ISITC's Probert on the 2011 Strategy

In January 2010, Citi’s managing director, securities and fund services, Gary Probert, was appointed chief executive officer and chairman at the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) US.
Now half way through his two-year tenure, and having held roles both in the trade organization’s board and treasury, Probert looks back to his nine years at ISITC to find that collaboration has never been a reality in the standards space as much as it is now.

In fact, collaboration between standards bodies was an ongoing topic of discussion in 2010. The launch of the Standards Coordination Group’s Investment Roadmap, launched by FpML, FPL, Swift and ISITC at Sibos to develop ISO 20022 collateral management messages together, represented the turning point for many. “I look at the investment road map as a statement... we are now working collaboratively together, and I’m not convinced that has been the case historically,” says Probert.

“There is now a real commitment to work together. The underpinnings of the Investment Roadmap do not only focus on the data, output and the agreements, but on the commitment of the members of the standards co-ordination group and the other standards organizations,” he explains.

But, while increasing collaboration has now been established, ISITC US is now looking ahead, adapting to the changing regulatory environment and markets.

“When it comes to regulation, we have to wait and see when the real changes start to take place in the US and Europe and ensure we play a role in making sure we can center business practices around that,” says Probert.

In fact, through the years, having to adapt to changing markets to ensure the group’s efforts remain in touch with the times has been a key focus. “When I first joined ISITC there was a quite clear demarcation between the constituents within the industry, the custodians, investment managers, broker dealers, infrastructures, and software providers. Over the past four to five years we have seen a blurring of the lines,” says Probert.

“In the past it was clear what role people were playing in the lifecycle of the trade, and even though the data is the same when it comes to business or best practices, I think you have to be clear on who are the role players and ensure the best practice we develop reflects this changing nature,” he explains.

But, while efforts are ongoing, he states there still needs to be more interoperability and convergence going forward. “We have to continue working on best practices, business and data standards, focusing on the move from [messaging standard] ISO 15022 to ISO 20022, which will inevitably be germane in this process and will make that interoperability easier,” says Probert.

And it is this same need for change and need to look forward that is going to be the main theme at the organization’s annual conference, named Wall Street III: Navigating the New Reality, due to be held in Boston on March 27–30.

Probert says: “We are ready to see how we move on. The last couple of years everyone has been looking inwards, it’s now about looking at what the future will bring, and looking at the lessons learned, favouring change.”

Standardization and the push for best practices will benefit from this outward-looking attitude. Only time will tell if ISITC’s 2012 annual conference will be all about the market harmonization successes of 2011.