March 2007

COVER STORY The Cost of Doing Nothing As margins shrink in many business lines, forward-looking financial services firms increasingly are looking to shake up the status quo to find new ways to generate revenue while reducing costs. Buy Side Begins Tracking Metrics On Sell-Side's Trading Ideas With buy-side firms struggling to place a value on the research and services provided by the sell side, the status quo is no longer acceptable. Trial and Error: When It Comes to Compliance, the Bare Minimum Isn't Enough Anymore Detwiler, Mitchell, Fenton & Graves' CCO Robert Jeffords Dumped Two E-Mail Archiving Providers Before Being Satisfied With His E-Mail Compliance Brokers Back CSAs to Help Buy Side Achieve Best Execution and Pay Research Providers In search of best execution, buy-side firms tap brokers' new commission-sharing arrangements to pay for valuable research. Many Buy Siders Are Taking on the Role of Researcher Some buy-side fims have stopped using sell-side research in favor of search applications such as firstRain. The Do-Nothing Costs of Messy Data Architectures: Data Management Still Takes a Backseat at Many Financial Firms Although you won't find it on any balance sheet, the lack of formal data management policies and processes can be costly. Securities' firms that fail to devote time and resources to data management practices and tools will find themselves paying a price of increased risk, failed trades and overly expensive data feeds. Sidebar: For Credit Suisse, Doing Nothing Is Not an Option BUSINESS LINES Deliberating on E-discovery and the Changes to the FRCP Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure make undiscoverable electronic documents a massive legal liability for the likes of UBS and Morgan Stanley. Asset Managers Push Custodians to Offer Independent Pricing Services for OTC Derivatives The exponential growth of OTC derivatives is forcing custodians to provide independent valuation services to their institutional clients.

FROM THE EDITOR Energy-Efficient Data Centers on the Horizon The focus on climate change at Davos, combined with the recent announcement by a group of 10 bellwether companies not usually associated with conservation, signifies that the business community realizes that climate issues will be important to shareholders. UP FRONT Exchanges Lag in IT Spending Ask the Experts: Trading Brokerages Start Providing BlackBerrys Wealth Management Market Continues to Grow The Debate Over Execution Management Systems Vs. Order Management Systems FX Market Fragmentation FOCUS ON Raj Mahajan Drives Transformation and Increases Wallet Share as the New President of Sungard's Brass Unit. Mahajan shifts the focus of Sungard's Brass unit from new sales to serving the needs of existing customers. CIO CHALLENGE Attractive Alternatives to Mainframes Are Breaking Their Decades-Old Hold on Wall Street THE CHALLENGE: Wall Street has relied on the dependability of mainframes for more than 40 years. But as the competitive environment demands more efficiency and agility -- and as alternatives mature -- firms are weighing the pros and cons of migrating off their mainframes. INDUSTRY VOICE Weak Enforcement of Corporate Governance and Lax Technical Controls Have Enabled the Illegal Backdating of Stock Options Regulations focusing on backdating have prompted corporations to pursue technical solutions centered around time synchronization to eradicate the practice. PERSPECTIVES Against the Odds, the NYSE Has Successfully Implemented the Hybrid, Acquired Euronext and Become More Profitable New technology, combined with cost cutting and a large market share, has allowed the NYSE to become more profitable and successful. PRODUCT WATCH Dow Jones Launches Wealth Manager Web Site Paisley Consulting Released Its Enterprise GRC Platform RFA's eHarbor Backs Up Hedge Fund E-Mail SHIFTING GEARS Former Lehman Brothers CIO Kevin McGilloway Joins Diamond Consultants Mayiz Habbal Joins Celent From Oracle-Siebel David Harris Is Named President of the CBOE Stock Exchange Keeping Tabs