DTCC Organizes GREAT Collaboration with Global Peers
More than 40 delegates from 11 infrastructure organizations across the globe came together in New York in July for the first annual Global Relations Exchange and Training (GREAT) workshop hosted by DTCC. The program is aimed at cultivating relationships among colleagues from international clearers and depositories, and fostering collaboration on key trends shaping operations practices in today’s capital markets.
GREAT originated as an extension of past information-sharing meetings and training programs DTCC coordinated for organizations with which it has signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs).
“Our new approach of hosting one major annual workshop allows DTCC to respond more effectively to the many requests we receive for seminars and training,” said Mary Ann Callahan, DTCC managing director, Global Relations and Development. “Instead of holding these sessions one country at a time, bringing a number of our international colleagues together allows all the attendees to learn from each other.”
Five-day program
To meet the needs and expectations of a diverse audience of infrastructure organizations attending from Brazil, China, India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan, DTCC developed a comprehensive five-day agenda.
The sessions comprised speakers with expertise in the areas of most interest to this international audience. Discussions centered on such topics as the variety of services provided by central securities depositories and counterparties globally, risk management, current trends in the securities industry, corporate regulatory and compliance practices, and customer satisfaction.
Benchmarking with peers
“This forum provided us with a lot of information about the many organizations participating in the conference and where they are headed in their respective markets,” said Samar Banwat, vice president of India’s National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL). “Having the opportunity to meet with many of our peers was valuable in helping us get a better understanding about how different markets function. As the capital markets become more global in nature and infrastructure organizations face the greater possibility of competition, it is important for us to be able to benchmark our processes and systems with each other. This will help our organizations better understand how our services compare to what is offered in other parts of the world.”
To foster more in-depth dialogue among market infrastructure colleagues, DTCC complemented the panel presentations with break-out sessions. “These sessions were definitely a highlight for attendees,” said Lisa Argento, DTCC director, Global Relations and Development. “It gave them the opportunity to interact directly in smaller groups and exchange ideas on more specific topics like corporate actions, settlement models and mutual funds.”
To ensure the program addressed the interests of the attendees, Argento briefed speakers from DTCC, participating infrastructure organizations and outside speakers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Tower Group to guide them on the workshop’s objectives. “We also stressed the importance of encouraging an open dialogue among delegates and using case study presentations to identify parallel experiences across the different markets,” she said.
Globalization and customer service
Common themes identified by the various infrastructure organizations include the key challenges and opportunities they face with globalization of the capital markets and the constant need to improve customer service.
Robert Hegarty, managing director and practices leader, Securities & Investments and Insurance from the independent research firm the Tower Group, discussed in his presentation on securities industry trends the demographic shifts transforming the capital markets, and the challenges facing securities and investment firms and infrastructure organizations.
“There has been – and will continue to be – a major shift of wealth creation from the west to the east and, along with that shift, massive numbers of potential clients to win and service. Companies that don’t embrace this new global marketplace will miss their opportunity to determine their future,” said Hegarty.
According to Manabu Chiyotani, manager, JASDEC Business Planning, “Some of the challenges infrastructure organizations face with these globalization trends include supporting more diversified financial instruments and more globalized investment activities. This will require that we keep improving our services to ensure we provide secure, efficient and user-friendly systems that support the market’s needs.”
“As the global marketplace continues to evolve, it is helpful for CSDs [central securities depositories] and CCPs [central counterparties] to come together and share their common experiences and best practices to achieve high customer satisfaction,” said Luiz Felipe Paiva, depository officer, Brazilian Clearing and Depository Corporation. “How different organizations utilize customer surveys, reach out to clients, whether through the Web or direct contact, and how they enhance their service through such efforts as ISO certification were extremely helpful in further assessing our own initiatives.”
Having several of DTCC’s executives meet with these international delegates demonstrates the priority the organization places on gaining a more global perspective. “The sessions were extremely productive in helping us gain a better sense of the value foreign markets place on our services, and the potential business opportunities we all have outside our home borders,” said Patrick Kirby, DTCC managing director, Asset Services. “For example, we see strong opportunities to collaborate with our peers on our Global Corporate Actions service, where our clients can benefit from the exchange of data on securities listed in other markets. Our new Loan/SERV offering, which automates the processing of commercial syndicated loans, can be of great value to the rapidly growing Asian loan market.”
Looking ahead
DTCC anticipates GREAT will help promote its overall strategy to build stronger relationships, seek potential business opportunities and future collaboration with its MOU partners. It plans to make GREAT an annual event and expand the program to include a broader group of participants, covering a wider range of topics.
Reflecting on the value participants placed on this global exchange, Banwat of NSDL commented, “We hope to see more countries from more organizations represented next year.” @