Introduction

The equity research and financial analytics industry is going through unprecedented market and regulatory changes.

On the market end, forced breakup of the relationship between investment banking and equity research in sell-side firms; shrinkage of soft dollars between buy-side and sell-side firms; and commoditization of equity trading resulting in anemic trading revenue and commissions; have all lead to the shrinkage of budget allocated for equity research.

On the regulations end, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and existing and new federal regulations are making the equity analysts and their firms more accountable for the research reports and recommendations. Research providers are being forced to have transparency in their relationships with investment banking, issuers and institutional investors. Public companies are being asked to stop the practice of selective disclosures so that all the constituents get access to information at the same time.

These market and regulatory changes are in turn leading to the troubling contraction of both the depth and width of equity research coverage of publicly traded companies.

However, the very same market and regulatory changes have opened up several opportunities for outsourcing [via independent research providers] and even offshoring of equity research and financial analytics. Several Wall Street firms, including JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, have hired low-cost equity analysts based in India. Even the established IT outsourcing service providers, such as Satyam have made strategic commitments to this emerging knowledge-centric outsourcing domain. Apart from financial firms and established IT service providers, several specialized companies are providing comprehensive services to companies in this domain.

Services provided by offshore resources in equity research and financial analytics domain include:

• • Industry and Sector Research and Valuation Analytics
  
• • Credit and Fixed Income Research
• • Public Company Equity Research
• • New Product and Market Analysis
• • Structured Derivatives Analytics
• • Quantitative Research
• • Financial Modeling and Valuation Models
• • Pitch Books and Documents
• • Data Aggregation, Cleansing and Analytics

As this trend towards outsourcing/offshoring in this domain surges, key questions and issues around data privacy, compliance, corporate governance, relevancy of research, etc. remain largely unanswered and unexplored.

Equity Research and Financial Analytics Forum [Regulatory, Business, Technology and Sourcing Aspects] will be a premier one day conference which will focus on:

• • New reforms to the existing rules and regulations, industry practices as well as    emerging institutional structures;
• • Panel discussions featuring industry leaders and practitioners to debate the need for    independent equity research;
• • Best practices in corporate governance and compliance to deal with regulatory aspects    of equity research, especially in the offshore   model;
• • The trends and pros and cons of using outsourcing, a global labor arbitrage model, to    reshape the rules of competition in the research   business;
• • Legal aspects of using outsourcing/offshoring model for equity research and financial    analysis; and
• • Shared services technology platform [built using industry standards such as XBRL and    RIXML] for research and analytics.
  

• • Learn about the latest trends in governance and compliance to deal with regulatory    aspects of equity research
  
• • Gain valuable insights in the how to best address equity research coverage in an    environment of cost containment
  
• • Get insight into the intricacies of corporate accounting and reporting practices, how they    impact equity research opinion
  
• • Learn about the issues and best practices in fee based equity research coverage
  
• • Network with industry’s practitioners in the domain of equity research and financial    analytics

Who Should Attend the Conference?

• • Heads of equity research departments
  
• • Senior executives in the financial industry involved in the outsourcing and offshoring    lifecycle
  
• • Heads of Operations in financial industry firms
  
• • IT executives in financial industry firms
  
• • Chief Compliance Officers and Legal Counsels of firms in the financial industry