2025. 

The amendments brought significant updates, including the expansion of reporting requirements to include broker-dealers managing 100,000 or more customer accounts. This broadens the scope of entities responsible for disclosing execution quality. Additionally, the definition of “covered orders” was revised to encompass orders submitted outside regular trading hours, those with stop prices, and non-exempt short sale orders, ensuring more comprehensive reporting. 

The amendments also introduced order categorization based on notional dollar value and order type — fractional shares, odd lots, or round lots — enhancing the accuracy of order size representation. Moreover, new execution quality metrics, such as average effective over quoted spread and size improvement statistics, were introduced to provide deeper insights into execution quality. 

Finally, the new requirement for firms to provide publicly accessible summary reports on execution quality is another move toward greater transparency, empowering investors to make informed comparisons.  

What are your expectations for 2025? 

We anticipate that heading into 2025, the crypto market is poised to be a high-volume, high-volatility environment. To enable traders to operate effectively in this dynamic space, robust trade surveillance is essential. We’ve recently partnered with Kaiko, which provides high-quality crypto market data. Additionally, the expansion of our coverage in Europe reflects our dedication to providing comprehensive tools that address the unique needs of both traders and investors.  

Similarly, we’ve observed a growing regulatory focus on non-equity asset classes, particularly fixed income, prompting us to prioritize enhancements to our surveillance capabilities in these markets. Other areas of focus include expanding our best execution offerings and providing targeted support for RIAs and buyside firms—two groups that are navigating heightened regulatory scrutiny and an increasingly complex trading environment.  

Within the wider regulatory landscape, we foresee changes poised to deeply influence market participants, with a particular emphasis on enhancing oversight and addressing the challenges of dynamic and evolving work environments. Additionally, FINRA’s proposed fee increases for broker-dealers, scheduled to phase in over five years starting in 2025 through 2029. While most changes will take effect in 2026, the initiative underscores FINRA’s commitment to enhancing its regulatory and oversight capabilities by securing additional financial resources.  

Outlook 2025: Bianca Gould, BNY

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Bianca Gould is Head of Fixed Income & Equities EMEA at BNY.

Bianca Gould

What was the highlight of 2024?

BNY launched its EU trading desk in Dublin in October to support the execution of trades for EU-based clients across global fixed income and equity markets. This was a direct response to growing demand from our EU-based clients for integrated execution services and broadens our client reach as a result. Our focus remains on enhancing our global execution offering, and this was a critical step for us as we push forward to execute on our international strategy and scale outside of the US.

What are your customer’s pain points and how have they changed from 1 year ago?

Continued consolidation within the industry has increased clients’ focus on operational efficiencies in the last year. Clients are looking to reduce the overall number of partnerships they need to maintain. Our multi-asset execution offering, with an execution-to-custody proposition and middle office support, is well-positioned to solve for many of our clients’ pain points across the trade lifecycle by utilising our trade execution solutions.

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

Aligning our capabilities with client requirements has been a key priority throughout the year. This has required innovation, automation and scale. By launching our EU trading desk in Dublin, we responded to EU-based client demand and have better aligned the global multi-asset trade execution offering with our partners across BNY. Our Execution Services Platform allows us to offer trading solutions from the traditional end of the scale within Global Markets Trading, right through to full outsourcing via our separate Buy-Side Trading Solutions group.

Outlook 2025: Matt Barrett, Adaptive

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Matt Barrett is CEO and co-founder at Adaptive.

Matt Barrett

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

2024 was a pivotal year for trading technology. Over the past decade, we have seen major breakthroughs and innovations paving the way for new capabilities across asset classes, benefiting participants throughout the capital markets ecosystem. Despite this progress, the past 12 months have marked a distinct gear shift as advances in cloud technology, adoption of open source and sophisticated tech accelerators have converged – offering firms of all shapes and sizes new ways enhancing their technology stacks.

As a result, proprietary trading technology has become increasingly accessible. Historically, only the larger financial services firms with big budgets would build bespoke technology. For others, the primary route was via vendor technology – sometimes bolting disparate systems and functionalities over time. Over the past year, this choice has become less clear-cut.

