TransacTion banking rises above financial Turmoil

www.bankingtech.com/sibos/

The independenT newspaper Monday 29 ocTober 2012

DAY 1

While some commentators are characterising the post-2008 financial crisis

as a “lost decade” for the financial services industry, transaction banking has largely risen above the turmoil and lack of trust that has afflicted the industry.

Satvinder Singh, global head of trust and securities services and cash management for financial institutions at Deutsche Bank, said this is likely to continue as regulatory initiatives force a focus on low risk-weighted assets.

“Transaction banking acts as a natural buffer to the volatility of the financial markets,” he said. “It involves low risk-weighted assets and is not capital intensive. If a bank gets it right, the business yields long term and very close client relationships.” As the more stringent capital requirements of the Basel III Accord are introduced, Singh said investment banking will require more capital, which will further highlight the advantages of transaction banking.

However, the transaction banking industry requires significant investment in people and technology.

“Having the right platform and the right talent within transaction banking is hugely important. Planting a flag in a country or region and saying ‘we are here’ means nothing – a transaction bank must be able to offer its clients globally consistent services,” he says.

The increasing importance of transaction banking to banks as a whole is well reflected on the Sibos exhibition floor. Twenty years ago, when Sibos Daily News was launched at Sibos 1992 in Brussels, the exhibition floor was dominated by software and hardware vendors. This week, banks are the largest exhibitor group, numbering 43 commercial and four central banks.

The growing ranks of exhibiting banks reflects the fact that business is also done at Sibos – one large transaction bank has told Daily News at Sibos that it expects to come away from the event with at least two or three collateral management services deals under its belt. The often lavish bank stands on the exhibition floor are dominated by meeting rooms where such business can be done.

The number of relationship managers versus back office representatives has also grown over the years.

During the week, conference sessions will address the issues transaction bankers face – not only the impact of Basel III, but also other regulatory requirements related to sanctions, anti-money laundering and securities market infrastructures. How Target2 Securities, the settlement system for the euro, affects transaction banks and CSDs also will be discussed as will efforts to improve liquidity management in payment systems.

Successful transaction banks will meet such challenges and changes with multiple strategies for multiple needs, says Bharat Sarpeshkar, head of bank services at Citi. “The ability to design and deliver creative solutions that will help our clients to build downstream businesses will be important. The lesson for banks is not to be die hard or hidebound in terms of change. Transaction banks should no longer think of their services as a product; they should embrace technology and what it allows us to do.”

TransacTion banking rises above financial Turmoil By Heather McKenzie

anniversary: CeleBrATIng 20 yeArS of Daily NewS at SiboS

Published by

02 innovation

08 securities market infrastructures

12 entertainment guide

“We are only as strong as our weakest link”Cathy Bessant, Bank of ameriCa

05 Technology

In THIS ISSUE

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Monday 29 october 2012

hen Daily News at Sibos (formerly known as Sibos Daily News) was launched 20 years ago, Sibos conference sessions

were mundane affairs – a speaker would read out a speech and delegates might occasionally nod off. But among the many changes to Sibos over the years, has been the introduction of more interactive, imaginative conference sessions.

leader of this charge towards a different conference experience is Swift’s Innotribe. The small group within Swift is focused on encouraging collaborative innovation in financial services. A range of activities come under the Innotribe umbrella: an incubator program for new industry solutions, an annual Innotribe Startup Challenge that introduces the products and ideas of small, start-up companies to financial services executives, and conferences throughout the year.

At this year’s Sibos, Innotribe’s sessions will take place in a marquee at the Intex Centre. Delegates will be encouraged to leave their ties at the door on a ‘tie tree’ and to enter into the spirit of Innotribe, where they are encouraged to discuss issues with fellow participants. last year in Toronto, more than 2000 single visitors attended Innotribe sessions.

Kosta Peric, head of innovation at Swift and a co-founder of Innotribe, says the role of the Innotribe team is to enable Swift’s members to innovate. It does this by helping technology entrepreneurs through cooperation and collaboration. “This is what

Swift, as a shared utility, is all about. We hope that one day Innotribe will be the shared utility for innovation in the financial industry.”

To many outside the banking industry, innovation is a dirty word – products such as collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps were identified as contributors to the collapse of Bear Stearns and lehman Brothers and the ensuing global financial crisis. In transaction banking, however, innovation is crucial in tackling the shrinking margins and increased regulations financial institutions are facing as a result of the crisis. Innovation is also necessary as non-banks look to cherry-pick traditional banking customers with innovative products and applications in areas such as mobile banking and payments.

“Innovation is necessary because the world is changing,” says Peric. “Particularly since the financial crash of 2008, some companies have disappeared because they could not materialise inventions into innovation. But innovation is not just inventing new things, it can also mean reaching new customers or reducing costs.”

The Startup Challenge provides a window into the innovation that is possible in the financial services industry. Three regional showcases are held in north America, europe and Asia at which companies present their products and ideas to representatives from financial institutions and early stage investors. The Challenge culminates at Sibos in osaka, where the 15 most promising companies will present

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Swift’s Innotribe initiative aims to shake-up the traditional approach to conferences and get delegates thinking, Heather McKenzie reports


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their developments to delegates attending the Innotribe sessions. The winner will be awarded a $50,000 cash prize.

“Very few banks and financial institutions are in touch with the technology start-up ecosystem because it costs a lot of money to go to Silicon Valley, Singapore and london, for example, to assess the many different companies that are developing innovative products and applications,” says Peric. “The Startup Challenge is not about the cash prize, it is about providing exposure to the financial industry for these companies, and to give financial institutions the opportunity to see a quality roster of startup companies in the one place.”

Mircea Mihaescu, head of innovation at russia’s Sberbank describes the Innotribe

Startup Challenge as providing a “very good snapshot of the state of financial innovation at an early stage”.

