Rebecca Healey

AI’s potential in trading depends on one thing above all: clean, consistent, and connected data. Yet for many desks, fragmented sources, legacy systems, and inconsistent tagging remain a major barrier to adoption. In this panel, buy-side leaders join a cloud provider to explore how firms are building the foundations for AI-ready trading and investment workflows.

From setting common standards and integrating a broad range of data sources- across broker, market, internal and alternative datasets- to embedding governance and quality controls, panellists will share practical strategies for breaking down silos and improving data quality across the ecosystem. How can a unified data layer deliver better pre-trade insight, execution quality measurement, and workflow automation? And what role can partners play in accelerating this transformation?

AI in trading is shifting from static analytics to adaptive, goal-driven systems that can plan, reason, and act. For technology leaders, the opportunity lies in building the data pipelines, interoperability layers, and governance frameworks that allow these agents to operate safely at scale. This panel will explore how buy-side firms are integrating AI into core workflows, the infrastructure required to move from pilots to production, and what it means for future skills, system design, and operating models.

Fragmentation, new liquidity protocols, and shifting venue structures are reshaping execution workflows- and forcing desks to rethink how platforms and processes are built. With OMS and EMS systems at the heart of trading architecture, firms are seeking ways to streamline connectivity, reduce silos, and embed greater consistency across asset classes. This panel brings together buy-side and platform perspectives to explore how architecture can adapt to deliver efficiency and resilience, while balancing the drive for modernisation with the realities of legacy systems. Expect candid discussion on the push for simplification, the role of automation and direct connectivity, and how business requirements on the desk are defining the next generation of multi-asset trading.

As trading technology evolves, desks face a fundamental question: consolidate around a single monolithic platform, or embrace a modular, API-driven ecosystem? Proponents of monolithic platforms argue that a unified system reduces integration risk, simplifies governance, and ensures stability at scale. Advocates of modular design counter that flexibility, innovation, and cross-asset agility are only possible when firms can compose and adapt best-in-class solutions. This Oxford-style debate will weigh the trade-offs between efficiency and resilience, exploring vendor dependency, cost of ownership, interoperability, and the ability to adapt to future market structure changes. Is the future of trading infrastructure a tightly integrated fortress- or a composable, plug-and-play network?

**The Chatham House Rule Applied**

The session will open with James Baugh, Managing Director and Head of European Market Structure at TD Securities, setting the scene with a short introduction exploring the drivers of 24/5 trading, tokenisation, and retail participation- and what these trends could mean for Europe’s market structure, liquidity formation, and regulatory coordination.

Following this, the debate will weigh the competitive, structural, and regulatory arguments on both sides of the 24/5 question. Advocates argue that extended trading hours would align Europe with global markets, reduce overnight risk, and provide greater flexibility for both institutional and retail participants. Critics counter that liquidity would be diluted, operational costs would rise, and Europe’s concentrated price discovery could be undermined.

This session will explore whether staffing implications, clearing and venue infrastructure, and regulatory alignment make such a shift a bold step forward- or an unnecessary burden for the market.

As the UK and EU pursue parallel reforms to strengthen their markets, regulators are focused on revitalising investment and restoring confidence in public markets as engines of growth. In this keynote interview, senior representatives from the FCA and AFM will share their perspectives on how policy can channel savings into productive investment, support SME financing, and make local markets more attractive for issuers and investors.

The conversation will contrast the UK’s drive to modernise listings and secondary market rules with Europe’s Savings and Investment Union (SIU) agenda- aimed at deepening retail and institutional participation. Together, they will explore how both initiatives can boost investment, attract capital, and re-establish Europe and the UK as vibrant destinations for growth.

Hidden liquidity and fragmented visibility continue to frustrate European equity traders and investors. The proposed consolidated tape offers a route to greater transparency- but its true value could be in boosting Europe’s appeal as a place to trade and raise capital. Positioned within the European Commission’s market structure reforms and the Saving & Investment Union agenda, the tape could help fine-tune strategies, improve price discovery, and attract both issuers and investors. This session examines the tool- and the strategy beyond it. How should the tape be designed to serve both regulatory oversight and commercial edge? What other policy shifts are needed to ensure Europe doesn’t just match global peers, but becomes a market of choice? And, with the landscape likely to change over the next 3–10 years, how can market participants use the tape to navigate- and benefit from- that transformation?