A post-trade market participant is like a football referee – do your job well, and nobody will notice you. It is only when something goes wrong that everyone realises there are problems. At the upcoming PostTrade 360° 2025 conference, Marcello Topa, Director Global Market Advocacy, Policy and Strategy at Citi Investor Services will prove that his job is more exciting than that. In his session titled “Post-trade regulation – the complete overview (Thursday edition)”, he will discuss how better engagement across the post-trade industry can contribute to the growth and increased competitiveness of financial markets and the real economy.

“The key issues are settlement efficiency and improved adherence to market standards and that is not only from a European perspective,” says Topa. “There is always a drive to improve efficiency to create greater stability and certainty of outcomes and my approach to achieving that would be adherence to market standards that are globally established and endorsed after proper due diligence, analysis, and collaboration across various markets and stakeholders.”

Applicable and scalable

The objective here is not to create a completely homogenous post-trade world but rather to create processes that can be implemented uniformly across different jurisdictions, participants, and stakeholders to remove barriers and reduce friction.

“When we go to other parts of the world, we see that there are discussions around implementing coordinated approaches, for example stock exchanges creating more aligned processes for their members,” says Topa, who is keen to stress that there is nothing mundane about post-trade.

“There is so much going on that we have to accept some degree of complexity even as the industry is working hard to create a faster, safer and more efficient environment,” he adds. “Some of this remains challenging as we rightfully have to do things with rigour to ensure that trust in financial markets and the safety of those markets remain well-founded.”

Have you signed up yet to be in Stockholm for PostTrade 360° 2025 on 3–4 September? It’s free for securities operations pros, both trading and investor sides! (Vendor firm representatives need a sponsorship agreement.) The powerful event website lets you register, see all other delegates, schedule sessions and meetings, and message. Find all related articles, including loads of teaser interviews, here.