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For delegates, you left wiser and indeed I believe somewhat entertained. Feedback suggests unanimous enjoyment of a pacy, high energy forum. It was my pleasure to chair and I delighted in the myriad of topics ably covered by terrific Chairmen and fantastic panellists. One column is not enough to do justice to you all by any stretch. Besides, those who were there deserve to retain an informational advantage over ‘stay-at-homes’.
Turquoise maestro Robert Barnes set the scene as last year’s Chairman and addressed the burning questions of the OTC world and its transitions into the brave new world. Jake Pugh, ace consultant and industry sage punctured the air by noting how the largest single trader on LIFFE is actually not a bank, nor a business most anybody in the room could probably name.
Disruptive Technologies was next, although some panellists were so busy disrupting they were clearly caught out by the day’s events running to time! Halsey Minor maximised his allocation by sparkling on topics pertaining to Bitcoin, regulation et al. Meanwhile it was great to see Zopa cofounder Giles Andrews discussing the fascinating world of P2P lending under the insightful gaze of panel Chairman Hirander Misra, himself no stranger to financial innovation.
That panel elegantly led to my own session on the venues themselves. Analyst Peter Lenardos of RBC and ClearTrade CEO Richard Baker were amongst those who sparkled while Nandini Sukumar did an excellent job of giving hope that the World Federation of Exchanges really can be relevant going forward. Prof Michael Aitken revealed some interesting aspects to market structure after lunch as a prelude to a fascinating clearing session capably chaired by Andrew Simpson of Euronext.
Michael Mainelli, in an elegant keynote, succinctly showed how forex fixing was rather evident all along, before Tim Cave led a strong panel discussing issues of cyber security and surveillance. This session alone made the delegate fee for the Exchange Forum entirely worthwhile. Our inspiring panels were elegantly rounded out by a technology discussion led by the excellent Peter Randall.
For me, the key takeaway was a reminder just how diverse exchange/market infrastructure remains despite some concentration of leading western assets. The marketplace is vast and in terms of profitability still offers rich pickings on multiple fronts. The industry retains two key schools of thought. A regressive lobby still harks back to mutual markets with clunking legacy technology and endless committees. Innovation is a dirty word there, something to fear and indeed repulse with knee jerk paranoia. What a pity to see businesses held back (or held to ransom).
For my quantitatively eased 2 cents’ worth, I champion the progressive camp. For profit markets allied with the derivatives revolution have created a vastly more interesting and risk transferable world with massive profits and savings accruing to savvy bourses, investors, traders and corporates. Rather than panicking about more innovation, a perfect storm continues to challenge markets to being bigger and better as well as much, much broader - across borders and particularly across asset classes. That in and of itself requires one massive injection into markets. It is not liquidity, nor is it accessibility, and indeed it is neither connectivity or transparency. Those are by-products of the great exchange wave forward: rather, the thing we need more than ever from our markets is thinking.
As the Exchange Forum blazed on, the one thing I found most illuminating was how we could divide the old world and the new in exchanges. It was not between the apparently mutual nor the allegedly for profit...or any other such arbitrary division. Rather the clearest exposure of the market and its future, writ large in a lively Forum was between those who can think the future and hence shape it and those whose first reaction involves retaining the status quo.
The “Capital Market Revolution!” is over 15 years old and yet still the forces of reaction are conspiring to hold the industry back. That is a perfect reason why the Mondo Visione Exchange Forum will continue in 2015 to push back the frontiers of market thinking. I am delighted to say I have already been invited back to chair the event.
Patrick L Young thanks Herbie, Bob, Chris, Hamish and all the team for their great work in making the Exchange Forum such a success in 2014.
A final note from the Editor: Patrick L Young, advisor to exchanges and investors, and Trading Places IPO columnist has completed his 3 year term as a director of Liquidnet Europe and is standing down from the board after a successful spell which saw record years for the business.
