Ahead of several of SIFMA’s marquee conferences, we executed a pre-conference survey of attendees and select SIFMA members. While each conference varied in number of attendees, capital markets area of focus, types of firms attending, time of year, and number of respondents, we thought it would be interesting to compare results to the standard questions. We highlight the following:

• Industry themes – Even higher inflation and the threat of cyberattacks remain top of mind across survey respondents from all conferences, as well as market volatility and a severe market decline
• ESG – most conviction ops survey respondents for both retail products and underwriting at 75.6% and 73.2% either highly interested or somewhat interested respectively
• Crypto – most conviction private client survey respondents at 96.4% either highly interested or somewhat interested

Executive Summary

Ahead of several of SIFMA’s marquee conferences, we executed a pre-conference survey of attendees and select SIFMA members. While each conference varied in number of attendees, capital markets area of focus, types of firms attending, time of year, and number of respondents1, we thought it would be interesting to compare results to the standard questions. We included the following conferences:

• C&L Annual Seminar (C&L), March 20-23
• Private Client Conference (PC), April 6-8
• Operations Conference & Exhibition (Ops), May 16-19

The survey sought to gauge respondents’ concerns around current geopolitical, economic and market events and trends. We also used the survey to gauge interest in hot topics for capital markets: ESG/sustainable investing opportunities and products to retail customers; ESG/sustainable underwriting opportunities; and crypto asset investing. We highlight the following in survey respondents’ perspectives:

• Industry themes – Even higher inflation and the threat of cyberattacks remain top of mind across survey respondents from all conferences. Top three ranked concerns:
  • C&L – Russia/Ukraine, cyberattacks, and market volatility
  • PC – even higher inflation and a tie between cyberattacks and market volatility
  • Ops – cyberattacks, even higher inflation, and severe market decline

• ESG –
  • Retail Products – majority says #1 highly interested, #2 somewhat interested, #3 not interested, #4 neutral; most conviction ops survey respondents at 75.6% either highly interested or somewhat interested
  • Underwriting – majority says #1 highly interested, #2 somewhat interested, #3 not interested, #4 neutral; most conviction ops survey respondents at 73.2% either highly interested or somewhat interested

• Crypto – majority says #1 highly interested, #2 somewhat interested, #3 neutral, #4 not interested; most conviction private client survey respondents at 96.4% either highly interested or somewhat interested

 

 

Author

Katie Kolchin, CFA
Director of Research

Conference Debriefs

• SIFMA Insights

  C&L Annual Seminar Debrief

• SIFMA Insights

  Private Client Conference Debrief

• SIFMA Insights

  Operations Conference & Exhibition Debrief