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The Fed, Markets, And Cybersecurity (Podcast) · Bloomberg Intelligence

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
0:04
Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
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Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
0:11
Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find a Bloomberg Markets podcast
0:15
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
0:18
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I want to bring
0:22
Speaker 1: in our next guest, Matt, because he's got a lot
0:24
Speaker 1: of explaining to do. Steve Matthews, US economy reporter Flood
0:28
Speaker 1: Bloomberg News. Steve, I want to start with this balance
0:31
Speaker 1: sheet thing. It's June one. People are telling me this
0:33
Speaker 1: is an important day. The Fed's gonna been shrinking the
0:36
Speaker 1: balance sheet. How did they do that? What does it
0:39
Speaker 1: mean and what should we be looking out for? So, yes,
0:43
Speaker 1: today is the official start of QT, or quantitative tightening,
0:48
Speaker 1: and UH, the Fed basically since UH, since COVID happened,
0:55
Speaker 1: started increasing the size of the balance sheet by buying treasuries,
1:00
Speaker 1: securities and mortgage backed securities and essentially doubled the size
1:05
Speaker 1: of the balance sheet to nine trillion dollars. And now
1:09
Speaker 1: they've realized that all of this money slashing around in
1:12
Speaker 1: the system. Plus low interest rates has created inflation and
1:17
Speaker 1: they've got to get that under control. So they're cutting
1:20
Speaker 1: the size of the balance sheet by about a trillion
1:24
Speaker 1: dollars a year. And they're not selling assets, but as
1:29
Speaker 1: the assets mature, as treasury bills or treasury notes uh
1:35
Speaker 1: come do, or mortgage back securities when they mature, they
1:39
Speaker 1: are not reinvesting the money that matures, and by that,
1:44
Speaker 1: by that means they will gradually shrink the balance sheet.
1:48
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, they were buying mortgage bonds for the past
1:51
Speaker 1: couple of years because I was able to get my
1:53
Speaker 1: house at only twice what it costs the last time
1:55
Speaker 1: it's sold. You know, Yeah, that that's right, super healthful.
2:00
Speaker 1: They may have overdone it a little bit on the
2:02
Speaker 1: housing side, and in fact, that is one of the
2:05
Speaker 1: big debates at the FED right now is what to
2:08
Speaker 1: do with all of the mortgage backed securities because they're
2:11
Speaker 1: not maturing. I mean, these mortgage backed securities are you know,
2:15
Speaker 1: ten years, thirty years? Uh. You know, people don't when
2:19
Speaker 1: you sell your house, the MBS that's associated with it, well,
2:23
Speaker 1: the mortgage is paid off, but people don't sell their
2:27
Speaker 1: houses that frequently. So getting down getting rid of the
2:31
Speaker 1: MBS on their balance sheet. It's going to take a
2:34
Speaker 1: long time, which is why they're thinking about selling mbs
2:37
Speaker 1: as well. It's crazy that they even thought it was
2:39
Speaker 1: necessary at the time, like when we get into the
2:42
Speaker 1: pandemic that they say, we better make sure that people
2:45
Speaker 1: can and buy houses. I mean they already had houses.
2:51
Speaker 1: I mean the house market. There was a great deal
2:55
Speaker 1: of fear you had, you know, you had the unemployment
2:58
Speaker 1: rate went up to around that there were predictions that
3:01
Speaker 1: it could go to I mean Jim Bullard was saying,
3:04
Speaker 1: you could have just historically high unemployment. The whole economy
3:09
Speaker 1: was shutdown, there were problems with the financial system. So
3:13
Speaker 1: I think that you know, they get a pass for
3:15
Speaker 1: their initial response, but where you can criticize them fairly
3:21
Speaker 1: is they were not very fast and in realizing Okay,
3:25
Speaker 1: things have changed now and they need to start and
3:29
Speaker 1: now the White House reality and now the White House
3:32
Speaker 1: wants us to believe that they're solely responsible for inflation.
