As one of the founding members of the organisation, you were invited to become CEO of ISITC Europe in Q4 2015. What is your vision for the organisation?
ISITC Europe was formed in 1992, 6 months after the forum was established in North America. It is a voluntary organisation that has lead operational and technical change over the past 25 years, contributing to the rise of efficiency in the securities markets to the mutual benefit of all participants. The initiative has lost members and focus over the past 5 years, which I believe, left a gap in the industry for a vendor/participant neutral forum to educate, debate and advise on the industry needs.
The new agenda I established with the IELG (ISITC Europe Leadership Group) in December 2015, was targeted at 3 levels:
- Deliver value to ISITC Europe Members
- Re-establish ISITC Europe as a contributing forum for industry change
- Establish work groups around contemporary and innovative topics (Blockchain, Standards, Regulation, Industry Engagement and Cybersecurity)
The value will be derived from the right context of debate and education as well as the fee reduction we applied in 2016. The work groups have attracted more people/firms than the total membership in the past 2015, proving the demand is strong. Lastly, we are holding our first General Meeting on 25th April which will allow members and non-members access to the work group updates as well as discussions around the individual topics.
According to your view “technology has a huge role in translating the data into information and creating efficiency”. During a recent interview you also expressed your belief that the current interest and investment in blockchain technology among financial firms will reveal its impact as soon as in 1 – 1.5 years. In your opinion, how will the financial industry change as a result of the adoption of new tech including blockchain?
The most difficult challenge is to predict the future. Adoption of new technology happens every day, whether it be a database, network or application, it is the natural evolution of the industry. Blockchain is seen as disruptive technology, meaning that the adoption may change not only the process but the actors. This has resulted in the fear and greed emotional response. Whenever new technology hits the industry there is a period of chaos, as use cases are researched and new companies and consortia are formed. ISITC Europe is not about choosing a technology or consortia but about looking at the impact of the technology on the operation and technical use across the firms and providers. There already exists products and services based on this technology in operation today. However, most of the payers in the industry are at the stage of defining which processes (internally or externally) will benefit from moving to the new platform. Moving will incur costs, as migration from old to new is never an exact science, and is always dependent up the last adopter to close off old processes. Suffice to say, Blockchain has made the industry think about current processes and models, and ISITC Europe will be in the middle of validating any changes.
You said “Blockchain is seen as a catalyst for change and ISITC Europe members need to be involved in setting the agenda for change”. Can you explain the ways ISITC can contribute to setting this ‘change agenda’?
As I mentioned previously, ISITC Europe is a neutral platform for participants to have open dialogue about common challenges to drive a common equitable solution. I could be sitting in my office with an issue that I believe is unique to me/my organisation and without a forum like ISITC Europe I would not know that everyone has the same issue. A problem shared is a problem halved could be a relevant adage, however sharing the problem allows for a wider community looking for a resolution. ISITC Europe educates its members by bringing people together from a range of firms and discussing common topics. Once the knowledge is shared, the debate begins, and once this is formed into an opinion, this can be shared with the entities canvassing the industry for input to regulation, technology and industry future models. By making the ISITC Europe agenda interesting and relevant, a common voice can be heard.
What are the potential security challenges of blockchain tech?
I am no expert on security, but I certainly see the concern from Governments, Banks, Asset Managers, Brokers et al. ISITC Europe will look at these concerns, work on a scope of activity to deliver in a set time and pass any relevant outputs to the other working groups to review (for example standards of regulation). This is an area where I personally will be interested in being educated by the experts.
What do you consider as the most common mistake financial organisations make in terms of cyber security?
This is a tough question. Any technology has an evolution path, and this appears to be accelerating in certain areas. The positive side of this is that we can see benefits to our everyday life such as contactless payments, social media etc. Unfortunately this is not the case for those looking to fraudulently use technology for gain or disruption. Mistakes will happen, and thankfully most are used to prevent recurrence in the future. As more and more of the services delivered by financial services organisations are delivered through self-service electronic means, the attacks on these assets will inevitably increase. ISITC Europe can be a place to share these issues and raise awareness and share solutions.
As Citi’s Regional Head of E2C EMEA, can you briefly describe its Execution 2 Custody solution?
My day job is actually similar to ISITC Europe in that it supports efficient trading and settlement of assets across the Citi trading and Custody landscape in a very efficient model. The trades are executed and sent by Citi in a journey that can be as short as 1 second for the entire process. We use open architecture standards such as Fix and ISO 15022 enabling clients to integrate much quicker and gain benefits from the automated flows. We count Private Banks, Retail brokers, Bank retail flow, Institutions, Market infrastructures and stockbrokers as clients.
