ISITC (International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication), the industry trade group focused on standards in transaction processing and related communications, is celebrating the 20th anniversary since its launch in 1991.
ISITC brings together leading financial executives to collaborate and deliver best practices for the financial services industry as a whole. Various working groups at ISITC regularly release best-practice guidelines relevant to custodians such as the recent reports on tri-party repo, standing settlement instructions for cash and foreign exchange, and OTC derivatives.
The group was formed in 1991 when a group of market participants assembled in response to rising trade failure rates. The group initially discussed an industry-wide move toward straight-through processing and shifting from T+5 to T+3, but has expanded over the years to include thousands of members from hundreds of companies worldwide, including broker-dealers, custodians, investment managers, vendors and utilities. ISITC develops standards and market practices designed to enhance efficiency across the transaction lifecycle in areas including transaction initiation/confirmation, settlement, corporate actions, reconciliation and securities lending.
“Since 1991, ISITC has grown from a group of 25 investment managers, custodian banks and portfolio accounting and communications vendors, to an association comprised of leading executives from hundreds of institutions worldwide,” says Gary Probert, chair of ISITC and managing director at Citi. “Just this past year, we have continued development of standards that are designed to enhance efficiencies in trade processing and related communications, and I feel privileged to serve as chairman throughout such transformation.”
Significant milestones over the years have included:
1992: ISITC publishes first US market practice and quickly gains industry adoption
1995: Industry move from T+5 to T+3 day settlement cycle
2002: ISITC publishes market practices in support of ISO 15022 standards
2006: ISITC endorses use of FpML Standard for communication of OTC Derivatives
2008: ISITC Annual Vendor Show attracts over 25 vendors and 400 attendees
2009: ISITC finalizes new OTC Derivatives Market Practice
2010: ISITC updates the Investment Roadmap to move towards one common model, ISO 20022
2011: ISITC releases Matching Best Practice to reduce industry-wide trade exceptions
(CG)