SIBOS 2017

This year’s schedule of talks, plenary sessions, and workshops at SIBOS is a large change from previous years’, where the focus has been primarily on the mechanics and operational side of institutional payments.

Many bank CEOs are investing heavily in technology, JP amongst spend nearly $10 billion in 2016. And at my former company, the mantra amongst all executives at the firm was a simple one: “we are a technology company with a banking license”, spoken many times by Citi’s CEO Mike Corbat.

Of course, there is a huge chasm between the perception of being a technology company, versus that of a heavily regulated, globally systemically important financial institution. The rate of change in Institutional Banking is breathtaking, even in this environment. And this is reflected in the SIBOS conference.

The Innotribe track looks particularly interesting if you are looking to drive innovation in the organisation.

The Schedule at Sibos 2017

The usual banking, compliance, and security tracks are present, with a number of talks focused on the transformation occurring in the industry. In addition there is a strong technology track.

Broadly speaking, the transformational trends of interest are:

1. Interoperability and the use of ISO20022 and other standards
2. Considered production of use of Blockchain
3. Changes in the payments landscape
4. AI and the need for Open Banking are yet to be developed but have huge interest for the attendees.

Additionally a number of sessions around payments and capital markets in China, and currency management with the RMB, are part of the schedule.

We are seeing a surge in interest in cybersecurity in the UK banking sector, clearly this is not a limited regional concern, as there a number of key slots are allocated to this topic, including:

Changes in payments, include the RMB and China ones, as well as a drive for increased instant payments, more viability of the pipeline, and a drive for greater interoperability. And on the regulatory side, simplification of AML, and KYC. We are also seeing alot around the sharing of information and flows to protect against cyber threats.

All told, Blockchain has 8 sessions, and AI has 5 sessions.

My Pick

Here are picks for the days. I have put the Microsoft sessions in too, because they are great :)

Monday, October 16th

• Blockchain in the cash and securities settlement space, a powerhouse session, and with a panel of strong participants, moderated by U of T’s Andreas Park.
• If correspondent banking is not the future — What is?
• How can middle an back offices make use of AI?, a plenary led by Accenture’s Diane Nolan, and our own Financial Services CTO, Sean Foley.
• I would pick one of the following, McKinsey and BCG each have a payments report and analysis:
• Is there a future for banks in Transaction Banking, a presentation of what the future holds, based on BCG’s Global Payments Report;
• McKinsey’s global payments report.
• Discover SWIFT gpi’s innovative features. GPI is the new cross border payments interface that provides many features, like “tracking” of payments, so where they are in the pipeline can be sen. A good response to the threat of other payment technologies, I wonder what the feedback from banks is?
• Leverage your SWIFT data for global correspondent banking transparency. We all know the importance of data, and for AML and KYC, it is important we leverage what is known in the network. This session and a couple of others (covering the KYC Registry) could provide good direction for what’s in the future.
• And for a bit of learning, if you don’t know about “ISOXML”, or [ISO 20022 https://www.iso20022.org], the international standard for payments, the ISO 20022 — An introductory training course is a good place to go and learn.

Tuesday, October 17th

• Are Capital Markets More Secure Than Payments, a plenary session with my colleague, Rupesh Khendry.
• Blockchain: International CSDs showcase a market solution for cross-border collateral mobilization This is an import session, as liquidity is a massive part of cross border flows. It showcases a prototype from a number of CSDs.
• Creating a space for innovation, a plenary session, run by the Fintech rumbler, James Lloyd, and the lead for our Industry team, Toni Townes-Whitley;
• APIs for beginners, a session after my own heart. Ideal for those looking to get into APIs and seeing why we are all shouting of their importance to banking and payments.
• Future Trends in Sanctions — Can Automation, AI, and Outsourcing Resolve Inefficiencies?
• The future of the post-trade industry — escaping the scale trap, post-trade is a large part of business for the Institutional Banks, but it is not as automated as it needs to be, with all these changes to payments, and tech, what is the impact on post trade?
• Cap Gemini World Payment Report Presentation of Cap’s and BNPP’s Payment Report.
• The Future of financial Intelligence sharing — The key to fighting financial crime? . There is alot happening in this area in the major geographies, and this is a good checkpoint.
• The evolving banking sector in Latin America: How can we manage change? This looks to be one of the best sessions of the day, Latin America is a growth area for payments and banking, but there is a lot of change as well.
• One of the biggest areas of interest in payments is instant payments, this session, Instant payments over SWIFT is a covering plenary how to enable it over SWIFT.
• Not all that glitters is gold: Avoiding fear-based technology decisions. This should be a cracker of a session, it structured to help bankers and their organisations to make better, and well informed technology decisions. The session is presented by Harvard’s Amber Case

