｜ARTICLE｜COLLATERAL MANAGEMENT
From End-of-Day to Always-On: Why Nasdaq and Baton Systems Are Partnering
A Q&A with business leaders on bringing new connectivity and agility to collateral and post-trade workflows
12 March 2026: Capital markets infrastructure is moving from batched, end-of-day processing toward more connected, intraday operating models. But many workflows are still sequential, siloed and bilateral. As risk and margin demands evolve amid increasing volatility and volumes, firms increasingly feel the strain of operating intraday on infrastructure that was designed to reconcile later, not coordinate and execute now. That shift requires collaboration across platforms, networks and institutions, not isolated solutions.
In response, Nasdaq and Baton Systems have partnered to help enable Nasdaq Calypso clients to modernize collateral and post‑trade workflows across traditional and digital assets through trusted, scalable and interoperable infrastructure.
We sat down with Magnus Haglind, Nasdaq Head of Capital Markets Technology, and Arjun Jayaram, Founder & CEO at Baton Systems, to learn more about how this partnership is aimed at helping institutions prepare for the opportunities presented by the future of liquidity, collateral and risk management.
Q1: Capital markets have invested heavily in speed and automation over the last decade. What do you see as the next major inflection point for market infrastructure?
Magnus: The next inflection point is not just faster execution – it’s what happens after the trade. Hyper-optimized trading has shifted the bottleneck to intraday management and capital efficiency. Markets operate in real time, but post-trade remains reliant on manual methods and batch-based processing, trapping liquidity and obscuring risk. The next major inflection point will come from network-based orchestration across clearing, risk and collateral – a digital backbone that lets money and collateral move safely in real time.
Q2: From your perspective, where do firms still struggle operationally, even after years of post-trade and clearing modernization?
Arjun: Even after years of clearing and post-trade modernization, many firms still lack comprehensive real-time visibility across margin, liquidity and settlement flows, which can lead to suboptimal funding decisions. Even when firms identify optimal use of financial resources, legacy processes and technology often slow execution, resulting increased risk and missed opportunities.
Q3: Why isn’t this something a single platform or market operator can solve on its own?
Magnus: Post-trade friction is an ecosystem concern, not a singular problem. Markets are not monolithic. Liquidity, risk and collateral move continuously across firms, market infrastructures and jurisdictions, each with its own systems, rules and cutoffs. A single platform or market operator can streamline what happens inside its own perimeter, but it cannot remove the handoffs, reconciliations and timing gaps that sit at the boundaries between participants. Scaled solutions require market stakeholders coordinating around shared workflows and connectivity so value can move safely and predictably across the ecosystem.
Q4: What role do networks and shared infrastructure play in addressing intraday liquidity and settlement challenges?
Arjun: Interoperable networks and trusted shared infrastructure can play a significant role in addressing the visibility and mobility challenges firms face. By directly connecting clearing members with CCPs and clearing venues via a network of well-established and repeatable integrations, they can quickly access margin and collateral data across multiple markets. Crucially, they can then orchestrate coordinated collateral movements across CCPs, enabling faster responses to margin calls, more efficient liquidity use, lower funding costs and stronger risk management.
Q5: What made Baton the right partner for Nasdaq at this moment?
Magnus: Nasdaq and Baton have a shared goal of improving the efficiency and integrity of the post-trade ecosystem as a whole. Baton brings a proven digital backbone for settlement, collateral, liquidity and risk, already live with major banks and CCPs, while Nasdaq contributes deep market infrastructure expertise and a broad, global client base through Nasdaq Calypso.
Q6: How should clients think about the value of this partnership in practical terms?
Arjun: Through this partnership, clients will gain real-time visibility and enhanced control across key risk, inventory, and clearing venues, enabling more efficient use of liquidity and collateral as a result of direct connectivity to an expanding network of major CCPs.
Looking ahead, as tokenized collateral and digital assets gain institutional traction, this same infrastructure will allow firms to mobilize tokenized cash and securities while overcoming existing constraints to optimizing capital efficiency – delivering the speed, control and agility needed in a more connected, always-on global financial ecosystem.
Q7: How does this partnership fit into Nasdaq’s broader view of how market infrastructure is evolving?
Magnus: We believe market infrastructure will evolve from closed, monolithic stacks to open, interoperable networks that meet clients where they are. That’s what makes our partnership so vital and valuable. Baton’s network-enabled orchestration layers onto existing Calypso environments, empowering firms to unlock intraday visibility and collateral mobility while preserving trusted systems and risk models. Orchestration is a major theme going forward and together we’re helping architect a seamless operating model built for next generation markets.
Q8: What will market infrastructure leaders look back on in five years and say changed how we operate?
Arjun: In five years, market infrastructure leaders will likely point to the shift from optimizing process and resource management as standalone institutions to participating in connected financial networks. These networks will give firms real-time access to the validated data and collaborative processes needed to optimize liquidity and collateral, move money and assets in real-time and capture emerging opportunities. In doing so, unlocking capital efficiency benefits and strengthening risk management to a greater extent than any institution can achieve on its own.