Northey Replaces McKenna as TC68 Chair

FIX stalwart Jim Northey is the new chair of Technical Committee (TC) 68, which authors, supports and maintains ISO 20022, a single standardization approach for financial services developed through the International Organization for Standardization.

Northey is a technical committee co-chair for the FIX Trading Community and replaces Karla McKenna, director of market practice and standards for Citi Markets and Securities Services. McKenna, whose tenure was term-limited, headed TC68 for 12 years and led a significant restructure of the organization in response to technological innovations.

“[Karla] really is exceptional in terms of her skillset and her abilities, so quite frankly, I tell people I’m George H.W. Bush following Ronald Reagan,” Northey says. “There’s an agenda, a strategic plan and a vision that was prepared and built by Karla and other people within TC68 and I see my job as just trying to carry that out and not mess it up.”

The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) board of directors, in its role as the TC68 technical advisory group, elected Northey as McKenna’s successor. His background includes roles in aerospace, financial engineering and financial technology. 

“I really want to improve the technical quality of all of our standards,” Northey says, adding he’s not happy with the level of consistency across the standards. According to X9, he will also focus on forming additional partnerships with both established and emerging technology standards organizations and laying plans to guide the group through the opportunities and challenges arising from the shift toward more active financial standards involvement from Asia.

“Karla’s not going to go away,” Northey says. “I’ve asked her to stay very much involved with the regulatory response. We still have a lot of regulatory response going on that involves ISO standards. I think that’s an area where she’s really done extremely well, and I want her to continue to lead that.”

X9 adds that McKenna also will continue her involvement in refining the committee’s approach to its reference data standards catalogue.