The FTF Exchange Podcast

Most financial firms have been told the same thing: clean up your data before you layer AI on top, or automation will only magnify the mess. But Steve Shillingford, CEO and founder of DeepSee, doesn't quite agree. With settlement cycles getting shorter and operational pressure mounting, he makes a case that runs against much of what the industry has been saying, and it's the kind of thing that makes you stop and go "wait, what?" In this episode, Steve joins David Kirby of Broadridge Consulting to discuss their recent partnership, why orchestration matters more than simply deploying another AI agent, and where the real settlement pain points are hiding — from overflowing shared inboxes to SSI errors that go undetected until it’s too late. With T+1 already live in the US and Europe's transition deadline approaching in October 2027, the pressure to solve these challenges isn't going away anytime soon. Topics covered: Why "clean your data first" may be the slower, costlier path to AI Orchestration vs. deploying a single AI agent Email inboxes and reconciliation as hidden settlement risk SSI errors and where they do real damage T+1 in the US and what's coming for Europe and the UK What AI means for jobs in capital markets Guests: Steve Shillingford (CEO, DeepSee.ai) and David Kirby (Broadridge Consulting) Host: Maureen Lowe, FTF

Most firms can generate strong performance data internally. Fewer can deliver it to clients efficiently, at scale, and without adding more manual work. In Part 2 of our podcast series with FactSet, Maureen Lowe is joined by McKay Marschalk and David Mellars to open up the modern “reporting toolbox” and break down what actually belongs inside. We talk about automation gaps, building a reliable data pipeline, and using AI-generated commentary with human oversight. We also dig into managed services versus outsourcing, the move beyond emailing PDFs, how firms define golden data sources, and how reporting teams measure ROI through lower costs, faster cycles, and fewer manual steps. Clean data is just the start. This episode explains how the right tools, working together, are changing how firms deliver results to clients. NOTES FROM THIS EPISODE: New eBook: A Buy-Side Playbook for Reporting Success Download the latest eBook from the FTF Research Institute and FactSet, featuring insights from 325+ reporting leaders. Access the Flipbook PMCR 2026 Registration — February 24–26, NYC Join us live in New York City for the industry’s premier event on performance measurement and client reporting. Register Here Use code: FactSetAI for 15% off Explore the Full Agenda Plan your sessions and see what’s in store for 2026. View Agenda Follow FTF on LinkedIn to stay connected!

From Sticky Notes to Success Stories: What It Really Means to Mentor the Next Generation of Capital Markets Professionals by FTF News

In this episode of the FTF Exchange Podcast, host Maureen Lowe sits down with Dawn Pischetola, Director of Investment Operations at Olmstead Associates, for her perspectives on why reconciliation processes—often overlooked but crucial to operational success—are now at a turning point in asset management. With transaction volumes surging and legacy systems struggling to keep pace, what does the future hold for firms still clinging to spreadsheets and manual processes? Dawn brings 25 years of front-to-back office expertise to address the pressing question: How can asset managers transform their reconciliation operations without disrupting their business? What you'll discover: • Why there a staggering number of asset managers still rely on Excel-based reconciliation processes—and the hidden risks (and costs) this creates • Insights on why firms might hesitate to modernize their legacy systems despite growing operational pressures • How AI is emerging as an "operations companion" rather than a replacement for skilled professionals • The unexpected challenges that arise when untangling years of customization during system implementations • Practical insights on building a successful business case for reconciliation transformation • Critical advice for firms facing the "reconciliation reset" as they navigate increasing data complexity and regulatory demands Whether you're considering a reconciliation system upgrade, curious about AI's potential impact on your reconciliations processes, or simply interested in how back-office transformation is evolving, this conversation offers valuable perspectives from someone who has guided numerous firms through these transitions. Show Notes: Download the survey referenced in this episode, The Tipping Point for Asset Management Operations: https://www.ftfnews.com/FTF-Research-Institute/the-tipping-point-for-asset-management-operations-the-rising-costs-of-operational-complacency/ Register for the webinar Dawn is moderating, Reconciliation Reset: The Shift from Liability to Operational Excellence: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4882217/F1A1671736DF17D411B4D33B678F252A?partnerref=Dawn_Podcast

