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

Slinging Our Hook to Singapore and SIBOS

Subscribe to our newsletter

A palpable sigh of relief was issued by all Swift types early this month when the organization reassured exhibitors, presenters and delegates that its SIBOS conference will go ahead as planned next month. SARS reared its ugly head (hopefully, one last time) with a case in Singapore, raising the spectre that SIBOS Singapore might be cancelled a second time – the first being two years ago, immediately after the September 11 atrocities. Happily, that’s not the case, and Swift moved quickly to state that the show must indeed go on.

With Singapore 2001 having been cancelled, Singapore 2003 has it all to prove and, despite the SARS scare, expectations are running high. Part of this also relates to the mild recovery many are starting to feel in the marketplace. Could SIBOS be the catalyst for an increase in tempo generally for the messaging, STP and reference data aspects of the overall financial IT business? Meanwhile, closer to home, in London and New York, we continue to focus on more mundane ponderables. In discussions with information management types at firms on both sides of the Atlantic, we’ve noticed a common irritant: the lack of clarity on where in the financial institution responsibility for reference data strategy and implemenation rightfully resides. On several occasions in the past month, market data managers – those most typically associated with the management of real-time information services for the trading room – have complained that reference data strategy and, more uncomfortably in some cases, administration is increasingly falling upon their already-overburdened shoulders. Intrigued, we asked more of our data management friends, and the answer was the same; or rather, it was different: there is no recognized function type that is seen as the reference data silo from one institution to the next. Curiouser still, we added a question to our interviews for this issue of Reference Data Review: when you sell product into institutions, we asked a number of vendor product managers and sales people, who is it you sell to? The answer, consistently, is that it could be just about anyone and everyone. So where should reference data responsibility lie? So far, we’ve met CTOs, market data managers, STP project heads, all with assumed responsibility for descriptive data. It will be interesting to see how that responsibility shakes out as reference data projects gain more momentum. Meanwhile, back in Europe, that old chestnut ‘Telekurs Financial is for sale’ was doing the rounds. Every two years or so, this story sweeps through the marketplace, usually when Telekurs teams up with some or other vendor (we seem to remember talk about Standard & Poor’s being interested in an acquisition around the time the two got together on a co-marketing and sales agreement). Anyway, sorry to disappoint: Honcho Beat Koch, through a spokesperson, says it ain’t so. We’ll let you know if the situation changes. See you at Raffles!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Best practice approaches to data management for regulatory reporting

Effective regulatory reporting requires firms to manage vast amounts of data across multiple systems, regions, and regulatory jurisdictions. With increasing scrutiny from regulators and the rising complexity of financial instruments, the need for a streamlined and strategic approach to data management has never been greater. Financial institutions must ensure accuracy, consistency, and timeliness in their...

BLOG

Rise of Data Products Excites Data Management Summit London

Squeezing the most value from data has become the key driver of data management innovation in the past few years. Among the tools garnering most attention in this quest is an approach that treats data as a consumer product. The theory is a simple one. By packaging datasets as well and data-centric services and products,...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

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...