The convergence of resilient, low-latency cloud-based technologies has meant that technology stacks can be quickly built and deployed. Formerly lengthy and disruptive build time is no more –. As a result, we have seen an increasing number of sophisticated firms of all sizes exploring custom solutions to address their trading challenges, differentiate and innovate at pace.

As the concept of firms building their own technology normalises, we can expect this trend to continue into 2025.

What are your expectations for 2025?

2025 could be the year when technological innovation across asset classes takes off. As proprietary technology becomes an increasingly viable option, a growing number of firms are taking innovation into their own hands.

Vendors have played an important role in helping firms to keep pace technologically. However, now that an increasing number of firms are able to build state-of-the-art systems tailored specifically to their and their client needs, the pace of innovation is no longer dictated by third parties. Trading systems do not have to cater for the majority, meaning that firms can start to think outside the box about how to differentiate and how to best serve their clients.

As a result, we can expect to see an increasing number of financial services firms streamlining their technology stacks and doing away with tangled and disparate systems in a drive for greater operational efficiencies. We can also expect increasing interest in multi-asset systems that simplify workflows, improve decision making and enhance user experience.

2025 will be about laying the foundations for future technology adoption. Across the buy and sell-side, from the front to the back-office, firms will be eyeing up the competition and thinking seriously about whether their current technology stack is right; exploring how to harness AI, 24/7 trading,new or emerging asset classes, particularly in the context of soaring digital assets, firms of all shapes and sizes will be looking at the work required in the next 12 months that will enable them to thrive in the long-term.

What are your customer’s pain points and how have they changed from 1 year ago?

A huge amount has happened in 2024. From persistent inflation humming in the background, to debate over rate cuts to the August sell-off and highly consequential elections, it has been a year characterised by uncertainty.

At the start of the year, the focus for many was on navigating a complex trading environment. As the year has progressed, the clouds have slowly lifted and the outlook for 2025 appears much clearer. This not only means planning their technology expansion but looking at how to streamline operational efficiencies in order to reduce costs and better deploy resources.

We have also seen an increasing focus on resiliency. High-profile outages and thethreat of cyber-attacks have focussed the minds of the firms responsible for trading billions of dollars in assets on a daily basis. Mitigating against potential threats – whether business interruption or worse – has become a growing priority.

A combination of these factors has increased the onus on the quality and capacity of firms’ technology to address operational pain points. While planning a trading technology strategy is a challenge, the potential for transformation, greater technological choice and increasing ease of implementation makes enhancing trading systems more of an opportunity than a pain point.

Crypto is Poised to Improve Regulated Markets, Not Disrupt Them

By
Prometheum
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By Aaron Kaplan, co-CEO, Prometheum Inc.

The crypto industry has surged in the wake of post-election optimism, fueled by expectations of a crypto-friendly administration. Nearly all prices are up—led by Bitcoin’s crescendo to $100,000—buoyed by the expectation of easing regulatory burdens and an administration that seems to favor crypto. This feels like the long-awaited moment when crypto finally upends traditional finance. 

However, the reality is far more nuanced. 

Over the past several years, the crypto ecosystem has become deeply intertwined with traditional finance. Financial institutions are no longer bystanders in the digital asset space; they are key players. Giant firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton have launched products that merge crypto innovations with conventional investment frameworks, adding legitimacy and scale to a once-nascent industry.

This entanglement reflects a broader trend. Rather than replacing traditional financial infrastructure, cryptographic assets are becoming an extension of it. This transformation is being driven by the integration of digital asset securities (DAS) and their underlying distributed ledger technologies (DLT) into traditional markets—a critical yet misunderstood innovation.

From Digital Asset Securities to Digital Markets

Digital asset securities–any securities issued and transferred on a blockchain–combine the regulatory oversight of conventional finance with the speed and efficiency of distributed ledger technology. The term is widely misunderstood. DAS encompasses a wide range of potential assets beyond cryptocurrencies, including equities, debt, structured products, treasuries, ETFs, mutual funds, and money market funds.

