StreetsTalksTo

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Hilary Smyth-Allen, Executive Director of SuperTech, the UK’s first and only tech supercluster, based in the West Midlands. The supercluster is leading the charge in accelerating technological adoption across professional services through ProfTech which includes FinTech, PropTech, LegalTech and InsurTech. In our conversation, Hilary shares invaluable insights into the intersection of innovation and professional services. We discuss: Roadmap for the Future: Hilary unveils SuperTech’s strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap, a 10 year plan based on deep analysis, developed through extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and academia. The Roadmap focuses on four key themes: Productivity, Open Data, Sustainability, and Inclusion & Wellness. Driven by a commitment to these areas, the blueprint is an actionable programme of targeted initiatives to drive prosperity and improve social outcomes. Championing Innovation: Hilary emphasises the importance of innovation in driving growth and competition in the business, professional and financial services sectors. SuperTech's mission is to position the West Midlands as a hub for next-generation services, leveraging technology to enhance customer experience and business operations. The ProfTech Revolution: We explore the concept of ProfTech and its significance. ProfTech encompasses a wide range of professional services enhanced by technology, from legal and property services to financial advisory. By embracing ProfTech, businesses can unlock new opportunities for growth and efficiency. Driving Impact: Looking ahead, SuperTech is committed to translating the Roadmap into tangible outcomes. Cross-sector engagement is at the heart of the Roadmap and the delivery of all activities. Through collaborative partnerships and joined-up initiatives that will fully enable and serve businesses, consumers and investors, the potential impact of the Roadmap is the creation of over 4,600 regional jobs and the addition of £1.5bn to the regional economy over the next decade.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo, we are joined by Anton Padmasiri, founder and CEO and Shri Krishnansen, Chief Commercial Officer of WealthOS. We explore the future of wealth management and delve into how WealthOS is driving innovation and reshaping the financial services landscape. We also discuss: Legacy Infrastructure Challenges: The frustrations and limitations posed by outdated legacy infrastructure in the financial services industry, particularly in wealth management. This legacy technology impedes the delivery of modern, user-centric experiences and hampers firms' ability to innovate and adapt to changing market dynamics. Innovation in Wealth Management: WealthOS’s pioneering solution to address the shortcomings of traditional wealth management systems. As a cloud-native operating system, it offers a scalable, user-friendly platform designed to modernise wealth management practices, enhance customer experiences, and meet evolving regulatory requirements. Through automation, APIs, and a focus on user experience, WealthOS aims to revolutionise how wealth is managed and accessed, paving the way for digital transformation in the industry. Global Ambitions and Market Expansion: With a clear mission to provide equitable access to wealth management services worldwide, WealthOS demonstrates its international ambitions. The leadership envisions expanding beyond the UK market, leveraging their adaptable infrastructure to cater to the needs of financial institutions and investors across different jurisdictions. By embracing technological advancements, anticipating regulatory changes, and prioritising user needs, WealthOS aims to shape the future of wealth management on a global scale.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we talk to Gillian Painter, Head of Membership and Engine, The Investment Association. We talk about the journey of Engine, the IA's Innovation Hub and FinTech Accelerator, and explore the transformative power of technology in investment management. Our discussion also covers : Innovative Programs: Gillian sheds light on the evolution of Engine, from its inception in response to regulatory changes to becoming a global hub for FinTech innovation. With programmes including the IA Engine Innovator, Sparks, and Advanced Access, Engine caters to firms at different stages of development, providing tailored support to foster growth and drive industry-wide innovation. Real-World Impact: Through success stories and testimonials, Gillian illustrates the tangible benefits that participating firms experience. From generating additional revenue to securing new partnerships and funding opportunities, Engine's ecosystem empowers FinTech innovators to thrive and make meaningful contributions to the financial services landscape. Global Collaboration: The importance of collaboration on both national and international levels. By forging partnerships and facilitating exchanges with global counterparts, The Investment Association seeks to harness the collective expertise and drive cross-border innovation. Through initiatives like the Global Partners Programme and international conferences like EmTech, The IA fosters a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing. We discuss the intersection of technology, innovation, and financial services, and explore the endless possibilities for growth and transformation in the industry.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we talk to Nicola Anderson, CEO of Fintech Scotland. In this conversation we learn more about FinTech Scotland, their key objectives to help the community of fintech entrepreneurs, the ambition of the economic contribution, strategic relationships, and the development of an inclusive environment to enable FinTech innovation to really thrive. We outline the opportunities that fintech collaboration and innovation bring to us all, with an update on the FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap, one year on since it was launched. The Roadmap was published with a very specific question, what should the future of finance look like? It was developed in close coordination with fintech entrepreneurs, the financial services sector, academia, regulators, Government bodies and consumer groups, and provides a framework to increase the positive impact of FinTech Innovation across Scotland and the UK. We discuss the significance of fintech in our digital economy and how its evolving innovation and problem solving in the current economic and climate. We talk about how the Kalifa Review and research and development (R&D) in Scotland along with data, can advance business and help economic development in the UK and beyond. And lastly Nicola shares her favourite piece of regulation!

