FIS Reflects on 2020 and Sees Climate as a Major Trend
Earlier, I spoke with Ms. Irina Reitgruber of FIS’ Cross Asset Trading and Risk business to find out how things were going for FIS in commodities. FIS has won its first client in the LNG space and is now very positive over that space for further new clients. “We have been adding LNG capabilities over the last several years,” Irina told me. “FIS Energy Trading, Risk and Logistics Platform (formerly Aligne) is now not only capable of supporting LNG trading and scheduling but it will also have a reference in that commodity soon, which is always an important factor in gaining new clients.”
Irina was also very pleased with FIS’ progress generally – citing two huge wins in North America very large and very well-known trading houses for a multi-commodity solution at the end of 2020 and with the likelihood of a couple more to come. “There is a lot of interest in risk management and it seems that the importance of risk solutions has increased,” she said. “ 2020 was a successful year all around for FIS in energy & commodities and we are seeing positive signs of growth in early 2021.”
FIS is also keeping a close eye on climate developments and requirements she told me. The FIS climate initiative is a group-wide initiative and FIS is working across all its software products – not just commodities – to ensure it is well-positioned. It is closely monitoring the Bank of England and European Central Bank’s scenario development, which will certainly also impact larger energy companies. There are a lot of complex questions to be resolved, she said but FIS is clearly doing its homework in the area and climate was the topic of a recent FIS risk management webinar that I moderated.
“We are looking globally at environmental needs and also noting how battery assets and hydrogen will require to be modeled while we also see a natural impact being that power trading will grow very rapidly along with renewables. This will mean vast amounts of data and potentially a data management issue in the space considering all of the intra-day activity that will be taking place,” she said. “She expects new instruments to be developed and points to environmental swaps as an area that could have an impact on financing. “ ComTech is also looking closely at this area and the developing requirements.
