[ G C L E G E N D | T E R E S A P A R K E R ]
and retaining a broad base of diversity , and focusing on equity and inclusion . Continuing to be a place that people want to work and have a purpose and believe in -that ’ s one thing I do spend a lot of time on – and that software part is really important . Then there ’ s the hardware , including that move from some of the legacy technologies – I have responsibility for some of that , making sure it ’ s in line with our clients ’ expectations around resiliency and data . Also moving more into the front-office . A lot of global custody started out just being transactional banking , backoffice reconciliations and slowly it ’ s been moving to the front office , so more investments around capital markets , around front-office solutions helping clients with their investment processes .
What would you say are the main trends we ’ re seeing now in the industry , and how different do you think it will look in five years ’ time ? There ’ s an interesting quote that the future is in the present . I think the trends are very much here already and a focus on them will continue – especially in the areas of data , digitalisation and security . For us in global custody , our focus on capital markets has led to us creating a holistic product set that has been very helpful for many of our clients and I think that will continue . Continuing to automate , getting rid of the manual administrative processes and a greater focus on more of the value-add . There is an upgrade that ’ s happening – the move to the cloud , the way we can interface with clients . This means rearchitecting so that you ’ re still doing the same things , but you ’ re doing it in a more sophisticated , efficient way . That gives you more flexibility . I remember at the very beginning of the pandemic thinking to myself , is the pandemic disruptive or is it accelerating the change that ’ s already here ? And I think it ’ s accelerated the change . I also think the underlying technology from blockchain , that distributed ledger technology , potentially could create that next moment of scale in the industry where you can you still are doing the same thing , but you get rid of a lot of the reconciliations that are there , and that could make it much more efficient and timely , and real time .
Fall 2022 globalcustodian . com 45