Bill Hodash, DTCC Managing Director of Enterprise Data Management, was recently named Operating Committee Chair for the International Securities Services Association (ISSA). Hodash has been an active member of the ISSA Operating Committee for four years and also serves on the ISSA Executive Board.
As Hodash embarks on a two-year term at the helm of the Operating Committee, he sat down with DTCC Connection to share insights about the role of the Operating Committee and how it will support ISSA’s mission to “develop and promote forward-thinking solutions that create efficiencies and mitigate risk within the global securities services industry.”
Q. What is the International Securities Services Association (ISSA), and how does its mission dovetail with DTCC’s mission to deliver the worlds most resilient, secure, and efficient post-trade infrastructure for our clients?
A. The ISSA is an association of securities services providers founded in 1979 by Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Union Bank of Switzerland. Headquartered in Zurich, ISSA has expanded to include more than 110 members including custodian banks, CSDs/ICSDs and other service providers. ISSA’s mission is to drive solutions that create efficiencies and risk mitigation, strengthen international coordination and collaboration across the industry and facilitate communication among all industry stakeholders. This mission aligns very closely with DTCC’s mission and many of ISSA’s members are our clients.
Q. What is the role of the ISSA Board and the Operating Committee?
A. ISSA’s Executive Board is composed of senior executives from the 15 sponsor firms plus the CEO and Secretary and Chair of the Operating Committee (OC), and it is responsible for the organization and coordination of all activities of ISSA and sets its agenda. It is chaired by Lee Waite of Citibank, who is also a member of DTCC’s Board. The Operating Committee consists of representatives of the sponsor firms and launches and manages all ISSA’s work projects including the Working Groups and supports planning all ISSA events, including the ISSA Symposium. The Operating Committee was formed in 2012, its first Chair was Neil Henderson of DTCC and most recently was chaired by Irene Mermigidis of Clearstream, so I have big shoes to fill.
Q. How do the current ISSA initiatives sponsored by the ISSA OC align with DTCC’s and our clients’ interests?
A. While much attention is paid to ISSA’s biennial Symposium, with the next one taking place in May in Zurich, the Working Groups that work under the auspices of the OC produce the real day to day work of ISSA. These working groups are open to all ISSA members and collaborate to develop models for improving various fields of securities services. They make very specific recommendations and assess their implementation by the industry. The five current working groups all work on high priorities for DTCC and reflect strategic challenges the industry is facing including regulatory compliance, ongoing cost pressures, cyber risk and the advent of innovative technologies, some of which hold great promise for us to improve our services to clients and others that can be transformative to major segments of the industry. The five current working groups are:
Q. How does DTCC support ISSA and who from DTCC is involved in each initiative?
A. DTCC has been a member of ISSA since 1988 and is one of the 15 current sponsors. I chair the Operating Committee and Andrew Gray and I are both members of the Executive Board. Most importantly, we have members of all the working groups who contribute time to collaborate with members around the world to debate, iterate and ultimately produce the final deliverables. ISSA and DTCC’s management team are greatly appreciative of their efforts. Our members are:
- Corporate Actions and Proxy Voting - - Patrick Barthell and Joyce Rosen.
- Distributed Ledger Technology - - Rob Palatnick, Jenn Peve, Mark Wetjen, Nardeo Ganesh, Marc Masri and Pardha Vishnumolakala.
- Financial Crime Compliance Principles - - Derek West and Bill Hodash.
- Regulatory Impact on the Securities Servicing Chain - -Ted Serafini, Theresa Pagliocca and Bill Hodash.
- Customer Cyber Risks in Securities Services - - Jason Harrell, Tony Freeman and Bill Hodash.
Q. How can we learn more about ISSA and its activities?
A. Interested parties can contact me or Andrew Gray. We will no doubt have a lot to talk about after the Symposium in May. Rob Palatnick, DTCC Managing Director and Chief Technology Architect is also a featured speaker at this year’s Symposium where he’ll join a distinguished panel of financial technology experts for a discussion on distributed ledger technology.
Further, while many of ISSA’s materials are public, others are available to ISSA members in a Closed User Group. If you wish to access those, please contact me. One recent document was first available only to members and now is available to all, ISSA’s 2017 paper Inherent Risks within the Global Custody Chain.
Lastly, the ISSA web site provides information on all its activities and members at https://www.issanet.org/e/.