As part of the Heard at Ops series with top operations and technology leaders, Murray Pozmanter, Head of Clearing Agency Services and Global Business Operations at DTCC, describes the importance of operations partnership with the business and IT to manage concurrent industry and regulatory changes.

Q. What is the greatest challenge that the industry is facing in the year ahead?

A. In addition to big challenges coming from the implementation of T+1, there are many other regulatory changes going on all at the same time. We also have the possibility of Treasury market structure change coming down the pike this year. The real challenge for the industry is going to be figuring out how to manage all these different initiatives concurrently.

Q. How do you see the role of the operations professional evolving in response to this challenge?

A. What we are seeing from our client firms – and what we are experiencing at DTCC – is that the operations professional must be much more of a partner with the business than we have seen in the past.

As the industry is going through modernization, long established processes are being changed and reimagined. Firms need operations professionals, who are the subject matter experts in those processes, to be more participative in how the changes are going to be brought about. Operations professionals need to closely partner with the business and IT professionals at their firm to make sure they achieve the right outcomes.

Q. One of DTCC’s initiatives is in the alternative investment space. Can you talk about the new tech you are working with?

A. We’re still exploring how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can help in the realm of alternative investments. One of the advantages is that it’s a white space since there isn’t a lot of legacy technology for alternative investments. That seems to be an area where employing DLT could be brought to market much more quickly because you don’t have to undo legacy technology. You can just move forward with a new platform.

Q. How can groups like SIFMA help firms stay connected to collaborate and share information?

A. SIFMA plays a vital role in that. Industry coordination helps all firms stay on the same page. We can only move as fast as the slowest link. There are so many different things going on in the regulatory environment – and internally at the firms – that being able to share best practices, collaborate as well as stay up to date on what’s going on is incredibly important. For some of the bigger regulatory initiatives, being able to speak with one voice when regulatory proposals come out for comment is also critical.

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Murray Pozmanter is Head of Clearing Agency Services and Global Business Operations at DTCC.

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