ISITC’s Securities Operations Summit addresses key industry topics, challenges and innovations
ISITC’s 31st Annual Securities Operations Summit exceeded expectations, delivering a robust agenda tailored to today’s most pressing challenges and innovations in the financial services industry. From Rob Almeida’s (MFS Investment Management) compelling keynote on the Capital Cycle to dynamic closing sessions on Sustainability & Diversity and Margins & Collateral, the event offered critical insights at every turn.
With a theme of Resilience Through Innovation, the summit provided opportunities for finance professionals to engage in high-level presentations, collaborative knowledge-sharing, and thought-provoking discussions. Key topics addressed during the two-day event included U.S. Treasury Repo Clearing, cryptoasset vs tokenized asset custody, AI governance and the impact of the current Presidential administration, ISO 20022, T+1, accelerated settlement and more.
CEOs and leaders of global departments at major firms led these discussions throughout the summit, offering valuable opportunities for attendees to interact with the decision makers shaping the industry. True to what makes ISITC unique and our summit a must-attend event, we focused these discussions to identify the key issues that need industry attention. From there, we’re able to now enhance the roadmaps and action items of our working groups, forums and task forces.
During the summit, four key topics really resonated with attendees. Clearly, US Treasury Clearing will require industry coordination and education on the Agency clearing model. There is a lack of detail on specific flows, and the year delay means that the operational issues need to be sorted out now.
At the same time, European, UK and Swiss T+1 requirements will be occurring in parallel with US Treasury Clearing – with firms needing to be ready in 2026. As with US T+1, the industry will need to work together in education and coordination. While the effective date is November 11, 2027, firms will need to be ready in 2026 in regard to testing among 30 different central securities depositories, multiple currencies, and more than 500 custodians. As with the US T+1, funding is a key challenge, with fails, securities lending, collateral and corporate actions all requiring attention.
In addition to these key topics, the digital asset landscape continues to evolve. Moving quickly, this sector has reached a point where standards and market practices need to be developed and implemented. It’s the needed step to continue progress and avoiding significant disruption or fragmentation. And finally, as an undercurrent to all this, global regulatory changes continue to bring and certain amount of unpredictability to the industry
— Rich Robinson
