According to Accenture, prior to the world awakening to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, capital market firms were in a steady but slow progression towards the cloud.
Then almost overnight, the industry turned on its head as firms rush to mandate remote work and in the process scramble to make internal and external services available on the cloud.
The scalability, resiliency, flexibility, and accessibility of public cloud services became more attractive as firms sought to manage uncertainty. But while public cloud services have their appeal, many in the capital markets also realized that a hybrid cloud approach offered a safer, less disruptive alternative.
FutureCIO spoke to Tara Winters, head of global managed services at FIS, for her take on drivers of cloud considerations among capital market firms in Asia.
BUSINESS: The pandemic has caused capital market firms to reassess their strategy and to accelerate their technology plans, driving many to consider M&A activity. We believe that mergers and acquisitions will be an important part of the overall economic recovery.
INNOVATION: We're seeing capital markets firms looking for advantages in Reg Tech to leverage new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help adapt to new regulations, as well as to address the fragmented regulatory environment in APAC overall.
REGULATION: From our own research, we've seen buy-side firms deepening their reliance on the private cloud for risk management and for regulatory reporting. Sell-side firms are looking to prioritize the hybrid cloud for risk management and compliance management, and insurance companies are looking at the hybrid cloud for risk management.
PLATFORMS: As firms begin to move some applications to the cloud, they build a complex environment when there are some applications running in their on-premises environments, and some that are running in the cloud. These two environments are very different from each other, and they require different security strategies.
SECURITY: I would say leveraging the appropriate tools for scanning and patching is very important. Making sure that the latest releases are deployed and the right virus protection, as well as the strongest firewalls, are in place.
OUTLOOK: Winters acknowledged that the pandemic showed how important it is to have resiliency and where firms need to improve the resiliency of their overall business. Regardless of what changes are coming, businesses want to be confident in their ability to sustain growth.
She noted that the shift to the cloud is partly attributed to the perceived advantages of the technology. Assuming that the right security measures are in place, firms will continue to move to the cloud and that will help improve resiliency.
She also predicts the continued leveraging of advanced technologies like AI, Machine Learning, and big data.
“These are very data-intensive technologies that require the scalability of the cloud, and those new technologies are required for a number of different areas supporting growth as well as the Reg Tech capabilities,” she concluded.
Click on the podchat player and listen to Winters share her opinion on the topic of cloud considerations for capital market firms in Asia.
- BUSINESS: Despite the current regulatory and economic environments, we are seeing active capital markets, including M&A. What is spurring these activities?
- INNOVATION: Do you see RegTech as meeting most of the compliance requirements of capital markets firms in Asia, including more recent amendments by local regulators?
- REGULATION: What areas of financial regulation (in Asia) have changed because of the pandemic?
- Are these changes influencing the adoption of cloud and cloud-based managed services?
- PLATFORMS: With regards to cloud use among capital market firms, what are the primary holdbacks preventing leadership from moving forward?
- SECURITY: Given the recent high-level ransomware attacks, what conditions must CIO/CISOs at capital market firms address for business and compliance heads to be open to cloud-based strategies?
- OUTLOOK: How do you see business and technology leaders at capital market firms in Asia continuing to address the uncertainties of the current environment as they strive for resilience and growth?
