APFIC Issues Preview

Next week's Asia-Pacific Financial Information Conference (APFIC) in Hong Kong – the only two-day program hosted by Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data each year, and co-sponsored with FISD – is packed as ever with expert panelists discussing topics such as modernizing data infrastructures, risk data aggregation, transparency in pricing, big data, managed services, and regulations and standards including BCBS 239 and the legal entity identifier (LEI).

The last item in that list that should prove especially intriguing this year. With all the frequent and fast-moving regulatory and standards developments that have taken place in the past 12 months – including the issuance of many LEIs after years of planning the identifier's implementation, and the rapidly approaching deadline for compliance with BCBS 239 risk data aggregation principles – any assessment of the progress being made risks becoming Americas- or Europe-centric.

In those regions, instituting BCBS 239 compliance has proved quite a challenge, as Royal Bank of Scotland's David Sharratt told Inside Reference Data webcast listeners in August. Data governance planning can be a way of adopting a strategic approach to compliance, Pierre Pourquery of consultancy EY added at the time. Costs and competition from other compliance projects are significant distractions from the focus on BCBS 239.

In the same webcast, more than half the audience said their firms were still analyzing the potential impact of BCBS 239, and very few – almost none, in fact – said they had a plan in place for compliance. The time remaining before the deadline is now only a little over a year.

At APFIC, executives from ANZ, BNY Mellon, RBS and UBS will present and discuss the infrastructure and governance changes that are needed for BCBS 239 in their markets and regions. This will be a session to watch and learn from if Asia-Pacific markets have any better handle on this regulation than the rest of the world.

LEIs, the other key compliance trend on the APFIC agenda, had only just begun to attract attention in Hong Kong and Asia markets three years ago. The same executives set to discuss BCBS 239 also plan to cover the LEI in their discussion, and will look at how the identifier can be handled consistently and accurately to support risk data aggregation. It's no longer a matter of whether the LEI will proceed in the region – the question is how best to make sure it is implemented correctly.

Keep an eye on our site this week for coverage of other aspects of APFIC, and be sure to look for answers to these questions here in the weeks to come.