Meet Anthony : Co-founder & CSO at SwissBorg
French-Armenian, I am a pragmatic dreamer fascinated by the study of human behaviour and how technology can connect people with their human nature.
“Chain of habits are too light to be felt until they become too heavy to be broken” (Warren Buffett). There are a few quotes that I like and this one is on the top my list. From their very young age, occidental children are taught the principle of stability. Stability is not in human nature otherwise evolution principle would not be possible. Because of your education, we tend to overestimate the importance of stability while the most important factor is innovation.
In 2009, after been graduated from a French engineer school, I start my career as a Hedge Fund Manager Assistant in Paris. The first day of my brand new job, Bear Stearns (US Banks) went for Chapter 11, Bankruptcy. A taste of how apparent stability can be called into question. Early warning signs of a necessary need to evolve.
After 10 years of expertise gained working in France and the UK for a number of leading players within the financial markets industry, I am, since January 2017, Chief Strategic Officer and co-founder at SwissBorg. Having spent almost ten years of experience in banking and asset management, my vision was very clear: the bank needs to reinvent its model. Technological advances, as well as changes in investor behaviour, pose major challenges but also present great opportunities. When you take the example of Kodak (for analogue photo) or Nokia (for mobile telephony) you can quickly understand how technological change can affect the leaders of the industry. Yet, when it comes to solutions to invest its savings, the degree of innovation is low. As often happens, the epicentre of the imbalance between the institutions and the end customers of an industry lies in the asymmetry of information. Clients are captive due to the lack of transparency and accessibility provided to them. Until now there was no real solution.
Today, thanks to the blockchain, the rules of the game can be changed and we decided to take up the challenges at SwissBorg.