Among the finalists at Sibos is UK-based Digital Shadows, which has developed a cyber monitoring service that provides a ‘hacker’s eye view’ of an organisation and identifies the risks it runs in exposing information online. Alastair Paterson, chief executive of the company, which won most promising start-up in the europe, Middle east and Africa regional showcase, says the Challenge has addressed a start-up company’s most precious commodity – time. “Trying to reach senior people in large financial institutions is very time consuming,” he says. “The Startup

Challenge provides a rapid means of meeting with experienced financial industry professionals who are decision makers. The visibility we receive through the Challenge has been invaluable.”

Paterson describes most banks’ approach to cyber security as a “Maginot line scenario”, where parts of the organisation are well protected but “soft spots” exist. “financial institutions need to mitigate the risks of security breaches before they occur. Many of the banks we speak to are surprised by what we have found in our searches – minutes of meetings, salary details, financial results, technical details of file sharing services; all information that hackers love.” Hackers are increasingly using such information

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to launch tailored, focused attacks on their targets.

Winner of the most promising innovator category at the Asia region Startup Challenge was Pendo Systems, a US-based developer of global investment accounting software, BasisPoint. Pamela Pecs Cytron, chief executive of the company, describes the software as “the first global investment accounting application to enter the market in more than 20 years”. The application focuses on tax lot level accounting data, which provides exception processing and sophisticated multi-jurisdictional functionality and reporting.

launched in 2007, the company has been built with the aid of personal investment and business angels. The aim of entering the Challenge, says Pecs Cytron was to gain exposure and to be seen as a global player (US-based Pendo Systems was entered in the Asian region Challenge rather than the north American one).

“Innotribe has given us tremendous momentum and good media coverage, but that is yet to be monetised,” she says. “The concept is required to support the financial community to identify the emerging firms, but I am unsure exactly how Swift is helping companies like us to get the early adoption required to monetise the opportunity.” A significant barrier to financial institutions adopting innovative technology, she says, is start-up companies’ finances. “It’s a chicken and egg situation; we can attract interest in the application from firms, but when they see our balance sheet they exclude us from the procurement process.”

This is a problem that Peric says can be addressed by Innotribe’s Incubator. The goal is to identify business opportunities in which Swift can co-invest, from a €5 million fund allocated to the purpose. The Incubator acts as a “sandbox”, enabling firms to work in an environment of limited risk, where financial institutions can judge innovations on facts and procurement officers can see applications in action.

Innotribe doesn’t work alone when it comes to innovation; Swift members are also involved in identifying innovative companies and products. A group of Innotribe ‘enablers’, leading industry professionals from financial institutions and global corporations, work with Innotribe to develop and maximise innovative projects via the Incubator.

Sberbank’s Mihaescu is an enabler. “There is a clear alignment between what Sberbank considers the best way to discover and apply innovation to the financial industry and how Innotribe sees it,” he says. “Both organisations believe in open innovation – collaboration between financial institutions and technology providers to build the next generation of innovative technologies.”

going it alone in terms of innovation is too costly and complex, he adds. While banks compete at a business level, when it comes to technology, many problems are too complex and Mihaescu says it is better to solve such problems in collaboration with colleagues from other financial institutions.

A recent Incubator success is MyStandards, which is based on the Wiki methodology of collaborative creation and sharing of information. launched in May, MyStandards encompasses standards definitions, usage guidelines, bilateral agreements and analysis tools.

MyStandards was announced at Sibos last year; this year the focus will be on the Digital Asset grid (DAg), a prototype of which will be presented at Sibos. The project, which is still in research phase, is being developed in the Innotribe Incubator. DAg enables users to fully control their data, or digital assets. This data includes personal details, history and risk profiles.

Collaboration is a word that is likely to be uttered many times during Sibos. The complexity of the financial services industry and the challenges institutions face in meeting regulations and competing in a world of shrinking margins is fuelling the drive towards partnerships and collaboration. “The problems the financial

industry face are so complex that no single bank can solve them. We have to work together at the technology level in order to succeed. you can no longer sit in a research lab on your own and develop solutions,” says Mihaescu.

A Startup Challenge is being planned for russia and russian-speaking countries next year. The exercise will serve two purposes – to gauge how many innovative companies are in the region and also to raise awareness of Innotribe.

Sberbank is developing a venture capital fund to help financial services technology companies that will complement the country’s program to develop Moscow as a financial services centre. “There are a small number of venture capital firms in russia that are funding technology companies, but they are not necessarily focused on the banking sector. We hope to fill a niche and catalyse a movement of innovation in the sector,” says Mihaescu.

russia has a large pool of qualified people in engineering, maths and sciences; the result of an educational tradition that has persisted since Soviet times, when the Union launched the first satellite, put the first man into space and built the Mir space station. There are many russian scientists and programmers working in Silicon Valley and russia has plans to develop its own technology park at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre (above), which is on the outskirts of Moscow. A complementary Skolkovo fund has been launched that provides seed money to small start ups. The idea behind the developments is to trigger more innovation in russia and help entrepreneurs to generate employment and further economic growth.

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he role of technology and technologists in financial services is well-embedded – many institutions

are effectively large IT firms, or have technology divisions. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that Swift has decided to add a technology stream to this year’s Sibos, examining the issues around technologies and the role of technology leaders.

There have of course, been significant changes in technology during the past few years, with mobile devices, cloud computing and ‘big data’ grabbing headlines. In addition, there are business pressures to reduce cost, improve efficiency, facilitate regulatory compliance – all while providing state of the art business capabilities to a global workforce across different markets.

Cost, complexity and compliance are three elements of an oft-quoted mantra, but you can add constant change to these as today’s technology leaders must be able to see through the hype of new technologies and determine what is useful.

Alan goldstein is managing director, global custody and clearing technology, JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services. In this role he is chief technology officer for global custody and clearing, and for worldwide securities services in europe, the Middle east and Africa.

“Cloud, managed technology services, big data, virtualisation etc are technology trends that are both hype and reality,” he says. “The way they are talked about in

the marketplace lacks precision and is often hyped, but within the enterprise, if you invest in the engineering, these technologies are a reality that can provide immense efficiency in the delivery of technology services.”

