The 2016 Trading Technology 40: Donal Byrne

< The 2016 Trading Technology 40

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Donal Byrne
Chief Executive Officer
Corvil
Last year: 36

With new regulations — notably, the far-reaching, though delayed, update of Europe’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive — increasing the burdens of compliance and reporting, Corvil is stepping up its data analytics capabilities. “What started out as fundamentally a performance-monitoring solution is now an operational framework for how you monitor, survey and provide the data necessary to operate and run a trading plant,” explains Donal Byrne, CEO of the Dublin-based company, which rose to prominence over the past decade and a half as a provider of latency management solutions to banks, brokerages and exchanges. “The data is the answer to so many things. It is the avenue to transparency.” Corvil Tera, released last fall, is addressing cybersecurity-monitoring requirements as well as scanning for anomalous trading behavior that might require compliance or risk management attention. “The industry has moved on substantially from the Wild West days where all that mattered was speed,” says Byrne, 50. “Today it’s all about the operational correctness and operational efficiency of using technology and trading infrastructures in support of the business.” Last year Corvil grew its revenue by 40 percent, and new-client growth was 400 percent, largely from financial services and capital markets. The company estimates that its systems monitor 90 percent of equity trades on all lit exchanges; Byrne sees much of Corvil’s future growth driven by moves to bring foreign exchange and fixed-income markets into the digital age. “We’re seeing the latest trade infrastructures that were developed for equities being leveraged across other asset classes,” he says.

2016 Trading Technology 40