ISITC Europe Annual Conference 2008

ISITC Europe’s Mission is to promote operational efficiency in the global financial industry through education, standardisation and recommendation

This year ISITC Europe’s Annual Conference will be held at the Thomson Reuters building, South Colonnade, Canary Wharf on Tuesday, 2nd December 2008 - 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. (Registration from 8.30 a.m.)

 

Risk! Regulation! Recession! Ratings! Credit Crunch! Collaboration! Contingencies! Crisis!

We can all alliterate all day, but this market has had enough hot air. What is the impact on the city worker who has been labelled a ‘fat cat’ but in reality is in Operations, doesn’t drive a Ferrari, and represents a cost centre not a profit centre?  What is the future looking like?  Is automation still an option?  And who can he/she turn to for help when the budgets get squeezed?

 

Topics lined up for debate in this open and honest forum are:

 

Key-note speech - Credit Crunch Winners and Losers, Jeff Gooch - Markit

• Impact of Credit Crunch and Operational Issues
• Is the Credit Crunch the cause or the effect; how can we break free of the ever decreasing spiral? Is the lack of credit resulting in fewer transactions and therefore a reduction of fee income – is an industry without profit going to survive in the long term or
• will this be negated by increased fees? Does it impact ‘contractual’ settlement relationships; will ‘actual’ return to be the norm?
• Will this force markets into further stagnation requiring assured cover of settlement and delivery? Is there evidence of a return to simple products in place of more complex instruments?
• Will governmental injections of capital improve or degrade the situation?
• Is the true cost of settlement failure attributed to the real culprits?
• Will firms with the larger balance sheets be the winners; what will happen to the smaller players, demise, taken over or collaboration?
• What will the landscape look like in 1, 3, 5 years; what will be the biggest difference to the industry prior to 2008?
• Can we save any more significant costs through automation?
• Will segregation supplant omnibus accounts?

Moderator:  Tony Kirby, Ernst & Young

Panellists:   Jeff Gooch – Markit,  David Kane - JPMorgan, Ian Chicken – ICAP, Justin Chapman - Northern Trust

 

 

Risk Management versus Regulation

• Are we running scared and will additional regulation force further reductions in liquidity?
• Whatever happened to ‘caveat emptor’; are regulators becoming the ‘nannies’ of the market-place?
• Why should we seek to protect – why not educate instead?
• Do regulators truly represent the market-place or just governments?
• Is ‘self-regulation’ dead?
• Are government sponsored Banks any more secure than independent Banks; what is the difference in risk should governments change?

Moderator:  Tony Freeman, Omgeo
Panellists:  Christian Krohn - SIFMA Europe, Simon Lillystone – Allustra, John Emerson - UBS

Celebrity Key-note, Michael Wilson - SKY News Business Editor


Collaboration models and examples, Rick Robinson, IBM

• Collaboration in The Financial Markets
• Is it better to obtain a smaller, shared return, or no return on investment?
• Does it enable ‘grouped’ smaller players to compete on equal terms with large firms?
• Does collaboration work – what are the pitfalls?
• Is unequal ownership (e.g. 51/49%) really collaboration or simply a takeover?

Moderator:  Nigel Solkhon – IBM
Panellists:   Rick Robinson – IBM, Kevin Milne – Xtrakter, Chris Pickles - BT

 

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