By the end of this year JPM’s core business processing will be close to 90 per cent run internally on virtualised and managed services; that’s hosted storage, and processing services, virtualised environments and true cloud capabilities, he says. Internally, JP Morgan has at least six industrial-strength cloud offerings available within the whole firm – from compute backbones to a database cloud to the virtual desktop infrastructure that allows staff to access their desktops from any location, including their own devices. “These are the products of well thought out strategic investments and the productivity benefits are immense,” he says.

n. ganapathy Subramaniam, president of TCS financial Solutions, says the industry has gone through some major shifts in the past 18 months to two years, from which he sees two broad themes emerging. “The first is growth, and the second is simplification,” he says. “In both cases technology is playing a big part. The consumption of technology has shifted to buy rather than build, and the change is more business than technology led. Where are people investing? Mobile, compliance, cloud computing and big data. All four of these are contributing to both the growth and the simplification agenda.”

A serial chief information officer is Al-noor ramji, general manager for banking at Misys. ramji was head of operations at Credit Suisse first Boston 20 years ago, and moved on to be CIo at Swiss Bank Corp and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson before leaving the industry for a spell as

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leaders in iT

The significant changes in technology that have emerged during the past decade have also led to a change in the nature of the role of chief information officers at financial institutions. David Bannister finds out that CIos require a deep knowledge of technology and the business of their bank

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head of technology at BT Innovate. He says changes in technology and business needs are changing the responsibilities of technology leaders in financial services.

“CIos are feeling a great deal of pressure on cost-cutting and increasingly on product innovation, because banks are getting a lot of pressure from payment innovators: cost-income ratios are being talked about by CIos every single day,” he says. “The other thing we are seeing is that customer experience – social networking and everything from the branch upward that is to do with the customer – is being given to the CIo, which is very unusual.”

ramji says technology traditionally has been seen as a back office function and relegated along with the back office functions of institutions, particularly in investment banks. In the 1990s there was some narrowing of the gap, he recalls. “The front and the back office were disunited and CIos were trying to bring them back together with STP. I was at Swiss in those days and we were almost treated as equals in the front office for the first time – they didn’t pay us as equals, of course – but at least we were at the table when things went wrong, whereas previously it was strictly a back office job. There was also movement between the two; traders became IT people and vice versa.”

nowadays, the business importance of technology means that technology leaders can be found in the board rooms of most major institutions and their business skills are as important as their technology know-how, if not more so.

“I think the role of the CIo is really changing,” says Cathy Bessant, global technology and operations executive at Bank of America. “The concept of the CIo as code writer and software developer is going, if not gone. The idea of developing medium to long term strategies that support the business, reduce risk and that ensure operational excellence bring a unique role to the CIo function, which plays in the space of the business and risk management but also in the delivery of superb software architectures and operating technology.”

She does not know how the CIo of the future, or even of today, will function without a keen understanding of the

business and of risk. He or she must also know that technology and operational capability are not a destination unto themselves but exist to serve customers and an institution in its risk and financial management.

“It all starts with the institutional perception of the CIo’s business acumen – the development of business acumen and the development of operational and functional knowledge have to come together. The ability to make judgements and be influential across the firm, has to start with business acumen.”

JPM’s goldstein agrees that the background is shifting. “There are some dynamics that are changing in the industry: the demand for technology to deliver more and more business value and to do so with greater efficiency, has increased,” he says. “from the point of view of our users, internally and externally, the sophistication of the technology used in everyday life has also raised expectations on the usability and performance of our applications.”

But he argues that core competencies are eternal virtues: “The fundamental engineering disciplines associated with delivering high quality technology services haven’t changed. However, the tools available have evolved significantly, the maturity of our processes has improved and the repeatability and sophistication of the delivery approach is dramatically better. for example, moving to agile development processes has helped to improve the quality of the software that is delivered.”

Bessant says the introduction of such approaches has good and bad points: “The one thing in rapid cycle

development that I think is an advantage is that as customers and clients get more comfortable with release cycles, we have the opportunity to make constant improvements that we don’t have in some of our more static applications.”

The drawback is that users and external providers can create their own applications, she says. “The democratisation of the ability to create an app, or to make changes to an information source, is something I’m grappling with. It is another big trend. There is no such thing as command and control anymore and if you run a technology shop command and control is what you want most.”

goldstein says JPM has approached managing change by concentrating on the data. “Most firms have legacy systems that have evolved over decades of mergers, acquisitions and organic change. over time these processing environments get very complex, particularly with respect to how data is used within each system and by consumers of these systems’ reports and information feeds. In order to prudently manage change in these complex environments, you need to clearly know where and how data elements are used, both internally and by customers.” To address this, the bank has invested in tools that enable it to trace the lineage of each data attribute through systems and out to reporting and data extracts.

The agile rapid cycle development approach has quite profound effects on how institutions approach the challenge of removing complexity and modernising their systems, says ramji: “People are in two minds about renovation of core systems: they want to renovate their entire systems, primarily because cost/income ratios will not be driven down without a radical transformation. on the other hand, anyone who has ever tried to do a radical transformation has left the bank before it has been finished, so CIos are in a major quandary. How do we, with strong risk management, incrementally transform and still get a radical effect?”

The ability of CIos to last long enough to effect the changes that they set out to make often has been questioned, with the median tenure of a CIo, according to gartner, at 4.1 years and increasing.

The democratisation of the ability to create an app, or to make changes to an information source,

is something I’m grappling with. I don’t know the implications of that for my organisation but it is another big trend. There is no such thing as command and control anymore

Cathy Bessant, Bank of ameriCa ”

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“There are longevity issues with the role: partly it is because lofty ambitions can be disconnected from the business and businesses lose patience over time,” says Bessant. “The other thing – and I don’t want to sound like a victim saying this – is that the role, whatever you want to call it, is actually a very tough job: there is a constant requirement to set priorities across businesses that are, by their nature, in competition for resources. In terms of operating capability and the effectiveness of infrastructure, any CIo is only as good as his or her last day’s performance.”

Bessant is approaching her third anniversary in the job and still relishes it. “I actually find that I am more energised by the complexity of the environment, the challenge at hand, and its linkage to the business, than I was two and a half years ago.”

ramji says the role always has been polarised between those who take a down to earth, get on with the job approach (who often come from the finance side of the bank) and the so-called “rock star” CIos.

