Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., the financial industry’s premier posttrade utility, handled $1.6 quadrillion in securities last year. But large-scale, low-unit-cost transaction processing is just part of the value DTCC delivers. Its mission is “mitigating risk, increasing transparency and driving efficiency” for the thousands of institutions that are its customers and owners, president and CEO Michael Bodson tirelessly asserts. In contrast to companies caught up in the heat of day-to-day competition, the New York–based infrastructure operator brings a long-term, big-picture perspective to matters of collective interest, and one particular piece of foresight is about to pay off: Thirteen years after the U.S. securities industry deemed a proposal to shorten the three-day trade settlement cycle “not ready for prime time,” in Bodson’s words, DTCC has the T+2 (trade date plus two days) plan back on track. After the financial crisis, which heightened sensitivity to the operational and counterparty risks that faster turnaround would alleviate, “the industry is moving forward on many of the building blocks outlined earlier and is better prepared to move to T+2,” says the 56-year-old former Morgan Stanley executive, who has headed DTCC since July 2012. On another big issue, cybersecurity, Bodson says collaboration within the financial industry and between the public and private sectors has been “impressive” in identifying and countering threats and that “more of this needs to be done globally.”
15
Michael Bodson
President and ChiefExecutive Officer
Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Last year: 18
The 2014 Tech 50