Standards Forum

The Standards Forum is the place where business and standardisation meet. This group would like to facilitate and encourage dialogue around standardisation in the financial industry, and share views, insights and updates on how financial standards can contribute to reducing cost and increasing efficiency when tackling today's challenges such as automation, compliance, and regulation.

Retired Member 

The Standards Forum Part II - The Tipping Point Index.

In the context of ISO 20022 adoption I have talked about the so-called tipping point a number of times in my talks, decks, and blogs in the past year or so. It’s that apex at the top of the curve where we all collectively agree as an industry that we’re at the point of no turning back. I think it is fiendishly difficult to predict precisely when...

27 March 2014

Retired Member 

ISITC 20th Annual Industry Forum and Vendor Show

It’s that time of year again. ISITC. Boston. March. By far my favorite event on the standards calendar. I like it so much I built an app for it. Just as recruitment consultants advise clients of a certain vintage to quietly remove their graduation dates to avoid age profiling, I’ve adopted a similar position with this annual event. Now in it...

23 March 2014

Retired Member 

Standards Forum 2014 - time to get your geek on

After the successful 10th Anniversary of the Standards Forum at Sibos in Dubai SWIFT is kicking off the 2014 program in New York this week. This will be first of six meetings planned for this year; the others being held in Singapore, London, Moscow, the Netherlands, and of course, the flagship 4-day gig at Sibos in Boston. The New York event is ...

04 March 2014

Retired Member 

MyStandards Marches On

At an ISITC meeting many many years ago I sat down to breakfast with the Head of SWIFT Standards at the time and I outlined my frustrations. What is the point of doing all this work to define a market practice if I can’t validate a message at that level? Business Analysts across the industry have to take ISITC’s paper documentation and translate...

25 February 2014

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SR2014. Part 4. Have you started yet?

In this, the 4th blog in a series around SR2014 I thought I’d share a few things that I’ve discovered as part of my own analysis now that the SR2014 User Handbook is out there. As is normal, a few things were tweaked since the publication of the High Level Info document back in November. One Change Request (CR) was deferred until 2015 for example....

14 January 2014

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SR2014. Part 3. Five reasons not to be too depressed.

Let the fun and games begin. On December 20th SWIFT published the SR2014 User Handbook containing the gory details of all the changes that will take effect next November. http://www.swift.com/products_services/by_type/standards/standards_mt_maint_rel_2014 As promised in my earlier post, here are a few things to think about: I recommend an initia...

20 December 2013

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SR2014 continued...

This is not the part-2 that I promised; rather, it is a quick one to address a question I was asked about the blog I posted last week. The question was, can you define “whopper”? It’s a fair question. I must admit, it’s a bit of a woolly term, and probably won’t get you too far when trying to persuade Upper Management to fund some extra resourc...

07 December 2013

Retired Member 

SR2014 starts NOW!

The annual SWIFT Standards Release is a remarkable animal. Generally speaking, the financial industry does not like to be told what to do; we hire expensive lawyers to lobby against proposed regulations; we refuse to adopt new and technically superior standards unless they are forced upon us; and yet like a bunch of lemmings we all go through t

05 December 2013

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Standards Forum Day Four Summary

Final day. I realize that this is a week late, but I feel I must complete the set, so here goes. Sibos was discernably quiet. Perhaps Thursday is the new Friday. However, no such tail-off at the Standards Forum. All the days sessions continued to be well attended. It takes real stamina to be a standards geek! [Ed. The great ones make it look ...

28 September 2013 /sibos

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Standards Forum Day Three Summary

Wednesday. Sibos fatigue is setting in for most normal people but the Standards Forum is still going strong. Andrew Muir, still basking in the glory of his triumphant rendition of Happy Birthday, might just be the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. How does he do it? In the Future of Standards series Ineka Bussemaker questioned whether c...

19 September 2013 /sibos