In this episode of the FTF Exchange Podcast, host Nick Holland speaks with Hermine Wong, a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law and former policy leader at Coinbase, to discuss the evolving regulatory landscape of digital assets and financial services. Wong reflects on her career journey, highlighting the intersection of law, technology, and finance, and how her early exposure to the internet’s democratization shaped her approach to crypto regulation. The conversation delves into the shifting regulatory dynamics under the Trump administration, comparing it to the previous Biden administration’s slower, report-driven approach. Wong cautions that while the current administration appears more open to crypto, its regulatory efforts may favor a select group of industry players, creating barriers rather than fostering true democratization. Further, Wong examines systemic risks, market volatility, and fraud in digital assets, explaining how financial firms can navigate regulatory uncertainty. She predicts that regulators will prioritize oversight where they have the most data, focusing on major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum while monitoring broader market risks. Wong stresses that while volatility itself isn’t inherently harmful, fraudulent activities within the crypto space could have far-reaching consequences. For financial firms looking to future-proof compliance strategies, Wong advises against chasing hype, urging them to apply traditional financial risk management principles to digital assets. She underscores that crypto will not receive a regulatory free pass, and firms should continue to uphold robust compliance measures as they integrate these new asset classes. The episode offers insightful perspectives on the evolving regulatory climate, the role of financial institutions, and the future of digital asset governance, making it a must-listen for professionals navigating the intersection of finance, law, and technology.

In this episode, Maureen Lowe and co-host Nick Holland sit down with Alex Shafran, Senior Vice President of Performance Analytics and Client Reporting at Cohen & Steers. Alex shares his career journey, from aspiring math teacher to financial services leader, and provides valuable advice for professionals navigating the evolving landscape of performance measurement and client reporting. Key discussion points include: • Career Insights: Alex's path into capital markets and his thoughts on taking risks, fostering meaningful professional relationships, and following opportunities. • Leadership and Team Development: Tips for empowering teams, managing responsibilities, and fostering innovation in a fast-paced industry. • Industry Evolution: Reflections on how technology, automation, and data have transformed performance measurement over two decades. • Community and Collaboration: The importance of networking, industry events, and creating spaces for peer-to-peer learning. Alex also shares inspiring stories about creating a supportive and inclusive company culture, highlighting initiatives like an "All About Me" series to strengthen team connections. Whether you're a financial professional, aspiring leader, or just curious about the human side of the finance industry, this episode promises engaging storytelling and actionable advice. Subscribe now to stay updated on future episodes featuring insights from top industry minds!

The U.S. prioritized reducing settlement fails domestically but ignored the knock-on costs for international investors, which have gone through the roof.” So says industry veteran Gary Wright, director at ISITC Europe CIC, in the latest episode of the FTF Exchange podcasts. In this podcast, hosts Maureen Lowe and Nick Holland speak with Wright who delves deep into the contentious shift to T+1 settlement in capital markets, questioning whether the benefits truly justify the costs. With candid insights and thought-provoking critiques, this conversation challenges the status quo and shines a light on the overlooked impacts of T+1 on investors, issuers, and market participants worldwide. Key Takeaways:  No Clear Business Case: Despite claims of efficiency, there’s been no cost-benefit analysis demonstrating that T+1 settlement provides net value. Wright argues the high costs outweigh the limited benefits.  Impact on International Investors: The shift has introduced significant financial burdens for international participants, requiring them to hold collateral in U.S. markets, increasing costs and reducing liquidity.  Legacy Systems Strained: T+1 imposes real-time processing requirements on outdated batch systems, which were never designed for such operations, creating inefficiencies and systemic vulnerabilities.  Regulatory Gaps and Divergences: While the SEC in the U.S. has aggressively pursued T+1, regulators in the UK and EU remain hesitant, further complicating global market alignment.  Lack of Innovation or Incentives: Firms are reluctant to invest in new technology or processes without a regulatory mandate or tangible incentives, leaving the market to grapple with outdated solutions. This episode is a must-listen for financial professionals, investors, and anyone curious about the realities behind T+1 settlement and its broader implications for global markets.

Fixed income market participants are under pressure to develop systematic credit strategies and to improve their valuation and performance analytics capabilities. Yet Peter O’Connor, product manager, FINCAD Analytics Suite, Numerix, says it’s a data and computation problem much like other IT issues and firms will be able to catch up. O’Conner is the focus of the latest episode of the FTF Exchange podcast series. “When it comes to fixed income strategies, it’s a data problem. You can identify the approach you would take and typically enough … they’re looking to see which approaches work in terms of identifying mispricing,” O’Connor says. “The second challenge, then, is data and getting data in real-time or at whatever frequency is needed. The catch-up is really in that and also in adopting cloud and whether things have containers and scaling for real-time needs. So it’s data and it’s computation,” he says. “It’s very much the same old things because a lot of the analytics that we’re talking about … have always been there. Now they’re coming more to the fore and when they’re combined with real-time and doing more advanced things on top as a data-driven exercise it’s just more interesting these days.” O’Connor says. In this podcast, O’Connor:  Talks about his path to Numerix;  Reviews the finer points of the FINCAD Analytics Suite, particularly how it helps with trading and operational issues and how it fits with other offerings from Numerix;  Provides insight into fixed income markets participants and their growing demands for precise pricing and risk analytics delivered intraday; and  Covers the role FX plays in intraday fixed income transactions and the tools that firms need to navigate FX complications.

The core of any client reporting challenge is inevitably a data problem, and the ultimate solution may be highly personalized self-service capabilities much like a media streaming service, says Andrew Barnett, chief product officer at Hub, a new provider for the global securities operations industry. Barnett is the focus of this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast. When asked about a new ecosystem for client reporting, Barnett focused on the new operating models that go beyond sending out PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets about a firm’s performance to clients. Firms will need to evolve their solutions and the services and change the historic dynamic of one-way communication for client reporting. This will mean push-and-pull engagement patterns, Barnett says. “What we’re now hearing is that people want to activate and call that data directly. They don’t want it pixel-perfect at any point in time because they’ve got broader usabilities. You have to expose that data via an API allow or other methods,” he says. “Client reporting — it is a data problem. So, certainly, the solution has to be data-driven and that data has to be discoverable, you have to be able to interact with them, and it has to be actionable,” Barnett says. “We have to allow end-users to interact with that data to generate the insights. It’s not on Hub or other providers in that space to be able to generate that insight because that is on the investment manager — that’s their IP, the USP [unique selling point] that they need to work with,” he adds. Among the reporting needs of clients is a desire for more personalized offerings. “We can kind of really see the fact that now customers are expecting that hyper personalization and shouldn’t be constrained by time or by a really heavy, kind of manual and technical engagement to get it done. It should be via no-code, low-code types of capabilities,” Barnett says. “A key part of reporting is communication and a key part of communication is collaboration,” Barnett says. It will be essential to have “those talks embedded inside of the data, the reporting solutions, and really importantly a really well-defined kind of business glossary … So that when they look at a report they can self-service to ensure they understand … It is also almost taking that Netflix world that we live in now and making it available in the institutional client reporting space.” In the podcast, Barnett also covers:  The top post-trade challenges in 2024;  The T+1 push and ultimately T+0;  The future for Books of Records;  The Ops advantages of Cloud-Native computing;  A.I. and Ops; and  Open Source software for financial services firms. Hub is a cloud-native platform provider that offers connectivity between trading and relevant data to optimize the operations technology used by investment firms. By doing so, Hub says that it enables data streaming, artificial intelligence-based technologies, and automation. Hub is a is a sponsor of FTF’s Performance Measurement & Client Reporting event taking place on Feb. 29, 2024, at Etc. Venues, 601 Lexington Ave. in New York City.

Systems based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies will meet the demands of financial services firms looking for new features and IT capabilities for their performance measurement operations. It will also mean a disruption of the status quo. This is according to the latest FTF Focus podcast featuring Sean Murray, who is senior vice president, senior director, product management, at FactSet and Nina Mayers, who serves as director, performance product management, also at FactSet. “A.I. is definitely going to be one of the biggest disruptors that well see in fintech,” says Murray in response to a question about A.I. innovations and how they might improve operational efficiency. FactSet has been investing in A.I. over the years. A.I.-based systems could ease the burden of tedious processes that are part and parcel of performance measurement and client reporting. “We know that this is an area where our clients spend a lot of time today. Performance is a very data-hungry process and the activities around the onboarding of data have been something that performance practitioners have struggled to come to terms with for a long time,” Mayers says. “As we think about how A.I. can help with that process and look at the types of things where machine learning can sort of help us to replicate repeatable processes, there’s a lot of things that our clients do in terms of data checks, controls, analysis,” Mayers adds. The help with onboarding will be “before we even really get to that sort of calculation engine that we think that A.I. can have significant impact on and can help to smooth out the bumps in the operational processes that our clients experience today,” she says. The podcast also deals with new realities such as performance measurement platforms that are no longer empty boxes requiring a lot of data integration. Firms expect that the data burdens of performance measurement platforms will be easing. “The biggest thing they expect is to ease the burden of data integration side,” Murray says. “We come from the BISAM and B-One world where every client had to integrate their content sets into the application even if the content they were integrating was the same as others. So, if you’re integrating a Russell Index set or an S&P index set you’re doing the work that everyone is doing as well.” “What our clients expect is essentially for us to deliver content into the application or that to be available immediately for the clients to be able to start up and create a new strategy and for them to be able to pull benchmarks in or pull in FX rates or risk-free rates to pull that in instantaneously that’s what their expectation is,” Murray says. Mayers and Murray also discuss:  The important change to come from FactSet’s acquisition of BISAM; o The acquisition’s impact on FactSet’s managed services and outsourcing business  The benefits from performance measurement platforms and offerings in hosted, software as a service or (SaaS) aspects of key;  Vendor compression and other changes could mean the end of the line for some products and services; and  The kinds of internal IT infrastructure changes that can help firms derive the most value from performance measurement offerings via a software-as-a-solution (SaaS) mode.

Securities firms searching for liquidity in capital markets are facing many challenges and factors such as high interest and inflation rates. But this situation represents a huge opportunity for firms that have liquidity and are benefitting from better management of lending and hedging decisions. So says Gil Guillaumey, head of strategy for Capital Market Solutions at Adenza, in this latest edition of the FTF Focus podcast series. Some firms are finding that market conditions are making it challenging to find liquidity. But those with liquidity many find themselves with an advantage. “Market conditions can also be a huge opportunity for institutions that are long on cash or securities and we see a very active repo market that is boosted by more electronification and CCP pushes for more clearing,” Guillaumey says. “Treasury departments will increasingly pay more and more attention to the way they invest and the risk they take. So, controlling the lending and hedging decisions is something we see them increasingly doing.” Adenza provides end-to-end trading, treasury, risk management, and regulatory compliance solutions. Adenza serves global, central, and regional banks, broker-dealers, insurers, asset managers, pension funds, hedge funds, stock exchanges and clearing houses, securities services providers, and corporates. Most recently, Adenza’s Cloud Services won Service Provider of the Year for 2023 via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards competition. For this podcast, Guillaumey discussed:  The changing liquidity landscape;  The new costs associated with this new liquidity landscape;  How treasury groups cope with the lack of liquidity caused by high-interest rates and high inflation;  Central banking and other regulatory changes  How the new liquidity landscape & T+1 are affecting the electronic repo markets

A key requirement of the SEC’s marketing rule is the presentation of net performance data along with gross performance data, but many firms have processes in place only for gross returns, says Olivier Verburg, vice president, analytics manager at FactSet in this latest edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series. “Suddenly switching that to net will present challenges on the operational side of things,” Verburg says. The regulator says that the rule is intended to provide more transparency for investors. “I think they’re trying to make sure consumers are comparing apples to apples when they’re comparing one fund advertisement with another fund advertisement,” Verburg explains. “I think one of the main challenges is that firms may not have the processes in place to calculate net performance [at] every level that the SEC requires,” Vergburg says. “Calculating net performance on the total fund level usually is nothing new, right? Especially when many firms are GIPS compliant, which many are. Firms also need to make sure that so-called extracted performance in their advertisements is reported net of fees as well,” Verburg says. “So, an example of extracted performance in advertisements is it could be like a little table showing the sector or country returns of the funds. Or a table with returns and contributions of the top five or 10 securities,” Verburg says. “Values in a table like this need to be net of fee as well and that is something I believe pretty much no one has bothered to calculate for, therefore making it one of the main challenges.” During this podcast, Verburg focuses on:  The IT and operations changes firms will have to make;  Changes in the way performance and compliance teams interact with each other;  How firms can avoid being hurt by the new rule; and  How firms can be compliant yet leverage the rule to their benefit; FactSet is a financial data and analytics provider that offers financial services firms industry intelligence, ways to monitor portfolio risk and performance, and ways to facilitate trade execution. The company’s offerings include data feeds, desktop analytics, web and mobile applications, sell- and buy-side research tools, and client service solutions. FactSet won the Best Performance Measurement System via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards for 2023.

In this edition of the FTF Exchange podcast series, Sue Sato from the Prime Settlement Services (PSS) department at Nomura Research Institute (NRI) focuses on why NRI is offering a combination of IT outsourcing, also known as ITO, and business process outsourcing or BPO. NRI provides system solutions and consulting services such as management consulting, systems integration, and IT management and solutions for financial services and other industries. NRI has offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. Sato, whose efforts are focused on North America, takes questions from FTF News about the components of this combined offering and why it was done.