The Bucket List for Reference Data

In the spirit of list-making for the holiday season, I started reading about bucket lists-lists for actors to marry, mountains to climb, and dances to learn. But in the reference data industry, there are a few more unique things that could be added to our lists of life goals-a few more items that we might all be able to tick off sometime soon.
After writing a New York Times bestseller, having dinner with Oprah Winfrey, and taking up salsa, I think it would make sense to add ‘witnessing the introduction of a universal business entity identifier,' and ‘seeing corporate actions being standardized at the issuer-level.' A few years back these would have been considered impossible achievements, but the situation has changed, particularly in the past month.
For business entity identification, the big shift has come in terms of a regulatory push to make it happen. The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Financial Research has issued its first policy statement, and it is all about legal entity identification. With the current level of regulatory involvement, it seems like the 68% of ISITC Europe conference-goers who said we will have a universally acceptable business entity identifier within two to five years, may well be onto something. In fact, in the US, it seems like it will probably happen even sooner, and data managers are now saying they see this as becoming a highlight of their careers.
The same can be true for corporate actions. There has been significant development in recent years in terms of improving messaging standards and generating consensus on the fact data tagging standard XBRL can be used to standardize corporate actions announcements at source-level. The missing piece here has been the issuer engagement.
Many would admit that there has been too little attention paid to getting the issuers involved as they are the ones that have to standardize, but new opportunities for closing that bridge are now starting to see the light of day. Standards from the international standards organization GS1 are already used by many issuers for products in other industries, and some hope using one of these standards as a universal corporate event identifier could help get the issuers behind the existing standardization activities.
The hope now is that there will be increased collaboration in the industry to ensure agreement and adoption of the standards-and finally get to where we want to be. I don't think I'm the only one ready to move on to the rest of my bucket list. Happy Holidays!
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Data Management
Stocks are sinking again. Are traders better prepared this time?
The IMD Wrap: The economic indicators aren’t good. But almost two decades after the credit crunch and financial crisis, the data and tools that will allow us to spot potential catastrophes are more accurate and widely available.
In data expansion plans, TMX Datalinx eyes AI for private data
After buying Wall Street Horizon in 2022, the Canadian exchange group’s data arm is looking to apply a similar playbook to other niche data areas, starting with private assets.
Saugata Saha pilots S&P’s way through data interoperability, AI
Saha, who was named president of S&P Global Market Intelligence last year, details how the company is looking at enterprise data and the success of its early investments in AI.
Data partnerships, outsourced trading, developer wins, Studio Ghibli, and more
The Waters Cooler: CME and Google Cloud reach second base, Visible Alpha settles in at S&P, and another overnight trading venue is approved in this week’s news round-up.
A new data analytics studio born from a large asset manager hits the market
Amundi Asset Management’s tech arm is commercializing a tool that has 500 users at the buy-side firm.
One year on, S&P makes Visible Alpha more visible
The data giant says its acquisition of Visible Alpha last May is enabling it to bring the smaller vendor’s data to a range of new audiences.
Accelerated clearing and settlement, private markets, the future of LSEG’s AIM market, and more
The Waters Cooler: Fitch touts AWS AI for developer productivity, Nasdaq expands tech deal with South American exchanges, National Australia Bank enlists TransFicc, and more in this week’s news roundup.
‘Barcodes’ for market data and how they’ll revolutionize contract compliance
The IMD Wrap: Several recent initiatives could ease arduous data audit and reporting processes. But they need buy-in from all parties if all parties are to benefit.