The TRADE 54 | Page 73

[ T U R N O F T H E Y E A R | W H AT T O E X P E C T F R O M 2 0 1 8 ] Peter Randall, CEO, SETL Disintermediation to the post-trade Cost pressures, and successful blockchain projects like Iznes, will generate significant further interest in 2018 and both asset issuers and asset owners will increasingly contribute to the growth of the total market place for the exchange of cryptographic proofs using the inherent integrity of a blockchain. Further areas Mark Pumfrey, head of EMEA, Liquidnet of the post-trade value chain will be subject to disintermediation. In 2018, we will also see increased emphasis on systems that meet ISO 27001 standards and that can process tens of thousands of transformations to tens of millions of addresses in a secure permissioned environment. Mahmood Noorani, founder, Quant Insight The year to focus on excellence Quant-essential recruitment The spotlight in 2018 will be firmly on excellence - for both execution and research. What we have witnessed in financial markets to date is that too much average product and service has been allowed to survive and prosper. The transparency changes enforced as part of MiFID II will ensure an overdue move towards best-in-class survival. As accountability and control shifts to the buy-side in both equity and fixed income, relationships will change as will the make-up of key partners. All of this should be very good for returns, the end investor, and confidence in financial markets. MiFID II combined with the threat to active asset managers from passive point in the same direction: discretionary funds need to embrace big data & smart technology to regain an edge. To some degree, this happened with large asset managers hiring in-house quants. But history suggests these teams will be siloed, with insufficient access to front office traders, meaning their output will lack relevance. While the first wave of FinTech was dominated by new pipelines of alternative data, the success of phase two will be determined by having the experience & expertise to know which data is relevant, how to interpret that data & translate it into actionable investment ideas. Issue 54 TheTradeNews.com 73