“The exciting, dynamic, product innovative IT leaders tended not to last long, either because either they get bored or the people around them start to think that they are getting too revenue-led rather than focusing on cost management,” he says.

He adds that the role “is becoming more serious and paying less attention to

the outside world. There are still a couple of stars out there – Michael Hart at Commonwealth Bank of Australia is well known there – but if you look at most investment banks you wouldn’t know who the CIo is. It has become more of a heavy-lifting role”.

JPM’s goldstein says it is all about getting the job done. “I’ve worked for several great technology leaders who have set excellent examples. A technology leader must have strong leadership skills, strong technology vision and very sound delivery expertise, both in tracking and management of programmes and in the quality of the technical solutions. you are a star when you lead an organisation to execute on ambitions that truly differentiate your firm’s capabilities.”

That said the scale at which CIos are expected to deliver is staggering.

“If you look across major financial institutions you will probably find that most have strategic re-engineering programmes, strategic efficiency initiatives, shared business services under development and some type of location strategy,” says goldstein. “essentially we are reinventing the way in which business services are delivered.”

He sees this as a good time to be making this kind of investment. “As paradoxical as it might sound, to get the agility and efficiency that is required in today’s business climate, sometimes it requires a step back. The types of

challenges that we see in the industry are not going to go away, so now is the time to invest in well-thought out initiatives that maximise operational efficiency and are strongly grounded in solid business and technical principles. Investing thoughtfully with the next five to ten years in mind is a winning strategy.”

TCS’s Subramaniam says these fundamental re-engineering projects are spreading outside institutions to create a collaborative approach for the industry as a whole. “We have met with more than 100 of our clients over the past four months at different levels, and I see that banks are more than willing to cooperate with other banks in jointly developing a utility approach,” he says.

Bessant says this is important for the industry. “We are only as strong as our weakest link, and we have to be accountable for sector performance as well as individual institution performance. We do have to think about the commercialisation of the work that we do where industry solutions are better than proprietary solutions.”

Defining the competitive and collaborative spaces is something that Swift has been talking about for some time and it is a promising idea for many reasons.

“It is both a cost play and a flexible capability play, so I like it because it is in the sweet spot for a lot of things. It covers regulation, risk management and customer needs, and I believe more strongly than ever that industry co-operation, where it benefits one of those three things, is important,” she says. “The idea that we can be designing masterpieces that are proprietary is not a sustainable model for core clients.”

With all of this to deal with, how does a technology leader know when the job is done and it is time to move on?

“Progress and change come in steps – there are build times and run times – so I think there are natural points at which you can say your accomplishments match up with what you hoped for,” says Bessant. “But by nature people who are good CIos are also strong self-motivated change agents, so I would personally have a very hard time figuring out when my job was finished because I know it can always be done better.”

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What can regional securities markets initiatives in Asia Pacific learn from the experiences of europe? Why has it taken so long to tackle the giovannini barriers? Daily News at Sibos asked delegates for their views

Marianne Brown, president and chief executive, omgeoBefore the global financial crisis, securities market infrastructure was neither seen nor heard. now the opposite is true and, driven by the g20 principles of reducing systemic risk and promoting market integrity, policymakers worldwide are working with industry participants to implement a safer, more robust infrastructure.

It is worth remembering that there were visionaries in market infrastructure before the financial crisis. The giovannini group, for example, had the foresight to address settlement as far back as 2001 when it produced its reports on the barriers to achieving settlement efficiency. That said, it could be argued that the majority of progress towards this goal has occurred in the past 12 months, with the publication of the proposed CSD regulation in europe. Among other things, the proposal recommends a harmonised, shorter settlement cycle for the region, which represents a significant step forward.

Are there any lessons that Asia can learn from such european initiatives? Actually, I think it’s the other way around. I believe europe can learn from a number of markets in Asia that have already benefited from accelerated settlement cycles. for example, several markets in Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and India already settle on a T+2 cycle, resulting in greater efficiency and lower operational and counterparty risk.

This is indicative of a wider trend, where many markets in Asia have more efficient market infrastructure than those in the West. In the US and europe, financial markets have developed organically, resulting in a complex web of legacy IT systems and inefficient infrastructures.

With heightened pressure from regulators and a global move towards shortened settlement cycles, there is now an opportunity for all regions to make sure that their local market infrastructure is fit for today’s global markets. Some market participants may find that, in order to meet regulatory demands and remain competitive, they must streamline and improve their existing operational processes to take full advantage of new market infrastructures and processes that are being developed in response to the global financial crisis.

Masayuki Tagai, executive director, global market infrastructures, JP Morgan Treasury and Securities Services

As a complex and diverse region, Asia presents many challenges to financial markets participants. However, initiatives have taken root to promote dialogue between the public and private sectors and explore ways to achieve greater standardisation across the region’s broader financial markets infrastructures. Such initiatives and dialogue are expected to further enhance the soundness of the financial system by delivering new efficiencies, reducing risk and boosting cross-border cooperation.

Starting from the global level, the recently formed financial Stability Board regional Consultative group for Asia brings together authorities to promote financial stability and coordination between Asia and the rest of the world. Moving on to the regional level, since the Asian currency crisis in 1997-98, Asean+3, which comprises the ten Asean countries plus China, Japan and Korea, have been involved in ongoing discussions on financial cooperation. Beginning with a need for macroeconomic surveillance and a response mechanism for crisis situations, it has since developed multilateral, self-supporting measures including the Chiang Mai Initiative, a framework that pools foreign currency reserves to better prepare for crisis as well as the development of a credit guarantee and investment facility. The Asean+3 Macroeconomic research office was formed last year as an independent regional surveillance unit in order to monitor and analyse regional economies.

Another sign of closer financial cooperation within the Asean+3 economies is the establishment in 2010 of the Asean+3 Bond Market forum (ABMf), which was created under a broader initiative called the Asian Bond Market Initiative. With a longer-term objective to develop better functioning cross-border intra-regional bond markets, the ABMf published a comprehensive bond market guide in April 2012 to bridge the information gap that exists. Its next step is to establish a common bond issuance framework within the region and adopt global financial messaging standards to improve efficiency in cross-border transactions.