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Dani Lipkin, Delilah Panio from the TMX Group. We delve into the global listings landscape, the TSX and the TSX Venture exchanges and their support for earlier stage firms and established companies in their journey to going public. We touch on Canada’s history of supporting innovative, early stage companies and discuss TSX Venture’s unique value proposition in helping scale-ups access growth capital, reduce the burden and cost of going public. We look at lessons we can learn from Canada as the UK and other jurisdictions are assessing their IPO rules to attract more junior listings. We discover the 4 Rs – reason, readiness, requirement and reality – that can help decide whether your company is ready to go public and the benefits of being aligned. And we look ahead on the listings journey, as many firms have successfully graduated from the TSX Venture Exchange to TSX and gone on to dual list in the US and other major exchanges.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Mark Schaedel, CEO and Brandon Baker, Principle of DataBP. We discuss the fascinating world of market data and how the impact of innovation and technology can be used to help make sense of the huge amounts of data and harvest unique insights. We talk about the genuine common goal across the industry for ultimate compliance, the importance of using The Cloud and how DataBP are empowering and connecting the community of data providers to gain efficiencies, reinvent how they manage their market data and ultimately realise and commercialise the full potential of their often unexploited data assets. DataBP is a global provider of software and managed services for managing market data and index commercialisation. They provide tools that run business lines in one easy to use platform and a whole suite of purpose built tools, allowing data businesses of all sizes to increase their revenue, reduce their risk, and provide an improved customer experience without having to increase any staffing footprint.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Stéphane Rio, CEO & Founder of Opensee, and Senior Sales Executive, Julie Louvrier. We discover the challenges of big data, the increased demand for more granular information and how Opensee is transforming this data into a competitive advantage. We talk about different regulations, how ESG is bringing a new dimension to finance and how Opensee is helping its clients to unlock the full potential of their data by removing complexity. Opensee is a Paris-based FinTech that is helping financial institutions turn their big data challenges into a competitive advantage, by unlocking vital business, user led opportunities. Its solutions allow financial institutions to harness 100% of their vast quantities of data instantly, on demand and for deeper and faster analysis than before. It was started by a team of financial industry and technology experts who were frustrated because they couldn't find a simple, big data analytics solution that enabled them to deep dive into all of their data or to run risk scenarios with the data that they were handling. They built their own instead. Opensee now gives banks, asset managers and other financial institutions the analytical tools for regulatory reporting, risk management, operational efficiencies and business development.

In this episode of #StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Ian Taylor, Executive Director and Su Carpenter, Head of Community at CryptoUK. We delve into the topic of regulation, what the current crypto regulatory landscape looks like and the challenges around ad regulation. We talk about how CryptoUK are trying to help develop policies, processes and standardisation to help crypto providers and institutions and how they are in regular conversations with the FCA. We cover taxation, legislation and so much more in this fascinating conversation. CryptoUK exists as a cohesive, credible voice for the evolving UK crypto industry. As an independent industry body, CryptoUK represents the UK's crypto asset sector, working directly with policy makers and market players to advocate for better education, mutual understanding and fair and balanced policy. It has more than 80 members, including crypto natives, service providers, custodians and institutional investors.

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Vijay Oddiraju, CEO and Co-Founder, and Rachel Hunt, VP Growth Marketing at Volante Technologies. During the discussion we delve into the importance of real-time payments and what this means for financial inclusion and the democratisation of financial services. We consider the impact of COVID-19 across the industry, how this has accelerated the digitisation of payments around the world and how Volante is helping banks and financial institutions adapt quickly and effectively to empower consumers, corporates and economies. We find out more about Volante’s ISO 20022 migration project and how Volante is enabling an ever-growing cloud-native payments ecosystem. Volante Technologies is the global provider of cloud payments and financial messaging solutions. It serves as a trusted partner to more than one hundred banks, financial institutions, market infrastructures, clearing houses and corporate treasury firms in 35 countries. As a result, Volante’s customers can stay ahead of emerging trends, become more competitive, deliver superior client experiences and grow their businesses through rapid digital transformation and innovation.

