No guest this week, folks. Tony and Shen discuss recent books they’ve read about data and analytics, and…humanity.


Episode 333: Baseball, analytics and therapy

This week, Bank of America’s Ashok Krishnan and Duncan McInnes join Tony to discuss the build, buy, borrow strategy and instilling the right culture within the bank.

0:00 – Shen and Tony talk about the Risk Live Asia 2025 conference in Singapore
7:30 – Ashok and Duncan join the podcast
11:30 – The build, buy, borrow strategy
14:00 – Building a rocket ship
19:00 – Instilling a culture that remains
22:30 – Doubling down on the ‘Why’
28:00 – Managing tech priorities
34:00 – Dealing with data, interoperability, and tech debt

Episode 334: BofA’s Krishnan and McInnes

This week’s episode is one of those where Wei-Shen and Tony blather on about an array of things, including generative AI, cybersecurity, and Taylor Swift’s new album. Listen at your own risk.

Episode 335: Some tech talk...kinda

Over the last few weeks, the CEOs of several major financial institutions, as well as regulators around the globe, have been talking about tokenization, stablecoins, and blockchain. Wei-Shen and Tony do their best to unpack why this is significant. 

Ep. 336: Tokenization mania

Bob Myers runs Interop.io’s io.Intelligence unit. He joins the podcast (7:30) to explain what agentic AI really means (16:00); how the promise of agents could be good for interoperability between applications and systems (21:00); the hype versus reality of AI at financial institutions (25:00); an explainer of the Model Context Protocol and the need to avoid sins of the past (31:00); and what the industry should keep in mind when it comes to AI’s rapid evolution and the need to keep interoperability in mind (37:00).

[Editor’s note: Tony confused ChartIQ with Glue42 when describing the former’s origins being in Charlottesville, Virginia. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box…give him a break.]

Ep. 337: Interop.io’s Bob Myers

For the first 9 minutes, Tony rambles on about US elections…naturally. The good stuff starts at 9:30, when Mike McGovern, global head of technology engagement at Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), joins the show. Over the course of 30 minutes, Mike and Tony talk about the importance of building an open architecture so as to better position the organization for “innovation enablement” (11:00); lessons learned and mistakes made when experimenting with AI and the importance of structured data (15:00); they delve into some of the reasons for why data management is still such a challenge (20:00); Mike opines as to whether newer, more sophisticated forms of AI will help fix those old data management problems or compound those issues (25:00); does he have any worries about the younger generation relying too much on AI (28:00); how delves into how his ideas around strategic partnerships have changed over the years (33:00); and some words of wisdom for vendors approaching BBH (37:00).

Episode 338: BBH’s Mike McGovern

This week’s guest is Jan Rohof, Asia-Pacific director of quantitative strategies and solutions at Northern Trust Asset Management

https://www.waterstechnology.com/emerging-technologies/7952654/northern-trust-asset-management-enlists-network-theory-to-construct-alpha-signals?ref=header-search

0:00 – Tony and Shen delve into two documentaries he recently watched

11:00 – Jan joins and talks about how he built a multi-factor model in high school

17:30 – The four Vs of data

20:30 – Efforts and resources required for good data infrastructure

26:30 – Focus on the economic fundamentals and reasoning

30:00 – NTAM’s research to implementation process

40:30 – Alternative data should be a misnomer

Episode 339: Northern Trust Asset Management’s Jan Rohof

The week of Thanksgiving in the US is one of the slowest news weeks of the year. So Anthony and Nyela Graham (who is subbing in for Wei-Shen) talk about the news media, instead.

Ep. 340: The sad state of journalism

This week’s guests are Michele Pitts, managing director and global product head of transaction management, and Marcello Topa, director for global market advocacy, policy, and strategy at Citi Investor Services

0:00 – Reb and Shen talk about the death of rom-com movies
9:30 – Michele and Marcello join the podcast
11:30 – Updates from UK and EU’s taskforces
15:30 – Applicability of lessons from US T+1
19:00 – How tech can help
25:00 – Prevention vs. cure
30:00 – Metrics firms should have
32:30 – T+0 is inevitable


Episode 341: Citi’s Pitts and Topa

This week’s guest is Sophie Lagouanelle, vice president of product for financial crime compliance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions

(0:00) – Tony and Shen talk about their Spotify 2025 Wrapped

(5:00) – Sophie joins and reflects on the state of financial crime

(14:00) – Volume and speed

(17:30) – AI and ML’s role

(25:30) – Changes within compliance teams

(30:00) – Focus areas for regulators

(40:30) – Shared memory


Episode 342: LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Sophie Lagouanelle

The podcast is back and with an even better sound as the gang tests out proper recording equipment. First, Wei-Shen Wong joins the podcast to talk about quantum computing. After that, James and Tony look at a possible emerging trend: the combination of the investment book of record (IBOR) and blockchain technology. They then rant about the most recent episode of Game of Thrones and finish up by discussing Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor “fight”.
 
Quantum Computing
3:35 Wei-Shen Wong calls in from Hong Kong to discuss her feature examining quantum computing.
5:05 What differentiates quantum computing from today’s traditional high-performance computers?
7:30 Which areas of finance could QC impact over the next few years?
9:30 What security problems will this revolution pose for all firms?
12:15 What’s colder than cold? Well, quantum computing...
15:00 What’s the time horizon for quantum computing?
17:00 Wei-Shen talks about the challenges of reporting on such a complex topic.
18:15 Wei-Shen finishes up giving some recommendations for restaurants to check out in Hong Kong.
 
IBOR & Blockchain
21:00 IBOR IS BACK, BABY!
22:20 A recap of the IBOR space.
23:45 Why are people once again getting excited about IBOR and how does blockchain play into this space?
24:55 Blockchain is still in the proof-of-concept/theoretical stage. Is the industry moving too fast on this?
 
Game of Thrones & Fight Night
27:00 A Game of Thrones rant.
46:10 What not to do if you watch the Mayweather-McGregor fight at someone’s house.

Episode 84: Quantum Computing, IBOR/Blockchain, Game of Thrones, Mayweather-McGregor

Wei-Shen Wong and Anthony Malakian discuss the hottest financial technology topics in the capital markets every week.

Episode 84: Quantum Computing, IBOR/Blockchain, Game of Thrones, Mayweather-McGregor

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