Where did you come from and how did you end up at Refinitiv?

“I am from Belgium and went straight to work for ING Bank after university. I started in the International Payments Department where I was responsible for the bank’s incoming and outgoing payments throughout the Belgian provinces. I moved into the markets area and worked on a sales desk providing product, sales and service to institutional customers and branch networks, with a focus on FX and money markets.”

“To optimize this desk, I installed the first form of ecommerce for the whole bank, its branches and customers. I then started trading spot and options, and was at the core of the creation of a customized derivatives desk for bigger corporates. Because I crave permanent intellectual stimulation, I took charge of global ecommerce set-up for the bank and was appointed Global Head of Ecommerce within Markets. I was a regular customer for Refinitiv (ex Thomson Reuters) at this time and when I noticed gaps in their solution, they suggested that I should come and contribute to the completion of their own ecommerce workflows. So I did.”

“At Refinitiv I then took over dealing and also post-trade feeds, which completed the circle from my origin at ING. I now look after the full suite of FX (except FX Venues) there and under the new structure with London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), I am now responsible for currencies within their new FICC division (fixed income, currencies and commodities).”

What was the thinking behind a partnership with Global Relay (GR)?

“The way that regulation has evolved in the dealing environment, and also the increased frequency of financial scandal, led us to conclude that there was a good argument for provision of better global solutions for our customers on scale. This is how we ended up working with GR. We were already using GR in our Eikon messages feed in the dealing suite, but we actually wanted to be able as a proposition to re-sell GR direct to our customers. Customers want a global platform that is uniform from whoever can provide this.”

“We are continuously looking for new angles with this partnership. This comes from within as well as from our customer demand. The potential extends into ticketing and other Refinitiv product that will make us more competitive. As GR already has that golden copy, the key is to use that archive data and leverage it for the benefit of the data owners.”

“Regulatory reporting is another obvious opportunity. Banks are reporting through multiple systems. GR already offers the functional piece that satisfies regulatory requirements and a centralized source of all the data. Having archived this data in one place, why not offer to do the reporting as a new service for our customers?”

LSEG – what does this mean for you, your customers and the market?

“We are at the heart of what the markets really are. LSEG is a major player in the equities and commodities space globally as a financial hub, and we bring the FX side to create a very large uniform platform to help our financial markets community. We bring a global footprint in about 170 countries, which offers major global access for LSEG and our customers. The notoriety, reputation and size of this business is attractive to customers, especially with our regulatory expertise and roots.”

“We bring the FX side to create a very large uniform platform to help our financial markets community.”

Bart Joris

“If you look at the full suite that is available, the multi-asset piece and the range in FX, we can really put our arms around this in totality now. At Refinitiv we have always worked with asset managers, but we lacked the equity angle which LSEG offers and we have developed fixed income too. This totality is very powerful for our customers.”

What does the future hold as the control of the Covid- 19 virus increases, markets start to open again and some sense of normality starts to return?

“I wish I had a crystal ball and could see what the future looks like. We will probably need to learn to live with Covid-19 for some time still. We cannot exclude that it will keep coming back like the flu and we need to adapt so we can move forward. Even with efficient vaccination, I don’t think we will go back to the old normal. Life must go on, for general mental health, well-being and for economic revival.”

“In our business, the tools have changed. People will still need to work from home and be controlled from a compliance perspective. That is still evolving, how to control what is no longer seen in the office or within your network. Much of what we focused on before related to business continuity but during this time many security risks got overlooked. So we need to go back to that and see how we can tighten communication and messaging compliance. In the past in many jurisdictions, mobile phones were banned from dealing floors. That has all changed as most people found their mobile was their most essential work tool from home.”

“Tooling is going to keep shifting dramatically. This is a great opportunity for us as we offer the trade capability, as well as the virtual tools, for remote and mobile working that is fully compliant.”

How do you see the application of AI in markets and at Refinitiv?

“AI is still being explored and researched. You get two reactions to it generally. Some feel it is scary, with concern that the AI may get to a stage where it is so intelligent it makes decisions by itself. But to improve processes, productivity and outcomes, we need to adapt faster than humans can now, as we do not have the scale that computers can offer.”

“Being able to interrogate so much data and information, and identify the signals that denote risk or opportunity to a business will become essential. The use of alternative data in AI models augments the human operations in many progressive trading firms now. The potential to use a much larger data set to derive value is the difference.”

“Being able to interrogate so much data and information, and identify the signals that denote risk or opportunity to a business will become essential.”

“We need to embrace this, especially within trading technology, so that the best data gets surfaced and drives trading decisions. It will also get extended into other parts of the trading process. AI is part of evolution that we cannot avoid, but is also part of a big push for improvement, albeit with controls over its use and deployment.”

What are you most looking forward to about the rest of 2021 in terms of new projects and growth?

“It has to be the flexibility and the new world post-Covid. How we can operate and facilitate the new tools that go mainstream as we become more mobile. Old habits will return but the way we operate has changed. New systems and start-ups will grow out of this – social media has been amazing in its ability to mobilize people to influence our society, markets and opinions. We need to be part of that and assist how this community works and is directed.”

Are there any benefits of confinement?

“Family time – usually I am always travelling. Also, being honest with myself in how I managed my time. It requires a formality and structure in the virtual environment. It helps you to structure your approach and to assess where your focus must be. Prioritization is key and this is much more beneficial for the work environment.”