POST-TRADE, POST-CRISIS: SMOOTHING THE CURVE ROUND TABLE

摘要

It is widely accepted that some 80% of the costs found in the back offices of large banks are associated with fixing broken trades. A recent study carried out by industry standards body Swift into the cost of failed transactions for cross-border payments and transactions found that about €21bn annually is wasted due to an industry-wide lack of automation. Although this is a long-standing problem, the trading and liquidity difficulties of the past 18 months have served as a poignant reminder to the industry that trade processes are only as strong as their weakest link. And in the post-trade environment, many weak links remain: the persistent use of faxes for confirmations between the back offices of buy-side firms and banks, for example, is more prevalent than many would care to admit - not just for complex over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives but for mature markets such as equities.