OPTIC, now in its third year, is returning to the UK for 2024! AFME’s annual Operations, Post-Trade, Technology & Innovation conference brings together the industry’s leading voices, to discuss the role of technology in developing capital markets in Europe, with particular focus on the world of operations and post trade. OPTIC 2024 will take place in London, with a two-day agenda packed with keynote addresses from regulatory authorities, thought-provoking panels and speeches from Europe's leading financial institutions, and ample networking opportunities for attendees. Delegates will hear from practitioners, technologists, and policymakers on the most important innovations happening here and now, and what the future landscape might look like. Our expert speakers will discuss the opportunities and challenges that are unique to Europe, and contemplate whether the capital markets ecosystem, and its underpinning regulatory framework, is well-positioned to support innovation. This event is attended by senior capital market professionals working in operations, post-trade, technology, regulation, and policy. Regular Registration fees:• AFME member: £819 + VAT• Non member: £1119 + VATMulti-booking discount:• 10% off when booking 3 or more delegates at the same time• 20% off when booking 5 or more delegates at the same timeMulti booking discounts can be applied at check out for group booking.Complimentary subject to verification:• Regulator: promo code REGULATOR• Press: promo code PRESS for in person attendance or VIRTUALPRESS to receive a live stream link (this link is only available to press)Note: Promo codes are case sensitiveTo discuss sponsorship opportunities, please contact Cheryl Chickowski at [email protected] or on +44 (0)7824 874 391.
As an international central securities depository (ICSD), headquartered in Luxembourg, Clearstream, which is part of Deutsche Börse Group, provides the post-trade infrastructure for the Eurobond market and services for securities from 60 domestic markets worldwide. With more than 18 trillion Euros in assets under custody, Clearstream is one of the world’s largest settlement and custody firms for domestic and international securities including investment funds. As part of our European custody solution, the Investor-CSD model benefits from direct connectivity to T2S which allows Clearstream to offer settlement instruction directly into the domestic markets and with T2S deadlines. Best-in-class asset servicing capabilities, such as digitised proxy-voting and tax services support our customers in increasing operational efficiency along the custody chain. https://www.clearstream.com
Euroclear is one of the world’s largest providers of domestic and cross-border settlement and related services for bond, equity, ETF and mutual fund transactions. Euroclear is a proven, resilient capital market infrastructure committed to delivering risk-mitigation, automation and efficiency at scale for its global client franchise. The Euroclear group includes Euroclear Bank – which is rated AA by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s – as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden, Euroclear UK & International and the fund platform MFEX. The Euroclear group settled the equivalent of EUR 1,066 trillion in securities transactions in 2022, representing 304 million domestic and cross-border transactions, and held EUR 35.6 trillion in assets for clients by end of 2022. https://www.euroclear.com
We’re the global specialist in financial transactions – the way the world moves value across borders, through cities and over seas. We keep funds flowing, supply chains moving and the world's economies turning. No other organisation can address the scale, precision and trust that this demands. We're unique too: a neutral cooperative established to provide a safe, secure and reliable way for the financial community to send transactions across borders. We’re always striving to be better and are constantly evolving in an ever-changing landscape. We innovate tirelessly, test exhaustively, then implement fast. In a connected and challenging era, our mission has never been more relevant. https://www.swift.com/
BNP Paribas’s Securities Services business is a leading global custodian providing multi-asset post-trade and asset servicing solutions to buy-side and sell-side market participants, corporates and issuers. With a global reach covering 90+ markets, its custody network is one of the most extensive in the industry, enabling clients to maximise their investment opportunities worldwide. As of 31 December 2023, Securities Services had USD 13.67 trillion in assets under custody, USD 2.72 trillion in assets under administration and 9,208 funds administered. https://group.bnpparibas/en/
Broadridge, a global Fintech leader with more than $5 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions that drive digital transformation for our clients and help them get ahead of today’s challenges to capitalise on what’s next. https://www.broadridge.com/en/
Delta Capita, the Financial Services division of Prytek, is a leading global Capital Markets consulting, managed services, and technology provider with a unique combination of experience in financial services and capability in technology innovation. Headquartered in the UK, Delta Capita has more than 1,200 professionals across its offices in London, Germany, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the USA. Delta Capita specialises in the creation of multi-client managed services with technology, people, and infrastructure.
With 50 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry. From 20 locations around the world, DTCC, through its subsidiaries, automates, centralizes, and standardizes the processing of financial transactions, mitigating risk, increasing transparency and driving efficiency for thousands of broker/dealers, custodian banks and asset managers. Industry owned and governed, the firm simplifies the complexities of clearing, settlement, asset servicing, data management, data reporting and information services across asset classes, bringing increased security and soundness to financial markets. To learn more, visit www.dtcc.com
Duco is the enterprise platform for data automation - our vision is to reduce time spent on data-related work by 90%. We do this by empowering finance and operations teams with no-code, AI-powered technology that removes the manual work, cost and risk associated with managing their mission-critical data.
