Industry Associations Team Up for Cesr Talks

Several industry associations and end-user groups, including London-based regulatory think-tank JWG and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), are in talks with The Committee of European Securities Regulators (Cesr) to discuss strategies to overcome some of the outstanding data and regulatory challenges in the industry.

As part of JWG's Customer Data Management Group (CDMG) initiative, which aims to set standards for financial institutions' compliance with regulatory requirements for customer data, the talks with the regulator are starting with the objective of engaging regulators across Europe in the creation of a data rulebook for the financial services industry.

Earlier this year, the groups sent Cesr a letter calling for a data rulebook for the financial industry. And at the last meeting in Paris between Cesr and the industry groups, held on June 23, the regulators asked the industry experts to provide them with a proposal indicating what they think the next step forward should be. Cesr was approached by Inside Reference Data but did not respond by press date.

London-based PJ Di Giammarino, CEO at think tank JWG, says the June meeting allowed it to raise awareness of the data problem with 25 EU regulators. "It was a discussion about making sure we are having the right dialogue... our challenge is to join the industry's many silos in a way that they can agree new standards for complying with a vast amount of detailed regulation," he says, adding that the work required is very broad and deep, and that it promises to be a very complex exercise.

The meetings were also attended by New York-based Karla McKenna, chair of the ISO Technical Committee for FS (TC 68), Frankfurt-based Francis Gross, head of external statistics at the European Central Bank (ECB) and several data consumers from financial institutions.

MiFID Talks Resurface
Meanwhile, at the last meeting of the now former FISD MiFID Joint Working Group, currently known as the MiFID Forum, held in London in June, speakers emphasized that it is essential for firms to take an active role in industry associations to ensure everyone is aware of coming changes that will impact the industry.

Washington DC-based Tom Davin, managing director at the FISD and speaker at the meeting, said the former MiFID Joint Working Group was a very positively received initiative by the members.

"It gave them the framework through which they could engage in a wide range of MiFID issues, even issues the FISD was not directly involved in, so it added a fair amount of structure that wouldn't have otherwise existed," said Davin.

London-based Graeme Austin, CEO ISITC Europe, said the scope and formats of either the MiFID Joint Working Group or any other associations must be clear from the start.

"It is important that any participation comes in the spirit of openness, transparency and information sharing and is not of a proprietary nature. It's important to me, for example, that members of ISITC Europe come together and share thoughts, ideas and data on the MiFID review, and that that is done in a proper and transparent manner," said Austin.