Category Archives: Banking and finance

Last night, we attended the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Trading & Technology, 2011 – a celebration of all that is good in the trading and technology sectors. The evening provided a welcome respite from all of the gloomy market news, reminding us that we should celebrate those who have worked tirelessly to overcome our current challenges through innovation and responsive IT infrastructures.

The awards mark the achievements of those firms and individuals working across the spectrum of trading and technology in the European financial markets, from stock exchanges and MTFs, to software vendors and in-house IT teams. Financial News’ editorial team selected the shortlist for the awards and a panel of senior industry practitioners chose the winners. It was great to see so many of Greentarget’s clients picking-up awards.  Winners included:

– Best Clearing House:  EuroCCP

– Most Influential Woman in Trading and Technology: Diana Chan, EuroCCP

– Most Innovative Trading Firm: Citadel Execution Services

– Best Foreign Exchange Trading Platform: FXall

– Financial News Top 40 under 40: 

   - Clare Fraser, Omgeo

   - Alan McGroarty, Citadel Execution Services 

   - James Godwin, PLUS Markets Group

Our congratulations go to them and all of last night’s winners

So Sibos is over for another year.  There were many recurring themes discussed such as consolidation, public policy and access to market infrastructures.  T2S was a topic of hot debate, particularly when the ECB announced further delays to its implementation.  Diana Chan, CEO, EuroCCP gave a new slant on T2S which is that we should not be focused on cost savings as a result of the regulation, but that the interesting theme is what new services CSDs will create as a result of the regulation.  Marianne Brown, President & CEO, Omgeo drove home the message that the relevance of trade affirmation is at an all time high.  Confirming the economic details of a trade is in fact paramount to mitigating counterparty, operational and credit risk.

And on to matters of a slightly more frivolous nature, the most popular giveaways on the Sibos exhibition floor were the soft toy horses being given away by Wells Fargo and the Russian dolls from the National Settlement Depository.  Note to self for next year, don’t leave gift surfing to the penultimate day, you will likely leave empty handed.  

A big thank you to all of my peers, clients and friends with whom I spent  time with at Sibos, having interesting and stimulating debates about market structure issues during daylight and night time hours. 

Next week I’ll delve down into some of the themes I found most interesting at Sibos 2011.

M.R.