The news around the DTCC, SWIFT and XBRL coming together to work as one towards standardising investor/issuer communications is a welcome sight. However the questions still remains – Will this partnership be working towards a truly global solution?  In Europe, we are seeing an approach geared towards straight ISO20022.  Does this mean that standards will be applied differently within different geographies or does it indicate a trend for more complex integration?

XBRL is a positive step for corporate actions in the US market where adoption rates of existing standards, particularly amongst smaller custodians and banks, has been low.  However, potential road blocks still lie ahead. To align XBRL and ISO20022 – a certain level of conversion may be required.  Wherever there is conversion, there is a need for interpretation and interpretation opens up further potential problems because of the risk and inconsistencies inherent in translation. On top of this, there is still the issue of text within the XBRL standard.  Even within the existing standard, text is still a huge barrier to automation.

I guess we will just have to wait and see as the next layer of detail is peeled off