Dec 15, 2019
CFOTL: What are the numbers or metrics that are always top of mind
for you?
Shelly: Ninety-five percent of our revenue is driven by the
volume that we clear, settle, and risk-manage every day, which is
something that we don't control. We charge a clearing fee for our
services, and as a low-cost service provider, I can't just charge
any old amount. I'm very cognizant of how much volume we clear
every day because our budget is based on an average daily volume
rate. I'm also very cognizant of expenses. I'm okay with spending
money, but I want to do it in a smart way. Last year, we began what
we call our Renaissance initiative. It's a multiyear,
multimillion-dollar program through which we are replacing our core
technologies. The system that clears, settles, and risk-manages
those positions every single day is about 20 years old, so we are
looking to create a more modular, more agile system whereby we can
increase our processing, we can better utilize the data that we
receive every single day, and we can expand upon the risk
management services that we provide.
Right now, it's currently being done on premises on a couple of
mainframes. We'll be looking to move all of that processing up into
the cloud so that as our volume increases, we can expand and manage
it without an issue. Now, don't get me wrong: The mainframes that
we currently have can process an exorbitant amount of volume. In
2019, I think that we had a few days where we cleared and settled
over somewhere between 30 and 35 million contracts. In 2020, we are
clearing and settling, on average, probably about 19.5 million
contracts every single day, and the system works just fine. It's
just very cumbersome to make changes to it, and that's another part
of the reason for the drive to make a change.