Waters Wavelength

Dan and Emilia discuss consulting and outsourcing services provider Capgemini’s accelerator program for fintechs and how it differs from others in the space (1:16). They also discuss Thanksgiving, and Emilia gives an outsider’s perspective on the American holiday (8:40).

Dan and Anthony discuss fintechs, regtechs and whether there is a difference between the two or if it’s simply a marketing ploy (1:05). They then talk about UK day trader Navinder Singh Sarao pleading guilty to spoofing and whether the case was overblown (15:40). Dan then explains how the Consolidated Audit Trail, which gained regulatory approval this week, could alleviate some of these issues, despite having its own problems (22:10). The guys wrap things up talking about the NFL (26:05).

Dan and Tony talk about the results from the US presidential election and how the capital markets will be affected going forward (2:14) They also give an update on CFTC’s Reg AT proposal following a vote that was held last week (19:52).

Dan and Emilia open things up discussing the latter’s feature on US treasuries platforms (1:10). They then talk about Dan’s profile of Bats Global Markets CIO Chris Isaacson, who will take over as CIO of CBOE Holdings following the completion of its acquisition of Bats (8:23). They close things out debating the merits of Accenture’s editable blockchain (14:40). Finally, Anthony jumps on at the end to quickly talk about the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series (22:40) and his thoughts on the final days before the US Presidential election (29:28).

Dan chats with Suresh Kumar, chief information officer at BNY Mellon, about why financial firms need to be more open and willing to share with one another via open source (2:30). He also discusses when he believes financial firms will begin contributing back into open source (14:30). Suresh then talks about the best way to tackle the ongoing stream of regulations (16:50) and gives advice to firms about the importance of having your voice heard with regulators (22:07). Dan and Anthony wrap things up discussing the start of the NBA season (24:50) and a feature in Outside magazine about the feral cat situation in Hawaii (30:05).

Dan and Anthony recap the North American Buy-Side Technology Summit 2016. They open things up debating the merits of the Reg AT’s source code proposal (2:25), before switching to the how some firms have changed their approach regarding the buy-versus-build discussion (12:45). The conversation then turns to MiFID II and whether firms are actually worried about the deadline or just stalling (18:15). They also talk about why they enjoyed the event’s blockchain panel so much (23:20). The guys wrap things up talking about the US presidential election (26:00) and the MLB playoffs (28:15).

Dan, Anthony and Emilia discuss their three-part series looking at the state of blockchain and distributed-ledger technologies in financial services. Anthony first explains the basis for the special report (3:30). The group then discusses part one (6:50), which looks at banks’ adoption of digital currencies; part two (14:45), which looks at the money backing blockchain firms; and part three (20:15), which looks to debunk the hype around blockchain. The trio also discusses why blockchain is so attractive to financial services (28:00). Finally, they wrap things up talking about the second presidential debate (34:15).

Dan welcomes on Bruno Campenon, Americas head of custody and clearing services for BNP Paribas Securities Services, to discuss CME Clearing’s recent approval of the French bank to serve as a custodian for US Treasury and federal agency securities (6:15). He then talks about what differentiates the firm in the custodian space (9:30). Bruno explains a new service around the recently implemented uncleared swap margin rules (15:30) and the impact new capital requirements will have on custodians (18:00). He also chats with Dan about BNP’s interest in blockchain (20:45), his previous roles at NASA, IBM and Chanel (27:23), and extraterrestrial life (34:10). Dan and Anthony wrap things up talking about the MLB playoffs (36:13).

Dan and Anthony open things by briefly talking about this year’s American Financial Technology Awards (:13) before jumping into the CBOE-Bats deal (3:31). They then switch gears to chat about a panel Anthony attended at the Chicago Trading Technology Summit that discussed using machine learning to sort through social media’s “noise” (13:10). The guys wrap things up discussing the first presidential debate (19:05).

Dan and Anthony open things up discussing Thomson Reuters’ acquisition of Redi Holdings (:50). They also look at how this may or may not affect Bloomberg (6:45). Anthony then gives some highlights from the Chicago Trading Technology Summit (13:30). The guys wrap things up discussing their airplane woes (19:00), airplane etiquette (23:34) and some great meals they both had while traveling this week (29:00).

Dan is joined by his colleague Emilia David to talk about their respective September features. Emilia talks about her story examining the future of trading turrets (1:34), including the hybrid model (3:00), the difference in wants between young and old users (4:28) and some interesting tidbits that didn’t make it into the story (7:20). Dan then discusses his case study on SmartStream’s acquisition of Credit Suisse’s fee management platform (9:10). He explains the timeline of events (10:43) and why Credit Suisse decided the platform would make for a good utility (11:50). Dan and Emilia then talk about Netflix’s “Stranger Things” (13:20) and how parts of “The West Wing” still ring true today (18:50). Finally, Dan wraps things up talking with Anthony Malakian about Week 1 of the NFL (23:12).