The benefits of issuing securities on a blockchain are significant: faster settlement, fewer trade fails, more transparency, and efficient product issuance and distribution. For example, firms like BlackRock have experimented with tokenized money market funds that allow 24/7 asset transfers, real-time dividend accrual, and on-chain distributions.

Financial institutions and market participants recognize the benefits of DAS and are looking to introduce these products into regulated markets. To accommodate this, securities market infrastructure will need to transition from its current ‘electronic’ state to a digital one based on DLT and cryptographic representation of assets. This unlocks greater efficiencies, which enables product issuers to innovate new products.

A similar transition occurred in the 1980s when markets moved from paper based asset representation to electronic, creating the foundation for faster trading and the introduction of new ways to access investments, such as ETFs, that took advantage of the new electronic markets infrastructural efficiencies to offer investors better products.

Shifting from electronic to digital offers the same opportunities, of which we see glimpses of in DeFi markets. 

Integrating DeFi’s Innovations into Regulated Markets

When traditional markets are able to incorporate digital asset securities, the innovations developed and refined in the roughly $20 billion decentralized finance (DeFi) market can be applied to the larger financial markets. Instead of disrupting the financial ecosystem, the real opportunity lies in applying these innovations within the $255 trillion global securities market (global equities and fixed income markets as of 2023).

Examples of this are already underway. The aforementioned tokenized money market fund from BlackRock, BUIDL, is effectively a yield-bearing stablecoin – a product born out of DeFi with immense potential. Tokenized stocks, too, are attracting interest as DLNews reported in November that investment in tokenized stocks – led by shares of Coinbase, BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ET, and Nvidia – moved up 35% to an all-time high of $10 million allocated.

While that figure is small, the trend should not be ignored; investors will gravitate towards more efficient products. Consider an index fund or ETF issued on a blockchain that is able to be offered for 50 basis points less than its traditional counterpart. For Wall Street, it’s easier to bring innovation to traditional markets—where customers are already active—than to force traditional finance participants to navigate the complexities of DeFi.

Regulation BI and the Digital Market Flywheel

Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) is poised to be a powerful catalyst in this transformation. Reg BI requires broker-dealers to recommend products that serve their clients’ best interests. If two products are identical in structure and exposure—one issued electronically and the other as a digital asset security— and the DAS version has lower costs and greater efficiency, the DAS version should be the default choice.

This creates a flywheel effect. As more digital asset securities enter the market, their cost advantages will drive adoption among advisors and institutions, further incentivizing issuers to adopt blockchain technology. The result is a self-generating cycle that accelerates the transition to digital markets.

The Crypto Boom’s Legacy

As the crypto industry may benefit in the next several years under a friendlier business environment, the most impactful innovations will occur within traditional financial markets. Major sell side institutions are looking to issue existing products digitally in order to take advantage of the cost savings and operational efficiencies of cryptographic tokens. Cryptographic-based, commercially driven efforts by major institutions will drive the integration of digital asset securities into regulated frameworks. This process is  quietly transforming market infrastructure–not through disruption, but by making the movement of assets in the bowels of Wall Street faster and more efficient.

Major institutions recognize that digitizing securities markets is simply better business, offering new efficiencies, operational advantages, and above all profit. While the focus is on the price of bitcoin, the legacy of a crypto-friendly administration will be on the modernization of traditional finance– the next chapter of global markets. 

Aaron Kaplan is the co-CEO of Prometheum Inc. Its affiliates Prometheum ATS and Prometheum Capital offer an end-to-end, blockchain-enabled ecosystem for the trading (Prometheum ATS) and clearance, settlement, and custody of digital asset securities (Prometheum Capital).

Outlook 2025: Andrew Waters, TradingHub

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Andrew Waters is Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, TradingHub.

Andrew Waters

What surprised you in 2024?

While 2024 didn’t bring any major surprises, it was a year where market manipulation and fraud continued to be prominent concerns for the industry. This was underscored by two headline-grabbing events: JP Morgan’s $450 million in fines for data governance failures and the conviction of Archegos’s Bill Hwang. These cases highlighted the increasingly aggressive stance U.S. regulatory and enforcement agencies are taking to address market manipulation and abuse.

