How Capital Markets Actually Change

A Vision57 perspective — that starts with reality

Capital markets don’t have a technology problem.

That might sound odd, given how much time and money we spend buying, building, and replacing systems. But if you step back, the recurring problems aren’t usually about whether the tech works. They’re about whether anyone agrees on what things actually mean, how work really gets done, and why certain “temporary” solutions have survived for years — the so‑called “tactegic” options.

These problems don’t show up neatly on architecture diagrams or project plans. But they’re the ones that slow firms down.

It’s Not a Data Problem. It’s a Meaning Problem

Most firms say they struggle with data quality. What they usually mean is that the same data fields mean different things in different places.

• A “trade” in one system is an execution in another
• An allocation in a third
• A regulatory artefact in a fourth

None of those definitions are wrong on their own. They just don’t line up.

AI doesn’t fix this. In fact, it exposes and amplifies the confusion. Until meaning is explicit and executable at an organisational level, workflow platforms can create as many problems as they solve.

This is usually solved through semantic mapping — either explicitly (through consensus) or implicitly through glue code. The result is increasingly fragile tech stacks overloaded with microservices.

The inflection point is when firms convert semantic maps into executable assets that flex as field definitions change in individual systems.

FIX Infrastructure Is No Longer Plumbing

For years, FIX infrastructure was treated as a background issue — important, but unglamorous (as long as it didn’t break).

With T+1 settlement, sustained volatility, and increased regulatory pressure, FIX infrastructure now sits directly on the critical path.

• Execution quality
• Operational resilience
• Cost control

FIX is becoming the dominant standard as it stretches across asset classes and into post‑trade. Will it replace SWIFT? Not in the short term. But a single, end‑to‑end standard would radically simplify the stack.

Infrastructure is no longer neutral. It expresses intent.

Work Happens Outside Systems of Record

Trading decisions live in chat, messages, and informal workflows — not neatly inside systems of record.

Exceptions and booking decisions are often resolved in conversation, then re‑keyed downstream. Treating unstructured data as an afterthought leaves risk unmanaged and insight unused.

Handled properly, it becomes a source of operational clarity rather than noise.

Modernisation Requires Empathy

Most modernisation fails because it starts with tools instead of understanding.

That spreadsheet exists for a reason. Remove it without understanding why, and the workaround simply reappears somewhere else.

This is why the fig‑strangler approach works: incremental change, applied in context, with empathy for how people actually work.

The Vision57 View

• Meaning before automation
• Infrastructure as strategy
• Empathy before replacement

Capital markets don’t need more technology. They need clearer thinking.