3:36
Speaker 1: This is fascinating. The last couple of days we've seen
3:38
Speaker 1: President by and really passed the book um a couple
3:41
Speaker 1: on a couple of occasions. Now he's saying like you
3:45
Speaker 1: fix it right, Well, is the FED really the only
3:51
Speaker 1: body in the US that has anything to do with
3:53
Speaker 1: prices and price stability? I mean, did the influx of
3:58
Speaker 1: trillions of dollars in fiscal spending not have anything to
4:02
Speaker 1: do with it? Clearly the fiscal spending, fiscal and regulatory
4:09
Speaker 1: policy feed into inflation and what's happening. You know, a
4:13
Speaker 1: lot of what has happened was initially out of the
4:17
Speaker 1: FEDS control. However, the fair point is from the FED
4:21
Speaker 1: standpoint is they accepted, they accept the idea that the
4:25
Speaker 1: central bank is responsible for inflation, maybe not in the
4:28
Speaker 1: very short term, but in the medium and long term.
4:32
Speaker 1: And you know, they think that's right that you know,
4:36
Speaker 1: it's their job to have price stability. You know, it's
4:40
Speaker 1: in the law. They have the tools to bring that about.
4:43
Speaker 1: They are supposed to look at what's happening with fiscal
4:46
Speaker 1: policy and you know, make a judgment of how that's
4:49
Speaker 1: going to feed into inflation. And they got that wrong. So,
4:53
Speaker 1: I mean, they take responsibility for kind of screwing it up.
4:57
Speaker 1: And it was interesting to hear Janet Yellow. That's why
5:00
Speaker 1: I want to go what she's saying. She was wrong
5:04
Speaker 1: about inflation. Does that mean the FED also believes it
5:07
Speaker 1: was wrong about inflation. What do you take away from
5:10
Speaker 1: the admitted it already, she was just a little bit
5:12
Speaker 1: late to the party. Yeah, Powell has said that in
5:16
Speaker 1: so many words. He has not said that, perhaps with
5:20
Speaker 1: the clarity of Janet Yell and saying, hey, we just
5:23
Speaker 1: we just blew it, but he has said that in
5:26
Speaker 1: so many words that they totally missed the boat. And
5:30
Speaker 1: you know that's why we're recovering so quickly now to
5:34
Speaker 1: do these fifty basis points hikes which are going to
5:38
Speaker 1: happen in June and July and maybe in September as well. Yeah,
5:43
Speaker 1: if you if you believe Waller, every single meeting until
5:46
Speaker 1: they get inflation back down to the FEDS two percent level,
5:49
Speaker 1: right well, until they see clear and convincing evidence, is
5:52
Speaker 1: what Powell said, uh, the other day. So you know,
5:58
Speaker 1: the real debate at the FOMC right now is on September.
6:02
Speaker 1: It's pretty well locked in that we're gonna get a
6:04
Speaker 1: half point increase in June and July. And you know,
6:08
Speaker 1: you've had Waller come out basically endorsing fifty basis points
6:13
Speaker 1: for September. But the flip side is you have like
6:16
Speaker 1: Raffael Bostick, the Atlanta head FED head saying maybe we'll pause.
6:21
Speaker 1: Then that's what the markets liked earlier in the week,
6:23
Speaker 1: all right. Steve Matthews, US economy reporter for Bloomberg News.
6:27
Speaker 1: He is based on in Atlantic. With him, we could
6:29
Speaker 1: do a whole show with him, and he covers everything.
6:31
Speaker 1: He's been doing it for a long time, and uh,
6:33
Speaker 1: he knows what's going on, so we love getting a
6:35
Speaker 1: few minutes of his time. He got the FED rolling
6:38
Speaker 1: off this balance sheet coming into this year and reading
6:46
Speaker 1: a lot of preview notes for one of the themes
6:49
Speaker 1: was volatility. Get ready and get comfortable with volatility. Employ
6:54
Speaker 1: where they right. And that applies to today because just
6:58
Speaker 1: earlier this morning, that's he was up thirty thirty two
7:01
Speaker 1: points an hour down twenty eight points. I don't know
7:04
Speaker 1: why I'm looking at my Bloomberg terminal, but maybe Jess Metton,
7:07
Speaker 1: she joins us here in our Bloomberg radio studio, maybe
7:09
Speaker 1: she can tell she's a Bloomberg Markets reporter. Jes, I
7:12
Speaker 1: know things are moving around here. We saw the yields
7:15
Speaker 1: pop up. I mean, what have you seen in the
7:16
Speaker 1: equity trading this morning? And maybe over the last week
