Progressing Financial Markets is a series of podcasts produced by Voices in Business and sponsored by IBM, challenging Financial Markets Industry Leaders to set out their vision for how FM companies can respond positively to uncertain times.

The credit crisis has resulted in one of the worst shocks to the market since the depression, according to executives we have recently interviewed. As a result, the industry has wiped out two-and-a-half years of profit.  Although executives and regulators are asking whether the financial services industry destroys more value than it adds, we are optimistic about the long term prospects for the industry.  

Firms now must adjust to the reality that many of their high returns were based on two amplifiers, securitization and leverage, which led to significant writedowns. Regardless of how individual firms performed, all are shifting from survival-mode to focusing on making money in this new world. Top strategic initiatives include managing risk, unleashing dramatic cost take-outs, and considering ways to specialize. Firms will also focus on meeting new regulatory requirements once these requirements are fully defined.

In this series of podcasts we will reference the industry challenges and opportunities based around 5 themes

1. Risk
2. The Client
3. Globalisation
4. Data  
5. Scale squander and technology

We will be discussing with a number of industry leaders how they and their firms are responding to these challenges, such as:

- Is the credit crisis an opportunity or a threat to your firm?
- The top two strategic priorities executives cited based on recent interviews conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value are 1. managing risk and 2. reducing costs. How do your near-term initiatives align with these priorities?  
- What people, process and technology tactics will you take to manage risk?
- How will you reduce cost?  
- Have you changed the mix of business and technology initiatives as a result of the credit crisis?  Have any of your initiatives moved up on the priority list?  Have any initiatives been put on hold?  
- What are your largest challenges?  

We will also discuss the key industry drivers and challenges that are driving technology strategies and investments, and highlight the ever increasing role played by advanced technology in handling current and future complexity in the markets. We will explore the innovative approaches today’s leading firms are employing to address several key dimensions of the ‘data crisis’ including cloud computing, complex event processing and high-performance architectures in order to drive sustainable growth, manage risk across the enterprise, and how market participants can achieve a competitive advantage for both themselves and their clients.