Dan sits down with Andy Ross, CEO of CurveGlobal, an interest rate derivatives venture between LSEG, CBOE and seven dealer banks, ahead of its go-live date on Sept. 26 (2:50). Andy talks about why he decided to take the job (5:05), what made him the best candidate for the role (8:00) and what it’s like managing a firm that’s a consortium of two exchanges and seven banks (9:25). He also discusses the reason behind pushing back the launch date from May to Q3 (11:45), what have been the biggest hurdles leading up to the go-live date (13:00) and the immediate timeline for CurveGlobal following its launch (17:40). He wraps things up discussing his favorite football (soccer) team and the difference between cricket and baseball (18:35). Dan and Anthony then discuss their time at the US Open (20:45), what is considered a good gift (25:30) and a preview of the NFL season (32:18).

Dan talks with IEX president Ronan Ryan about his new role at the exchange (2:10), how the phase-in period has gone (2:45) and the exchange’s short- and long-term goals (5:00). Ronan then discusses how IEX will be scalable despite not having some traditional revenue streams exchanges typically have (8:45), what he feels is misconstrued about the firm (11:45) and his thoughts on competitors launching new features that mirror some of IEX’s (17:07). Finally, he talks about his time as Fairfield University’s mascot, Lucas the Stag (20:30), and what actor he’d want to portray him if “Flash Boys” ever gets made into a movie (23:20). Dan and Anthony wrap things up discussing some takeaways from the interview (26:55) and the new non-cleared margin rules (29:40).

Dan is joined by Edward Woodford, co-founder and CEO of Seed Commodities Exchange (Seed CX), which was recently granted SEF registration from the CFTC. Edward explains the origins of Seed CX (3:30), the difference between hemp and marijuana (5:19), regulations surrounding industrial hemp (7:22), what separates Seed CX from other SEFs (13:43), whether the exchange is interested in offering new products (16:50) and what its next steps are (20:15). Anthony and Dan then discuss the overall status of SEFs (22:54) and emerging agricultural markets (31:57). They close things out discussing director Werner Herzog’s latest move, “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.” (33:20)

Dan and Anthony open things open chatting about the problem with debating high-frequency trading and the defenders of both sides of the argument (:49). They then discuss each of their August features, with Dan starting things off recapping his discussion with RBC’s head of technology and operations, Bruce Ross (7:00). That’s followed by a look at Anthony’s story on the growing trend of blending ETFs and active mutual funds (12:20). Inspired by a recent Twitter hashtag, the guys share their seven favorite movies (18:11). To wrap things up, the two discuss the Ryan Lochte saga (26:35) and debate whether Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Katie Ledecky did or did not take steroids (29:35).

Dan talks to Vijay Luthra, global head of infrastructure engineering and operations at Northern Trust, about the disruption of data centers through emerging technologies (2:48). Vijay details some infrastructure projects taking place at Northern (5:23), shares his thoughts on the public cloud (12:42) and explains how the firm balances between being innovative with its data centers while still making sure they are reliable and secure (15:45). He also talks about some of his favorite eateries in Silicon Valley (18:01) and about what he does during his regular trips out west(20:13). Vijay wraps up by giving advice to firms looking to disrupt their own data centers (27:17). Afterwards, Dan and Anthony catch up by discussing their recent vacations (29:13) and the Olympics (31:20).

Dan welcomes Paul Chou and Zach Dexter, CEO and CTO, respectively, of the bitcoin trading and clearing platform LedgerX, on the podcast to discuss the recent hack at Bitfinex that saw over $60 million worth of bitcoins stolen from the Hong Kong-based exchange. The guys review the overall hack (3:40), talk about multi-signature systems (5:50) and debate the merits of cold storage and hot wallets (9:45). They also look at how the breach could impact future regulations (12:40) and institutional firms' willingness to get involved in bitcoin going forward (18:50). They wrap things about with a discussion about why Paul and Zach can't enjoy watching shows like "Mr. Robot" and "Silicon Valley" (26:50).

With Dan away on vacation, Anthony enlisted the services of his dad, Larry Malakian, to help with the podcast. Larry spent over 40 years building and running data centers for companies like Equitable (now Axa), Cigna and Avon. For the podcast, he discusses the importance of getting a diverse array of feedback when facing a problem (~6:30), his "favorite" outage war story (~15:00), his greatest disaster recovery success (~17:00), his thoughts on his son being a journalist (~23:30), leadership qualities (~26:30) and food etiquette when in Asia (~30:00).

Dan and Anthony open things up looking at brokerage Eclipse International's decision to remove trading turrets in favor of Cloud9's platform (1:00). The conversation then turns to Sifma's recently submitted comment letter about the Consolidated Audit Trail (8:55). The guys then chat about the Republican National Convention (16:50) and break some news about the future of the podcast (26:03).

Wei-Shen Wong, WatersTechnology's new Hong Kong-based reporter, talks about her first feature for the site, which looks at how different regions in Asia are approaching regulatory oversight of fintechs (3:00). Wei-Shen discusses the difference between Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan's approach to fintech regulation. She then talks to Dan about her first trip to the US, and what she's checked out so far (15:15).