Vintage Filings Legal Blog

So when the dust settles, what will the public markets look like?  What changes will take place to protect against fraud?  I came across the results of a Sybase/Financial Times informal poll taken at the FT Electric Money Conference: Liquidity in Crisis, held this week at Manhattan’s Cipriani Wall Street. Excesses in the securitization industry coupled with a failure of valuation practices and risk management were among the leading causes of the global financial crisis, according to the majority (54%) of respondents.

The crisis, while far-reaching in scope, can be fixed through the kinds of government intervention and bailout programs that are being implemented, according to fully half (50%) of senior financial executives polled at the event.

Some 38% of those surveyed believe that the financial industry, while structurally sound, will also require adjustments to regulatory and accounting practices to return to an even keel. Notably, 53% of the survey’s respondents see a long-term challenge in trying to formulate regulations that can keep up with the dynamic, innovative nature of the financial industry — and Wall Street in particular.

Sinan Baskan, financial markets director at Sybase, commented in the conference’s opening panel on the changing competitive landscape for equities trading: “Public policy will be key to a recovery. Successful public policy could lead to larger trading centers and greater stability internationally. If these policies are not well implemented, market disruption and dislocation will most likely be prolonged.”

The post-credit-crunch outlook for high-performance trading systems will require hard choices about where to invest, Baskan observed to a capacity-filled audience. “Innovation, economies of scale and integration of the stack will be of paramount importance,” he added.