FinTech innovations were the central topic discussed by National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, with other participants of Sibos-2016, the largest international forum in the post-trade sector organized by SWIFT on 26-29 September in Geneva.
On 24 September, prior to the forum, NSD and STRATE, South Africa’s central securities depository, held a special workshop for representatives of CSDs from other countries. The event was focused on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and its impact on the financial industry. At the end of the workshop, NSD and STRATE signed the letter of intent. The companies plan to forge a partnership to develop solutions utilizing the distributed ledger technology.
Eddie Astanin, Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, took part in the session “After the Brexit, what's next: A BRICS-it towards a multilateral financial system?,” dedicated to the BRICS’s role in the global financial system against the backdrop of the Brexit, increasingly complex national and inter-state regulatory frameworks, and the FinTech revolution that had a systemic impact on the local and global post-trading systems’ development.
Artem Duvanov, Director of Innovations, NSD, participated in the panel discussion “Innovation in CSD space: What about distributed ledger technology?” and shared the company’s experience in researching the use of DLT, in particular, in developing the e-proxy voting's blockchain-based prototype.
Maria Krasnova, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, spoke at the session dedicated to corporate actions (“The Evolution of Corporate Actions Processing in Russia”) about the reform in this field, its background, key changes for market participants and the first results of corporate actions processed with the use of the new technology after 1 July 2016, when the respective legal framework had come into effect.
Sergey Putyatinskiy, IT Director, NSD, was a participant of panel discussions focused on the development outlook of global standards (“Standards SATNAV: Roadmaps through the global landscape”) and FMIs’ transition to ISO 20022. The Russian CSD has been one of the pioneers in using the new ISO 20022 standard during the interactions with financial market participants at the local and international levels. Moreover, NSD and SWIFT have agreed to hold the Innotribe Startup Challenge in Russia in 2017.
Sibos is the world’s premier financial services event, bringing together a record number of delegates. This year, more than 8,000 guests attended the forum; among the delegates were heads of and experts from financial companies and banks, representatives of regulators and infrastructure, multinational corporations and technology companies. Key discussion topics of this year’s event included cybersecurity, compliance, FinTech, the future of the global financial industry and the regulatory framework of financial markets.
Sibos 2017, the next conference, will be held on 16-19 October 2017 in Toronto, Canada.