Bloomberg: Need for technology innovations in Mexico increases

More of Mexico’s corporations, investment firms and universities are turning to innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, Bloomberg speakers said at a recent program hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

The drive to employ new technologies comes as a result of regulations and the growing demand by investors for more transparency, Liza Parlatore Lopez, Bloomberg’s Business Executive for Mexico and Central America, told the audience of more than 80 people.

One key example of new regulations is that the Central Bank of Mexico will prohibit operations linked to the 28-day Interbank Equilibrium Interest Rate (TIIE) as of January 1, 2025. Instead, investors need to use the new funding TIIE (F-TIIE), which is used to calculate corporate bonds issuance, syndicated loans and certificates of deposit.

“Bloomberg was the first firm to create an electronically negotiated TIIE de Fondeo swap transaction and it was executed via the Bloomberg Swap Execution Facility (BSEF) by Banco Invex and Finamex Casa de Bolsa, and was cleared through CME,” Parlatore said. She added that they are helping other firms make the same transition.

Electronic trading technology activity is up, too, she said. A Coalition Greenwich survey found that 76% of Latin American firms said they expect increased adoption of electronic trading this year.  Bloomberg recently saw an increase of 215% in electronic bond trading volume over last year. Mexican financial firms are increasingly adopting new electronic trading processes, as they want to use the same systems as their global counterparts do to reduce operational risks, Parlatore said.

Artificial Intelligence is also sparking a lot of interest.

“Bloomberg has used AI for the past 15 years to produce news summaries, calculate social media sentiment, and extract company fundamentals,” she said, adding, “Today, Bloomberg’s AI Engineering team has more than 350 researchers and engineers who are applying AI technologies to applications in finance.”

Notably, in the past year, an AI-powered earnings call summaries tool was debuted, and a generative AI-enhanced solution was added to Bloomberg’s on mobile apps.

New technology is important for universities, too, said Parlatore. To support students who are seeking careers in the financial markets, Bloomberg for Education has created multiple e-learning courses from the basics of finance and investment, to how financial markets work, and how to implement ESG strategies and reporting. These courses can be taken by students who prefer Portuguese and Spanish. Bloomberg also sponsors an annual trading challenge, a competition with teams from around the world, who get real-world experience in trading.

Other speakers at the program included Brandon Tranquili, a relationship manager who works with asset management clients and universities, and David Arizmendi, spokesperson for the United States Embassy in Mexico, who highlighted the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence for journalists and civil society. Claudia Quinonez, who is Bloomberg’s Global Head of Content Innovation, spoke about news and content automation that her team creates leveraging Bloomberg’s wealth of financial data and how artificial intelligence will impact the newsroom of the future.

 

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