Wednesday, October 18th

• The state of global treasury — untangling the knots, a pleanry led by Joy Macknight of the The Banker, with Group Treasury Manager at Microsoft, Joseph Vasen
• Australia’s payments ready for the future Australia’s New Payments Platform is one best consolidated platforms deployed, and many are emulating what they have done. If you’re a payments geek, attend this session.
• AML and Assurance — Can RegTech Define a Better Path?. Changes to AML implementation are required, this panel session explores how this can be done by leveraging the RegTech innovation sector. Kavita Maharaj is the moderator
• The new banking ecosystem — Understanding the true potential of open banking. A big theme for Sibos 2017 is one of open banking and what can be done in the commercial and institutional world, and what are possibilities. Join my colleagues, Alma Cardenas and Ines Mauricio for great insight.
• The Future of Money. Who can say no to this session!
• From data disorder to information insights: Making data the servant of the business. The power of AI and data insight.
• The next wave of digitisation: becoming the platform enterprise. This session caught my eye as it tackles what transformation means in this sector, and the importance of becoming platform.
• Correspondent banking made more efficient and secure thanks to the SWIFT Cloud-based solution: The Correspondent Banking Suite — Now this is dealing with a number of factors and trends, making correspondent banking more efficient, and practical, as well as moving these processing entities to the cloud.
• Banking APIs — Disruptive threat or innovative opportunity, Australia is doing alot around banking, and the evolution of Banking APIs is one of the areas where they lead.
• Deep dive into the ISO 20022 implementation strategy for U.S. high-value payment systems. Another payment geek session, but important, give the amount of high value payments that go through the US systems.
• SWIFT ISAC: See how you can benefit from SWIFT’s cyber information sharing platform As part of the need for greatr information sharing, and the cyber security threats, this is shared platform that SWIFT are working on, and it would be good to see its pulse.
• SWIFT gpi innovation with Distributed Ledger Technology — SWIFT Nostro DLT Proof of Concept This is one of the more interesting applications of gpi, and it has a lot of support.
• Results at the top: Gender intelligence Really glad to see this at the conference, how to support and have more women in the workplace, especially in leadership roles.

Thursday, October 19th

• SWIFT for Corporates — Cutting through the complexity of multi banking, and interactive plenary, allowing people to contribute over the internet. Joseph is part of this one, and will bring great insight.
• The quantum threat to financial services Super glad to see this session on Quantum computing. For an introduction, see the Waters Wavelength Podcast.
• Digitisation in trade finance — A tough nut to crack?. We have had great meetings and projects with companies who want to digitise the trade finance sector, and it is a lot of work, but much is being done.
• Does Blockchain technology alleviate security concerns or create new challenges?. Addressing issues at the top of mind for many in banking, payments, and regulation.
• New Frontiers: How the convergence of globalization and smart automation are transforming the way we work. Smart automation is huge area of investment, and seeing the impact at State Street, should be revelatory.
• Post Trade Risk Alerting: Meet an innovative new service that eliminates operational and regulatory risks. Real world example of risk elimination at the operation and regulatory level.
• The growing significance of disruptive innovation and artificial intelligence.
• FIS: Fast forwarding to Real-Time — from the Nordics to Canada — bank views on going Open & Instant. Open and Instant, a strong aphorism that underscores two of the main themes in payments.
• Payments system design in developing markets: How are developing markets driving inclusion and modernisation? A working session to bring together ideas on national payments architectures that can support the needs of developing countries.
• Building a new industry blueprint in trade and supply chain. The confluence of many rivers, blockchain, digitisation, fintech, and trade finance.
• Pelican: AI and the future of payments Enigmatic session, I wonder what will be presented?
• Cyber security: 12 months on… Oliver Bussman leads this pleanry on cyber security.

Onward to Toronto

At last year’s SIBOS, we announced a collaboration of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a system for trade finance efficiency through blockchain. This generated a lot of interest, and there will be much happening around the Microsoft areas of the exhibitions.

I won’t be attending this year’s SIBOS, but many of my colleagues will be there, and if attending do drop by. We are also excited because our CEO, Satya Nadella, will be [the closing speaking Break Down of Schedule). He is an inspirational and emotive speaker, and his sessions are always worth attending. And I am not just saying that because he is my boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss’ boss.

Lots of others speakers covering a range of topics, from our Treasury Manager giving a current state of global treasury, and dealing with the complexity of multi-banking. See more at https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/ms-events/industries/banking-and-capital-markets/join-microsoft-at-sibos-2017/

Originally published at wordpress.com.