FIS is a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions for financial institutions, businesses and developers. We improve the digital transformation of our financial economy, advancing the way the world pays, banks and invests. We provide the confidence made possible when reliability meets innovation, helping our clients run, grow and protect their business. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS is a member of the Fortune 500® and the Standard & Poor’s 500®. FIS is incorporated under the laws of the State of Georgia as Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., and our stock is traded under the trading symbol "FIS" on the New York Stock Exchange. To learn more, visit www.fisglobal.com. Follow FIS on Facebook, LinkedIn and X (@FISGlobal).
Xceptor is the intelligent data automation platform for financial markets, providing data ingestion, standardization, normalization, and validation services. Catering to thousands of unique use cases, its highly configurable and enterprise-grade platform offers pre-built solutions that deliver trusted data for tax, reconciliations, confirmations, client onboarding, and allocations workflows. Since 2003, Xceptor has been empowering businesses worldwide to trust their data and digitize their end-to-end processes. With offices in London, New York, Singapore and Cape Town, Xceptor serves nearly 125 clients and over 11,500 users across 60 countries, including banks, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, and asset servicers. For more information, visit www.xceptor.com.
Ashurst is a leading global law firm with over 450 partners and a further 1,800 plus lawyers working across 11 different time zones. The firm's in-depth understanding of its clients and commitment to providing exceptional standards of service has seen it become a trusted adviser to local and global corporates, financial institutions and governments on all areas of commercial law. Ashurst has 31 offices in 18 countries and offers the reach and insight of a global firm, combined with the knowledge and understanding of local markets. As a global team, Ashurst has a reputation for successfully managing large and complex multi-jurisdictional transactions, disputes and projects and delivering integrated solutions that provide strategic value for clients. The firm's people are its greatest asset and bring together global teams of experts across legal, risk consulting and NewLaw to deliver end-to-end solutions and provide the incisive advice clients need. Our focus is on getting to the heart of clients' commercial goals and on striving to go beyond matters of the law to deliver practical, holistic solutions.
Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organizations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fueled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem. The Group reported 2023 global revenues of €22.5 billion.
Cboe Clear Europe is a leading pan-European central counterparty (CCP) and provides safe and efficient clearing and settlement services throughout Europe. Cboe Clear Europe is the most connected CCP in Europe - offering clearing services to 46 trading venues - and is approved to clear cash equities, depositary receipts, ETFs and equity derivatives. https://clear.cboe.com/
Deloitte Legal brings together over 350 top-flight lawyers, consultants and technology experts to provide clients with new solutions to legal problems. People who understand the implications of digitisation, big data, AI, robotics and platform-based business models, bringing innovative solutions that combine legal expertise with market-leading technology, scale delivery and consulting capabilities. Our lawyers have worked in law firms, regulators and financial institutions, giving us first-hand experience of the challenges faced today by the General Counsel and the legal function.
Fnality is building a network of DLT-based systems for real-time, 24/7 wholesale payments on a global scale. With distributed, peer-to-peer financial market infrastructure, we aim to remove barriers to payments and settlements globally, providing true interoperability both between pools of liquidity across major global currencies, and across a wide range of existing and emerging asset classes. In our Fnality Payment Systems, participants are empowered to settle in central bank money in real time and on a 24/7 basis. This combines the safety and credit risk of central bank funds in a systemic wholesale payment system with the functionality and resilience of blockchain technology for the first time. Recently, Fnality – alongside participants Lloyds, Santander and UBS – used the Sterling Fnality Payment System, underpinned by an Omnibus Account at the Bank of England, to complete the world’s first payment on a fully regulated DLT-based wholesale payment system, settling in a digital representation of central bank funds. Learn more here: https://www.fnality.org/news-views/fnality-commences-initial-phase-of-sterling-payment-operations-in-a-world-first
Herbert Smith Freehills is a leading global law firm with over 5,000 people, including 500 partners, in 25 offices across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the US. As one of the world’s leading law firms, we advise many of the biggest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the globe. Our clients trust us with their most important transactions, disputes and projects because of our ability to cut through complexity and mitigate risk. Positioned to support the major trade flows, we help the world’s top companies thrive in the global economy. We recognise the transformational power of blockchain and digital assets. They offer an array of opportunities to businesses and individuals, from increasing trust and transparency, simplifying and accelerating processes through to providing new technology-led investment options. But they also operate in a rapidly evolving environment which raises complex issues that require deep technical, legal, and regulatory expertise to navigate. We bring together a global network of over 300 tech savvy lawyers, several with backgrounds in science and technology, to help clients capitalise on the opportunities offered by blockchain and digital assets, while complying with ever-changing law and regulation. As the legal and regulatory landscape continues to evolve, we also engage with industry groups and policy makers on important issues and maintain our strong relationships with regulators and governments globally. Our lawyers chair the Financial Law Committee and the Regulatory Law Committee of the City of London Law Society and sit on the steering committee of the Global Blockchain Convergence Industry Group. We have also partnered with the Digital Pound Foundation, a non-profit association exploring a potential UK central bank digital currency.
