About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

ISITC Working Group Releases Reference Data Best Practices for SSIs

Subscribe to our newsletter

The International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) market practice group on reference data has released a set of new market practices, which it says will be up for discussion at its next industry forum in March. The focus of the new recommendations is on custodian and broker standing settlement instructions (SSI) data and they are aimed at maintaining the consistency and efficiency of data management in this area.

The trade body periodically releases market practice recommendations such as these, which are tested within the industry and vetted by interested constituents before they are formally released. Genevy Dimitrion, chair of ISITC, explains that these latest recommendations are aimed at helping market participants to improve their operations and reduce risks.

The reference data working group’s “Market Practice Recommendation for the Communication of SSIs” creates a new template in order to establish uniformity in the communication of SSI data across counterparties. It is also aimed at reducing the amount of manual intervention required to process such data and covers all global markets, says ISITC. It is therefore designed to enhance SSI processing, irrespective of whether an investment manager uses an industry utility or an in-house database for SSI data.

“Increasingly, incorrect SSI data has created greater risk within the settlement process and this new market practice is designed to address this issue,” the working group says in its report.

The group is seeking to introduce minimum standards for the content of SSI messages between industry participants and proposes sample formats to be used by institutions using manual processes. It addresses the communication of these messages from the point of view of the investment manager so SSI data from brokers and custodians to the investment manager.

The settlement instruction types included in the document are delivery versus payment, free delivery and free receipt. The transaction types are for normal security trade settlement of equity and fixed income instruments, although the group indicates that cash and FX instructions will be dealt with in a later release, which is scheduled for the second quarter of this year. 

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Hearing from the Experts: AI Governance Best Practices

9 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes The rapid spread of artificial intelligence in the financial industry presents data teams with novel challenges. AI’s ability to harvest and utilize vast amounts of data has raised concerns about the privacy and security of sensitive proprietary data and the ethical...

BLOG

Total Portfolio Views Unlock Value from Public-Private Investments: Webinar Review

Total portfolio views within investment management platforms are becoming critical to capital markets participants as private and alternative market assets comprise an ever-larger part of institutions’ investment and risk-management strategies. Having a holistic view enables organisations to unlock the greatest value from their data, a recent A-Team Group Data Management Insight webinar discussed. Aiding in...

EVENT

Data Management Summit London

Now in its 16th year, the Data Management Summit (DMS) in London brings together the European capital markets enterprise data management community, to explore how data strategy is evolving to drive business outcomes and speed to market in changing times.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...