Artificial Intelligence

The market dislocation in mid-March saw all assets correlate in a major sell-off, prompting major knock-on effects for securities financing and collateral management. We take a look at what the…

Alternative data getting tested in extreme corona economy

April 15, 2020

alternative data, coronavirus, Cuemacro, RavenPack, Securities Lending, Tidal Markets, topstory, volatility indicators

Across the financial markets, practitioners everywhere are trying to figure out what’s happening and what might happen next in an environment of extreme uncertainty. We talk to experts to see…

Quant view on reinforcement learning and quantum computing in trading (Premium)

February 5, 2020

AAA Quants, artificial intelligence, execution, hardware acceleration, IBM Q, portfolio optimization, quants, Quantum Computing, reinforcement learning, topstory

Reinforcement learning and quantum computing are the bleeding edge of advanced tech adoption in financial markets. We talk to Tom Starke from quant trading firm AAA Quants about the practical…

Regtech: when AI watches you, what will the regulator see?

October 1, 2019

Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Regulatory, Technology

AI ethics, artificial intelligence, CDM, data analysis, distributed ledger technologies, DLT, machine learning, predictive analytics, regtech, topstory

Regulators want to disrupt the way they are regulating, and how advanced technologies answer critical compliance questions is going to determine the pace of travel, even while the direction seems…

Alibaba’s CVaaS: machines advance in reading and writing code

June 23, 2019

AI, Alibaba, AutoML, Big Data, blockchain, Bynet Expo, cloud, computer vision, machine learning

Last week, we stopped by ICT event Bynet Expo in Tel Aviv to see what’s being said about the AI, big data and blockchain spaces. Alibaba’s “Computer Vision as a…

PanAgora: machine learning’s promise and pitfalls

June 18, 2019

AI ethics, CAIA, China, machine learning, natural language processing, Panagora

When CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association) conducted a survey on the use of machine learning in the investment process, the vast majority of respondents proved to be in “raising…

Regtech at crossroads: are more prescriptive vendor standards coming?

June 17, 2019

artificial intelligence, ASIC, blockchain, FCA, ICMA, machine learning, regtech

It’s becoming apparent that technology alone isn’t the answer for regulatory compliance, so what is? We spoke with JWG Group after its annual RegTech Capital Markets Conference to find out…

Thursday News Roundup: analytics for hedge funds, the rumor mill, seclending pricing and more (Premium)

June 6, 2019

Artificial Intelligence, Cryptocurrency, Hedge Funds, Securities Lending, SFTR

artificial intelligence, hedge funds, market data, securities lending pricing, SFTR, topstory, Trade repositories, Universal Settlement Coin

The collateralized trading markets are going strong as the summer gears up. Here’s our news roundup for the end of the week. Continue reading

Cyber, AI, ESG, fintech among top 10 fears for risk managers

June 3, 2019

artificial intelligence, bigtech, cyber resilience, cyber risk, cybersecurity, ESG, fintech, machine learning, Nedbank, risk management, RiskMinds, Standard Chartered

An article published by RiskMinds outlined the top 10 fears in risk management, and the list reveals many familiar trends that Fintech Capital Markets is seeing as well. Continue reading

FISL NYC 2019: what seclending players want from data and tech (Premium)

May 14, 2019

Artificial Intelligence, FISL, Securities Lending, Technology

artificial intelligence, asset managers, automation, Custodians, data analytics, hedge funds, machine learning, SFTR, topstory, vendors

As in many markets, the securities lending industry is tackling challenges in advancing technologies for investment and profitability, said panelists at Finadium’s annual Investors in Securities Lending conference. One panelist…

Interview: using deep neural networks for derivatives pricing problems (Premium)

April 26, 2019

Alan Turing Institute, artificial intelligence, Blanka Horvath, deep neural networks, derivatives, Imperial College, machine learning, topstory, volatility

