Introducing the 2023 TabbFORUM 40 Innovators in Financial Markets

Innovation isn’t created in a vacuum, and it certainly isn’t everywhere all the time. But when the culture and environment are right, it can be a persistent force for growth and change in businesses and economies, ultimately for the benefit of societies well served by open competition. Financial services has come to embrace innovation as much as any other industry, certainly in parallel with technology, which in turn fuels this particular energy.

The TabbFORUM 40 are a diverse group representing various facets of finance. What they have in common is innovation as an essential ingredient in how their organizations excel. As modern as this phenomenon is, the TabbFORUM 40 includes companies that originated in the 18th century (a predecessor of BNY Mellon, and Intercontinental Exchange’s New York Stock Exchange) along with ventures less than a decade old (BMLL Technologies and Fireblocks among them).

Technology is both “an accelerant and a way forward,” in the words of Brad Levy, CEO of Symphony Communication Services, which was founded in 2014.

“Technology is not the source of all innovation, but it does carry a big stick,” says CEO Billy Hult of Tradeweb, a product of the 1990s “pre-fintech” wave. “Our business has always been about optimizing the balance between humans and technology, so a potential sea change like artificial intelligence and machine learning becomes an opportunity to recalibrate that balance and ask what else can we do for clients.”

Adena Friedman, chair and CEO of Nasdaq, which launched its market in 1971 and now calls itself “a leading global technology company” with a capital markets focus, was asked during the World Economic Forum’s January meeting if economic uncertainty and corporate cutbacks would stifle innovation. “Instead of letting every sprout grow,” she replied, “you’re going to choose which sprouts are going to grow into trees, and you’re going to really go hard after those.”

The 40 honorees include Levy, Hult and Friedman and were selected from TabbFORUM research, with consideration given to nominations and recommendations from the community, and based on qualities of the individual executives including leadership, results and reputation; impact on domestic and/or global markets; achievements both recent and over the course of a career; and pure technology advances, implementations and R&D. Below the 40 are 10 More to Watch on the leading edge of change and innovation in financial markets.