Recently ICE acquired Urgentem, a Europe-based provider of global corporate emissions and climate transition data, expanding their climate risk management offering and on the 22nd of September 2022, ICE Data Services convened at the Park Hyatt Hotel Vienna, extending their invitation to institutional investors of all kinds, as well as the press. The informative lectures (who’s overarching theme had been “New Era of Finance: Challenges and Opportunities) spanned the better part of an afternoon, encompassing presentations by selected experts such as Rebecca Palmer (ICE Director, Sustainable Finance Data), Pedro Geri (ICE Director, Fixed Income Pricing and Trading Analytics), Jonathan Binke (ICE FX Product Manager) as well as Andrew Rudd (Ice Product Manager). The topics presented range from “From Green Data to Green Indices”, showcasing how data gathering is necessary in helping funds achieve ESG-grade quality to ”Inflation and Interest Rate Risk – challenges and solutions for your Fixed Income and Derivatives Portfolios”, tackling the core concerns currently on the minds of most investors, and “How to reduce your exposure to operational and reputational risk – ICE Corporate Actions” providing institutions and corporations with a framework to minimize risk on an operational level as well as reputation-wise. Andrew Rudd’s lecture was accompanied by the volatility world cup, a self-styled game for which the attendees were asked to mark down which particular asset they thought would advance to the finals and thus receive the questionable honors of being crowned the most volatile asset over the span of the last two years. Commodities such as sugar, corn, Brent oil, and natural gas, equities such as Game Stop, Netflix, Tesla, and Apple, as well as foreign exchange values (e.g. USD/RUB, EUR/USD, USD/TRY), and crypto (BTC/USD). The first quarter-finals saw Netflix beat out EUR/USD to advance to the semis, where it would face off against Game Stop (beating forex value USD/JPY). On the other end of the road to the semi-finals, USD/TRY fell short against natural gas in the volatility department, which was set to face off against BTC/USD in the 2nd semi-finals (previously smoothly advancing over Apple in the quarter-finals). Head to head in the finals: Natural Gas and Game Stop – the latter coming out on top and taking home the grand prize of being the most volatile asset 2020-2022. Overall, the volatility world cup could be considered the cherry on top of a very well-structured, excellently thought out, and thoroughly informative afternoon.

A meet and greet over canapés and drinks concluded the evening at the Park Hyatt Hotel, providing those interested, such as our attending journalist Ramin Monajemi, with the opportunity to get in touch with the ICE Data Services team for follow-up questions. A special thanks to Reena Mistry (ICE Data Services Team Leader, P&A Sales) for being instrumental in making the event a reality.