A recent academic paper showed how deep neural networks can be applied to derivative pricing problems, and in a way that appeases regulatory concerns about the use of such advanced…

Financial ML further advanced than expected, N. America and buy-side lead

April 23, 2019

alternative data, buy-side, machine learning, Refinitiv

A survey from Refinitiv asked buy- and sell-side firms across North America, Europe and Asia about their levels of machine learning use and deployment. Refinitiv is the former financial risk…

Conference notes: RPA and AI in finance (Premium)

April 8, 2019

AI, Marcus Evans, RPA

If there’s one quote that sums up what financial institutions are facing in the technological age, it might be that “digital innovation and AI transformation is like eating glass.” It’s…

Data science teams are taking deep learning to production

March 26, 2019

Dataiku, deep learning, Deutsche Bank, ethical AI, GANs, M&G Prudential, reinforcement learning, risk management

Data science teams at banks and asset managers are making some headway in marrying AI academia and practice in the financial industry. At this year’s Rework Deep Learning in Finance…

No, 40% of European startups are not lying about having “AI”

March 10, 2019

artificial intelligence, Venture capital

A series of news articles based on a report from venture capital fund MMC Ventures and Barclays made headlines revealing that 40% of “AI” startups in Europe do not have…

VCs are ploughing money into AI, but are they using it to make decisions?

March 4, 2019

data analysis, machine learning, PitchBook, Venture capital

An interesting survey about venture capital attitudes to data and tech echoes trends in the financial services industry writ large. VC invested some $24.6 billion in AI and machine learning…

About the NY Fed’s plan for tournament modeled on spies

February 25, 2019

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, quantitative tool, risk models, Simon Potter

The Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and New York inaugurated a joint research day on quantitative tools for monitoring macroeconomic and financial conditions, and remarks made by Simon Potter during…

Key takeaways for financial services from Cybertech Israel

February 10, 2019

cybersecurity, Cybertech, Insurance Risk, machine learning, Quantum Computing, Zurich Insurance

Transformation is a “magic” word that represents a slew of digital challenges coming down the pipe, which push banks to think about starting from scratch to find the right solutions.…

Space: the next data frontier

February 4, 2019

Citi, data analytics

As the market for space exploration grows and expands, the private sector is getting more significant in influencing and shaping it, said speakers at a recent conference in Tel Aviv…

Fintech at Davos: not so gloomy, says expert

January 28, 2019

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Technology

David Shrier, Davos, Distilled Identity, WorldQuant

The general media commentary around Davos could be summed up as “gloomy and depressing”, but that doesn’t seem to be true for fintech. Granted, there may be some selection bias…

What kind of humans do you need for financial AI?

January 22, 2019

artificial intelligence, automation, BNP Paribas, Union Insurance, Union National Bank, Zurich Insurance

Speakers from banking and insurance described a daunting reality for the staffing of so-called “digital transformations”, at the AI EMEA Live conference hosted by AI and Intelligent Automation Network. It…

What IBM said about AI and quantum at CES 2019

January 11, 2019

artificial intelligence, Barclays, Big Data, CES 2019, IBM, IBM Q, J.P. Morgan, Mizuho, Quantum Computing, QxBranch

CES, held in Las Vegas, is one of the year’s most closely watched consumer technology extravaganzas, and while financial services is not exactly spotlighted, IBM’s keynote had some announcements worth…

Custodian’s cyber fallout with pension fund is a wake-up call

January 7, 2019

cybersecurity, FINRA, LACERA, Securities and Exchange Commission, State Street

This week, State Street is going to be scrutinized for data security incidents that affected a pension fund client, LACERA (Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, $56bn AuM). Detailed summaries…

2018 year in review: what happened in advanced (fin)tech

December 18, 2018

artificial intelligence, explainable AI, Quantum Computing

2018 was predicted to be the year of AI by many experts across a variety of sectors, and it was. But it’s also the year that quantum computing started to…

What the buy-side thinks about alt-data and AI (Premium)