In our latest StreetsTalksTo podcast we are joined by Darshan Vaidya, CEO and Co-Founder of X-Margin, and Matt Ficke, the company’s COO. In this episode we delve into the fascinating world of crypto trading. We cover topics such as risk, credit and how they aim to unlock the credit market for trading digital assets with their infrastructure to address demand coming from centralised finance (CeFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi). We discuss the pain points of the crypto market and gain some fantastic insights and advice on how to access credit. X-Margin has developed a risk engine called X-Margin Credit, featuring privacy preserving software to unlock lending to institutions trading digital assets. It is one of the first solutions to deliver instantaneous credit scoring and risk monitoring across traders’ entire portfolios, preserving privacy all the time.

We are delighted to bring you the next episode of StreetsTalksTo, we are joined by Mark Badyra and Greg Bennett from Appital, a platform that enables the buy side community to discover latent liquidity and gain greater exposure to relevant deal flow opportunities. In this fascinating discussion we delve into the impact of the reduction of liquidity in public equity markets, and how to uncover new liquidity and make that liquidity available to the institutional investors. We discuss the lack of transparency and efficiency across a legacy bookbuilding and deal distribution activity, and how Appital are using automation to address one of the biggest pain points for the buy-side community. We discover more about Appital’s collaboration with Turquoise (part of the London Stock Exchange Group) which provides Appital users with a single point of access and execution, and seamless straight through processing to 20 settlement venues; and we touch on the first EMS integration with FlexTrade, with many more to follow.

In our latest episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Philippe Morel and Marjan Delatinne of SETL, a London-based technology provider with a proven track record in delivering distributed ledger technology for financial markets, asset management and payments. We discuss some of the transformative technologies of our time: we touch on blockchain, the world of payments, digital identity and digital transformation. We look at how central banks are assessing the feasibility of Central Bank Digital Currencies, dive into tokenisation and the securitisation of tokens and digital currencies. We also discover how SETL has successfully completed the world's first CBDC live funds transaction in collaboration with the Banque de France using the SETL blockchain. SETL is dedicated to building blockchain-based solutions for Financial Markets, Asset Management and Payments. Their proprietary technology is designed specifically for regulated, high performance, low latency applications, and powers financial market infrastructures that are both active and operational, including IZNES and ID2S.

We kick off Series Three of StreetsTalksTo with a fascinating delve into the world of financial crime compliance with Alan Paterson and Kelly Burgess of Plenitude Consulting, the Financial Crime, Risk and Compliance consultancy. We explore the high level challenges facing the industry as well as the important granular considerations as clients navigate their financial crime compliance obligations. We discover how RegSight - a cloud-based obligations register - is making an impact on the industry by allowing financial institutions to conduct a detailed and systematic gap analysis of their policies, procedures, and standards and address these in a highly efficient way. We discuss their favourite piece of regulation… and so much more! Plenitude offers advisory, transformation services and cloud-based RegTech subscription products. They are key contributors and supporters of UK Finance and are currently working on a joint paper understanding and evaluating the risks associated with crypto assets.

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Alan Jones and Sarah Norford-Jones, Co-Founders of YEO Messaging. We discuss the rise in cyber breaches and the significant impact this has on organisations, particularly when many staff are working from home due to COVID-19. We discuss how YEO has created a solution designed to allow teams to communicate quickly and efficiently in a truly secure way using facial recognition technology. We explore the benefits this offers organisations across many sectors, all keen to secure their information. YEO Messaging is an ultra-secure private messaging platform that connects businesses with people, assuring trust, compliance, and providing total control. It's an innovative alternative to the market-leading messenger options because it assures delivery and confirms the identity of the viewer. Doing this it uses its patented continuous facial recognition. YEO Messaging claims to be the only messaging application that guarantees delivery to the person rather than just the device.

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Hilary Smyth-Allen, BPFS Sector & Modern Services Lead and Executive Lead SuperTech, David Stewart, Group Chief Operating Officer for Wesleyan and Co-Chair of the FinTech arm of SuperTech and Joff Walters, Co-Founder Million Labs and Co-Chair of the FinTech arm of SuperTech We start the conversation with a fascinating look into West Midlands' rapidly emerging professional services technology which has seen a massive acceleration of tech trends in recent years. We talk about the impact of The Kalifa Review on the UK’s Fintech sector and what this means for the region. Time to market is a key priority for entrepreneurs and innovators and we discuss how low code and no code are empowering startups. SuperTech is focused on supporting businesses and building on the existing globally and nationally relevant established cluster and how it can help businesses scale, all the while ensuring that as a community, it remains fit for future generations of changemakers. SuperTech is a cross sector partnership designed to showcase the talent, innovation and investment potential of the West Midlands' professional services technology cluster This supercluster aims to amplify the voice and the potential in sectors that include fintech, legaltech, prop tech, and insuretech. It is the first dedicated prof tech collaboration of its kind in the UK.