Along with other broader regional dialogue such as the executives’ Meeting of east Asia-Pacific Central Banks, comprising central banks and monetary authorities mandated with driving closer cooperation among the 11 member economies, Asia has an opportunity to position itself as a major influencer in the formation of important policies, global standards and market practices to create a safer, more visible and accountable financial system.

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Ian Sinclair, director, product management, custody, rBC Investor Services

Clearing and settlement is of enormous importance to the efficiency of capital markets and the giovannini report lists no less than 15 technical, legal and fiscal barriers to efficient cross-border clearing and settlement of securities within the european Union (eU). Before the launch of the Target2 Securities (T2S) project, there had been a very limited number of private sector initiatives and a few attempts at consolidation in clearing and settlement, but it is fair to say that the national systems have remained in place, acting as quasi-monopolies from which only some have evolved.

The eurpean Central Bank’s sponsorship of T2S is rightly seen as an essential catalyst towards harmonisation and standardisation of certain post-trade activities, including several aspects of settlement or corporate action processes, but also for the elimination of some national specificities and regulation that prevented fair competition within the eU. The T2S framework will encourage significant competition between national central securities depositories (CSDs) as well as between CSDs and custodian banks. Without the leadership of a supranational entity such as the eCB it is hard to believe that this evolution would have occurred naturally.

The importance of scale as a critical success factor is highlighted by the non-adoption of T2S by some european markets; without reaching the appropriate size and volumes, T2S could lead to a more expensive settlement environment which is therefore the opposite of the initial objective.

full harmonisation and standardisation of the legal, technical and fiscal environment in europe will not happen in the near future, but the pace of change has been significantly increased with T2S while the associated risks seem under control. It is probably too early to say if Asia Pacific needs a similar catalyst but the region should keep an eye on the next developments in europe.

Colin Brooks, global head of sub-custody and clearing, HSBC Securities Services

formed in 1996, the giovannini group concluded that the european Union’s financial market could not be considered an integrated entity as there were obstacles preventing efficient clearing and settlement of trades in the eU. To address this, Target2 Securities was launched and is due to take effect from 2015 – some 20 years after the group was established. While T2S is now making headway, even with the backing of the european Union and the european Central Bank, the initiative has made slow progress.

one of the reasons progress was slow in europe was a lack of a common purpose and buy-in to the initiative across the industry – people were simply not convinced that it would lead to genuine benefits and, importantly, lower costs.

Asia lacks the institutional authority that was such a crucial factor in europe. It also lacks a common currency and a number of the Asian currencies are not even fully convertible. So, what can Asia learn?

In the absence of an empowered supranational authority in Asia, initiatives here rely on co-operation and mutual interest so the benefits for all have to be clear. To the credit of the region, initiatives aimed at facilitating the flow of investment within Asia are making progress. The Asean Bond Market forum involving the ten Asean nations plus China, Korea and Japan is working to identify ways in which bond trading and issuance can be harmonised. The stock exchanges in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are implementing Asean link to facilitate easier trading of equities between the markets.

In the absence of closer political and economic integration, progress will be gradual in Asia but the fact that there is progress at all suggests that some lessons already have been learned.

In the absence of closer political and economic integration, progress will be gradual in Asia but the fact that there is progress at all suggests that some lessons already have been learned”

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goran fors, global head of global transaction services, SeB

Thibaud de Maintenant, global head of direct securities services, global transaction banking, Deutsche Bank

over the past years, the giovanni barriers have been highlighted and discussed in detail by both regulators and the financial industry in europe. As a result, the appropriate measures to tackle them have been identified and can now be taken. The barriers were – and to a certain extent still are – substantial, and it became apparent in the process that harmonising a region with diverse cultures, countries, systems and procedures simply takes time. even if there is a mutual interest and consensus about which model may work best, harmonisation is a long-term process which cannot and should not be rushed through.

one of the key lessons for europe, which will apply for Asia too, is that harmonisation is a complex task, and that the best model to adapt should be one based on best practices across the different countries. This inevitably leads to compromises, but it is the only sensible way to ensure that the interests of all participants are being preserved.

regulators in europe over time also learned to listen to market participants, and they now encourage dialogue between them and banks and financial institutions. This has not always been the case, but now all parties realise that working together is more efficient and productive than insisting on one’s own agenda. T2S is a good example of how such a dialogue can look: it demonstrates that when the various parties work together they will achieve a positive outcome for everyone. This combination of dialogue and patience should be the role model for Asia.

Asia, which is too often bundled together as one market, faces unique challenges in harmonising its disparate regional securities markets. nevertheless, there are lessons to be learned from europe’s efforts to break down the giovannini barriers to regional integration.

Those barriers are the technical, fiscal and legal differences that cause investors dealing cross-border at best confusion and at worse cost and transaction risk. These obstacles also make it difficult for european service providers to extend their reach beyond their domestic market. So, it is in everyone’s interests to tackle these issues. Making meaningful advances takes time but progress has been made. The Target2 Securities european settlement project, for example, should help to standardise settlement across the continent. on the whole though, progress has not been as swift as many would have liked. Delays have sometimes been caused by the contrasting yet inevitable vested interests and political positions.

More fundamental though is the challenge of managing contradictory goals and unforeseen consequences. Investor protection and reducing systemic risk are sometimes at odds with creating a competitive, level playing field and yet all are key priorities for european regulation. We are seeing significant regulation being implemented whose true impact is not yet clear.

So, counter-intuitive though it may sound, the biggest lesson for Asia may be to slow down and improve the breadth and depth of dialogue between regulators and the securities industry. There is also value in waiting to see what transpires in the US and europe. In so doing, Asia can perhaps achieve what we all strive for: operationally efficient, low-risk and transparent securities markets that put investors’ interests first.

Thomas Zeeb, chief executive, SIX Securities ServicesWhile progress has undoubtedly been made, efforts at harmonisation in europe serve as a cautionary tale for the Asia Pacific region. At this point, all of the giovannini barriers that could have been removed through corporate activity have now been addressed. The remaining barriers are political in nature and almost insurmountable without closer political and fiscal union in europe, something that we are very unlikely to see anytime soon.