In addition, both the SEC and FINRA were notably active in introducing new rules designed to combat market abuse. These regulatory efforts are set to gain more traction into next year. One of the most significant developments was the SEC’s new rule targeting short sale activity in equity markets. The rule aims to curb high-risk behavior and manipulative practices, enhance transparency and efficiency in the securities lending market, and equip the SEC to better analyze unusual market events. Agencies also backed up their tough talk on trade surveillance recordkeeping and reporting, as evidenced by the series of penalties laid onto Goldman Sachs related to oversight to prevent market manipulation.

What are your expectations for 2025?

Looking ahead to 2025, I expect we’ll see a continuation of regulatory agencies emphasizing trade manipulation and fraud as supervision focus areas. However, financial and compliance executives remain uncertain about how regulatory priorities might evolve under the new administration taking office on January 20. Over the past several years, the U.S. has demonstrated a clear commitment to pursuing cases of manipulation and fraud. For instance, during Trump’s first term, the CFTC notably focused on spoofing and other emerging manipulation activities, issuing over $400 million in enforcement actions during fiscal year 2018. Similarly, the SEC set records for enforcement fines related to spoofing between 2018 and 2019.

That said, the ultimate direction of oversight priorities will depend on the personnel and policies established by the incoming administration, which will shape trends in the years ahead.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

One key trend we’re watching closely at TradingHub is the growing emphasis on data governance. The JP Morgan case brought this issue into sharp focus, as the enforcement action revealed the firm’s failure to oversee billions of client orders due to missing data

from 30 trading venues—a massive failure in data configuration and ingestion. This case has sparked a significant re-evaluation across the investment community regarding the state of their data management capabilities. Consequently, we’re seeing a surge in data transformation initiatives, which we expect to reverberate throughout the sector for at least the next 18 to 24 months.

Another key trend we’re monitoring is the surge in nefarious activity in asset classes like commodities. Investment bank professionals are coming to grips with a significantly more diverse and advanced commodities manipulation environment. As the temptation to squeeze prices for large futures contracts ahead of agreements surges, the OTC commodities market will only continue to grow riper for manipulation, not less so. And this is coming at a time when regulators have shown they are willing to flex their muscles when it comes to enforcement.

Outlook 2025: John Bartleman, TradeStation Group

By
Anna Lyudvig
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John Bartleman is President & CEO of TradeStation Group.

John Bartleman

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

The central theme for TradeStation in 2024 was enhancing the client experience. This focus guided many of the company’s strategic initiatives, from launching a Private Brokerage experience to enhancing user engagement through events like the Crossroads Summit, held November 21-22, 2024, at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. These efforts were designed to enhance client satisfaction and provided valuable insights into what traders value most in their interactions with TradeStation Securities. Efforts to enhance the stability of legacy systems and the development of a next-generation platform, such as HUB (an enhanced portal designed to provide applicants and clients with a more streamlined experience, which replaced TradeStation Securities’ previous Client Center), further demonstrated our commitment to delivering exceptional user experiences. Additionally, we expanded our trading hours to begin at 6:00 AM ET and continued to foster growth through collaborations with third-party platforms, such as TradingView and Option Alpha, which underscored this theme of putting the client at the center of innovation.

What was the highlight of 2024 for TradeStation?

One standout achievement defined 2024 for TradeStation: the successful execution of the Crossroads Summit. Crossroads proved the viability of immersive client and third-party relationships’ engagement through curated events, blending thought leadership with networking opportunities. With the theme “Chaos Meets Innovation,” the Crossroads Summit brought together global thought leaders and forward-thinking strategists to confront challenges in today’s ever-changing geopolitical, economic, and technological landscape. The summit featured an impressive lineup of keynote speakers and panelists, including Cathie Wood (Founder and CEO of ARK Invest), Peter Zeihan (best-selling author and geopolitical strategist), Jamie Metzl (technology futurist and founder of One Shared World), and Francis Suarez (Mayor of Miami), among others.

