Bob Gasser is CEO of ITG, an agency broker and provider of trading technology.

What were the major themes of your business in 2014?

2014 was a year of transition in the capital markets, as regulators around the world took fresh looks at market structure.  The publication of Flash Boys and the FX rigging scandals sparked some frank (and probably for some brokers, uncomfortable) conversations about how client orders and information are handled and about what truly constitutes best execution.  From our perspective it was a good year overall, one filled with healthy client engagement.

What are your expectations for 2015?

We look forward to 2015 as a year of increased transparency, as institutional investors push for  more information about how, where and why brokers execute equity orders on their behalf.  We also expect calls for improved price discovery in asset classes such as fixed income and foreign exchange (so-called ‘equitization’), and we would not be surprised to see the regulatory discussions in Europe to prompt wider debate about the true value of alpha-generating investment research.  We expect continued growth in electronic trading to deliver cost savings to investors in emerging markets.  We also expect institutional investors to demand more sophisticated trading tools and platforms which are truly global and multi-asset in their functionality and we look forward to another year of working with our clients to meet these challenges.