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Alan Reed
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at OpenYield
Alan Reed is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at OpenYield, a position he has held since March 2023. He is based in the New York City Metropolitan Area and has extensive experience in legal and compliance roles within the financial services sector.
Professional Background
Before joining OpenYield, Reed served in several significant positions:
- Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Counsel at Domain Money from September 2021 to March 2023.
- Senior Manager - Financial Institutions Compliance and Regulatory at Coinbase for over a year.
- Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel at Tagomi from March 2019 to August 2020.
- General Counsel at BIDS Trading from April 2015 to February 2019.
His career also includes roles at E D & F Man Capital Markets, Macquarie Capital, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, among others. Reed's educational background includes a JD from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and a BA in Economics from William & Mary.13
Current Role at OpenYield
At OpenYield, Reed is responsible for managing legal affairs and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, particularly as the company focuses on modernizing bond trading for retail clients. OpenYield aims to simplify bond investments and enhance accessibility through technology and competitive pricing strategies.23
Highlights
OpenYield thanks the Bond Dealers of America for an insightful National Fixed Income Conference!
It was a great pleasure to attend the annual BOND DEALERS OF AMERICA National Fixed Income Conference last week and to connect with many leaders in the fixed income trading arena. Much of the discussion, formal and informal, anchored on the topic of technology changing the fixed income market and included observations that certain inefficiencies have led to the persistence of the voice trading model. A number of industry veterans provided encouraging feedback regarding the emergence of new platforms that include live, actionable markets with a focus on servicing retail-sized order flow - which has been a core element behind what we are building at OpenYield. Sharing here some key highlights from the many outstanding panels and thoughtful discussions at the BDA Conference:
- Effective trading spreads continue to compress, approximately more than halving over the last decade
- Access to the retail market for municipal bonds remains cumbersome and inefficient
- SMA accounts holding fixed income investments are turned over up to 100% per year
- Investment managers expressed concern about the re-investment risks incumbent on short term bond holdings
- Systematic trading in the bond market is growing and indicates that trade sizes will continue to trend to smaller lot sizes
- Industry experts broadly acknowledge that new algo driven market makers are growing in numbers and have materially changed the liquidity landscape
- Actual cost of entry for new platforms may be hindering the emergence of new trading venues
- There may be a bit of “vendor fatigue”, as shared by prominent market participants, that is driven by failures to deliver connectivity and automated trading features
- AI has the potential to disrupt the traditional, voice-based dealers via cheaper price discovery
- Many leading firms are challenged by their own internal resources and, at times, are constrained when the opportunity for innovation arises
- A general desire for greater regulatory guidance specific to fixed income - panelists suggested that securities regulators tend to focus on equities and may not consider how rules or interpretations may impact market participants that engage in fixed income services
I am excited to share that I have joined OpenYield as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer! We’re on the journey of building an innovative bond marketplace with the specific mission of modernizing access for retail. The company is the brainchild of the incredibly talented founder and CEO, Jonathan Birnbaum and is being built by the equally talented co-founder and CTO, Hilton Lipschitz. It truly is a privilege to join this fantastic team!
For more information about OpenYield, please reach out!
#fintech #capitalmarkets #bonds #trading #investing