What are your expectations for 2025?

Looking ahead, TradeStation plans to build on its 2024 successes with an even greater emphasis on enhancing the client experience and expanding its reach. Specifically, we will aim to scale our Private Brokerage events, hosting localized gatherings with several of our clients to foster deeper connections among traders and to provide a venue for them to share valuable insights.

Global expansion is another key priority as we anticipate expanding our presence in Europe. TradeStation will also continue to adapt to market trends by exploring 24-hour trading and the CME’s planned launch, in 2025, of single-stock futures, with an initial focus on “Magnificent 7’ tech names, including Amazon, Nvidia and Tesla, helping ensure traders have access to tools that align with an evolving trading environment.

What trends are getting underway that people (traders) may not know about but will be important?

Several emerging trends are poised to shape the trading landscape. The transition to 24-hour markets is gaining traction, with futures already trading nearly continuously and exchanges preparing for broader adoption. And, the CME’s planned launch of single-stock futures could provide traders with, nearly, round-the-clock access to pricing movements in popular stocks.

AI advancements will also significantly impact trading, offering predictive analytics and automation to help optimize decision-making. In addition, the derivatives market, particularly in options and futures, appears to be experiencing rapid growth as traders increasingly seek to trade these products.

In the digital asset space, we expect greater regulatory clarity may pave the way for innovation and we will be closely monitoring developments as the new administration comes in early next year. These trends reflect a dynamic trading environment, offering both challenges and opportunities for active traders.

Outlook 2025: Nick Wood, FINBOURNE

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Nick Wood is AI product manager, FINBOURNE.

Nick Wood

What are your expectations for 2025?

While AI clearly has the potential to enhance operating margins and reshape the asset management industry, serious adoption remains slow. This hold up is largely due to a lack of confidence in the incumbent data management processes, which need to be designed to support AI technologies. While AI can certainly act as a feature and capability in an overall workflow, firms must be able to explain the models and trust the quality of the underlying data to get there. With AI showing so much promise, prioritising modern data infrastructures to address data quality concerns will be a priority for many asset managers next year.

Will firms embrace AI more next year?

The interest is increasingly emerging around integrating technologies like Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Azure Open AI with existing systems to simplify interactions, manage requests most notably for client reports or specific fund information or handle responses more effectively. This indicates there is a potential shift towards more advanced applications with companies thinking about ways they can prioritise innovative solutions that enhance existing processes, rather than waiting for perfect data sources to become available.

With a robust data infrastructure in place, how important will the seamless integration of AI-led services be to the future of investment operations?

Emerging technologies like AI are becoming increasingly relevant in asset management. Machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLMs) all offer substantial opportunities to translate data into actionable insights and thus provide differentiated outcomes. While AI has the potential to enhance operating margins for a broad range of industries, business adoption remains slow. Many companies are still in the early stages of leveraging AI and are not confident that their data is ready to support AI technologies. But with the ever-evolving data landscape, some organisations are beginning to evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools, particularly for use cases like Due Diligence Questionnaires and Request for Proposals, with many participants suggesting a 60% success rate. This indicates potential but also highlights some limitations.

Outlook 2025: Martin Franchi, NinjaTrader

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Martin Franchi is CEO of NinjaTrader.

Martin Franchi

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

2024 was a transformative year for NinjaTrader, centered on innovation and expansion driven by our customers. The surge in active traders advancing to futures trading provided invaluable insights, allowing us to launch the Pulse indicator, a first-of-its-kind feature showcasing the sentiment of the NinjaTrader community. We also completely overhauled our mobile app to deliver an intuitive experience that matches the expectations set by popular investing apps. We scaled our team with over 100 new hires, including key leadership roles, bringing unparalleled expertise in FinTech to ensure we stay ahead in shaping the future of active trading. All the new leaders we have welcomed to the team recently have extensive experience delivering industry-leading technology and services across a diverse set of industries. Combined with the incredible talent already at the firm, we are well-positioned to continue growing. We are very purposeful during our recruiting process to ensure all new hires fit with our NinjaTrader culture, where we put customers first and stay focused on building the most powerful tools for today’s trader.

