LIST, an ION company, won Best Risk Management Product at the 2022 Markets Choice Awards.
Traders Magazine caught up with Mirko Marcadella, LIST Chief Product and Marketing Officer, to learn more.
What is your reaction to winning the Award at the 2022 Markets Choice Awards?
Given the broad and highly competitive nature of this category, we are delighted to have been recognized as Best Risk Management Solution by Markets Media this year. We exist as a company because we understand the importance of risk management, and the role of effective controls. This award is both a great demonstration of the trust our clients place in JANUS, and a true testament to our ongoing commitment of building solutions that are needed for the entire industry.
This recognition is also a huge boost to people working behind the scenes on the award-winning product: the JANUS Suite. The team has worked tirelessly over the past years to support financial institutions in monitoring and controlling risk in real-time, across multiple assets and markets. We thank the judging panel for recognizing these efforts.
What are the primary capabilities of your risk management solution and how is it unique?
At LIST, we’re focused on designing solutions that help financial institutions manage the complexities of electronic trading, compliance and risk management. For this, we need to first anticipate challenges, work closely with market participants and design solutions accordingly.
This product in particular, JANUS Suite, is the first and unrivalled true intraday consolidated dashboard available to risk managers across capital markets. It comprises four core products, Janus Risk Manager (JRM), JANUS Margin Engine (JME), JANUS Behavioural Analytics (JBA) andJANUS Central LIMIT (JCL). Working together, these systems aggregate trade and order flows across back-offices, trading platforms and clearing systems. JANUS Suite also monitors user-defined risk measures, generate alerts on limit breaches, store risk indicators and alerts – in turn supporting client behavior analysis.
Ultimately, what sets the JANUS Suite apart is the flexibility it offers our customers—flexibility to scale and adapt these products to meet their specific needs. This is something we work with our clients on, so they’re able to expand further—with ease—regardless of the size and complexity of their business.
What trends are reshaping the risk management landscape?
Even though we may be at the tail end of the pandemic, its impact on the financial services industry cannot be ignored. In the first instance, the biggest impact risk managers faced was the overnight shift to remote working. Not only did this accelerate the adoption of digital solutions, but it also revealed a fresh set of risks which companies needed to protect themselves from, with many remote solutions vulnerable to cyber-attacks and breakages. To address these concerns, in the following months, we saw a rapid shift towards cloud-based platforms, making it easier to identify and mitigate these challenges.
Over the past few years, we have also witnessed data spikes like never before. This has made the processing of information a lot more complicated, and has reiterated traders’ need for clean and reliable data. In response, the industry has been forced to provide new technologies which can efficiently aggregate and process data.
The current market volatility has forced traders and firms to look to join up and proof their workflows from fluctuations, right from the front-to-back-office. Given this, there has been a shift to risk management workflow integration, as traders realize the essential need to have post-trade solutions which offer a live perspective of client positions and risk.
In light of this volatility and the rise of new potential threats, regulators have updated and introduced new frameworks accordingly. This has had knock-on effects for the risk management landscape, as firms have been forced to update their systems to ensure they comply with the evolving environment and are not caught out by unknown regulatory breaches.
Overall, the events of recent years necessitated a shift within the risk management landscape towards platforms which allow for predictive analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Firms have realized the benefits of effectively leveraging data and its correlation to understanding their organization’s risk portfolio. There is now the expectation that platforms must be able to deliver insights, identify patterns and generate risk predictions in real-time – a trend that will continue to take shape over the coming years.
What are market participants’ primary needs in the area of risk management, and how is this evolving?
Rattled by market shocks over the past few years, institutions are now looking for ways to be better prepared in predicting and anticipating risks. As such, they are seeking solutions which can insulate them through periods of market uncertainty, and identify potential risks before they materialize into serious problems.
However, with the market constantly evolving, so are the needs of firms. Participants now require solutions which are able to adapt in line with technological improvements, regulatory requirements and market surprises. Risk managers who harness the power of these flexible technologies will gain a better understanding of their risk portfolio, and more optimal outcomes as a result. As partners, this demand places huge responsibilities on technology providers who need to constantly innovate to keep up with these changing requirements.
What are some of LIST’s recent accomplishments?
Throughout this turbulent period, through continued investment we have been able to deliver an uninterrupted service for our clients, equipping them with the tools they need to successfully navigate a vast range of challenges.
In recognition of our performance, we have continued to broaden our client base, as firms across the industry realize the value of ION’s products for their business needs. For instance, we recently completed a public cloud implementation of our JANUS product at a global tier 1 bank.
Our accomplishments are not limited to our risk management offerings. In February, our FastTrade Smart Order Router was recognized as the ‘Best Smart Order Routing System’ at the TradingTech Insight Awards 2022, for its ability to support and deliver the most complex of trading products across the industry.
Overall, the past year has been one of growth for LIST and has further reinforced its position in the market. We are so proud of our accomplishments and are excited for what lies ahead.
What is LIST currently focused on?
Given the expanding needs of market participants, we are currently focused on integrating the JANUS Suite into ION’s broader product offerings, to ensure that the cleared derivatives industry as a whole is able to operate in the most efficient manner.
Transforming a business digitally is hard, and by integrating our solutions with what ION complements, we are able to streamline these procedures for our customers, in turn providing them with a smooth process. Through a broader integration with ION, we will be able to continue working towards our goal of providing a true real-time risk management framework which can reflect changes in back-office and clearing data in a matter of seconds, rather than days.
Ultimately, to bring about the desired changes to the industry, we also need to collaborate with our peers. That’s why we are working with other providers across the industry, to provide holistic solutions which enhance the overall trading experience.
What can we expect from LIST in the near future?
As an ION company, we are dedicated to consistent investment in technological innovation to support our customers’ needs and ensure they are able to remain competitive.
For instance, we are looking at ways to expand the JANUS offering to incorporate modern technologies which allow for real-time predictive analysis of data and client behaviors, such as AI and machine learning. This will enable us to generate alarms the moment real anomalies are detected, reduce false positives and better calibrate our clients’ risk portfolios as a result. This, coupled with enhanced stress testing, will ensure our clients are insulated from future risk and remain at the forefront of their markets, and thus reinforce our position as the leading provider of risk management solutions across financial services.