7:19
Speaker 1: or so. A big thing is yields again and having
7:22
Speaker 1: them spike, and a lot of it has to do
7:24
Speaker 1: with investors recalibrating and pricing in potentially more aggressive moves
7:29
Speaker 1: after the next two Federal Reserve meetings. Jerome Palell FED
7:33
Speaker 1: chair had signaled that there would be two fifty basis
7:36
Speaker 1: point moves at the next two meetings, but investors were hopeful,
7:39
Speaker 1: especially because a number of FED speakers have come out
7:42
Speaker 1: recently suggesting that potentially they could maybe debate whether there
7:45
Speaker 1: could be a pause in reason rates, especially since now
7:48
Speaker 1: we have the FED balance sheet runoff starting today. But
7:53
Speaker 1: now because a lot of these inflation indicators still very elevated,
7:57
Speaker 1: and even outside of the US looking at what's happening
7:59
Speaker 1: in your up that's causing those concerns that central banks
8:02
Speaker 1: potentially have to be even more aggressive, And now we're
8:04
Speaker 1: seeing them trying to bake in potentially bigger reed hikes
8:08
Speaker 1: coming up after those two meetings. So we also have
8:11
Speaker 1: today's the first day of reducing the balance sheet, and
8:16
Speaker 1: are we going to feel the effects immediately? I mean,
8:19
Speaker 1: obviously we're seeing a jump in rates right now, but
8:22
Speaker 1: that's unlikely that all of us. It kicked in at
8:25
Speaker 1: like ten nine, right, But are we going to start
8:30
Speaker 1: um hearing about this right away? Our market participants gonna
8:33
Speaker 1: say there's no liquidity and great question. And this has
8:37
Speaker 1: been telegraphed so much, and FEED chair Jerome Palace tried
8:40
Speaker 1: to be careful with his language and FED speakers in
8:44
Speaker 1: recent months, just signaling that this would be coming. So
8:47
Speaker 1: investors have known for months now and a lot of
8:49
Speaker 1: it potentially has some of it been priced in, But
8:52
Speaker 1: there's not a ton of historical precedents to go on
8:54
Speaker 1: because if you remember did the last time we were
8:57
Speaker 1: going through this, the FED was much more patient and
8:59
Speaker 1: caution is during that time period, even when it first
9:02
Speaker 1: began started trying to raise raids after the financial crisis
9:05
Speaker 1: in the December of fifteen, and then obviously a couple
9:09
Speaker 1: of years later once we got to that's when the
9:11
Speaker 1: FED eventually started their balance shoot runoff. And as you know,
9:15
Speaker 1: in the fall of that's when there was obviously less
9:18
Speaker 1: liquidity in the system, and there was a big bout
9:21
Speaker 1: of volatility that we saw in with the SMP five
9:23
Speaker 1: hundred teetering on the brink of a correction that December.
9:26
Speaker 1: But the FED did reverse course and stopped hiking rates,
9:30
Speaker 1: and then eventually six months later they began cutting rates.
9:33
Speaker 1: But it's tough to see if that could even be
9:35
Speaker 1: the case this time around, just given how high inflation
9:39
Speaker 1: is right now, and so that doesn't really give investors
9:41
Speaker 1: conviction that you would see in about phase like that
9:43
Speaker 1: with a central bank. You know, you look at the SMP,
9:46
Speaker 1: the chart of the SMP, We're beginning June right where
9:49
Speaker 1: it started May. Why did we go through all of
9:52
Speaker 1: that rigamarole of the month of May when we're back
9:55
Speaker 1: to the same place we were before. That's volatility we are,
9:58
Speaker 1: and it's it's if a lot of the seasonality indicators.
10:01
Speaker 1: If you think of, say, for instance, April historically supposed
10:04
Speaker 1: to be a strong month was not for the SMP
10:07
Speaker 1: five hundred. You look at May sell the main go
10:09
Speaker 1: away that did not follow the case, and June historically
10:12
Speaker 1: that June swoon that actually hasn't been the case over
10:15
Speaker 1: the past decades. So you look at some of these
10:16
Speaker 1: seasonality indicators, it's almost as if they haven't followed the pattern.
10:19
Speaker 1: But one of the key things is when I talk
10:21
Speaker 1: to strategist, they always bring up the midterm election years.
