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☆ $144 billion Man Group is teaching non-tech workers coding and data-science skills that are saving them hours of manual work
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Man Group's <develop> program is growing in popularity among non-tech workers. That's the thinking behind Man Group's technology upskilling program, <develop>, which has served as the $144 billion investment firm's answer to a tight tech-labor market. "The level of demand for software engineers outstripped the number of qualified engineers entering the workforce each year," Lara Carty, Man Group's chief people officer, told Insider. It's also spanned a variety of backgrounds, from workers on the trading desk to communications and public-relations employees, Carty said. There's classroom-based learning led by about a dozen of Man Group's top engineers with a mentorship aspect.

☆ An outsider's take on finding success on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

At first glance, Kristofer Baxter doesn't seem like an ideal candidate for offering tips about succeeding on Wall Street. His outside perspective offers a unique look at what it takes to find success on the Street. Too often, people explaining how they found success on Wall Street, or anywhere, amounts to them bragging about how hard they worked. Read more on key lessons from a top engineer at Citadel about finding success. The famous VC firm is going to launch a fund of funds for backing other VCs focused on finding early-stage startups.

☆ I'm a UI engineer at Citadel who's worked at Netflix and Google. Here are 7 important lessons that have been critical to my rise at Ken Griffin's $57 billion hedge fund.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Kristofer Baxter leads a team of about 20 UI engineers at Citadel, a $57 billion hedge fund. I started my career at a golf tee-time reservation company, then worked in roles at Netlflix, LinkedIn, and Google. But it's really important to be quick. We work really closely with front-office partners and investment professionals so we know what to build. The really important thing there is that you can't be afraid of scale, or even failure.

☆ $144 billion investment firm Man Group is supercharging non-tech workers with Python and data-science skills. Here's a look inside the popular program helping employees save time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

☆ Wall Street is empowering its employees to build their own tech tools. But who is keeping track of all this stuff?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A story about training non-tech workers that has nothing to do with ChatGPT? Man Group, a $144 billion investment firm, has a popular training program to get non-tech workers up to speed on coding and data-science. Programs like <develop>, along with the rise of ChatGPT, speak to a wider trend across Wall Street of enabling employees to build their own tools despite not having a background in tech. Empowering people to build their own tools and apps to streamline their work seems great on paper. Read more about how Man Group teaches non-tech workers programming skills that help them save time.

☆ Bank of America's top information-security exec is taking on a brand-new role at the bank focused on the developer experience
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kristopher Fador is Bank of America's new chief information security officer, succeeding Froelich. Craig Froelich is taking the helm as the chief information officer of architecture, developer experience, and policy, a newly created role at Bank of America. Froelich previously served as chief information security officer for the nation's second-largest bank, a role he held for more than eight years. He also spent time in Hong Kong for BofA, leading regional information security teams, according to his LinkedIn. At Goldman Sachs, for example, CIO Marco Argenti has made developer experience a key focus of his strategy.

☆ Wall Street's most important workers you've never thought of
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And on Wall Street, where the volume of information continues to rise, application design and user interface is taking center stage. User interface and user experience have long been underappreciated in finance, which is ironic considering the public nature of the work. Read more about Citadel X, the $57 billion hedge fund's user experience and interface team. If you're still trying to understand the collapse of yet another regional bank, we've got you covered. The German bank is building out its investment bank as it eyes a potential return of M&A, the Financial Times reports.

☆ Meet Citadel X: The team of engineers at Ken Griffin's $57 billion hedge fund giving it a competitive edge by streamlining and designing its tools
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Citadel X is a team of about 20 engineers that leads user-interface design on the fund's tech tools. Citadel X leader Kristofer Baxter walked Insider through the future of UI at Citadel. Citadel X works with various engineering and investment teams across the company with a goal of making sure the hedge fund's high-powered tools are easy to use. Some Citadel X engineers are now embedded onto desk teams to learn the ins and outs of the business and build new tech for them. Ross McKay, a front-end software developer within Citadel's equities business, put his team's 30 applications into the Citadel X platform.

