ISLA Madrid 2025 Day 3 Write-up
Our Co-Chair, Geraldine Trippner (Societe Generale), kicked off the day with a recap of yesterday’s highlights, and shared the morning’s poll on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Tokenisation which highlighted “Greater Transparency & Liquidity” and “Synchronised & Precise Settlement” as key drivers for this technology.
The first panel, “Post-Trade Alpha – A Commercial Differentiator?”, moderated by Brooke Hawkins Gillman (eSecLending), bought together the complete value chain to delve into the strategies for optimizing post-trade processes to create significant competitive advantages. The discussion explored defining “Post-Trade Alpha,” the critical need for automation and data centralisation, and the transformative potential of technologies like DLT, Tokenization, and AI. With post trade processes informing pre trade decision making, panellists stressed the need for standardised, transparent and reliable third-party platforms, which ultimately requires collaboration across the market.
Following this, we asked “Are You Prepared?” in “A Deep Dive into Operational Resilience, Cyber Security & Third-Party Risk.” This timely discussion addressed the escalating threats of cyber-attacks and the increasing focus on robust third-party operational risk management strategies. The panellists shared best practices for navigating critical vendor relationships, mitigating cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and ensuring resilience in an ever-evolving threat landscape. With AI driven phishing on the rise, current methods for identifying threats are becoming redundant quicker than ever – to stay ahead, the panel stressed the need for regular scenario testing, the development if back up processes and active engagement with vendors before threats materialise.
Our final panel, “Whose Token is it Anyway? The Changing Digital Asset Landscape,” expertly moderated by Adriana Ennab of Global Digital Finance (GDF), delved into the complex yet exciting world of tokenization and its profound impact on securities finance. Panellists explored key themes such as defining tokenisation, the evolving market infrastructure, enhancing collateral mobility, and the critical role of interoperability and standardization. We also gained valuable perspectives from the ECB on accepting digital assets as collateral, showcasing the collaborative effort required to navigate this frontier. The panel were aligned on one key point, with regulatory clarity will come an increase in client demand and the tipping point for change is just around the corner in the next 3 to 5 years.
The conference concluded with insightful Closing Remarks from Ina Budh-Raja (BNY). Ina reflected on the vibrant discussions of Day 3, extending heartfelt thanks to all speakers, our Co-Chairs Adnan Hussain and Geraldine Trippner, and all moderators for their immense contributions over the past three days. She also expressed deep gratitude to all our sponsors for their continuous support, without which this event would not be possible.
Ina highlighted the key themes that emerged throughout the conference, reinforcing the collective progress and future direction of our industry. As we look ahead, we’re excited to invite you to our Post-Trade – ISLA 15th Annual Post Trade Conference 2025 on November 20th, kindly hosted by Bank of America. And mark your calendars for the ISLA 33rd Annual Securities Finance & Collateral Management Conference in Lisbon, from June 16th – 18th, 2026!
A special moment was shared in appreciation of our CEO, Andrew Dyson, as this will be his last conference in this role. The Board and the entire ISLA Team – past and present – extend their profound thanks for his incredible support and leadership in making this one of the most successful events in the annual industry calendar.
The ISLA Madrid Conference Gallery is also accessible here.
