How Deutsche Numis’ Market Intelligence platform is elevating our client offering
For the next in our Leaders’ Views series, we caught up with Steve Lemka, Head of Market Intelligence (MI), Investment Banking, who told us about his oversight of Deutsche Numis’ proprietary MI platform, why data is key to supporting our clients through the market cycles and how his cockapoo Boston helps him to unwind after work.
Can you tell us about your role?
I sit within UK Origination & Advisory but agnostic to any sector, and have created an internal product that sits on top of a vast quantity of selected external data from across the UK market landscape - Deutsche Numis’ Market Intelligence (MI) platform. A key part of my role is using MI to generate meaningful corporate and investor narratives for sector and product teams across the business.
Can you tell us more about Deutsche Numis’ MI platform, how it evolved and how it helps our clients?
Over the past 5-10 years, we have seen a real growth of specialist corporate broking products in the UK. Deutsche Numis, unlike some of our key competitors, has the advantage of being highly collaborative across the market with chosen data providers as opposed to offering internally sourced solutions, and we invest in high-quality, targeted information from many sources before enhancing it into a more meaningful “in-house” view.
We built the platform from the ground up, creating the first corporate broking intelligence product at Deutsche Numis. Not having incumbent systems meant we were able to build in technologies that were very current, flexible and, importantly, quick. We then introduced these benefits to the business through this proprietary platform, controlling the data and honing it into an effective client storyboard.
Today it is the most widely used internal application within Deutsche Numis. There remains a strong focus on continually evolving MI and innovatively delivering this intelligence to clients.
Having access to so many sources of leading market data, coupled with the ability to standardise and blend it into bespoke analysis, is a real advantage for our company. We are able to show our clients complex reporting that provides differentiated intelligence.Steve Lemka, Head of Market Intelligence (MI), Investment Banking,
How does the MI platform give Deutsche Numis an edge in the market?
MI is a real differentiator. Having access to so many sources of leading market data, coupled with the ability to standardise and blend it into bespoke analysis, is a real advantage for our company. We are able to show our clients complex reporting that provides differentiated intelligence. We are then in control of creating and delivering complex analytics that provide unique insights into investor and market sentiment across the UK.
MI empowers users to instantly answer specific client queries, address the suitability of investors and targets, and deliver in-depth material for presentations. It also offers huge production and time efficiencies. Our clients benefit from our unique capacity to understand and work through any number of different market scenarios.
What do you think drives the success of the MI team?
We actively encourage user feedback from within the business, allowing us to remain current and relevant in this changeable environment. The goalposts are always moving, but we have the advantage of being agile product owners and can adapt as our needs evolve.
We are very good at communicating enhancements within the platform and offering targeted training sessions. Importantly, we are very well supported by dedicated and highly skilled technical colleagues.
What are your top priorities for your team over the coming months?
Our top priorities remain: (1) to continue to develop our existing roadmap, which includes known business requirements that will aid our UK corporate broking offering; and (2) to understand more about Deutsche Bank’s broader businesses and explore opportunities to see how MI can be integrated across different markets and products.
We receive many bespoke requests each week, which help us to understand and prioritise the roadmap going forwards.
How did you end up choosing to work in this area, and at Deutsche Numis in particular?
My career has been largely spent at JP Morgan, beginning at Cazenove until its acquisition by them. I spent 25 years there in total, running its dedicated corporate broking products through a number of large teams. The majority of my time was spent meeting and interacting with the client base, keeping abreast of topical issues and continually shaping the development of the product set. Whilst internally aligned, the team was an autonomous unit within the business.
After so many years I felt a need for a change and left for a more commercially focused investor relations business role; however, after a year’s break, the lure of developing a new product from scratch and utilising my previous experiences proved too tempting and I rejoined the industry with Numis.
What changes have you seen in your field over the course of your career?
One of the key changes – which is why MI has been so successful – is the embracing of technology as an enhancer of our product capabilities. Previously, there was an overreliance on standard market tools that provided good but generic solutions. Effectively there was a level playing field because each bank largely had access to the same tools. Technology, coupled with our ability to interpret and integrate multiple data sources has enabled us to be far more front-footed as a company, and our more junior colleagues tend to be highly technology enabled, which is a key part of our success. There is more cross-over between technology and business roles than ever before, as well as a stronger capability to evolve solutions in different forms.
What are your interests outside of work?