Initiatives such as T2S represent only a small part of the jigsaw. Admittedly, it will create a harmonised IT platform for settlement but it will not resolve other more deep-rooted problems. If europe wishes to create truly competitive financial markets, it will need to address asset servicing, tax and myriad other asset servicing risks. In these areas there is far greater disparity between countries in legislation, practice and infrastructure, than in settlement.

Take pensions, for example. In the UK, pension contributions are based on a combination of state and funded systems. france, on the other hand, focuses on a state-organised ‘flow-through’ system, where today’s workers fund existing retirees. other countries in europe have numerous variations of the french and British models. How could these completely different pension structures be integrated without enormous funding, not to mention a change in political will?

Asia should take heed from europe that national differences must never be underestimated. Asia’s countries have developed in diverse ways and at different paces. Without close fiscal and political union, the creation of compatible and efficient financial markets could prove extremely difficult. In the meantime, the somewhat outmoded concept of competition is not actually all that bad.


Daily News at siBos


Diana Chan, chief executive, euroCCP

Creating competitive clearing in europe took a long time to reach fruition. Many market participants truly believed that the regulatory obstacles would prove insurmountable and as a result interoperability would always remain a concept rather than become a reality. The decision by Bats Chi-X to launch preferred interoperability (July 2011), followed by full interoperability (January 2012) silenced the sceptics and now market participants are enjoying the tangible benefits that interoperability brings. Critically, what we learned from the implementation of interoperability is that fundamental changes to market structure take time and patience but the benefits they can deliver are worth the wait.

The benefits interoperability is delivering to market participants reach far beyond a reduction in clearing fees. other advantages include significant cost savings in settlement and operational costs; as well as a reduction of up to 70 per cent in collateral funding costs. Crucial to the success of interoperability has been the robust inter-CCP risk management framework implemented by the CCPs under the guidance of the regulators. The level of scrutiny which both regulators and CCPs applied to the risk management aspect of interoperability took time. However, this meticulous approach gave the trading and clearing communities the confidence to use the interoperable service the day it went live.

The industry had to be patient with the giovannini barriers too. The report from the giovannini group on clearing and settlement arrangements in 2003 covered an extensive list of obstacles to harmonising clearing and settlement practices in europe. Most of these barriers were in relation to national differences in tax procedures, technical requirements and market practice. It was only ever going to be a major initiative that would be able to override barriers of this scale. This came in the form of the T2S settlement platform, which will integrate and harmonise europe’s fragmented securities settlement system. While it will not be implemented until 2016, T2S will mark the harmonisation of settlement practices across europe and therefore its importance cannot be underestimated.

Making fundamental changes to the way markets operate takes time. risk mitigation must be the overriding concern of market infrastructures, market participants and policymakers and therefore, as with interoperability, we must bide our time to ensure that change is implemented safely and soundly.

olivier grimonpont, general manager and regional head of Asia-Pacific, euroclear no matter where we are located, we all seem to share similar challenges today: improving transparency, containing risks and minimising costs. regulatory measures such as the european Market Infrastructure regulation, Dodd-frank and Basel III are pushing firms to strengthen their balance sheets and ensure that vital access routes to liquidity are wide open. leveraging existing infrastructure, partnerships with proven service providers and a keen focus on meeting the challenges above are not only regional causes, but are cross-regional challenges for all of us. Collaboration is essential.

for example, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has been influential in two initiatives which draw on Western experience. HKMA is harnessing the expertise of euroclear Bank and JP Morgan as triparty collateral management agents to strengthen its capital markets and provide HK dollar and off-shore renminbi liquidity. Asia Pacific markets, like everywhere else, clearly understand the need to bolster financial stability through greater use of collateral to cover exposures in various types of transactions. This will broaden liquidity sources for local financial institutions and, in particular, help to expand cross-market renminbi funding activities.

In another example, HKMA and Bank negara Malaysia, with euroclear Bank, launched a common platform in March 2012 to settle cross-border Asian debt transactions. The initiative aims to harmonise and standardise market practices in the Asian debt markets to support Asian bond issuance in local markets and to deepen liquidity. This complements the wider workings of the Asean+3 group whose aim is to standardise market practices and regulations across Asia.

Taking on board europe’s experience in harmonising market practices, nobody should underestimate the progress that continues to be made in removing the giovannini group barriers by the authorities and the market. nor should they be surprised at how long such a process takes when barriers often relate to fundamental pan-european securities market procedures or laws. future legislation will continue the process of removing them; the proposed CSD regulation will harmonise settlement cycles and the forthcoming Securities law Directive should deliver a more consistent securities law framework in the eU. Progress may be seen as slow, but it is very real. ›

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Monday 29 october 2012w w w.bankingtech.com/sibos/

t the confluence of a web of river and sea routes, osaka’s origins date back to the fifth century. naniwazu

Port, predecessor to the modern port of osaka, became a gateway into ancient Japan. In 2010, osaka’s port handled more than 25,000 vessels that carried a total of 85 million tonnes of freight.

During Japan’s edo period (1601-1867) osaka became known as Japan’s kitchen as essential goods such as rice were sent to osaka from different regions for shipping internationally as well as domestically. During the 1800s osaka’s trade influence waned and it transformed into a commercial centre, earning the moniker the ‘Manchester of the orient’ because of its myriad factory chimneys (not because of its fine football team – ed).

The city has eight main areas: Kita, nakanoshima, Minami, Bay, Uemachidaichi, Tennoji, Tsuruhashi and osaka Castle.

Kita comprises the areas around the osaka, Umeda, Higashi-Umeda and nishi-Umeda train stations. It is a business and commercial district and home to a number of department stores, shopping malls and hotels.

nakanoshima is the central business district of the city, including the courts, the major banks, and also osaka City Hall. It is a comparatively quiet area, based on an island and situated between Minami and Kita. Minami is a large area characterised by neon signs, brightly lit streets and shops, restaurants bars and clubs.

osaka’s newest tourist areas are along osaka Bay in the western part of the city. The Bay Area features

amusement parks, museums, shopping and outdoor activities. In stark contrast are Uemachidaichi, one of the main historical areas of the city and Tennoji. Uemachidaichi has around 200 temples and shrines, including the Shitennoji Temple, while Tennoji houses the Sumiyoshi-taisha Shrine.