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Sassan Danesh, Managing Partner at Etrading Software and James Haskell the Business Operations Officer. We discuss two major industry developments: the consolidated tape and developments in crypto asset trading. We delve deeper into the consolidated tape infrastructure challenges and operating models from the highest levels of governance down to some of the technical requirements concerning data and standardisation. We talk about rapid growth in crypto asset trading and the opportunities that may be missed if considered discussions are left unaddressed. We also discover Sassan and James’ fascinating views on regulation, or lack thereof, in the crypto asset trading world. Etrading Software is an independent global provider of technology led solutions. They design, build and operate technology for the front office, fixed income OTC markets, helping clients keep full governance and control using transparent and vendor neutral solutions Etrading Software has a proven record of working with consortia through a mutualised approach to design, implement and operate technology-based services - from incubation to execution - that help solve common challenges faced by the industry.

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Stephane Leroy, Chief Revenue Officer of Quanthouse and Emmanuel Carjat, Chief Operating Officer. Quanthouse provides end-to-end systematic trading solutions. This includes ultra-low latency and consolidated market data solutions, algo-trading development framework and proximity hosting and order routing services. They help hedge funds, market makers, investment banks, brokers and trading venues achieve optimal trading performance, develop and integrate new trading strategies, comply with regulatory requirements, test existing and new trading infrastructure tools and rationalise operating costs. In this fascinating conversation we cover many topics including technology infrastructure, data, trading strategies and the ability to self permission. We touch upon the current geopolitical climate and of course we ask what is their favourite piece of regulation!

In this episode of StreetsTalksTo we are joined by Erez Zada, CEO and Magnus Almqvist, Head of Exchange Development for Exberry. Exberry helps exchange pioneers, at all levels & of all sizes, to launch, pivot, break ground and scale. They deliver a blend of exchange and trading technology expertise for secondary market models, creating matching engines in the cloud at speed for traditional, alternative and digital asset exchanges. During the podcast we delve into the challenges and opportunities that exchanges are facing in the current environment, and the importance of supporting the real economy in order to improve liquidity. We talk about the struggle with legacy technology and how it is an exciting time for innovation and creativity with entrepreneurs finding new ways of uncovering investment opportunities, particularly when it comes to the digital or tokenized world. There is general acceptance that digital is the future and the dream to achieve low latency based on the cloud is now a reality thanks to firms like Exberry.

We kick off Series two with a fascinating conversation with Dan Shepherd, CEO and Caroline Holmes, COO from BTON Financial, the independent outsourced dealing desk for assets managers. BTON Financial helps asset managers rethink their trading infrastructure in an environment of increased regulatory pressures and margin compression. By using BTON Financial buy side firms are able to continue to drive greater performance, quality of execution and ultimately returns for end investors. Delivered as SaaS, asset managers can rest assured their investment intentions are not undermined by poor execution quality as a result of inadequate and legacy technology. In this episode we discuss why outsourced trading models are in such demand at the moment, with Covid-19 accelerating and already existing trends industry outsourcing. We talk about the importance of operational resilience as businesses adjust to new working models as well as upcoming regulations industry participants need to pay attention to - including the Senior Manager Regime, which brings personal accountability to the fore, and, of course, Brexit. Dan and Caroline also share the reasons why MiFID II is their favourite piece of regulation, and why, when it comes to modernisation, we need to think more like Gen Z. And as always, we find out what they’ve been doing to keep going throughout lockdown.

In this episode we are joined by Emma Kalliomaki, Managing Director of the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and The Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB), and Malavika Solanki, Member of the Management Team at the DSB. ANNA is a global member association that seeks to foster standardisation within the financial industry by upholding the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) principles, and by promoting International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs), Classification of Financial Instrument codes (CFIs), and Financial Instrument Short Names (FISN). The DSB was founded by ANNA as a fully automated global generator of ISINs, CFIs and FISNs for OTC derivatives. Messaging and data standards might at first appear dry, but together Emma and Malavika explain why the association and bureau exist and their roles in helping key regional market infrastructures. We explore the pressures their members and partners face and how they continue to support them throughout Covid-19 with business continuity and resilience development. While data integrity and alignment play an incredibly important part of this, we explore how the human need for stability must be met before organisations can look at how to move forward with new innovations and technologies such as digitisation, AI, and robotic process automation. We also discuss the role of consultation and collaboration with the other industry associations, members and stakeholders in shaping ANNA’s and the DSB’s roadmaps, and why the industry should be paying particular attention to new regulations such as Securities Finance in Transaction Regulation (SFTR), ESMA’s consultation on non-equity transparency under MiFID II, and EMIR Refit. And on a lighter note, as we have asked all CEOs and their colleagues, Emma and Malavika share what’s been keeping them going personally throughout the lockdown.