Grim future for financial middlemen: report

Investment Executive reports:

One of the biggest changes to hit financial services industry in the coming years will be the demise of the middleman, according to a new report from IBM.

Traders, analysts, fund managers and others who stand between investors and their money will come under pressure to deliver or depart by 2015, the report suggests.

In a global survey, IBM, in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, spoke to more than 400 executives who run 296 of the world'’s largest exchanges, broker/dealers, asset managers, custodians, hedge funds and regulatory bodies.

These executives overwhelmingly believe that more profit will flow to investors in an increasingly transparent marketplace.

The report says three forces are expected to rearrange the structure of global capital markets by 2015. Complete marketplace transparency, instantaneous and uniform global networks and a growing need to commit to a permanent state of risk are the underlying forces bubbling up to shape the new single market for the world'’s capital.

"“Power will shift from the traders who have benefited from merely facilitating transactions to the buyers and sellers who take positions on either end of the trade," said Sarah Diamond, head of IBM'’s financial markets consulting practice, in a release.

Old big,cities like New York and Chicago should be particularily hurt because they have too many "middleman" jobs.Not a good sign since these cities are already experiencing job declines in the core downtown areas.