SIX was voted Service Provider of the Year via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards for 2018, and a key figure at the company answers questions about the win and related matters.
(Editor’s note: SIX won the Service Provider of the Year honor via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards for 2018 and we wanted to explore why the company was the top vote-getter for that category. FTF News got a chance recently to interview Robert Jeanbart, head of financial information and member of the executive board at SIX. Jeanbart, who has been busy running the Financial Information group since 2014, has extensive international management experience and expertise in the financial information realm. Before his move to SIX, he was the global head of market data and information services at SunGard (now part of FIS). His career high points include serving as CEO of Infotec S.A. and working for more than 15 years at Reuters Ltd., in several managerial positions, including the managing director for the U.K. and Ireland.)
Q: What would you say was SIX’s greatest achievement as a data service provider in 2017?
A: Without a doubt, it has been helping our clients meet the almost unprecedented amount of regulatory change.
New regulations meant firms had to deal with a greater volume of more complex data as well as new ways of exchanging data and documents. We gave them solutions.
Take MiFID II’s investor protection and post-trade transparency requirements and PRIIPs KIDs [packaged retail investment and insurance-based investment products and key information documents], for example.
We gave clients access to ready-to-consume, easy-to-integrate regulatory data packages to meet a raft of new requirements.
This approach will help the industry move away from the idea of minimal viable compliance to a more strategic, cost-effective approach that eradicates data silos and duplicate, unused data.
No longer will firms need to work on a regulation-by-regulation basis. They’ll be able to plan for long-term, strategic compliance.
Q: What does the cross-referencing of SIX’s security master and corporate actions data enable?
A: The strength, depth and breadth of our reference data and corporate actions cross-referencing has been the starting point from which we have developed innovative data packages. These allowed firms to get to grips quickly with regulatory mandates.
Our Sanctioned Securities Monitoring Service (SSMS) is one example and provides a daily list of issuers and securities linked to the domiciles, companies and individuals sanctioned by U.N., E.U., U.S. OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control], U.K. and other sanctions regimes.
For another example, see our IRS 871(m) compliance service, which enables clients to fulfill their withholding and reporting obligations by marrying comprehensive data with expertise and global market knowledge.
Q: How has the regulatory hub from SIX been doing since its launch?
A: Our Regulatory Hub has established connected communities for the creation and bilateral exchange of regulatory data and documents.
The idea was to bring together market participants and industry bodies and create an innovative and future-proof solution that helps firms take a strategic approach toward regulatory compliance. It has been exceptionally well received.
Since launch, we have been committed to ensuring it is as comprehensive as possible and so have partnered with a number of industry participants to broaden the coverage and ensure that the buy side has access to all the information they need.
What this all adds up to was huge demand for a much-needed service. So much so that at the time of winning this award we were adding roughly 1 million new PRIIPs KIDs every week.
Q: How does SIX plan to build out its platforms and services in the coming 12 months to meet the changing needs and challenges of the industry?
A: We will continue to innovate and extend our delivery and integration capabilities. We’ll make it easier for firms to consume data through the launch of more data packages and enable our customers to choose the exact data packages they require.
We will continue to help firms meet their compliance burdens, whatever they may be. We built our Regulatory Data Hub with flexibility and future regulatory change in mind. It can easily adapt to new regulatory mandates such as UCITS [undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities] KIDS.
And we will continue to make data management easier for our clients. We’ll take more of the heavy lifting away and provide clients with ready-to-use data fit for purpose regulatory, risk and tax compliance from more and more data sources.
The ability to choose from carefully-compiled data packages that meet specific business needs represents a marked shift in data management. Never before have clients had such a degree of control and monitoring of their data consumption. We’re excited to continue building on this.
Q: What product trends excite you and how will they impact the offerings from SIX?
A: We’re going to keep working with our clients to turn regulation into a strategic advantage.
Following an unprecedented time in new regulations, we are beginning to see a slowdown. This presents firms with a massive opportunity to take control of data like never before, breaking down silos and sourcing it and using it much more strategically across the business.
For us, this means the delivery of more ‘ready-to-consume’ data. This is an entirely new approach to data delivery that enables users to define where, when and how they receive data.
Clients will have end-to-end control over their data consumption, from discovery to ultimate billing. And we expect this to just be the beginning.
We believe firms should feel empowered to challenge their data partners to provide exactly what they need right across the business, in whichever form they need it.
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