Last week I heard of a bank that employs 40,000 compliance officers — which seems incredible. So perhaps it’s not surprising that regtech expenditure for fixed income trading desks alone tops $20bn, according to a Greenwich Associates report.
Industry data show that corporate debt issuance doubled from about $750 billion in 2005 to $1.5 trillion in 2016, noted Kevin McPartland.
“It’s also a good time to be young,” William Llamas noted in the 2017 Asset Management Compensation report. It is also good to have a technical focus.
According to Greenwich Associates, 94 percent of the 46 sell-side fixed-income traders taking part in a recent study said they are spending more time speaking with compliance.
“The problem with futures contracts is that they are regulated derivatives that are based off underlying trading in unregulated markets,” said Richard Johnson.
By next year, some 75% of financial firms will either explore or implement artificial intelligence technologies, according to Greenwich Associates.
As McPartland recalled, 5 milliseconds was considered a fast execution speed 10 years ago. Today, 5 milliseconds is positively glacial compared with 50 microseconds, which is about how long it takes for an exchange to match a trade.
New Greenwich Associates report finds RegTech spend will bring about compliance checks and improve tools for sales traders.
Fixed-income dealers are spending as much as $20 billion a year on RegTech to help them comply with the raft of regulations covering their trading desks, according to a new report from Greenwich Associates.
"MiFID II is forcing dealers to upgrade their technology," said Kevin McPartland.