November 19, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Technology

artificial intelligence, Battle of the Quants, Big Data, CloudQuant, Edmond de Rothschild, MScience, Optimal Capital, Prime Capital Management

Alternative data and artificial intelligence for investment are exploding. But what do funds actually think about when investing? Key takeaways from the Battle of the Quants Big Data conference. Continue…

Early AI adopters choose revenue and competition over cost savings

November 6, 2018

Allianz, artificial intelligence, BCG, China, ING, MIT

The latest MIT Sloan Management Review just published Artificial intelligence in business gets real, which details the results of the 2018 artificial intelligence global executive study and research project in…

AI tech: are your neural networks convoluted? Try spikes.

October 26, 2018

ASICs, BrainChip, deep learning, hardware acceleration, neural networks, SNNs

The application of artificial intelligence across industries depends on hardware acceleration, and some of the ways that’s being done was detailed at a recent Nvidia conference for GPU (graphics processing…

Nvidia boasts deep learning hardware breakthroughs, but early days for finance (Premium)

October 23, 2018

deep learning, explainable AI, hardware acceleration, neural networks, Nvidia, Optimizing Mind

Nvidia has been getting a lot of attention for its GPU strategy in an era of artificial intelligence, not least due to the atmospheric rise of its stock price over…

AI needs human-in-the-loop ethics. Is this a job for regulators?

October 9, 2018

AI ethics, artificial intelligence, Liquidnet, machine learning, Tom Doris

Last year, the passing of a former Russian officer who averted nuclear disaster served as a reminder why “human-in-the-loop” ethics for artificial intelligence and machine learning isn’t merely jargon. In…

Deep learning in finance is changing geography and systemic risk (Premium)

October 3, 2018

artificial intelligence, bigtech, California, Canada, China, London, New York, Stanford University

As the latest rounds get fought between New York and London for the coveted prize of world’s top financial center, some questions are being raised whether new technologies are changing…

Regtech spotlight: using machine learning on network data

September 27, 2018

artificial intelligence, Big Data, Corvil, Flow Traders, HFT, Intelligence Hub, machine learning

Corvil’s Intelligence Hub is now shipping, and the analytics and regtech firm is showing some early adoption use cases for its machine-time, artificial intelligence-powered analytics of network data. That may…

A Framework for Evaluating and Prioritizing Automation Projects

September 25, 2018

Martin Walker

Artificial Intelligence, Operations, Technology

AI, automation, Broadridge, capital markets, operations, Robotics Process Automation, technology, topstory

Automation is the new “big thing” in capital markets, but weren’t computers invented to automate the work of humans that would otherwise be done by people? Predictions of wide scale…

Fintechs must understand how cybersecurity rules are unfolding

September 14, 2018

banks, cybersecurity, fintech, Regulatory

Your executive board has just been notified of a spammy-looking demand from “North Korean” attackers to pay ransom on threats of releasing sensitive client information: What do you have to…

Quantum computing insiders ride fintech hype cycle

September 11, 2018

Quantum Computing

In 2015, it was rumored that the notoriously secretive hedge fund RenTech, a pioneer in using advanced technologies for investment and trading, was hiring graduates straight out of University of Amsterdam’s…

Putting machines to work for portfolio managers and traders

August 31, 2018

Google DeepMind, IBM Watson, Liquidnet, natural language processing, OpenAI, State Street, supervised learning, unsupervised learning

The upward mobility of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the mass consciousness can be described by the competitions they’ve competed in and won against humans. The companies and games…

An AI winter is nowhere in sight, and neither is an AI definition

August 17, 2018

artificial intelligence, back office, deep learning, machine learning, SaaS, World Economic Forum

Whenever the hype over artificial intelligence goes a bit too far, the term “AI winter” tends to pop up, injecting a tone of cynicism that “we’ve been here before”, and…

