Over 200 statistical and IT experts from around the world attended the latest three day SDMX Global Conference from the 11 – 13 September 2013. The event was hosted by the OECD, one of the original sponsors of the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) framework, at their prestigious headquarters in the centre of Paris.

A veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of international bodies, national statistical offices, central banks, other agencies and private firms were represented including the IMF, United Nations, Bank for International Settlements, Eurostat, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, to name but a few.

A landmark was broadcast at the conference; SDMX has been recognised internationally, achieving the status of an ISO International Standard; ISO 17369. This seal of approval should help to extend awareness among experts, globally, that an international standard exists for statistical data and metadata exchange, leading to more implementations.

Other notable announcements included the completion of Balance of Payments and National Accounts Data Structure Definitions (DSDs), the imminent implementation of the SDMX Global Registry and additional SDMX IT tools are being made available.

Simon Anderson, BankSearch’s Managing Director said:

SDMX has come a long way since we first applied the standard to disseminate monetary and financial data in XML format back in 2003. The SDMX sponsors and user community are commended for all of their hard work and commitment, which has rightly been recognised by ISO standards committee. We look forward to continue working with Central Banks, National Statistics Offices and other statistical agencies and to implementing SDMX in the coming months and years.