FIMA Europe 2024

20 - 22 November, 2024

London

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Mitch Melling's Story At a Glance

Senior Manager Market Data Compliance
Lloyds Banking Group

First Year Attended: 2011

How He’s Participated: Attendee and Speaker

I was very impressed with the variety of speakers and vendors the first time I attended

Shortly after I first came on board at Lloyds bank four years ago I received an invitation to attend FIMA. My role managing the reference data team for the treasury business meant that it was of pivotal importance for me to attend this event. I was annoyed to find out, however, that due to other commitments I was unable to.

The following year, I did attend and was very impressed with the variety of speakers and vendors.

The event really focusses not only on what’s important now, but also what’s important in the future – this is why I joined and it’s also why I agreed to be part of the advisory board this year – it’s so crucial to drive these things forward.

I’ve got a keen interest in what's going on in the industry! Particularly now, being on the advisory board has given me an opportunity to actually drive some of the content and make a big difference.



I’ve just started a new role in market data, and so I’m looking forward to the market data track,

I’m also keen to hear more about the BCBS 239 and risk data aggregation. I’m not strictly a ‘compliance officer’, but obviously I’m making sure we’re compliant with market data vendors and exchanges.

Also, attending the event is educational for my own team – I can bring back what’s been learned and get them involved in what’s been discussed.

FIMA is important for exposure to vendors, the industry and what’s going on and I think if teams don’t get this education they can stagnate

The advantage is that people get exposure to things they've probably never seen before – exposure to vendors, the industry, and what's going on – and I think if teams don't get this education they can stagnate.

If I see something new and interesting I want to learn and understand it, and if I miss that opportunity then I'm going to regret it!

At FIMA I am always keen to meet with new vendors

Previously, I’d looked for those offering a centralised data hub for security master data. In my new role, however, I’m more involved in managing relationships and make ensuring data hubs coming on board are permissioned correctly and compliant – so any initiatives around this (e.g. any vendors that are driving software that could help with this) are within my interest!

I’m looking forward to the ‘innovation versus standardisation’ topics

think ‘innovation versus standardisation’ is very important. Of course, it’s important to make sure you do things in the standard format, but you can't be left behind in making sure you're driving your business forward through innovation and flexibility.

I like the open networking as it helps us to understand what’s going on in other companies and share common issues we’re facing

We do go to the vendors and we value the peer-to-peer discussions we have there. I like the open networking as it helps us to understand what’s going on in other companies and share common issues we’re facing – I think people look forward to having the chance to talk about these things openly.

FIMA is really important to allow us to go into depth – plus it offers that important networking capability FIMA covers a lot of important subjects. At some one-day events, it can be like a smash-and-grab raid! You don't necessarily get into the right amount of detail, and you don’t have the opportunity to go back the next day with a set idea of people you want to speak to. It’s not as effective to follow up with email – it’s much better to have the opportunity to do this face-to-face.

The two day event with themed tracks is really important to allow us to go into depth – plus it offers that important networking capability.

I’m most looking forward to the focussed roundtables and workshops this year

I think the focussed roundtables and workshops will be valuable – particularly in getting a more detailed understanding of everyone's problems.

What advice would you give to someone in your industry who had never attended FIMA before?

I think I would just say: Attend! You're going to benefit from it because you’ll get exposure to current trends, exposure to regulators and exposure to vendors.



" If you've never attended before, I’m sure you'll leave thinking, “You know what? That was useful – and I'll come back next year!" "

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