Back-office intricacy: the description of financial objects in an investment bank

Fabian Muniesa (1) , Dominique Chabert (2) , Marceline Ducrocq-Grondin (3) , Susan V. Scott (4)

1 CSI i3 - Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation i3
2 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne
3 CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien
4 ISIG - Information Systems and Innovation Group

The complexity of contemporary finance translates into what we call the problem of "description": the problem of constructing robust, flexible, portable, and mutually compatible depictions of complex, multisided, and often ambiguous financial objects (products, trades, marketplaces). This problem is characteristically exacerbated in back-office operations within the financial services industry. We provide a case study in the form of a qualitative examination of back- and middle-office operations in an international investment bank. We analyze the manifold manifestations of the problem of description within this bank.

Mots clés: clearing and settlement; technology; back office; financial markets; investment banking; information systems; social studies of finance; financial products; complexity

Domaines: Sociologie; Gestion et management; Economies et finances; Sciences de l'information et de la communication

Fabian Muniesa, Dominique Chabert, Marceline Ducrocq-Grondin, Susan V. Scott. Back-office intricacy: the description of financial objects in an investment bank. Industrial and Corporate Change, 2011, 20 (4), pp.1189-1213. ⟨10.1093/icc/dtr020⟩. ⟨halshs-00610860⟩