10:23
Speaker 1: So if you look at that seasonality indicator, we are
10:25
Speaker 1: actually following that and the second quarter is typically the
10:29
Speaker 1: weakest on average, so LPL Financial Crunch the numbers going
10:32
Speaker 1: back to nineteen fifty and on average, the second quarter
10:35
Speaker 1: usually has a drop of about a little over two
10:37
Speaker 1: percent for the SMP five hundred in June is the
10:39
Speaker 1: weakest month in the in the midterm election years and
10:41
Speaker 1: in the presidential cycle. So in that case it could
10:44
Speaker 1: potentially not vote that well for equity markets. But again,
10:47
Speaker 1: the SMP five hundreds off to its worst start two
10:50
Speaker 1: years since nineteen seventies, so so it's because it's dropped
10:52
Speaker 1: so much that could potentially give it some room to
10:55
Speaker 1: move higher. But it's tricky to see, especially now that
10:58
Speaker 1: we have that balance sheet run off star if that's
11:00
Speaker 1: going to ignite another jolt of volatility and market? Do
11:02
Speaker 1: you use S E A G. The Bloomberg terminal it's
11:06
Speaker 1: called the seasonality chart? Is so cool to use? What
11:09
Speaker 1: is it that well? Put in any index or any stock?
11:13
Speaker 1: So I have the SMPN and then you type s
11:16
Speaker 1: E A G go and the pro tip is on
11:20
Speaker 1: the toolbar you click heat map instead of line. Okay,
11:24
Speaker 1: got it here right there, you go heat map and
11:27
Speaker 1: then you can see the seasonality. You could bring it
11:30
Speaker 1: out like twenty years and it just tells you like
11:33
Speaker 1: historically this is a good month or a bad month.
11:35
Speaker 1: Long have you been in Bloomberg two years? Just the
11:40
Speaker 1: I mean you are the function I well two years.
11:45
Speaker 1: I love this machine. Um no, So I just think
11:49
Speaker 1: it's a fascinating tool. Now in terms of um, you know,
11:54
Speaker 1: bottoms up analysis. We thought that there was gonna be
11:59
Speaker 1: that that that profits we're gonna continue, that margins were
12:02
Speaker 1: gonna stay wide, that things were gonna still be awesome
12:05
Speaker 1: this year, and um now it looks like analysts are
12:08
Speaker 1: bringing down their expectations of awesomeness due to inflation, right
12:13
Speaker 1: they are, so Bloomberg Intelligence crunch these numbers and the
12:16
Speaker 1: Ford earnings per share forecast revisions for the SMP five
12:19
Speaker 1: hundred are trending lower for each quarter until three now.
12:24
Speaker 1: And especially that has a lot to do with what's
12:26
Speaker 1: happening with margin pressures and really tied to inflation. And
12:31
Speaker 1: and Gina Martin Adams her team at Bloomberg Intelligence, they
12:34
Speaker 1: crunched the inflation discussions in earnings calls for the first
12:38
Speaker 1: quarter in those discussions for on inflation. They continue to
12:41
Speaker 1: rise in those calls more than five mentions on average,
12:44
Speaker 1: and they increased more than from the fourth quarter and
12:47
Speaker 1: over twenty three times from their loan the first three
12:50
Speaker 1: months of one optimistic sign. Supply chain concerns did ease
12:54
Speaker 1: for a second quarter, however, they still remained ninety percent
12:58
Speaker 1: higher from a year ago. So those are two issues
13:01
Speaker 1: that companies are still battling, and especially depending on the
13:04
Speaker 1: types of companies that we've had, when you're looking at retailers,
13:08
Speaker 1: not necessarily all equal. Right now, you had Target Walmart
13:12
Speaker 1: in ending up lowering their profit forecast for the year,
13:15
Speaker 1: But then you had Macy's come in and raised their
13:17
Speaker 1: sales guidance. And then you had on the discount retailers
13:21
Speaker 1: General A Dollar General and Dollar Tree also doing much
13:24
Speaker 1: better than expected. And then you have Williams Sonoma that
13:27
Speaker 1: ended up doing much better than expected. So depending on
13:30
Speaker 1: where you are in the retail space and in looking
13:32
Speaker 1: at that discretionary companies, it's it hasn't necessarily been equal,
13:37
Speaker 1: and some of the higher end has held up a
13:39
Speaker 1: bit better than on the lower end. All right, So
13:42
Speaker 1: before you got to Bloomberg News, you were at USA
13:46
Speaker 1: Today Wall Street Journal. Before that, she was an Aggie
13:50
Speaker 1: and M now Texas A and M is in College Station, Texas.
13:54
Speaker 1: I've never been, and there's a reasonable likelihood that I
13:57
Speaker 1: will never get the College Station. In thirty seconds, tell
13:59
Speaker 1: me abou college Station, Texas. So it's a great place.
