Overbond FintekNews is pleased to offer our weekly feature column 3 Questions. Each week, we feature a thought leader within a unique sector of fintech and ask them to answer just 3 questions for our audience in their vernacular. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Vuk Magdelinic, CEO of Overbond, a platform that makes primary bond issuance digital, transparent and secure. Overbond connects corporate and government issuers with dealers and investors directly.

NAME: Vuk Magdelinic

TITLE:

CEO

COMPANY:

Overbond

WEB ADDRESS:

www.overbond.com

How did you personally become involved in fintech?

Before founding Overbond, I spent over ten years in capital markets and technology. This included leading numerous large digital transformation and regulatory projects at global banks including Deutsche Bank and BNY Mellon.

I also have experience working on the trading floor for CIBC Fixed Income in Toronto trading structured products. Through all these experiences I have noticed numerous inefficiencies in the financial world and especially in the capital markets and the primary bond origination process.

What does your firm do/offer within the fintech sector?

The bond market is one of the largest financial markets in the world at approximately $100 trillion – yet it is a traditional market which to this day relies on legacy, manual processes.

Overbond is transforming how global investment banks, institutional investors, corporations and governments connect and access the primary fixed income market. We are the first fully-digital capital markets platform for primary bond origination - our digital platform brings the bond issuance process into the 21st century by making it transparent, efficient and secure for all market participants. We do this by through our digital workflows, advanced data analytics and visualization that provide optimized price discovery, and investor diversification – all while reducing infrastructure and transaction costs for issuers, dealers and investors.

What area/s of fintech do you believe will grow the most in the coming 5 years?

Fintech has already transformed many consumer markets in finance, and I believe the next wave of growth with stem from institutional capital markets. Innovation in the securities market is not only long overdue, but essential in driving a more efficient and collaborative bond issuance process. It’s very important to see a fintech start-up delivering on its vision for a completely digital bond market that benefits issuers, dealers, and investors. It is incredibly rewarding to transform what is now a largely manual, legacy system so that all participants in the bond market benefit from the increased transparency and efficiencies.

Applying technologies like machine learning and predictive analytics to capital markets is another area of growth - Transparency Market Research also reported that the market for predictive analytics software will reach US$6.5bn by 2019. That’s because predictive intelligence can increase accuracy in decision-making, and subsequently profitability. The market is already showing indications of significant success. Unsurprisingly, innovators developing applications within financial services are growing bolder in their efforts to perform tasks that may have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

Before founding Overbond, Vuk’s career spans over 10 years in capital markets and technology. As PwC Risk and Regulatory consulting manager, Vuk led large digital transformation programs at Deutsche Bank and BNY Mellon in New York City. Prior to that, he worked at CIBC Fixed Income trading floor in Toronto in structured products origination capacity. Vuk has collaborated on numerous publications addressing key trends in fintech innovation. Vuk holds electrical engineering degree from University of Toronto, MBA from Ivey school of business and is an avid abstract painter.