The battle for the back office

Post-trade incumbents at risk as Isda and others search for standards

"Everyone is trying to get to shared infrastructure in some way, shape or form. And we all recognise that to get there, you need common standards" - Andy Coyne

Image: Stephen Lee, NB Illustration

The swaps industry’s ambitious new standardisation project can be seen in different ways. Scott O’Malia, chief executive of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, casts it as a gateway to the future, an attempt to sweep aside the market’s baffling maze of post-trade practices, so innovators can march in and build something better – perhaps even a shared infrastructure built around a distributed ledger.

Others put it in colder, harder terms: “It’s an attempt to strip out all the