14:03
Speaker 1: It's in College Station, Texas, obviously, and it's a school
14:06
Speaker 1: that has more than fifty students, so you're in a
14:08
Speaker 1: small town, but there's more than fifty thou And I mean,
14:12
Speaker 1: it's been a while since I graduated. I was a
14:14
Speaker 1: class of two thousand tents, so I've been out for
14:16
Speaker 1: a while though. But it's one of those definitely tradition
14:19
Speaker 1: based type schools. Football was your ten year reunion ruined
14:22
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. Did not go to Unfortunately, no ten
14:25
Speaker 1: year reunion for me because of the pandemic that happened.
14:28
Speaker 1: But you know, I will make it back down there.
14:31
Speaker 1: You go to football games. Football, Football's religion down there,
14:35
Speaker 1: and especially even high school football is Friday night exactly.
14:39
Speaker 1: That's the worst thing ever when I moved to Westchester,
14:42
Speaker 1: as I realized they played football on Saturday afternoons. What
14:45
Speaker 1: a stupid yea Friday night games. Good stuff. Jess Jess Met,
14:50
Speaker 1: an equities reporter for Bloomberg News and a proud Texas
14:53
Speaker 1: A and m Aggie getting the latest on College Station Texas.
14:59
Speaker 1: Let's check in David Kat's, president and CEO of Matrix
15:02
Speaker 1: Asset Advisors. David, you just heard Tim Fury from I
15:06
Speaker 1: M talking about some pretty good manufacturing numbers. How does
15:09
Speaker 1: that dovetail in with kind of how you guys are
15:11
Speaker 1: thinking about this economy as you think about your portfolio. Well,
15:16
Speaker 1: we think that this is going to be a difficult
15:18
Speaker 1: year for the FED too slow inflation yet keep the
15:21
Speaker 1: economy going, but we think they likely will be able
15:24
Speaker 1: to pull it off. And the data that you were
15:27
Speaker 1: just giving in the conversation you just had sort of
15:29
Speaker 1: supports that, Um, the economy is still strong. You just
15:33
Speaker 1: had a few banks speaking the last week or two
15:35
Speaker 1: that talked about consumers being good and business is being
15:38
Speaker 1: good and loans being up. So we think the economy
15:41
Speaker 1: is hanging in. Uh. Psychologically, it's a tough environment with
15:45
Speaker 1: the FED talking about raising rates as much as they are,
15:48
Speaker 1: but we're hopeful that will be able to walk across
15:51
Speaker 1: that type ro So even if the Fed raises rates
15:54
Speaker 1: another fifty fifty, fifty and fifty is it gonna be okay?
16:00
Speaker 1: But we think the FED is talking a very hawkish game,
16:04
Speaker 1: so it's set the expectation for a fifty and a
16:06
Speaker 1: fifty UM. We think that we're going to start to
16:09
Speaker 1: get some inflation relief by the late summer early fall,
16:13
Speaker 1: and as that takes hold, we think that by the
16:15
Speaker 1: year end, the FED might be able to be a
16:17
Speaker 1: little bit less aggressive than currently feared. Uh. It's easier
16:21
Speaker 1: for them to talk a hawkish game than to actually
16:24
Speaker 1: execute a hawk is game. So we're hoping that that's
16:27
Speaker 1: what's going on right now. The market originally thought the
16:30
Speaker 1: FED was behind the curve. You don't hear them talking
16:33
Speaker 1: about that too much. Right now. People understand that the
16:36
Speaker 1: FED is going to break the inflation psychology and the
16:40
Speaker 1: inflation cycle. It's just a question can they keep the
16:42
Speaker 1: economy going in the meantime, And from where we sit,
16:46
Speaker 1: we definitely think that's going to be the case in two,
16:49
Speaker 1: but we also think that three still can be a
16:53
Speaker 1: reasonably good year in terms of the economy. All right,
16:56
Speaker 1: So if I do have that kind of you know,
16:58
Speaker 1: twelve month plus horizon, what sectors or what names are
17:03
Speaker 1: you guys looking at these days? So, so that's a
17:06
Speaker 1: great question. We think the best way to navigate this
17:09
Speaker 1: market is to have that twelve month time arising. There
17:11
Speaker 1: are a lot of stocks that have a lot of
17:12
Speaker 1: short term uncertainty, but on twelve months they should be
17:15
Speaker 1: a lot higher. So sectors that we like, uh, first
17:18
Speaker 1: and foremost, we think that the financials are going to
17:21
Speaker 1: be a very good place to be over the next year.
