On 4 March the fourth edition of CDM Showcase started off with a bang!
Our keynote Rt Hon Alun Cairns shared that there is clear recognition within parliament that digital transformation is the next step of economic growth following the ‘Big Bang’ of the 1980’s.
But the ‘How’ of implementation is less clear to officials, and this is where the CDM and the regulatory credibility of the trade associations comes in, however…
- We need a clear strategy: to communicate our ‘offer’ and our ‘ask’, showing the possibilities of the CDM, while also demonstrating how this benefits our industry, the UK economy and its international competitiveness, with a tangible timeline.
- We need to simplify our language: the UK government is a genuine innovator in financial markets, but our message of how the CDM can vastly improve productive efficiency should not be lost in the jargon.
- We must coordinate our message: government institutions often work in silos, therefore our industry-wide message must be consistent to have them all singing from the same hymn sheet!
With the mass adoption of the CDM beginning to take hold and the UK Property (Digital Assets Etc.) Bill becoming law, change is happening now, it is just our responsibility to steer the ship!
ISLA’s Chris Rayner, noted this change, as we have moved past the “What” of CDM to the “How.”
- One of Chris’ key takeaways (besides sharing the joy’s of his AI caricatures) is that CDM adoption can be achieved without having to implement the entire model, a point echoed by both of our latest CDM adopters First Derivative and Bank of America through their respective ‘translation layers’ around DRR.
- Chris also resonated with that using the CDM can be a stepping stone to further development, and for us at ISLA the standards set in the CDM serve as the industry’s gateway to best practice.
- And this is where our solution comes in, providing the clarity needed for both industry and regulatory adoption, ISLA’s new CDM Best Practice for Securities Lending, available here
The afternoon continue with even more amazing speakers covering AI & Legal Agreements, Technical Deep-Dives and the 2026 CDM Roadmap.
The familiar faces of ISLA’s Adrian Dale, Jane Gavronsky of FINOS, Georgina Jarratt of ICMA, and David Shone of ISDA gathered to discuss their CDM priorities for the year, several themes resonated from the afternoon’s sessions. Despite covering different markets, with different focuses and priorities across securities finance, our panellists were all in agreement in that it was amazing to see such a range of tangible use cases for the CDM driven directly from the community.
- With DRS and Likezero in agreement that the CDM’s standardised data model is the gateway to an automated smart contract world, a key priority for ISLA in 2026
- To the immediate return on investment firms are experiencing with DRR, where REGnosys and Bank of America are aligned, which is fantastic to see now that the trade associations have all come together on DRR, as we join with ICMA to tackle SFTR.
- The acceleration technology brings, especially when working from reliable data whether that be broad legal agreement records or end-to-end data lineage, developments like these have seen the journey to DRR move from years to months – a huge business case to have one unified approach.
- FINOS’ recent announcement that the CDM has become an ‘active project’ defined by a highly engaged community and regular development updates, is the ‘proof in the pudding’ of wider engagement with the model.
- Andrew Dyson famously coined the phrase ‘everyone likes a standard, as long as it’s their standard’, however with greater collaboration in industry working groups firms can directly contribute to the discussions that shape our best practices, to ensure that the industry standards and their own are aligned as possible.
Summarised nicely in Adrian’s closing remarks, the CDM, like best practices, acts as the baseline standard for our industry. ISLA’s outlook for 2026 includes further exploration into legal constructs in ‘the great repapering’, tokenisation in collateral eligibility schedules and continued collaboration on DRR.
We would like to thank to our hosts State Street, our sponsors Ark 51, First Derivative and Likezero, our collaborators at ISDA , ICMA and FINOS, our esteemed speakers and all our attendees.