☆ When M&A takes off, these are the 27 fintechs that could get scooped up, and the firms most likely to buy them
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Why it's on the market: SMB lenders saw valuations skyrocket during the pandemic years fueled by cash-strapped businesses struggling to secure loans amid tightening lending requirements. "These sorts of businesses almost certainly got way over their skis on valuation," a partner at a California-based venture firm, told Insider. SMB lenders are potential acqui-hires or acquisition targets unless they can raise more capital, according to one New York-based partner at a large venture firm. In November 2022, Pipe announced its three cofounders would step down and start the search for a "veteran" CEO. Both experts expect to see consolidation throughout the segment, with larger consumer and SMB lenders like Ramp and Brex as potential buyers.

☆ Goldman Sachs wants to simplify options trading for its clients with this new AI-powered tool
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Goldman Sachs is building out a tool used by institutional clients for pricing derivatives. Goldman Sachs is expanding on a tool aimed at simplifying the complex world of derivatives trading for its institutional clients. At its core, Visual Structuring is making it easier to translate an idea about the markets into a potential options trading strategy. Screenshot of Goldman Sachs' Visual Structuring tool used to price options. Visual Structuring helped them explain the risk they're taking in a way that's easy to monitor and understand.

☆ Meet the 12 executives helping PE firms overhaul their tech strategies and streamline how they cut deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Bianca Chan | Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The people responsible for private-equity firms' internal tech have never been more important. In the world of private equity, where firms generate returns and mint millions of dollars by relying on human judgment, technology hasn't always had a strong foothold. But that's starting to change as some of the largest PE firms take the plunge to invest in their own internal tech. Private equity has largely taken a wait-and-see approach to investing and building internal tech operations. Here is a list of top tech execs to know in the private equity industry.

☆ Millennium is on the hunt for engineers in Miami. A top tech exec for the $58 billion hedge fund details the firm's new training program.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The head of tech for Miami outlines what applicants can expect, how to stand out, and why Miami. Naumovich, who was hired in September 2022, is responsible for building out Millennium's tech presence and tech offerings in Miami. A big part of that mandate will come down to recruiting tech talent, which has previously proven challenging for Wall Street firms in the area. The rotational program is the first of its kind in Millennium's tech organization. Wall Street SouthThe LEaD program is just one aspect of Millennium's big-picture build out in Miami.

☆ Balyasny built these 4 cloud-based tools that are critical in the $19.5 billion hedge fund's push into new trading strategies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Balyasny Asset Management is a multi-strategy hedge fund that has used the cloud since 2017. The firm's chief information officer and chief data officer detail 4 tools it built on the cloud. Balyasny Asset Management is deploying an arsenal of secret weapons that the $19.5 billion hedge fund has been building on the public cloud. The firm's data, applications, and investment teams all operate on cloud-based technologies, added Grimaldi, who is a former managing director at both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. In turn, the firm's tech and data teams have doubled in size since 2021 to more than 450 people.

☆ Millennium's new Miami-based engineering program is the latest shot in hedge fund's war for young tech talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Insider's Bianca Chan has a first look at Millennium Management's new engineering training program for its Miami office. Click here to read more about Millennium's new training program for engineers in Miami. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Citigroup's Jane Fraser, and Wells Fargo's Charlie Scharf shared thoughts on the banking crisis during their respective earnings calls. The world's largest money manager is open to making some deals in the wake of the banking crisis. Despite all the chatter on the recent banking crisis, JPMorgan's CEO still had thoughts on the state of the wider economy.

☆ Inside Millennium Management's new engineering-recruitment program in Miami, from what applicants can do to stand out to why the city is becoming a key tech hub for the $58 billion hedge fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

☆ Goldman Sachs just upgraded an AI-powered tool that's part of its plan to simplify options trading for its clients
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

☆ 27 fintechs that could be acquisition targets, and the firms that might buy them, according to VCs, investment bankers, and analysts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Why it's on the market: SMB lenders saw valuations skyrocket during the pandemic years fueled by cash-strapped businesses struggling to secure loans amid tightening lending requirements. "These sorts of businesses almost certainly got way over their skis on valuation," a partner at a California-based venture firm, told Insider. SMB lenders are potential acqui-hires or acquisition targets unless they can raise more capital, according to one New York-based partner at a large venture firm. A spokesperson for Pipe cited the fintech's hiring of Luke Voiles, a former Square and Intuit executive, as CEO earlier this year. Both experts expect to see consolidation throughout the segment, with larger consumer and SMB lenders like Ramp and Brex as potential buyers.

