Club @ Sibos
OPINION
Sibos 2018: Fireworks
and how-it-works
The takeaways from the 2018 conference often shape discussions for the foreseeable
future. Here are the main talking points from a securities services perspective.
By Jonathan Watkins*
W
ithin these takeaways you will
find some criticisms amid the
praise, because as Sibos has estab-
lished itself as one of the most forward-think-
ing and agenda-setting banking and securities
services conferences around, it ultimately has
to meet the high standards it sets itself with
each passing year.
To explain the headline of this piece, I felt
that discussions at the event took two forms:
Firstly, how-it-works, where new collater-
al, data and distributed ledger technology
initiatives were discussed by those involved
with them. This was a refreshing change as
we moved on from the theory of new tech-
nologies to tangible real use cases and what
they expect to bring. The explanation of the
Australian Securities Exchange’s overhaul
of its post-trade systems through Digital
Asset’s blockchain offering from both parties
18 | CLUB@SIBOS | Bringing the world to Sibos and Sibos to the world
involved was a prime example of this, with
great insight into the benefits around data,
settlement and collateral.
Secondly, the fireworks, where panellists
from fintechs, start-ups and crypto compa-
nies were welcomed onto panels with incum-
bents, often pressing them into conversations
and debates which they would not have had
when too many likeminded people sit on a
stage together. From this we got conversa-