Setting Standards in Stone

This year, as Sibos, the Swift-organized conference, heads to Toronto, its Standards Forum again expects a warm welcome. Discussions are bound to focus on what has changed since the crowds gathered in Amsterdam in 2010. Back then, talk was focused on the fact the ISO 20022 train had already left the station. This year, it seems that train is well on its way, but there is still a lot of track to cover, and challenges remain, especially as the standards world looks to develop and innovate in today’s changing market.

One of the main goals of the Standards Forum this year is to show the real benefits of standardization. But far from discussing this in theory, the Toronto gathering will be all about meeting those that are deeply involved in standards projects within firms. In fact, one of this year’s key topics will be the need to bring business-side professionals other than technologists into the standards space.

Belgium-based Dana Brants, Swift’s head of standards initiatives, says this year’s Forum, which she also heads, will be the place to meet both standards professionals and those far from the standards world. “Over the years, the focus has changed from highlighting the benefits of standardization to the practical implementation of the standards. This is what we really want to focus on this year,” she says.

The Outstanding Challenges
With some industry participants only just having adopted ISO 15022, questions are bound to be asked about the real business case behind a move to the new ISO 20022 format. Swift’s Brants explains the challenge of getting the correct story of ISO 20022 to the industry remains a challenge. “There are still many who associate ISO 20022 with just messages. People do not fully understand the methodology to develop standards...We still have a lot of groundwork to do,” she says.

Currently, a number of players are starting to implement or are very close to implementing ISO 20022 messaging. Many firms are looking at shorter return-on-investment cycles and very tangible benefits combining the two.

Questions remain un-answered, however. In fact, New York-based Paul Fullam, senior director of business strategy at XSP, says the question around ISO 20022 remains who is going to drive adoption. “In the environment we are in today, it is going to have to be the business user and not necessarily technology that pushes for this,” he says.

Brussels-based Edwin De Pauw, director and head of product management for Euroclear’s central securities depositories and Euroclear group services, and speaker at the conference, says the focus at the conference has to revolve around the practical issues the industry faces when implementing standards and moving to ISO messaging.

And such questions may just be why educational sessions remain at the heart of the Standards Forum. Three consecutive ISO 20022 educational sessions on Monday will ensure the week kicks off with the necessary background on the standard. While last year Swift released its ISO 20022 for Dummies book, this year, the Forum wants to build on that, explains Brants.

National versus International
This year, firms must prioritize international market practices ahead of national practices. When implementing standards, there is a need to comply with national market practices, yet an international vision is required if the industry is to harmonize market practices. “I think the industry should recognize the definition of a market is evolving,” says Euroclear’s De Pauw. “We should not continue to define market practices at the level of each individual country, but should recognize there is a need to define market practice at the regional level, such as Europe.”

While focusing on national and international market practices simultaneously need not lead to clashing requirements or goals, this may change in the near future, explains De Pauw. “There is a gap between national market practice groups and global market practice groups in corporate actions,” he says. “We need to look at how this impacts national market practices and what this means for the harmonization of market practices across markets, including the move to ISO standards.”

Innovation Impacting Adoption
Implementation, practicality and innovation are buzzwords that will echo around the Standards Forum stand. But the real questions are whether standards promote or inihibit innovation, and whether innovation facilitates adoption of standards, says Dan Retzer, managing director and chief technology officer at XSP and speaker at the conference.

De Pauw feels it all depends on the type of innovation the industry is referring to. “If we are talking about technological innovation, standards and innovation can go hand in hand...but if we are looking at innovation from a business perspective, the use of standards may not be compatible with some approaches.”

While the legal entity identifier (LEI) is not expected to be one of the main topics at the Forum itself, the impact regulation will inevitably have on standards is on the agenda. One questions that will be asked is how to bring the standards world closer to the regulatory space, says Brants.

“We will debate the concept of making regulators stakeholders as well as
whether it would be best to bring them to the standards arena or look to move the standardizers closer to the regulatory world,” she says, adding that the final goal remains greater collaboration in both cases.

Along with innovation and seeking to involve professionals from outside the standards space in the Forum, this year Swift is also setting a green standard. The Standards Forum stand itself, in fact, has been constructed using renewable and recyclable resources.

“The landscape is moving on and there will be new parties and players coming into our word as well,” adds Brants. Just like with the standards, standardizers are making the first step this year. They now hope others will follow.

Sibos 2011: Hot Spots in the Cool North
Toronto-based financial services professionals recommend restaurants and bars Sibos attendees should keep in mind

Mike Bignell, president and CCO of Omega ATS
Number of years lived in Toronto: 39
The local secret: You can now hang off the edge of the CN Tower on a bungee cord—heart-stopping but fun.
Favourite restaurants: La Maquette on King Street East, great French cuisine; Vaticano in Yorkville, well-priced amazing food with Yorkville as a backdrop; Little Italy along College Street West has countless Italian and Portuguese restaurants and cafes that are fantastic.
Best business lunch restaurant: Hy’s on Adelaide St West, good privacy, great cow.
Must go-to bar: Reservoir Lounge on Wellington St East, cool jazz with a speakeasy feel.
Best place to visit for a short break: Yonge & Dundas Square, always something going on and great place to people watch even if you’re there only 10 minutes.
Best place to visit for a day out: Centre Island if you have kids, Harbourfront Centre if you do not.
The place I always recommend out-of-towners to visit: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), it’s world class, and so is the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Ken Price, CEO, Avox
Number of years lived in Toronto: I live in Oakville actually—a suburb approximately 25km west of Toronto. Been here for more than nine years now.
The local secret: The office buildings in downtown Toronto are all cooled in the summer with cold water from Lake Ontario.
Favourite restaurants: Oakville: 3S’s; Toronto: Scarpetta in the Thompson Hotel.
Best business lunch restaurant: Terroni on Adelaide or Queen West in Toronto—fantastic!
Must go-to bar: The one in my house...
Best place to visit for a short break: Distillery District (East Toronto by the lake).
Best place to visit for a day out: Niagara on the Lake and the many vineyards (white wine and ice wine tend to be better than the reds in Ontario).
The place I always recommend out-of-towners to visit: It’s cheesy but you have to stand on the glass floor in the CN Tower. Very cool if the dome is open.