The Standards Forum comes to London

On 4 February 2010 we will continue to raise the level of the dialogue about coexistence and migration.

Following the successes of the Standards Forums at Sibos Hong Kong and in New York in November 2009, the event where business and standardisation meet, now comes to London.

For many years the topics of standards coexistence and migration have been at the fore of the minds of standardisers worldwide. More recently, business decision makers have gained an interest in standards as a means to reduce cost and increase efficiency. This has put ISO 20022 standards centre stage in the search for efficiency gains and new business opportunities.

Different players in the financial industry have voiced diverging, even opposing, opinions on the value of SWIFT migrating to ISO 20022, versus facilitating the coexistence of multiple standards. While SWIFT remains committed to ISO 20022, it has also (as per a discussion paper [DP158] of September 2008) moved away from a large scale and short term mandatory MX adoption. Nevertheless it continues to seek to understand better the concerns and pain points of the financial community surrounding ISO 20022 and beyond.

Following on the feedback of the Standards Forum at Sibos Hong Kong, and building on the success of the Standards Forum in New York, we now bring you another interactive Standards Forum with the support of The Value Web: on 4 February 2010 at the SWIFT London office.

In this dynamic workshop, which brings together business and standardisers, you'll have the opportunity to contribute to the debate on standards coexistence and migration by challenging the way we communicate about these options and the implications for our business, and by jointly identifying barriers, thereby setting the stage for a more constructive debate within the broader standards community.

We are looking to invite approximately five dozen individuals of the financial community, including financial institutions, vendors and corporate institutions, to participate in an open debate on the future of standards migration and coexistence.

Ted Rothschild, Executive Director, Treasury and Securities Services Global Market Infrastructures at J.P.Morgan, commented on the New York Standards Forum: "This session was dynamic. As a result of today's dialogue and how it was facilitated, I feel we have finally started the journey towards a real dialogue about coexistence and migration and how we move forward."

Are you interested in joining? Email us at standards.forum@swift.com.

Please note that places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis, and also to ensure balanced country representation.