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The 2016 Trading Technology 40: John Mackay (Mack) Gill

No. 18 John Mackay (Mack) Gill, Chief Executive Officer, MillenniumIT

March 07, 2016

< The 2016 Trading Technology 40

John Mackay (Mack) Gill

Chief Executive Officer

MillenniumIT

Last year: 24

Stock exchanges in emerging markets are modernizing their technology — in some cases they are starting up — and that spells opportunity for MillenniumIT, the Sri Lanka–based London Stock Exchange Group subsidiary selling what is touted as the world’s fastest trading platform. In May, for example, Peruvian stock exchange Bolsa de Valores de Lima went live with MillenniumIT’s multiasset trading platform and smart order router. Demand has been running high in Latin America: MillenniumIT plans to go live with a similar upgrade on Argentina’s Caja de Valores later this year, according to CEO John Mackay (Mack) Gill, 46. Last July the Johannesburg Stock Exchange selected MillenniumIT to expand beyond equities into derivatives and fixed income. But Gill notes that in the developed world speed has become less of a focus as trading systems must adjust to regulatory requirements like those of Europe’s second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. “Even though [MiFID II] has been delayed, the big story in Europe has been the push from the buy side to get more support for block trading and more visibility” into liquidity opportunities, Gill says. Over the past year MillenniumIT has worked with the LSEG-affiliated Turquoise platform to develop new trading strategies for Turquoise Block Discovery, a system for large orders launched at the end of 2014. Regulatory reforms also place new burdens on clearinghouses to provide greater transparency, and here MillenniumIT’s posttrade technology comes into play. “We’re talking microsecond-level ability to process trades and manage portfolio risk through a clearing environment,” says Gill. “At the end of the day, that’s a sea change.” Longer-term, Gill says he’s “very bullish on the potential for smart contracts to be the killer app of the blockchain world. They will transform many aspects of how we operate our markets, especially in the posttrade space.”

2016 Trading Technology 40