☆ Here's the 13-page pitch deck Stratyfy, a fintech using AI to help lenders work with the underbanked, used to raise $10 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Stratyfy uses AI to help lenders extend more credit to underbanked communities. Here's the 13-page pitch deck Stratyfy used to raise its so-called "institutional seed." Stratyfy works to help lenders eliminate biasStratyfy uses machine-learning algorithms to help lenders remove sharp cutoffs — like those based on credit history lengths or current income — that are often used in their credit decisioning. The core engine uses a lender's traditional credit data, in addition to alternative data, to offer a breakdown of factors in a given borrower's profile. Here's the pitch deck Stratyfy used to raise $10 million.

☆ Fintech dealmaking is ready for prime time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It seems the time has finally come for some M&A, and one group is ready to go. I wrote last week about how a couple of blockbuster deals could kick off a spree of dealmaking after a long drought. Insider's Paige Hagy and Bianca Chan identified a bunch of acquisition targets in a segment of the market that is in need of some deals: fintech. One could make the point that every industry has a backlog of potential deals, but fintech seems particularly ripe. For the complete rundown on the 16 fintech and consumer-facing deals JPMorgan has made since 2020, click here.

☆ It's becoming increasingly clear that fintech has a fraud problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Bianca Chan | Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"With fast growth comes fast fraud," Frank McKenna, a longtime fraud expert who works with banks, lenders, and fintechs, told Insider. Cash App only requires a zip code, debit-card number, and either an email or phone number to create an account. Cash App's alleged fraud problem could also be the result of its large, active customer base, which numbers some 44 million, according to the company's 2022 annual report. The fact that Cash App offers peer-to-peer payments exacerbates the fraud issue, according to McKenna, the chief fraud strategist at Point Predictive, an anti-fraud software company. Digital-only bank Chime has had its own issues with fraud, Jason Mikula, a fintech analyst and consultant, told Insider.

☆ Fintech has a fraud problem, and the onus is on you to figure it out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Fintech's fraud misfortune. Which brings us to a story by Insider's Bianca Chan and Paige Hagy about concerns over the prevalence of fraud within consumer-facing fintechs in recent years. Click here to read more about fintech's fraud problem. We've also got the deck StellarFi, a fintech that helps users improve their credit score, used to raise $15 million. For more than 50 different decks used by fintechs to raise fresh funds, check out our library.

☆ Goldman Sachs is exploring use cases for large language models, the same AI fueling ChatGPT. Here's 3 areas where the bank is experimenting with the tech.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Large language models, the form of AI behind ChatGPT, could transform how Wall Street does business. With advances in generative AI and large language models, the realm of possibilities have been blown way open. Argenti and Tsementzis outlined three ways Goldman is experimenting with large language models. Summarizing and extracting data from documentsGoldman's document-management process stands to improve from the use of generative AI, Argenti said. Helping engineers parse through code documentationA big time suck for software engineers is figuring out other peoples' code, Argenti said.

Employees have been working around the clock to onboard as many startups as possible in the wake of the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, which had more than $175 billion in deposits and served nearly half of US VC-backed startups, was taken over by US regulators on March 10. "That said, I am worried that this bias towards a Big Four bank is a double-edged sword," Shekar added. "SVB did not think like a big bank. They could understand your operating plan when a big bank would balk at it," Ashley Tyrner, CEO and founder of FarmBoxRX, told Insider.

☆ 9 startup founders who banked with Silicon Valley Bank share where they're moving their money: 'We will not get caught like this again'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank's failure has left startup founders scrambling for a new home for their money. Last Friday morning, the startup founder Mang-Git Ng zipped up the interstate before sunrise to a Silicon Valley Bank branch in St. Helena, in California's wine country. Ng's plight is similar to countless other founders following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, who waited with bated breath over the weekend on whether they'd ever get their money back. DiversificationSilicon Valley Bank's collapse could forever change how startups stash their cash, at least two investors told Insider. Silicon Valley Bank had exclusivity clauses with some of its clients, according to a CNBC report, forcing them to use the firm for most or all of their banking services.

"You're going to see every board member tell people to keep your money in multiple bank accounts," said Wesley Chan, cofounder and managing partner at FPV Ventures. "I'm not concerned about Bank of America," one business owner said as they left a Bank of America branch on Monday. Big banks can be less competitive, for example, on interest rates because of the security they offer. I think you'll see startups, in particular, questioning moving to the big banks given just how much more expensive it is," Matheson added. "The big banks are in very good shape, and so it probably is a stabilizing decision to move those deposits.

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