Big tech and startups lead on deep learning, and that’s OK

August 2, 2018

CB Insights, deep learning, FAMGA, STAC

An interesting briefing from CB Insights detailed how a specific slice of artificial intelligence, called deep learning, has vast implications for mitigating risk and reducing costs in financial services. Based…

US Treasury fintech report: four impacts to securities finance

August 2, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Collateral Management, Credit Exposure, Regulatory, US

collateral, fintech, technology, topstory, US Treasury

Artificial Intelligence, Collateral Management, Technology

The US Treasury issued the fourth report in their series, “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities”; this one focuses on Fintech. Some of the recommendations speak to matters that…

Managing data through complexity: business evolution in the machine age

June 18, 2018

Sabine Farhat-Dupla

Big Data, machine learning, Murex, topstory

The evolution of capital markets, including complex regulations such as the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), has resulted in a need to manage and understand data as a core function,…

Applying Artificial Intelligence to Securities Finance

February 22, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Repo, Securities Lending, Technology

artificial intelligence, blockchain, BNPP, securities finance, smart data, topstory

Technology is the critical competitive element in our business today, ranging across all capital markets activities including securities lending. However, technological innovation is a difficult task to master: the current…

The Basel Committee thinks there are five bank scenarios for fintech disruption; only one matters in capital markets (Premium)

February 21, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Basel III, Big Data, Blockchain, Regulatory, Technology

AI, Basel Committee, disruption, fintech, technology, topstory

In a report released this week, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision evaluated the implications of fintech developments for banks and supervisors. This healthy analysis came up with five scenarios…

Custodians really are making the transition to “technology as a service” providers (Premium)

February 13, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Custodians, Operations, Technology

artificial intelligence, Custodians, Robotics Process Automation, technology, topstory

We’re making the call: the leading custodians are successfully moving to a new business model from the top down that sees technology as the main service they are providing, wrapped…

SFM Magazine, Winter 2018, is now online

Securities Finance Monitor Magazine, Winter 2018, is now online. This edition, our Technology Special, features articles on what protectionism means for efficiency in global capital markets, a proposal for smart…

Artificial Intelligence is one way of several to bridge the manual to STP gap (Premium)

January 9, 2018

Artificial Intelligence, Collateral Management, Derivatives, Operations, Technology

AI, artificial intelligence, ION Trading, STP, Straight-through processing, topstory, True-PTS

Big banks, established vendors and start-ups are seeing a similar opportunity: technology should be used to get manual and voice transactions into electronic systems for post-trades processing, particularly for collateralized…

Collateral management technology vendors on blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (Premium)

December 14, 2017

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Collateral Management, Technology

artificial intelligence, blockchain, collateral management, technology, topstory

For our recently released survey of 21 collateral management technology vendors, we asked how far vendors had come in monitoring, testing or going live with a blockchain or Artificial Intelligence…

Recent layoffs in securities finance show the impact of technology (Premium)

November 14, 2017

Artificial Intelligence, Repo, Securities Lending, Technology

automation, securities finance, technology, topstory

We have been wondering for a while if technology was going to mean fewer people working in securities finance. For the front office, the answer is now pushing towards a…

DB chief warns banking jobs will be lost to robotics but history tells a different story

October 19, 2017

Richard Stinchfield

Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Operations, Technology

Deutsche Bank, disruption, financial technology

John Cryan, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, recently told bankers in Frankfurt that robots would replace many human workers at his firm. The modern history of technology, though, doesn’t…

US Senate hearing add impetus to convergence between financial firms and fintech

October 2, 2017

Richard Stinchfield

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blockchain, Fintech, Regulatory, Technology, US

disruption, financial regulation, fintech, politics

The US Senate committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs recently held hearings on Fintech and regulations. The speed of Fintech making a tangible impact in financial markets is accelerating;…

Finadium: The Business Case for Robotic Process Automation in Capital Markets

September 26, 2017

Artificial Intelligence, Operations, Technology

fintech, robotics, Robotics Process Automation, RPA, topstory