Keeping Up

"The global securities and investments industry must continue adapting to a fast-changing environment, including grappling with the ongoing fallout of the subprime crisis and associated write-downs," said Rob Hegarty, managing director of TowerGroup's Securities & Investments practice, touting the company's latest research, which forecasts that economic uncertainty will continue to dominate the global securities and investments industry in 2008 and beyond. According to the research firm's "Top 10 for 2008," the industry will continue to "see upheaval as market structure further evolves, trading volumes spike, and alternative investments continue their torrid growth, despite the difficulties brought on by the subprime crisis." The industry will also be strongly impacted by the changing needs of different demographic segments, led by the emergence of Millennials and Generation X, both as investors as well as employees. "The prior year served as a needed wake-up call for the industry and the firms best positioned for this adversity will benefit in 2008," Hegarty concluded.