Today, we start off with Professor Poppe again at 9am. Today Tom is talking about reference data.  I’m particularly interested to hear about the role of standards in big data, clearly one of this year’s buzzwords of choice.

Immediately following Tom is Tim Lind, another Sibos regular, who is moderating a session called “Stability or agility? The trade-off in implementing ISO 20022 for securities market infrastructures”.   Stable is good.  But standards do not exist for standards sake; rather, they are a reflection of the complex world of financial services which we live; a world that is continually evolving. I predict the creation of a third option called Stagility. Can we create a common set of data that works for everyone, that will rarely need to change, and then complement that with some flexibility to account for regional or product differences.  Variants anyone? 

At 10:30 we have the first of three individual presentations on the Future of Standards. In this first session we will hear from Professor Alistair Milne.  This session was nicely teed up with an article in the summer edition of Sibos Issues in which Prof. Milne discusses the need for better and more consistent definitions of the underlying meaning of our data, and he predicts that regulators will in future be much more prescriptive in this regard. 

Next, we have two payments related sessions.  Up first we’ll hear from PMPG members on the adoption of 20022 for their respective payments infrastructures.  This will be followed by an introspective look at what we’ve learned from the implementation of standards for SEPA. 

At 3pm we change the pace completely with a presentation by Bitcoin.  Like many others, I first heard of Bitcoin at Sibos two years ago in Toronto so it will be interesting to hear how things have evolved since then.  Clearly Bitcoin is beginning to seep into our collective conscience with an ever-growing coverage in the press.  It was even mentioned in the Opening Plenary yesterday. But what about standards?  What does Bitcoin use?  If it’s not 20022 then why not? 

At 4pm, and standing in the way of cake and cocktails, a session featuring yours truly in which we’ll discuss our sometimes good, sometimes bad, and occasionally downright ugly experiences of implementing standards in the real world.

Finally, it’s the Standards Forum’s 10th birthday bash and the official launch of the 20022 mApp.  Get your iPads at the ready.