17:24
Speaker 1: We think you can get involved right now with a
17:26
Speaker 1: lot of beaten down technology. So we went into two
17:30
Speaker 1: a little bit wary about technology. Uh, they've got beaten
17:33
Speaker 1: down enough that there are many opportunities right there. Um,
17:37
Speaker 1: you know, with the megacap tech we think is a
17:39
Speaker 1: good place to be. And then sort of one off
17:41
Speaker 1: type of stocks like we like Starbucks here, we like
17:44
Speaker 1: air products here. Uh. Paramount Um is a solid business
17:50
Speaker 1: at a very attractive valuation. The CEO just brought fifteen
17:53
Speaker 1: million dollars worth at the stock or twenty million dollars
17:57
Speaker 1: worth at the stock. Excuse me, Starbucks. The CEO bought
18:00
Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars rot the stock. Five sir. If you
18:02
Speaker 1: had some fairly significant insider buying, so we would take
18:06
Speaker 1: our queue from companies that are buying backstock from insiders
18:09
Speaker 1: that are buying stock. UM, and if you can buy
18:12
Speaker 1: a great company like Google at sixteen seventeen times earnings,
18:15
Speaker 1: we think you're gonna do real well. All right, David,
18:18
Speaker 1: good stuff. Appreciate yes, sharing some of the names you
18:20
Speaker 1: guys are working on. David Kat's president and chief investment
18:23
Speaker 1: officer of Matrix Asset Advisers. I guess you know what
18:30
Speaker 1: we've all probably experienced over the last couple of years
18:32
Speaker 1: during this pandemic is we're doing more and more stuff
18:35
Speaker 1: from home. We're working from home, we're going to school
18:38
Speaker 1: at home. Thankfully those days are over for most of us.
18:42
Speaker 1: But it just kind of goes to the issue of
18:43
Speaker 1: identity security, data security, all that stuff. It just really
18:47
Speaker 1: comes down and puts it really front and center for
18:49
Speaker 1: a lot of folks. Fran Rosh, he's the CEO Forge Rock.
18:53
Speaker 1: They are a company that focuses on identity security. So
18:57
Speaker 1: it's a good person to check in with. Fran. Thanks
18:59
Speaker 1: so much for Joe warning us. UM. Please tell me
19:02
Speaker 1: you've got a better mouse trap for identity security. I mean,
19:05
Speaker 1: I've got a million user names and passwords out there.
19:08
Speaker 1: I've got thumb prints, I got facial recognition. Where do
19:10
Speaker 1: you think we're going here? Great? Thanks for having me,
19:13
Speaker 1: and I think we do have a better mouse trap.
19:15
Speaker 1: And I think what we've seen is this industry evolved.
19:19
Speaker 1: I think people used to think about identities of security solution,
19:23
Speaker 1: how do I block the bad guys from getting access
19:25
Speaker 1: to account data or company information? And we've seen an
19:29
Speaker 1: evolution where our c I O and CCO customers are
19:34
Speaker 1: increasing demand from the business line. The guy's gall's responsive
19:38
Speaker 1: for revenue to create better experiences because identities with the
19:42
Speaker 1: front door of the business, whether it's banking, healthcare, e commerce,
19:47
Speaker 1: digital streaming, everything is really going digital. So at Board
19:50
Speaker 1: Drock we really kind of uh been a revolution revolutionizing
19:56
Speaker 1: in a couple of different areas. Helping our customers create
19:58
Speaker 1: identity experiences are frictional, it's and easy, well out compromising
20:03
Speaker 1: on security and that's our objective. But how how does
20:07
Speaker 1: it work? I mean, much like Paul said, you know,
20:09
Speaker 1: I have a million different passwords for things. I'm constantly
20:13
Speaker 1: clicking to forgot your password button because I have no
20:16
Speaker 1: idea what I entered last time? Is there away across
20:21
Speaker 1: all accounts and all devices to figure this out in
20:24
Speaker 1: a simple with a simple solution, I think there is
20:28
Speaker 1: a better way. And and you know, usually and passwords
20:31
Speaker 1: have been around for like fifty or sixty years, and
20:33
Speaker 1: we look at them as like a lose lose situation
20:36
Speaker 1: to both the bad experience and they're bad security because
20:39
Speaker 1: everybody uses the same one. So we're working on a
20:42
Speaker 1: better way to identify who you are than that static approach.
