Financial Markets

The capital markets are in the eye of a perfect storm, resulting from the combination of a sharp increase in regulatory scrutiny in the wake of the global financial crisis, trading volumes depressed by the worldwide economic slowdown, market volatility in response to major problems such as the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, and a general lack of investor confidence. The likelihood of a regulated end to proprietary trading on the part of investment banks increases their reliance on fees from buy-side customers as their primary source of revenue, but the buy side has become less faithful to its brokers. It is thus the corporate banking side of major financial institutions that must make up any shortfall in revenue from the investment bank. Wealth management too faces a challenging environment in which return on investment from its customers’ portfolios is no longer so easy to guarantee. As a result, the customers are more fickle, so there is a need to demonstrate better service to keep them.

Research coverage

The Financial Markets research stream looks at the industry trends and drivers that influence market participants’ technology strategies. As well as general IT investment trends, coverage includes the following topics:

• Regulation and compliance
• Automated trading strategies
• Enhancing alpha generation
• Liquidity risk management
• Cash management and treasury
• Cost optimization

2013 Signature Research

• Managing risk and regulation after Dodd-Frank and Basel III
• Creating a multi-asset trading platform
• Buy-side technology: enabling client growth

View our Financial Markets Technology research