ISSA Symposium 2025 – Report
Welcome to the 22nd ISSA Symposium – An Account of Proceedings report provided by Dominic Hobson. It’s a great read. It captures the output from the rich collaboration of 131 people from 74 member firms set over three days in the wonderful Wolfsberg facility – a truly fantastic place to engage with peers and colleagues.
A few thoughts from the report are highlighted below. [1] But before we move to this, one element not covered in the report is that the 22nd ISSA Symposium was Colin Parry’s last Symposium. Raise a glass and take your hat off to a truly wonderful individual who has made ISSA what it is today and is an absolute joy to be around. I’m sure you will all miss him as much as we will.
The thoughts:
The overarching theme, ‘Securities Services – Clients, Technology and Risk’, set the foundation for the Symposium from the outset. These themes are of fundamental importance and frequently guide our daily operations, underscoring their significance in our professional focus.
Clients – it is what drives us
Technology – it is what fundamentally aims to complement us
Risks – it is why we place safeguards around our business
At the Symposium, we delved into these three themes via panel discussions, keynote speakers and fire side chats and our fantastic breakout sessions.
What did we get from the Symposium?
The consensus, as highlighted in Dominic’s report, is that while we have all witnessed changes in the industry, the current developments have introduced new complexities. The majority, if not all, believe that this is an excellent opportunity to be a significant contributor in this space.
And we are fortunate as we have ISSA. ISSA is much more
than an Association. It is a community of liked minded experts and it is thriving, making this an excellent time for collaboration and mutual support as we progress, despite significant change around and in front of us.
The goal of ISSA and the Symposium is to collaborate, present a unified position and share progress. Development cannot occur in isolation or – as stated recently by Vicky Kyproglou, our former Chair “…we need levels of harmonisation to avoid inefficient efficient firms”.
Post the 22nd ISSA Symposium?
Give us strength! We have an action-packed plan that kicked off right after the 22nd ISSA Symposium with Karen, Colin and our members along with our new Chair, Margaret, presenting the Working Group Webinars. Additionally, an exciting series of events will now occupy the next six months, starting with my attendance at the European Central Bank and one of the most inspiring Executive Woman in Banking & Finance forums I’ve attended, arranged by SWIFT.
Papers are being formulated from the Working Groups and new Working Groups are being established. We also kick off the 2025 Woman of ISSA and their Allies programme. Keep an eye out for these and – while I’m being bossy – mark your diaries now and block out 11 – 13 May 2026 for the 23rd ISSA Symposium.
Please click on this link to access Domonic’s paper. We hope you find it an informative read, suitable to accompany your Sunday morning coffee.
Regards
Julia
[1] Spoiler alert… This introduction has not been generated, manipulated or reconstructed by ChatGPT, Claude.ai or any of its derivative relatives but authentically from the ISSA CEO office.