In this edition of Heard at Ops, CEOs, senior executives, and thought leaders share their perspectives on T+1, automation and AI, cybersecurity, data, digital transformation, the changing talent experience, and why partnerships are more important than ever in financial services. Watch the highlights and explore by episode below.

Watch the Highlights:

Explore the Episodes:

Building Partnerships to Shape the Future with Frank La Salla

The opportunities for financial services are enormous. Technologies like cloud computing, DLT and AI have enormous potential to transform the global financial markets and improve how services are delivered in ways that we can’t even imagine. We all share a collective goal to reduce risk, improve resilience and help make investing easier and better for the public.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with DTCC’s Frank La Salla.

Leading Through Change with Debra Guarino

What we have noticed with new talent is their expectations, which have shifted due to the pandemic and people spending time learning what they like and what they value. As leaders, we are going to be challenged with: How do we keep these associates engaged? How do we help them move along on their path to where they want to go?

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with BNY Mellon | Pershing’s Debra Guarino.

Transitioning to T+1 with Bob Walley

The analysis of all the systems that contribute to post-trade activity needs to be looked at. Some firms have 500-600 systems that are part of their ecosystem that produces data, that send one file from one system to another. Firms need to understand the interdependencies of those systems and the data, so that the nightly cycle will work. Then we need to test the entire environment for resiliency.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with Deloitte’s Bob Walley.

Doing Better by Our Clients, Teams, and Industry with Stephen C. Daffron

We are competitors. Everybody at the Ops Conference is representing someone who is competing with something else. This is a very competitive business, which is as it should be. And that is an important part of how we make our businesses work for our clients and the value we create. At the same time, there must be a level of cooperation. Even though we are competitors, we are also collaborators.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with BetaNXT’s Stephen C. Daffron.

New Tech and Modernizing Talent Experiences with Stefanie Coleman

It is conceivable that the change management connected to blockchain implementations has been an area potentially underinvested. The upskilling of people to engage with these technologies, to build a common understanding around what it’s capable of doing – and the governance around it – is going to be important to boosting the impact of these types of technology assets.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with EY’s Stefanie Coleman.

Transforming the Customer Experience with Tim Gokey

We’ve heard a tremendous focus on T+1 and I think the question then is how can firms use that as a catalyst for other things that they want to get done? In wealth management, digitalized experiences – whether that is client onboarding or servicing, whether it’s corporate actions, tax or a lot of other experiences that one can dive into and digitalize – can create real value.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with Broadridge’s Tim Gokey.

Applying Intelligent Automation with Alberto Jiménez

We shared a statistic at SIFMA Ops stating that there is going to be a 10.3 million talent deficit of workers in the financial services industry – just for the largest 20 economies – by 2030. In the current trajectory, where we have less available labor in the market to perform these functions to continue to fuel the growth of financial institutions, we need to find a way to increase productivity.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with IBM’s Alberto Jiménez.

Creating Strategies for Data with Greta Lovenheim

With generative AI, potentially – and I don’t think it is that far away – you may not need to know how to code. You still need to know how to process the questions, how to think about the answers, and understand what the data means. But to get access to that data, to start to put that puzzle together, you may not need the code going forward to be able to do that.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with PwC’s Greta Lovenheim.

Enhancing Cybersecurity and Preparedness with Andrew Retrum

The ION ransomware attack was a very telling example of how prepared the sector is to respond and recover from an adverse event like that. A number of positive things came out of it. At the sector level, it demonstrated the ability to recover and work together in a thoughtful way to limit the disruption across the business. But it was also an eye-opening experience, leaving many wondering: what if?

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with Protiviti’s Andrew Retrum.

Returning to Fundamentals with Andrés Choussy

Regulators have taken on a much more active role as it relates to digital assets and crypto, but also as it relates to back-to-basics themes. For example, there is an increased focus on cybersecurity and resilience. This focus has been around forever but has taken on a much more important role given some of the recent issues that we have observed over the past year. Operations teams and fintech companies will need to focus on their core competencies as they return to the fundamentals.

For more, watch the video and read our Q&A with FIS’ Andrés Choussy.

The Heard at Ops series features one-on-one conversations with operations and technology leaders filmed on-site at SIFMA Ops, the definitive conference for operations professionals in financial services.

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