Advertise on podcast: Ahead of the Curve

This episode of Ahead of the Curve offers a forward-looking perspective on how AI and tokenisation will redefine collateral management. Learn how Post Trade Solutions AI initiatives, from natural language search to predictive insights, are helping clients reduce manual tasks and focus on strategic risk management. Explore the intersection of AI and distributed ledger technology, and how tokenisation could enable real-time settlement, optimise collateral usage, and mitigate systemic risk. With regulatory considerations and client needs at the forefront, Post Trade Solutions is charting a path toward a more agile, intelligent, and secure post-trade ecosystem. 

John Pucciarelli sits down with ISDA CEO Scott O’Malia for an in-depth discussion on the evolving landscape of the derivatives markets. Scott outlines the impact of recent geopolitical developments and explains how derivatives play a critical role in managing market risk. We also explore key regulatory shifts under the Trump administration, including changes in leadership at U.S. regulatory agencies. The conversation covers the semi-annual recalibration of the Standard Initial Margin Model (SIMM), the industry's preparedness, and the future of treasury clearing. Additional topics include capital requirements, the implications of the Basel III endgame in the U.S., and its broader effects on the global financial system—and more.  

This episode dives into the evolving regulatory and modelling landscape in the UK for traded risk. Scott Sobolewski speaks with Xabier Anduagaand Joey O’Brien about trends in counterparty credit risk, model validation and the growing adoption of the Open Source Risk Engine (ORE). They discuss how firms are replacing legacy vendor models with ORE to gain transparency, reduce costs, and improve governance. The team also introduces the Risk Analytics Lab - a hosted ORE environment designed to accelerate adoption and support benchmarking, stress testing, and validation use cases. A must-listen for anyone navigating today’s risk and regulatory demands. 

In this compelling episode of Ahead of the Curve, Roland Stamm is joined by Maeve Gear from FMS-SG to explore the intricate world of winding down complex financial portfolios in the wake of the global financial crisis. Together, they reflect on their shared history at Depfa Bank, the impact of the Lehman collapse, and the regulatory shifts that followed—including the rise of central clearing and the introduction of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR).  The conversation dives deep into the challenges of managing long-dated, illiquid, and structured trades, and how FMS-SG leverages the Open Source Risk Engine (ORE) to meet valuation, risk, and collateral management demands. Maeve shares insights into the technical and modelling hurdles her team faces, and how ORE’s transparency, flexibility, and cost-efficiency have empowered them to streamline operations and maintain high standards.  Whether you're a risk professional, quant, or simply curious about how open-source tools are transforming financial infrastructure, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at innovation in action.   

In this episode, industry experts explore key market developments shaping the financial landscape in 2025. The discussion covers the evolving ISDA SIMM model as it shifts from annual to semi-annual updates, and the impact on firms’ workflows.   Beyond ISDA SIMM, the conversation delves into major industry priorities, including: The rise of tokenisation and its potential to revolutionise securities transfers Critical shifts in repo and treasury clearing as regulatory mandates in the U.S., Mexico, India, and China drive significant operational changes Upcoming UMR and repo clearing requirements, emphasising the need for firms to proactively prepare for implementation. Packed with valuable insights, this episode is essential listening for financial professionals navigating these industry-wide transformations.  

Join Scott Sobolewski, Roland Stamm, and Joey O’Brien from Post Trade Solutions (formerly Acadia) Quant Services team, as they reflect on a transformative year for the Open Source Risk Engine (ORE). In this episode, they explore major 2024 developments, including enhanced support for PFE and XVA calculations, market risk sensitivity tools, and the growing adoption of ORE across commercial and open-source users. Learn how ORE is powering risk management, model validation, and regulatory compliance for institutions worldwide, and what updates are coming in 2025, from GPU acceleration, hosted analytics services and more.

In this insightful episode, John Pucciarelli and Stuart Smith dive into two pivotal regulatory developments shaping the financial landscape. They explore recent guidance from the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on leverage in non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) and the finalized Basel Committee paper addressing counterparty credit risk, particularly in the wake of the Archegos collapse. The discussion highlights the evolving role of NBFIs, the challenges of global regulatory coordination, and the growing emphasis on disclosure, risk monitoring, and data transparency. A must-listen for professionals tracking regulatory trends and systemic risk in modern finance.  