For more than 35 years, Murex has provided enterprise-wide, cross-asset financial technology solutions to capital markets players. Its cross-function platform, MX.3, supports trading, treasury, risk and post-trade operations, enabling clients to better meet regulatory requirements, manage enterprise-wide risk and control IT costs. With more than 60,000 daily users in more than 65 countries, Murex has clients across the financial services industry, from banking and asset management to energy and commodities. Murex is an independent company with over 2,700 employees across 19 locations. Murex is committed to providing cutting-edge technology, superior customer service and unique product innovation. MX.3 is specifically designed and engineered to meet the multifaceted challenges of a transforming financial industry. To find out more, visit www.murex.com
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. PwC is a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 276,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com/UK.
eClerx is a productized services company, bringing together people, technology and domain expertise to amplify business results.
Orchestrade is the modern trading, operations, and risk management platform that is natively cross-asset, business agnostic, and highly adaptable. Designed for interoperability, it can be a component that extends your existing systems or a new fully managed environment. Orchestrade is scalable for volume and rapidly extendable to meet market opportunities. We can solve a specific problem at a specific desk or be used across your business, so reducing total cost of ownership. Orchestrade delivers, out of the box, the sophisticated capabilities you need but with easy implementation for standard uses. We provide a modernization path for the bank’s legacy architecture.
The European Association of CCP Clearing Houses (EACH) represents the interests of Central Counterparties (CCPs) in Europe since 1992. CCPs are financial market infrastructures that significantly contribute to safer, more efficient and transparent global financial markets. EACH currently has 19 members from 15 different European countries. EACH is registered in the European Union Transparency Register with number 36897011311-96.”
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Financial News is the agenda-setting publication read by smart and ambitious professionals in the City of London and across Europe's financial markets. Our award-winning journalists deliver the latest news and analysis, from in-depth interviews with influential business and political leaders, to insight into career advancement, bonus trends and other hot topics in the world of work.
Best Execution – where the buyside and sellside meet Best Execution’s quarterly magazine, daily online news and regular e-mail newsletters examine the impact of regulation, new market participants and new technologies on all asset classes (equities, fixed income, derivatives and FX) from pre-trade to post-trade and beyond. One of the consequences of regulation has been the changing dynamic of buyside-sellside interactions and Best Execution is now broadening its remit with Broker Review to examine the true cost of services provided by brokers to their clients. This will not only cover execution and research, but also scrutinise the shift towards sustainability with the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment strategy. Best Execution acts as a bridge between the buyside and the sellside, shining a light on their changing relationship and examining the evolution of the global securities markets, but never forgetting that it is not just technology, but people who are needed to hone that competitive edge. For further information please visit https://www.bestexecution.net
For industry professionals in securities finance and collateral management, getting beyond the hype and understanding how news events and regulatory announcements will affect their business can be a challenge. Finadium News & Opinion, publishing web-based news and regulatory analysis at least four days a week, provides a valuable resource. Finadium offers independent thinking in a concise, easy to read format designed for thousands of busy industry professionals on the buy-side and sell-side, at regulators, market infrastructure and technology firms.
Talking about bonds starts at the DESK The DESK provides buy-side traders and their counterparts with precise detail on the macro-drivers, events and plans that are shaping liquidity and price discovery in fixed income markets. The DESK’s quarterly magazine, daily news, weekly newsletters and social media feeds give us a constant flow of information to the market, blending a mix of exclusive stories, in-depth trader profiles and technical analysis of trading across the cash and derivatives’ fixed income markets. The DESK is trusted by bond traders to be the best information on market structure, data and trade execution. Using a unique model of feedback via monthly off-the-record briefings and quarterly quantitative research, we help buy-side traders to navigate the evolving fixed income markets and sell-side traders to better support their clients. Our readers predominantly come from the developed financial market centres of Europe and North America, but our combination of print and digital gives The DESK a global reach. https://www.fi-desk.com
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