Tony Petrilli, CEO of ViewTrade highlights how technology is changing the financial services business landscape.
1. Can you give us a brief of your career before ViewTrade?
I have always had a passion for the financial services industry and have been in the space since I graduated college. I started my career in New York in the Financial Services practice of Arthur Andersen &Co where my clients were many of the storied Wall Street companies, and then at Citibank where I was involved in understanding and automating the management reporting processes. I learned quite a lot about the business of financial services, which led me to Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, I was very involved directly with the leadership of the global equity division as we expanded in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. I become the division’s Chief Financial Officer, coordinating globally the operations, technology, financial services, treasury, legal and compliance services that supported the Equity Division, and was involved in creating unique product and service worldwide. The last two years with Morgan Stanley I was in London, and this led to me joining Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette International in London when they decided to expand into Europe. I joined as the Senior Executive Officer and Co-Chair of DLJI’s Board of directors, responsible to coordinate and facilitate the build out of technology, operations, legal and compliance, and financial services teams supporting the expanding European operation. Having accomplished that objective, I returned to New York to be the Chief Financial Officer for DLJ’s Pershing Division and at the same time Managing Director for their Investment Adviser and Hedge Fund Services group.
The global capital markets, technology, and business to business services experience from my previous roles gave me a unique understanding and the skills that I use today in leading ViewTrade and in meeting the needs of ViewTrade’s clients.
2. Can you elaborate on the services that ViewTrade offers? And what makes your offerings unique compared to the competitors?
For over 20 years, we have been facilitating the financial services worldwide. Our clients are broker-dealers, advisors, and FinTech’s, and we provide them the technology and, when needed, the brokerage services they need to meet their objectives.
Our team of technology and brokerage operations specialists provide exceptional value, drawing on decades of experience delivering results for our clients. At ViewTrade we provide our clients everything they need to deliver a modern investing experience to their clients. With robust, easy-to-use APIs, SDKs and a technology and operations stack that supports the full investment lifecycle (onboarding, banking, trade execution, custody, market data and content, books and records support, custodian support, and more). Our team stays on top of changes to market structure, regulations, and vendor requirements and are constantly updating our technology accordingly.
We also pride ourselves on being a partner, not a competitor. We are 100% focused on harnessing our experience, resources, relationships, and creativity to helping our clients grow their business. When they succeed, we succeed.
3. How do you think technology is changing the financial services business landscape? What are some big technological shifts/trends you expect to take place in the next 5-10 years?
Technology is the key to both cost reduction and innovation, and this allows creatively in financial services to flourish.
It is what democratizes the financial services industry. For example, embedded finance allows innovators to find new ways to incorporate investing into other business lines and services, allowing consumers to invest just by living their lives. You see this in investing programs connected to credit card, banking, and other pay rail transactions, or paycheck deduction programs in the retirement or savings arena, and of course in the Super Apps that are gaining favor as one stop “lifestyle” facilitators.
You also see the impact of technology in opening investing to the masses. Most individuals worldwide still do not have access to investment programs, and in particular to cross boarder investing into the U.S and other markets. This is changing. The technology that ViewTrade provides is allowing firms of all types to offer micro investing opportunities using fractional investing and highly efficient cross boarder funding solutions that ViewTrade provides.
Further, many traditional brokers and banks around the world are limited in what they can provide clients due to legacy technology. By leveraging the technology that ViewTrade offers on top of their legacy technology, these firms are now able to add stock lending, digital asset investing, robo investing, notional investing, saving programs, and other services that expand the customer relationship and expand the targeted customer base. In essence, ViewTrade enables these firms to make the digital transformation without the cost, risk, and time needed to re-write their current technology and operational process.
All the cumulative experience we have with broker dealers and financial services providers is embedded into our APIs and technology stacks. Clients recognize that by leveraging our technology stack, they can free up manpower, time, and money to focus on creating the customer experience that distinguishes their brand and creates value for their customers. We make the complicated and the mundane simple to access and more efficient to operate and maintain.
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