The Impact of Digitization and Emerging Technologies on Capital Markets and Banks

Reuben Athaide, Head, Cyber Security Advisory and DevSecOps, Standard Chartered Bank

The Capital Markets unit of a bank executes various transactions in keeping with the responsibilities of banks. In particular the bank’s cash management and the management of the bank’s financial risks, which is similar to the treasury function in a non-bank entity. In addition to these standard treasury responsibilities, the capital markets unit is also tasked with sourcing funding, acting as a market maker for its clients, advising them on financial instrument transactions as well as in some instances supervising securities issues or in the case of investment banking supporting mergers and acquisitions.

Over the last decade digitization has impacted the capital markets value chain across all products and functions especially sales and trading as digital channels have become the preferred route to access markets, execute transactions as well as access Bank personnel in advisory capacities and research. Hence, while workforces surged towards the end of the pandemic, the extra people that were employed were mainly developers to fast-track digital capability in order to cater to customer demand and evolving trends. Also, to streamline processes, drive efficiencies and increase the stickiness with clients.

Since the last credit crisis, banks have faced challenges around increased regulatory reporting which do not look like abating anytime soon. There also continues to be significant pressure on returns for a sector that for the most part is undervalued with some FSIS trading at a discount to book value. Banks are also dealing with the costs of maintaining complex legacy platforms, which make it difficult to adapt to evolving client expectations and increasing competition for talent. The onset of digital technologies has also been a challenge to some extent as the electronification across the capital markets value chain has reduced margins overall.

That said, emerging technologies and digital offerings are key enablers for banks to leverage to drive efficiencies, enhance reporting, transform legacy platforms, and cater to evolving client expectations as well as future proof for return on equity as well as attract talent. In the case of the latter new entrants to the workforce, especially technical talent is keen to work on the latest technology stacks and are not that enthusiastic about legacy platforms.

The technologies which are having a positive impact are data and analytics, cloud computing, AI, and distributed ledger technologies. Most of which are in use to varying degrees of maturity and sophistication. Data and cloud computing are the base foundations for the emerging technology stacks with data being a key enabler for all.

Due to the continued regulatory focus on legislations such as BCBS 239, MIFID II, MAR, Europe’s GDPR or India’s draft personal data protection bill or the various rule changes the SEC is considering around T+1 settlement and best execution to name a few, data management is a critical area for enhancement in order to be well poised to take advantage of future technology offerings, especially in the use of AI applications.

By embedding AI in Trading and Risk functions banks can move to prescriptive analytics and as such assess trends and patterns to recommend a way forward for their clients as well as assess potential outcomes for each possibility. In a risk context as the application of AI matures behavioral patterns can be studied in order to identify any abnormalities andmarket abuse. Ultimately decision-making and client risk profiling will also be optimized.

With regards to cloud computing, there have been some targeted use cases for complex pricing leveraging grid computing and the scale offered by a public cloud which has been successful and beats having to procure infrastructure on-prem only to have it sit idle for part of its existence. That being said the uptick has not been as much as initially expected mainly due to regulatory concerns, data jurisdiction constraints, legacy platforms, and internal stakeholder misalignment. Overall, Banks need to do a better job of partnering and educating regulators, especially with regard to operational and strategic resiliency. Two separate challenges. In the case of the former operational resiliency is actually enhanced on the cloud with most providers offering multiple data centers to fail over to in any given region which is usually more than any Bank would have at their disposal. On the other hand, strategic resiliency which entails leveraging a hybrid and multi-cloud strategy takes some additional planning and work to achieve. That being said it isn’t required for all software assets perhaps just for a select few assets and instances.

As a technologist, new technologies and the endless possibilities they offer are indeed exciting albeit we must not forget the ultimate driver for any change is servicing a customer's need and solving an actual business problem

Although RPA isn’t exactly considered new development in back-office operations there has been an increased use of the technology to automate processes around client transacting and servicing in order to reduce friction and TAT, which continues to be a challenge across markets.

Since the launch of Bitcoin as the first known Blockchain solution. There has been a lot of excitement and buzz around this emerging technology. Given the Center of blockchain technology revolves around Trust, this technology is truly revolutionary. However, while there have been several pilot projects and research experiments in Banks it is still an area to wait and watch. That being said, given some of the challenges banks face around returns on equity and creating stickiness with customers. Blockchain with its ability to enable a globally shared and secured data structure that also maintains a transactional backend database that is immutable has the potential to enhance post-trade settlement and processing.

Perhaps even reducing the settlement time and ultimately the cost of a trade. In addition to this from a customer perspective, DLT will provide transparency, and inclusivity, especially to asset classes that previously required a high capital barrier to entry, which may now be accessible through the tokenization of assets and a reduction in transaction costs, especially for cross-border payments. Sending mortgage payments back home may become quicker and cheaper - Yaay!

As a technologist, new technologies and the endless possibilities they offer are indeed exciting albeit we must not forget the ultimate driver for any change is servicing a customer's need and solving an actual business problem. To that end, it is important to have a strategy for immediate priorities as well as to future proof such that as banking and client expectations evolve we can leverage technology to access ecosystems to build partnerships and grow revenue, increase internal collaboration and productivity as well as adapt to new ways of operating.