What are your expectations for 2025?

In 2025, we expect to see continued momentum in active retail trading, driven by enhanced engagement and education on the NinjaTrader platform. We are reimagining the trader journey by offering unlimited access to live market data for free, complemented by our award-winning support to guide traders at every step. By collaborating with the CME and other leading exchanges, we’re ensuring retail investor’s voices shape innovative products like nano-sized futures and contracts that lower the barriers to entry. Our focus is on delivering transformative tools and experiences that help traders build confidence, strategies, and long-term success in futures markets. We are hyper-focused on creating the premier futures trading experience for the ever-expanding group of investors entering the space.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

One of the most exciting trends is the growing focus on retail traders by major exchanges, a shift that was unimaginable a decade ago. This focus is driving a wave of innovation, from nano-sized futures and perpetual contracts to single-stock futures, creating more accessible and flexible trading opportunities. We’re excited to be at the forefront of this transformation, collaborating with leading exchanges and start-ups to bring these cutting-edge products to market.

What industry trends have been prominent but are now fading (or will soon fade)?

Some trends, like event contracts, have shown early promise but struggled to gain consistent adoption due to their time-sensitive nature. While they generate excitement around specific moments, they lack the daily trading momentum of benchmarks like the S&P. Something that I’ll think we’ll see a shift towards will be the web and mobile platforms reshaping the industry. We anticipate a resurgence in desktop solutions as traders advance and demand more sophisticated capabilities. We’re committed to meeting traders wherever they are on their journey, with seamless web, mobile, and desktop solutions that grow alongside them.

ON THE MOVE: ING Hires Debbie Janeczek; Tradeweb Names Enrico Bruni and Troy Dixon

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Debbie Janeczek

ING has appointed Debbie Janeczek as chief information security officer (CISO), effective January 13, 2025. Janeczek will report to Daniele Tonella, ING’s global chief technology officer and member of the Management Board Banking. She succeeds Henrik van Bruggen, who successfully acted as global CISO ad interim next to his role as global head of Tech Strategy & Enterprise Architecture. Janeczek is joining from Swift, the messaging network used for international transactions between banks, where she was the chief security officer. She has worked for industry-leading financial services, technology companies, and top government organisations, where she has built and executed security strategies and implemented security programmes.

Enrico Bruni

Enrico Bruni and Troy Dixon have been named to the newly-created roles of Co-Heads of Global Markets at Tradeweb Markets, effective January 2025. Bruni is presently Managing Director and Head of Europe and Asia business for Tradeweb, a position he has held since 2013. He joined Tradeweb in 2002 and has been instrumental in developing the company’s interest rate swaps business in Europe and Asia. With nearly 30 years of financial services industry experience, Dixon is presently Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hollis Park Partners. Dixon, who is presently a member of the Tradeweb Board, will step down from the Board effective December 31, 2024 in connection with his new role. He will join the Tradeweb Executive Committee alongside Bruni and the Company’s other senior leaders.

Mike Cowley

Broadridge Financial Solutions has appointed Mike Cowley as Head of International Investor Communications Service Delivery business, based in London. Cowley’s extensive experience working with Central Securities Depositories (CSDs), exchanges, sub custodians and global custodians uniquely position him to help refine and harmonize operational processes across markets. His previous role was Global Head of Asset Services Product Development at Citibank where he led transformative initiatives to enhance service delivery. Prior to this, he served as Global Head of Custody and Domestic Fund Services Operations at Deutsche Bank where he managed multinational teams covering a range of operational frameworks.

Versana, an industry-backed enterprise data and technology company, has hired Amrita Ganguly as Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, Julia Kingsbury as Product Strategist and Melissa Magner as Head of Legal. As new members of Versana’s leadership team, all three will work closely with Founding CEO Cynthia Sachs. Most recently, Ganguly was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley within Strategic Investments focused on opportunities in the fintech and market structure spaces. Kingsbury’s prior roles included Managing Director, Global Head of Credit Operations at Credit Suisse and CSAM, where she was instrumental in shaping the bank’s market-leading franchise over the course of three decades. Prior to this role, Magner was a Director at BlackRock leading teams that supported the US financial markets advisory, wealth tech and institutional asset management businesses. 

