Who stole the show at SunGard’s New York City Day 2011?

Contributor: Marcus Cree

I spent Monday, June 20 at the SunGard’s New York City Day. This year’s event brought another full house, with a provocative keynote speaker and an afternoon full of industry debate and questions.

Not surprisingly, regulatory reform dominated many of the presentations throughout the afternoon and found its way into most of the conversations in the networking sessions. Neither Barney Frank nor Chris Dodd was at the Waldorf-Astoria that day, but their long shadows certainly were.

From wealth management to capital markets risk, discussions concerning the new regulatory framework – including its impact on derivatives, portfolio management, market liquidity and the cost of being in business – ran through the event presentations, panels, attendee questions and working groups. There was a great deal of conversation about the move to central clearing, and the impact it would have on swap volumes, market liquidity, collateral requirements and risk concentrations.

The most interesting aspect of SunGard’s New York City Day for me was the willingness of so many industry representatives to share their concerns, expectations and best practices. It is clear that the industry as a whole is facing up to the challenge of interpreting the rules and looking to establish frameworks that achieve both the letter and spirit of those rules.

As SunGard supports our industry partners in all areas of the financial markets, there were many timely topics covered across the board, but the underlying and connecting theme of the day was clarifying the new regulations. So at the end of the day, even though Meredith Whitney gave an excellent keynote speech, and we heard valuable presentations from speakers like the CFTC’s Scott O’Malia, the DTCC’s Larry Thompson, and analysts from TowerGroup, TABB Group, Aite Group and Finadium, I believe Chris and Barney stole the show in New York!

Did you attend New York City Day this year? What did you take away from the event? Which speakers and topics did you find most useful as you prepare for the new regulations? Will you be joining us for our other City Day events happening in 2011? And one more question – do you see yourself in any of the event photos?

While you’re here…

• Take a look at how SunGard can help with enterprise risk and operations
• Read the latest market insights on risk management and regulation

SHARE