I’m very outdoorsy and enjoy regularly riding my mountain bike in the forest or heading to the slopes to ski. I’m a long-suffering Spurs fan (but very happy at the moment) and also a keen gardener. I have a wonderful cockapoo named Boston whose daily walks mean lots of downtime spent unwinding in nature.
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For the next in our Leaders’ Views series, we caught up with Steve Lemka, Head of Market Intelligence (MI), Investment Banking, who told us about his oversight of Deutsche Numis’ proprietary MI platform, why data is key to supporting our clients through the market cycles and how his cockapoo Boston helps him to unwind after work.
Can you tell us about your role?
I sit within UK Origination & Advisory but agnostic to any sector, and have created an internal product that sits on top of a vast quantity of selected external data from across the UK market landscape - Deutsche Numis’ Market Intelligence (MI) platform. A key part of my role is using MI to generate meaningful corporate and investor narratives for sector and product teams across the business.
Can you tell us more about Deutsche Numis’ MI platform, how it evolved and how it helps our clients?
Over the past 5-10 years, we have seen a real growth of specialist corporate broking products in the UK. Deutsche Numis, unlike some of our key competitors, has the advantage of being highly collaborative across the market with chosen data providers as opposed to offering internally sourced solutions, and we invest in high-quality, targeted information from many sources before enhancing it into a more meaningful “in-house” view.
We built the platform from the ground up, creating the first corporate broking intelligence product at Deutsche Numis. Not having incumbent systems meant we were able to build in technologies that were very current, flexible and, importantly, quick. We then introduced these benefits to the business through this proprietary platform, controlling the data and honing it into an effective client storyboard.
Today it is the most widely used internal application within Deutsche Numis. There remains a strong focus on continually evolving MI and innovatively delivering this intelligence to clients.
How does the MI platform give Deutsche Numis an edge in the market?
MI is a real differentiator. Having access to so many sources of leading market data, coupled with the ability to standardise and blend it into bespoke analysis, is a real advantage for our company. We are able to show our clients complex reporting that provides differentiated intelligence. We are then in control of creating and delivering complex analytics that provide unique insights into investor and market sentiment across the UK.
MI empowers users to instantly answer specific client queries, address the suitability of investors and targets, and deliver in-depth material for presentations. It also offers huge production and time efficiencies. Our clients benefit from our unique capacity to understand and work through any number of different market scenarios.
What do you think drives the success of the MI team?
We actively encourage user feedback from within the business, allowing us to remain current and relevant in this changeable environment. The goalposts are always moving, but we have the advantage of being agile product owners and can adapt as our needs evolve.
We are very good at communicating enhancements within the platform and offering targeted training sessions. Importantly, we are very well supported by dedicated and highly skilled technical colleagues.
What are your top priorities for your team over the coming months?
Our top priorities remain: (1) to continue to develop our existing roadmap, which includes known business requirements that will aid our UK corporate broking offering; and (2) to understand more about Deutsche Bank’s broader businesses and explore opportunities to see how MI can be integrated across different markets and products.
We receive many bespoke requests each week, which help us to understand and prioritise the roadmap going forwards.
How did you end up choosing to work in this area, and at Deutsche Numis in particular?
My career has been largely spent at JP Morgan, beginning at Cazenove until its acquisition by them. I spent 25 years there in total, running its dedicated corporate broking products through a number of large teams. The majority of my time was spent meeting and interacting with the client base, keeping abreast of topical issues and continually shaping the development of the product set. Whilst internally aligned, the team was an autonomous unit within the business.
After so many years I felt a need for a change and left for a more commercially focused investor relations business role; however, after a year’s break, the lure of developing a new product from scratch and utilising my previous experiences proved too tempting and I rejoined the industry with Numis.
What changes have you seen in your field over the course of your career?
One of the key changes – which is why MI has been so successful – is the embracing of technology as an enhancer of our product capabilities. Previously, there was an overreliance on standard market tools that provided good but generic solutions. Effectively there was a level playing field because each bank largely had access to the same tools. Technology, coupled with our ability to interpret and integrate multiple data sources has enabled us to be far more front-footed as a company, and our more junior colleagues tend to be highly technology enabled, which is a key part of our success. There is more cross-over between technology and business roles than ever before, as well as a stronger capability to evolve solutions in different forms.
What are your interests outside of work?
I’m very outdoorsy and enjoy regularly riding my mountain bike in the forest or heading to the slopes to ski. I’m a long-suffering Spurs fan (but very happy at the moment) and also a keen gardener. I have a wonderful cockapoo named Boston whose daily walks mean lots of downtime spent unwinding in nature.