20:46
Speaker 1: And a lot of that comes down to bringing AI
20:48
Speaker 1: capability into the identity solution. We can look at your
20:52
Speaker 1: user behavior, device behavior. We partner with companies like Apple
20:56
Speaker 1: and Google and Microsoft who can serve up certain information
20:59
Speaker 1: from your device to find a much more kind of
21:01
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, frictionalists and more secure way to recognize
21:06
Speaker 1: you and eventually eliminate the user name and password. And
21:09
Speaker 1: this is a great application for AI. So how do
21:11
Speaker 1: we get there? I mean, what we're sold, right, Paul,
21:14
Speaker 1: So what do we do so that Ford Drock can
21:18
Speaker 1: get rid of user names and passwords across all of
21:20
Speaker 1: our things. A lot of it is change management. So
21:24
Speaker 1: many of the organizations that you create those user names
21:27
Speaker 1: and passwords with have been around for decades. They've got
21:30
Speaker 1: a let of legacy systems and applications and infrastructure, and
21:33
Speaker 1: this requires change change on their behalf to kind of
21:37
Speaker 1: make that replacement of legacy technology with something modern like
21:40
Speaker 1: Ford Drock. And it also means change for the consumer.
21:44
Speaker 1: And a lot of consumers we say we want to
21:46
Speaker 1: get rid of us name, password, but it's still we
21:49
Speaker 1: were comfortable with it. So it's a lot about change management,
21:52
Speaker 1: which is why we're getting out there and engaging with enterprises, banks, healthcare,
21:56
Speaker 1: e commerce to tell them there is something better and
21:58
Speaker 1: to get out and let to know that consumer that changes. Okay,
22:02
Speaker 1: you can ditch that old approach, get better experiences and
22:05
Speaker 1: better security. How about fingerprint UH and facial recognition? How
22:10
Speaker 1: do those kind of rank? They're really important. UM Biometrics
22:15
Speaker 1: is a great way to authenticate you in place of
22:18
Speaker 1: you used name and password. And this is where there
22:20
Speaker 1: was an announcement a couple of weeks ago. There's been
22:22
Speaker 1: some standards bodies called the phyto Web Up Web off
22:26
Speaker 1: end standards that created a way that companies like Microsoft,
22:30
Speaker 1: like Google, like Apple can take the work that they
22:33
Speaker 1: do around biometrics and authenticating you securely to their devices
22:38
Speaker 1: and then transmit that security to the website you're authenticating too,
22:43
Speaker 1: So it really becomes a way to do those secure
22:45
Speaker 1: biometrics for your fingerprint, your facial recognition stays on the
22:49
Speaker 1: device so you don't have to worry about it showing
22:52
Speaker 1: up on the Internet, but also leverage it as a
22:55
Speaker 1: better authentication device than you use the name and password.
22:58
Speaker 1: So it's it's a big driver. But it also means
23:00
Speaker 1: bringing the idea of consumer privacy and saying we're going
23:03
Speaker 1: to leverage that biometric for one thing and one thing only.
23:06
Speaker 1: That's to authenticate you to our website. We're never going
23:08
Speaker 1: to share that information or use it for any other purpose.
23:11
Speaker 1: I gave up my privacy years ago, so I'm not
23:14
Speaker 1: worried about that. Fran, thanks so much for joining us.
23:16
Speaker 1: Fran Rosch there. Uh. He's the CEO of fourge Rock
23:20
Speaker 1: Trades on the n Y s C under the ticker
23:23
Speaker 1: f O r G, and they're hoping to make our um.
23:28
Speaker 1: I guess I was going to say Internet experience, but
23:30
Speaker 1: I guess it's everyone's all experience for the future, right
23:33
Speaker 1: because everything is online now. So yeah, I mean the
23:35
Speaker 1: Bloomberg system. You know, we use the fingerprint, and that
23:38
Speaker 1: seems among and the user name and and the password.
23:42
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we take it seriously. A lot of
23:44
Speaker 1: my you know, my bank, you know they used his
23:46
Speaker 1: facial recognition. A lot of places using facial recognition, so
23:50
Speaker 1: lots of issues everything. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg
23:54
Speaker 1: Markets podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews with
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller.
24:03
Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller nineteen seventy three. Put
24:07
Speaker 1: on fall Sweeney. I'm on Twitter at p T Sweeney
24:09
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24:12
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio