Across banks and sell-side institutions, the firms replacing fragmented legacy systems with a unified data foundation are turning operational complexity into a growth advantage.
Sell-side firms are sitting on decades of accumulated technology. Mainframes from the 1960s, bolt-on systems from every M&A wave, and point solutions acquired to solve one problem at a time. The result is an architecture that was never designed to support the pace of business today.
Sell-side firms hitting a growth ceiling don't have a trading problem or a market problem, they have a data infrastructure problem. The firms breaking through are the ones who stopped patching legacy systems and built a unified data foundation.
Two-thirds of sell-side firms cite legacy modernization as their top IT investment driver in 2026. The conversation has shifted from whether to modernize to whether the current architecture can support new asset classes, new regions, and new regulatory demands at all. The firms still running on fragmented systems are finding that growth itself has become the stress test. Legacy infrastructure is creating invisible ceilings on efficiency and scalability, and those ceilings are getting harder to ignore.
This isn't a theoretical concern. Sixty-eight percent of firms plan to replace or significantly upgrade critical systems. The firms that have built a unified data foundation are expanding into private credit, digital assets, and structured products without operational strain. The ones that haven't are watching every new asset class expose another layer of disparate data, manual reconciliation, and scalability limits.
This edition of ArVision pulls together our latest thinking on where sell-side operations are heading, from the data infrastructure question behind every new or evolving asset class to agentic AI reaching sell-side operations and the unification of data across business silos. The throughline is clear: The sell-side institutions that treat data architecture as a strategic priority, not a back-office maintenance item, are the ones positioned to compound their advantage as markets grow more complex.
Banks and sell-side institutions are expanding into private credit, asset-based lending, digital assets, and structured products. But success depends on more than market opportunity. Modern data infrastructure, security master management, and financial instrument modeling enable firms to onboard complex asset classes, reconcile multiple data sources, and support trading, risk, operations, and regulatory reporting at scale. The firms asking whether their data infrastructure can support the operational requirements are the ones preparing to win. The ones still shoehorning new asset classes into legacy accounting engines are building operational risk into every new business line.
For digital assets, the challenge is especially acute. Blockchain's promise of same-day settlements and 24/7 trading requires banks to conduct rapid risk management, record complex lifecycle events, and calculate profit and loss granularly on both a historic and intraday basis. Legacy accounting engines don't understand the P&L of coin versus coin, a perpetual future, or staking. Without a cloud-native data layer that can standardize and centralize reference data across every asset class, the growth opportunity becomes an operational liability. Dive into the architectural foundations behind the data infrastructure question.
71%
71%
of U.S. banking executives ($100B+ in assets) are prioritizing interoperable systems for tokenized deposits and stablecoins
90%+
of data users in banks report that the data they need is often unavailable or takes too long to retrieve
Securities reference data is growing increasingly complex for banks and sell-side institutions to manage. Without a single source of truth, this data is often siloed, fragmented, and burdensome to normalize, reconcile, and manage across systems. The problem is compounded by resource constraints, as firms are asked to do more with less, often with scarce engineering talent tied up maintaining legacy systems.
Our Financial Data Stack and security master capabilities are designed to help banks and sell-side institutions efficiently master, integrate, and scale data across regions, business lines, and asset classes. Established connections to numerous market data providers and third-party tools, paired with pre-built adapters, enable firms to systematically ingest securities data and keep information current and easily accessible. Data quality management is built into core architecture, with rules, monitoring, and exception workflows that proactively support data quality.
Market Benefits:
The Vendor Consolidation Wave Is Reshaping Data Management Strategy
Technology vendor engagement is shifting, driven by vendor M&A, evolving sell-side preferences for engaging partners, and the growing impact of AI. The firms that treat this as an opportunity to modernize their data architecture, rather than a like-for-like swap, will emerge with a stronger foundation for growth. Read more on vendor convergence and metrics from Sell Side Ops 2026.
Basel III Endgame Is Heading Toward Finalization
Basel III endgame proposals from March 2026 are heading toward finalization, with regulators targeting December 2026 for a final rule. Comments closed in June, and the Fed's Vice Chair for Supervision has indicated the package will be finalized before the end of the year. Firms without centralized data layers will struggle with the growing compliance burden, while those with unified platforms gain a reporting advantage as cycles accelerate. See how federal capital requirements ripple through the banking system.
Tokenized Securities Just Got Regulatory Green Light
On September 17, 2026, the SEC granted a temporary innovation exemption for trading tokenized NMS stocks on distributed ledger venues, signaling a major step toward mainstream adoption. A crypto-friendly regulatory regime is prompting sell-side institutions to explore roles as issuers, custodians, and processors in the tokenized asset value chain. Firms without the data infrastructure to handle 24/7 trading, same-day settlement, and granular P&L will find themselves locked out of the next growth cycle. Learn what it takes to be ready for the data infrastructure behind digital assets.
Arcesium Intelligence Is Gaining Momentum
Following its May 2026 launch, Arcesium Intelligence is accelerating rapidly. By September, over 1,500 agents, skills, and applications had been built, at which point Arcesium released six new agent capabilities including reusable skills and version control. Designed as a production-grade agent harness, these capabilities enable operations teams with AI they can trust, control, and scale. The same month, Arcesium Intelligence won "Best AI Solution for Investment Intelligence" at the 2026 Hedge Fund Services Awards. Embedded in Arcesium's front-to-back operations platform, Opterra, and the Aquata enterprise data platform, Arcesium Intelligence is helping financial institutions turn complex data into faster, more actionable intelligence.
Arcesium Appoints Brian Rosenberg as President, Revenue and Commercial
Brian Rosenberg joined Arcesium in September 2026 and will shepherd all aspects of client and partner development, as well as go-to-market strategy and execution. Rosenberg brings two decades of experience leading global commercial teams at prominent institutions including Wilshire Indexes, Qontigo, FTSE Russell, LSEG, SunGard, MSCI, and RiskMetrics Group.
Arcesium's Front-to-Back Platform Vision Is Taking Shape
Following its February 2026 acquisition of Stockholm-based portfolio and order management (P/OMS) systems provider Limina, Arcesium's unified front-to-back platform is coming together. The integration of Limina's cloud-native P/OMS with Arcesium's middle- and back-office solutions is eliminating legacy fragmentation and connecting siloed data, giving investment managers the speed and insight they need to operate intelligently across asset classes and global markets. The acquisition also deepens Arcesium's European presence, following the opening of its Hong Kong office in January 2026.
Arcesium will be at the following events over the coming months. If you're attending any of these, we'd love to connect. Reach out to your Arcesium contact or get in touch to arrange a meeting.
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