ISO Reference Data Standards Committee Begins Review

The committee that sets global standards for reference data is undergoing a review to maintain its relevance as fintech and blockchain technologies gain acceptance, according to its chair.

Karla McKenna, chair of the technical committee 68 (TC 68) of the International Standards Organization, was speaking as part of the Standards Forum at the Sibos conference in Geneva.

"Sometimes in order to remain relevant, you need to be able to take a look at where you have come from, where you are, where you should be going. And so we have conducted a strategic review within TC 68," said McKenna. "We've not only taken a look at our relevance, our stakeholder engagement, but also the structure of the committee itself in order to be able to lead us into this new world, involving fintech, blockchain."

The committee, established in 1972, has always focused on two broad categories of standards—reference data, such as the legal entity identifier, and financial messaging, such as ISO 20022—across all business lines, from payments to securities.

"We had both these types of messaging and reference data standards existing in both of our sub-committees serving this broad range of experts," McKenna explained. Now, TC 68 is forming two subcommittees, each discretely focused on these two broad categories across all domains, from credit card payments to securities.

TC 68 is also putting together a dedicated community and stakeholder group, as well as a fintech technical advisory group. A call for experts has gone out for these groups. TC 68 aims to have formed the reference data and communications subcommittees by May 2017.

Carlos Philippen, head of operations at Zürcher Kantonalbank and president of Swiss standards body the Commission for Financial Standardization, said the review would make it easier to find experts to build up the capacity of TC 68.

"On the other hand, it's also a challenge. It's a challenge because for many years we have been working and thinking along business lines. So that's going to be a big switch," Philippen said.