In this landmark episode of Ahead of the Curve, John Pucciarelli is joined by Stuart Smith, Co-Head of Business Development. This is Acadia’s first episode under the new LSEG Post Trade Solutions name and the podcast tackles key areas of the transition from ISDA SIMM 2.6 to 2.7, including notable changes, impacts and tips for firms making the giant leap. Amid the volatile global landscape, Stuart breaks down how the model and the reduction in SIMM across the industry raises both concerns and opportunities. Packed with a range of thought-provoking insights, this episode will be very useful for firms who will be adapting to the recalibrated model. Listen time: 22 mins

Join our host Scott Sobolewski as he interviews Roland Stamm, Partner within Acadia’s Quantitative Services division on the important topic of model validation both for ISDA SIMM and complex internal models. Roland stresses the importance of model governance and how it is crucial for firms to be able to prove to regulators that their model is fit for purpose. Packed with sound advice and insights, this podcast is a must for firms that are embarking on backtesting and benchmarking projects. Learn more about model validation here: https://www.acadia.inc/quant-service/model-risk-management-model-validation Listen time: 25 min

In this latest episode of Ahead of the Curve, our host Scott Sobolewski chats with James Mac Hale – Head of Acadia Market Data about the monumental task of creating a centralised market data library of over fifty thousand different types of daily curve inputs as part of the Acadia hosted service to support firms in their risk and pricing calculations. The podcast provides tips and advice for firms that are using or thinking of using the Open-Source Risk Engine (ORE) and highlights the importance of putting in the time and effort into planning the inputs into your risk engine to reap automation benefits down the line. Listen time: 25 minutes

Scott O’Malia, CEO at ISDA returns for a ‘threepeat’, his 3rd time on the podcast. He joins John Pucciarelli, Head of Industry Engagement at Acadia for a special 30th episode of Ahead of the Curve. Their discussion ranges from the benefits and adoption of the Common Domain Model (CDM) across the industry, reflections on the advocacy and impact of the latest capital reforms including Basel III end game. Scott and John also discuss the latest regions to adopt Uncleared Margin Rules in 2024, and the role that ISDA plays in ensuring industry standards are maintained globally. The interview ends with Scott’s views on geopolitical risk and its potential impacts on the OTC derivatives market– it is a podcast not to be missed!   Listen time: 30 minutes

In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, John Pucciarelli – Head of Industry Engagement and Stuart Smith, Co-Head of Business Development discuss the paper issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervison (BCBS) on the Proposed Guidelines for Counterparty Credit Risk Management. They provide an insight into the guidelines and share their perspectives on the why the regulators felt more stringent controls are required in the wake of the Archegos default.   Listen time 25 mins   The paper referred to can be found here: Guidelines for counterparty credit risk management (bis.org)

Join our host Roland Stamm, Partner at Acadia’s Quantitative Services team alongside his colleague Joey O’Brien (Senior Consultant) as they explore the topic of Backtesting of Future Risk Factors. This discussion is inspired by a recent client engagement, focusing on the utilization of the Open-Source Risk Engine (ORE) library within a counterparty credit risk framework and the process of validating exposure simulation models. The whitepaper discussed can be found here (https://www.acadia.inc/insight/backtesting-of-future-risk-factors-march-2024-an-open-source-approach-to-validation-case-study) for more details.  The conversation shifts to the broader regulatory landscape, touching on recent developments from the Bank of England and the increased scrutiny following high-profile defaults like Credit Suisse in 2022 and Archegos. They discuss the implications of Basel III and FRTB on standardized model and how ORE is placed to aid in this challenge, alongside the cost benefits of using open-source software within the Internal Models Method (IMM). Listen time: 20 mins

Our host Devin Cook is joined by Alexis David, both Senior Consultants within Acadia’s Quantitative Services team. They discuss the merits of Open-Source Risk Engine (ORE) and explain the myriad of resources available to assist in implementing the software. They share nuggets of information which will be useful to anybody that wanting to use ORE for the first time, or looking to expand their knowledge to understand its latest capabilities. Discover more about the power of ORE here: https://www.acadia.inc/your-open-source Listen time: 21 mins

Eric Ehlers, Principal Consultant at Acadia makes his debut hosting Ahead of the Curve podcast alongside his colleague Zeyu (Jerry) Shen. They share their expertise in explaining how to speed up crucial processing time for running complex calculations in Open-Source Risk Engine (ORE) by utilizing GPGPU (General purpose computing on graphics processing units).  The tutorial mentioned in the podcast will soon be available on the official ORE repo:  https://github.com/opensourcerisk/engine  In the meantime you can find the tutorial here:  https://github.com/eehlers/Engine/blob/tutorials/tutorials_index.md Listen time: 11 mins