Tsuruhashi is a downtown area referred to as Korea Town, or the international market. There are plenty of Korean-style barbeque restaurants here as well as more traditional restaurants.

osaka Castle dominates the central part of the city, which is the oldest inhabited area. There are great views from here of the city’s many waterways and a number of riverside parks.

osaka styles itself as the gourmet capital of Japan, boasting a kuidaore – eat until you drop – approach to dining.

a

The Town ThaT loves To eaT

Known for its street snacks, osaka has a thriving restaurant scene and the locals love their food. There are also plenty of sights in and around the city to keep delegates busy in the non-Sibos hours. Heather McKenzie reports

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osakans believe they are happy and open-hearted because they eat good food. The city is renowned for its low cost restaurants and street snacks such as takoyaki and okonomiyaki.

Takoyaki are round snacks filled with minced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger and green onion, fried and brushed with a sauce and mayonnaise. Available at street food stalls, takoyaki are also sold in supermarkets, convenience stores and there are some specialty restaurants. okonomiyaki are savoury pancakes containing a variety of ingredients. The typical osaka version of the dish contains pork or bacon, squid, shrimp, vegetables or cheese. At some okonomiyaki restaurants patrons grill their own pancakes on a special hotplate at their table.

Sibos delegates will be spoilt for choice as osaka features traditional Japanese restaurants, local outlets and international establishments at a wide range of prices. noodle and beef shops offer a Japanese version of fast food, but there are also the ubiquitous Western fast-food ‘restaurants’ found throughout the world.

If you can resist the urge to visit a chain US coffee outlet, try traditional Japanese kissaten for coffee. The kissaten are popular for breakfast among students and business people. They serve tea and coffee, sandwiches, pasta and other light refreshments as well as cakes. for breakfast, try mooningu saabisu (morning service), which is a breakfast of thick toast, boiled or fried eggs, with ham or bacon and a cup of coffee.

osaka’s main entertainment district is Dotombori, which has a high

concentration of restaurants and bars. Dotombori is near namba station on the Midosuji subway line (take exit 14 from the station).

Dozens of restaurants line the Dotomborigawa river, which runs through the middle of the district in a canal. The north side is characterised by small bars and restaurants and the southern side is a flashier, neon-lit extravaganza. A quieter flavour of old osaka can be found in the back street Hozenji-Yokocho, a cobblestone alley that is home to a number of small restaurants.

RestaurantsPrices at most restaurants include sales tax and typically diners receive a bill and pay a cashier as they leave. Tipping is not practised at restaurants in Japan. Inexpensive restaurants, coffee shops

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and fast-food outlets accept cash only. Some eating establishments may ask customers to purchase a coupon from a vending machine in advance and hand it over to a waiter.

listed here are just a handful of the restaurants osaka has to offer.

Ebiya, 1-1-16, nannba Chuo-ku osaka within Hozenji yokocho. A three minutes walk from exit B16 of namba station. open from midday to 23:00. This is a choose your own lobster restaurant, with the unlucky crustacean cooked after you’ve condemned it. The all-lobster menu includes sashimi, stewed lobster in a broth and deep fried lobster. Dinner prices start at about ¥6825.

Horie Toka, Canal Terrace Horie West Wing 1-5-17 Minamihorie nishi-ku. four minutes walk from namba station. open 17:00-23:30. The treat at this restaurant are the views of the river from the separate dining rooms. Dishes are based on seafood and vegetables in season as well as meat. Average meal costs are between ¥4500-¥5500.

Sukiyaki Kitamura, 1-16-27 Higashi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku. Two minutes walk from exit 6 of Shinsaibashi Station on the Midosuji and nagahori tsurumi-ryokuchi lines. open 16:00-22:00. This sukiyaki restaurant was established in 1881 and uses only domestic beef. Sukiyaki dishes are slow cooked or simmered at the table alongside vegetables and other ingredients in a shallow pot. Prices range from ¥7600-¥7900.

Absinthe Solaar, 5-1-18 namba, Chuo-Ku. located on the 8th floor, namba Dining Maison in the Takasimaya department store. open 17:00-23:00. A barbeque restaurant that serves meze-style appetisers and kebabs and skewers of squid, scallops, shrimp etc. A ¥5000 set price gives you all you can eat for two hours and includes beer, juice, spirits and wine from a self-service drinks bar.

Fujiya 1935, 2-4-14 yariyamachi, Chuo-ku. About a seven minute walk from Sakaisujihonmachi station. open from 18:00-23:00. recently promoted from two Michelin stars to three, a set menu here starts at ¥13,500.

Naniwa Kuishinbo yokocho, 552-0022 1 Kaigandori Minato-ku. five minutes walk from osaka-ko station. open 11:00-20:00. To experience what most of osaka’s best restaurants

can offer, visit this food ‘theme park’, which contains stalls from a number of restaurants. The site is a replica of downtown osaka during the expo 1970 World fair.

Hariju, 542-0071 1-9-17 nishishinsaibashi Chuo-ku. one minute walk from exit 14 of Shinsaibashi sta5tion. open 11:30-21:30, except Tuesdays. This restaurant serves shabu-shabu (hot pot) and sukiyaki along with Western-style food such as steak. Prices range from ¥600 for curry up to ¥6300 for shabu-shabu and sukiyaki.

Bistrot La Cocotte, 541-0057 B1f of Honmachi Mido park Bldg, 4-2-12 Kitakyuhoji-machi Kita-ku. five minutes walk from exit 13 of Honmachi station. open 17:30-21:30. A casual, low-cost french restaurant in the style of a bistro. Diners can choose a fixed price menu for ¥4000, which includes drink. other dishes range between ¥2520-¥3600.