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has announced that its Board of Directors has elected Jeroen Krens as its new Chair, effective January 1, 2025. The move follows the decision of former Chair Eric Litvack to step down after 10 years in the role. Krens is Managing Director, COO, Markets & Securities Services at HSBC Bank. He has worked for HSBC for 10 years and has had two stints on the ISDA Board – from January 2012 to February 2014 while working at Royal Bank of Scotland and since November 2016 while at HSBC.

Jeff Conway has joined SimCorp’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Conway brings deep knowledge of digital transformation and client experience innovation. His career spans several decades in senior executive and board roles. This includes more than 30 years at State Street Corporation, where he was a long-standing member of the firm’s management committee and held positions such as Head of Global Delivery and Business Transformation, as well as CEO for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at alyudvig@marketsmedia.com

Outlook 2025: John Paul DeVito, InteliClear

By
Anna Lyudvig
-

John Paul DeVito is Director, InteliClear.

John Paul DeVito

What were the key themes for your business in 2024?

The hallmark of 2024 for InteliClear was the seamless transition to T+1 settlement, achieved without disruption thanks to our system’s unique architecture. Designed to operate independently of settlement dates, InteliClear’s platform ensured our clients experienced a smooth transition while maintaining efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, our focus on developing and launching InteliClear 2.0 was a pivotal theme InteliClear 2.0 Video Launch.mp4   This enhanced version of our platform introduced innovative features, making it even more adaptable to the evolving demands of the financial industry.

What are your expectations for 2025?

The market outlook for 2025 presents an exciting landscape for InteliClear and the broader financial ecosystem. The “risk-on” environment, coupled with favorable interest rates and record-high global markets, has created fertile ground for modern post-trade processing solutions to replace outdated legacy systems. We anticipate heightened demand for agile and robust platforms as market participants seek to optimize operations and enhance scalability. InteliClear is well-positioned to play a central role in this global transformation, providing the tools and support necessary to navigate the complexities of an increasingly dynamic market environment.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

One of the most significant yet underrecognized trends in the post-trade space is the processing of alternative assets. InteliClear has been a pioneer in this area and continues to innovate with various opportunities. We are actively integrating our post-trade processing solutions with blockchain technology to manage traditional and non-traditional assets, adhering to stringent regulatory frameworks, including FINRA, SEC, GAAP, and PCAOB rules. By leveraging blockchain, we aim to bring increased transparency, security, and efficiency to all asset classes while ensuring full compliance. This approach represents a paradigm shift in how post-trade processes are managed, particularly for alternative assets, underscoring our commitment to staying at the forefront of industry innovation.

Another critical development is the SEC’s mandate requiring the clearing of eligible secondary market transactions (ESMTs) in U.S. Treasury securities. This regulation, aimed at reducing system-wide risk and enhancing market stability, demands robust post-trade solutions. InteliClear is aligning its platform to accommodate these regulatory changes, ensuring clients can seamlessly meet compliance requirements. This mandate reflects a broader industry push toward enhanced oversight and risk reduction, making compliance-ready post-trade systems an indispensable asset for financial firms.

Lastly, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) presents transformative opportunities for our clients. Thanks to InteliClear’s non-service bureau operating model, present and future clients retain complete control over their systems. This autonomy empowers them to customize AI-driven tools and analytics to optimize operations, manage risks, and enhance decision-making. InteliClear’s approach ensures that clients, not external vendors, dictate how technology evolves to meet their specific needs.

These emerging trends—alternative assets, blockchain integration, regulatory adaptation, and AI-driven opportunities highlight the dynamic changes shaping post-trade processing. InteliClear remains committed to providing innovative, client-controlled solutions that drive efficiency and resilience in this evolving financial landscape.

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