With 916 visitors, 62 exhibitors, 29 lectures and 3 panel discussions, the DKF event was once again the largest meeting place for the financial information industry worldwide. With more than a dozen visitors from New York and almost 80 guests from London, the event has now attracted the attention of the major financial centers. The longest journey was made by a participant of the National Stock Exchange of India from Mumbai.
Keynote speech by Ben Shepherd, Refinitiv
The keynote speech was given by Ben Shepherd, Chief Strategy & Proposition Officer of Refinitiv. Founded in October 2018 under the leadership of Blackstone, the company includes the former Financial & Risk business of Thomson Reuters. As the world's largest leverage buyout transaction since the financial crisis, Refinitiv per se is the focus of interest.
Panel discussions
The first panel discussion focused on Fintech. New technologies such as Blockchain, AI or Openlaw enable new services with high added value. These services are often integrated into other platforms via APIs. Instead of competitive relationships, there is an increasing number of cooperations.
The second discussion on the topic "Content is king, but what is the price of a data monarchy" dealt with the question of why supposedly simple market data is excessively expensive from the customer's point of view. It was shown that a large part of vendors' performance concerns harmonization and permissioning (Vendor of Record), which is often not visible from the customer's point of view.
Finally, the third panel discussion gave an outlook on the capital markets from an investor’s perspective. Currently, the markets have been in the longest upswing in history for more than 10 years. It was shown that this is the logical consequence of the central bank interventions after the financial crisis. Fundamentally, the economy is also in very good shape. Unemployment in the USA is at a 50 year low. In this respect, the outlook among the participants was also very positive.
Women in Finance
For the first time there was also a special format "Women in Finance", where women could exchange experiences with each other. More than 40 women discussed which factors are necessary to improve working conditions and women's chances of success in the financial sector.
In addition, 28 lectures were held in 4 subject areas: (1) Market Data Products and Solutions, (2) Reference Data Management and Feeds, (3) Investment and Portfolio Management Trends and (4) Fintech Offerings and Technological Developments.
Get the presentation slides
The presentation slides are available for participants of the congress. Please contact us if you would like to receive a copy.
Save the date
The 10th D-A-CH Congress for Financial Information will take place next year on May 14th.