SOS Ramen Shin-Osaka, 533-0033 105 Shin osaka Daiichi Diamond Mansion 1-13-43 Higashinakajima Higashiyodogawa-ku osaka City. five minutes walk from Shin-osaka Station (east exit). open 18:00-23:45, except Thursdays. Chilli lovers should check out this restaurant, where the Bhut Jolokia – the world’s hottest chilli, according to guinness, can be added to ramens for an extra charge.

Dotombori Imai, 542-0071 1-7-22 Dotombori Chuo-ku. five minutes walk from namba station. open 11:00-22:00, except Wednesdays. This restaurant is renowned for its kitsune udon and udon nabe. noodles are cooked in a broth of kelp and bonito flake. Dishes start at ¥735.

BarsBar Tachibana, 1-9-19 Dotombori, osaka Shochikuza Theatre. Also a restaurant, the appeal here is a microbrewery that serves light and dark beer.

Tenbinbo, 542-0075 3-22 namba-Sennichimae Chuo-ku. More than 50 varieties of locally brewed sake are served here.

The Blarney Stone, B1 Kohda Building, 2-5-27 Higashi Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku. An Irish theme pub, of all things! The variety of beers on tap attracts a mix of expatriates and locals. often has live music.

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Blow Bar, 2-8-33, nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku. A Jamaican style bar, near the clubs of namba and Amemura. friendly staff and good drinks.

Covent Garden, 2-5-10 Kitahorie, nishi-ku. five minutes walk from exit 3 of nishiohashi station. British delegates will enjoy the sofas, darts and foosball. There’s also free internet, friendly staff and Western food including burgers, veggie burgers, nachos and pizza.

Game Bar Continue, 2-9-5 nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku. Take a trip down arcade game memory lane at this video game themed bar. games from Atari to the present day can be played for a fee (charged by the hour) and drinks are available. The bar is at the end of a hallway within the building.

The sights If you have the chance for sight-seeing, osaka has plenty to offer. The most obvious is Osaka Castle, a collection of 13 buildings that have been designated important cultural assets by the Japanese government. The castle tower underwent extensive renovation in 1997, with its outer walls re-plastered, ornamental fixtures restored and gold leaf reapplied throughout. The Castle is open from 09:00-17:00 each day and is about 20 minutes walk from Jr Morinomiya and osakajokoen station (exit 1 and 3) or from Tanimachi 4-chome station on the Tanimachi line. The entrance fee is ¥600.

Aqua Liner Tours are one hour river cruises of the main sightseeing venues of osaka, including osaka Castle, nakanoshima, the osaka Business Park and Amenity Park. A specialised restaurant boat is available for lunch and dinner cruises. Boats leave from 540-0002 2-banchi-saki osakajo in Chuo-Ku (a short walk from Jr osakajo-koean station) every hour from 10:00-15:00. Cruises cost ¥1880.

If you have a head for heights, check out the Floating Garden Observatory in the Umeda Sky Building. The observation platform is on a bridge connecting the two towers of the Umeda Sky Building and provides unobstructed 360-degree views of the city from a height of 170 metres. Take the subway to Umeda, Higashi-Umeda or nishi-Umeda to reach the Sky Building (531-0076 1-1-88 oyodo-naka, Kita-ku). The platform is open from 10:00-22.30 and costs ¥700.

Billed as one of the largest aquariums in the world, the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is in the Tempozan Harbour Village at the centre of the Bay Area. The aquarium is home to 580 species and 30,000 marine animals from the Pacific rim – some not even irradiated! Jellyfish, sea otters, dolphins, penguins and whale sharks can be spotted. The aquarium is on the near osakako station (take exit 1) at 552-0022 1-1-10 Kaigandori, Minato-ku. open from 09:30-20:00 with a ¥2000 entrance fee.

The Tenjimbashi-Suji Shopping Street hosts 2.6km of shops under a high vaulted roof. The street, named Japan’s longest shopping street, also has movie theatres and games arcades. It can be reached from Tenjimbashisuji 6-chome station (exit 8) at 530-0041 Temjinbashi,Kita-ku.

Shitennoji Temple was the first Bhuddist temple in Japan, built by Prince Shotoku (574-622), who brought Buddhism to the country. The layout of the temple compound is largely unchanged from the original. The temple is five minutes walk from Shitennoji-Mae-yuhigaoka station (exit 14) at 543-0051 1-11-18 Shitennoji, Tennoji-ku. It is open from 08:30-18:00. Admission costs ¥300, with separate charges for the treasure house.

Pachinko parlours are also worth visiting for some colour, noise and fun. Pachinko is a Japanese arcade game, sometimes used as a gambling game like poker machines. The player fires a large number

of small balls into a machine. The balls cascade down the machine though many pins; depending on where the balls land, more may be released. The idea is to catch as many balls as possible, which can be exchanged for prizes. The pachinko parlours are very noisy – you won’t miss them. The Japanese government has estimated that annual revenues from pachinko and related games is about ¥29 trillion; about four times the total profit of global casino gambling each year.

Further afieldosaka is located between the historic cities of Kyoto and Nara, each of which can be visited in a day. Kyoto is half an hour away by train (half that time if you take a bullet train) and nara is closer to an hour. If in Kyoto, don’t miss Kinkaku-ji, the golden pavilion. A spectacular building covered in gold leaf, which will make it attractive to Sibos-goers who fear the collapse of the fiat money system (take a chisel).

The 1300 year old city of nara was Japan’s first capital and home of Japanese Buddhism. It is home to eight World Heritage Sites, including the Todaiji Temple and its great Buddha, which both date back to the mid-700s.

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EditorHeather McKenzie

dEsign, production and photographyKosh Naran sub-Editor and rEportErPaul Skeldon

rEportErsDavid BannisterElliott HolleyGeorge BourdaniotisGareth Swain

publishErTim Banham

salEs ManagErSadie Jones

MarkEting ManagErSophie Burdajewicz

printEd by The Daily News at sibos is an independent newspaper. It is wholly owned and published by Informa Telecoms & Media, a subsidiary of Informa plc and publisher of Banking technology. The editorial content and design is dictated by the editor and no other outside source.

© Daily News at sibos 2012

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