(Tal Cohen, President, Market Platforms at Nasdaq, will be interviewed at the Security Traders Assocation’s annual Market Structure Conference in Washington, D.C., at 8:30 AM on Thursday Oct. 12.)
I am delighted to participate in the Securities Traders Association’s (STA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., where I will speak with Justin Schack of Rosenblatt Securities about the state of the capital markets ecosystem.
As an operator of 18 markets across North America, the Nordics and the Baltics, as well as a technology provider to more than 130 marketplaces globally, Nasdaq sits at the center of capital markets, technology and regulation. We have a unique vantage point that informs our views on the evolution of markets.
Many of the themes I will discuss with Justin anchor around our efforts to advance the modernization of markets, which is central to our ambitions and long-term strategy to strengthen the global financial ecosystem for all constituents, including our global community of more than 3,000 financial institutional clients across buy-side, sell-side, banks, market infrastructure providers and regulators.
Ahead of the conference, I would like to share my thoughts on the topic of market modernization.
Building More Resilient and Accessible Markets
Nasdaq has been on a journey to the cloud for over a decade. We recognize the value of the cloud in significantly enhancing the availability, scalability and flexibility of traditional capital market infrastructure. Early on, we purposefully and systematically moved non-critical workloads to the cloud as a precursor to advancing our position as a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider to the global capital markets and beyond.
In 2022, we announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build the next generation of cloud-enabled capital markets infrastructure and have since successfully migrated one of our U.S. options markets, MRX, to the cloud. We plan to migrate our second U.S. options market, GEMX, in the coming weeks. These migrations represent the first steps on a continued journey that should deliver long-term benefits to our clients and the industry.
Our ambitions to modernize the financial system go beyond our markets. By sharing lessons and proof points on how the hybrid infrastructure we have adopted enhances our agility and drives operational efficiencies, other market infrastructure providers are able to leverage our experience and expertise to transform their markets and better serve clients.
Delivering Innovation with Proper Governance and Oversight
As an organization, we take a thoughtful and long-term approach when we look to adopt and integrate any emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to ensure that we can scale our capabilities, tools and systems with proper governance, security and oversight.
Over the past decade, we intentionally invested capital and resources to improve the quality of our data and embrace the cloud so that we could unlock the power of AI. At the same time, we put in place processes and committees to meet the responsibility and care that must come with this space. Currently, we employ AI to cultivate the quality of our markets – fairness, resilience and performance – in a transparent and prudent manner for all market participants.
Just last month, we received SEC approval to launch Dynamic Midpoint Extended Life Order (M-ELO), the first exchange AI-powered order type designed to deliver optimal outcomes to market participants by intelligently adapting to real-time market conditions and improving overall execution quality and fill rates. Additionally, we are using AI to improve operational efficiency of our regulatory functions and to enhance our anti-financial crime capabilities.
Policy Advocacy and Regulatory Complexities
Operating exchanges across geographies and asset classes means that we get to work with global industry participants and regulators to ensure our markets continue to be the foundational engine of innovation, economic growth and prosperity. We have long played an active role in policy discussions around capital markets and will continue to lead efforts to enhance the most robust and vibrant markets in the world.
We are pleased to have had a strong voice anchored in our desire to drive responsible innovation in a year categorized by many regulatory developments on both sides of the Atlantic. We believe that data-driven and incremental enhancements with robust input from both the industry and the public is instrumental to positive market reform.
The financial services industry continues to evolve in a landscape riddled with increasing complexity – in macro dynamics, regulations and accelerated technology innovation. We remained focused on supporting our clients to better manage and navigate these changes, and together, we hope to drive long-term, sustainable growth and resilience of the financial ecosystem.
On behalf of the entire Nasdaq delegation headed to this week’s STA conference, we look forward to seeing you in D.C. Please visit our event website to learn more: https://www.nasdaq.com/2023-sta-panels
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