SIBOS19: fin meets tech meets fintech meets techfin

Banks don’t embrace this technology for technology’s sake. At ANZ we don’t run tech pilots just because it’s something new; we don’t partner with emerging fintech just for the sake of it. 

"Themes expected to dominate the 2019 event are the rise of distributed ledger technology, as well as the impact of machine-learning technology on financial services.”

Efficiency and cost savings are a welcome side effect but they are not the main goal. The real goal is to enhance the banking experience for customers – because that’s where sustainable competitiveness comes from.

As ANZ MD Transaction Banking, Institutional, Mark Evans writes, banking is going to look quite different in the coming years. To ensure ANZ can continue to give customers a world-leading experience, it needs to keep up with banking’s Joneses. Or its Amazons, its Alibabas, its Apples, its Googles.

So when ANZ sends a small team of staff to Sibos in London in September, it’s looking to learn what it can about emerging trends that will keep the bank with the leading pack for customer experience, returning with a greater appreciation of global best practice that can be applied at home. And yes, it’s also the perfect place to network with industry peers and disruptors in fintech. If Tony Stark was real, he’d be there too. And Satoshi Nakamoto.

London still

Hosted in London, the theme for the 2019 Sibos conference is “thriving in a hyper-connected world”.  And connect attendees will, with 9,000 business leaders expected to attend the event from September 23^rd to the 26^th.

In 2018, more than 7,500 people from over 140 countries attended Sibos in Sydney to discuss how to enable the digital economy.

This year, attending the event from ANZ will be payments specialists from Transaction Banking (TB), Financial Institutions Group (FIG) and Technology.

There they will brush shoulders with 600 speakers, 200 exhibitors and 100 fintech groups in a convention-style forum full of people creating relationships and doing business.

Now in its 41^st year, Sibos began as the SWIFT International Banking Operations Seminar (SWIFT is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) and has evolved through the years just as much as the businesses which send delegates to attend it.

Innovation + execution = improved customer experience?

Themes expected to dominate the 2019 event are the rise of distributed ledger technology, including ANZ’s own industry leading pilot Lygon, as well as the impact of machine-learning technology on financial services. Payments will continue to be a part of the discussions.

Fintech’s growth and the future of partnerships between these new players and incumbents will also play a role in discussions, as well as the future state of banks. All centred around taking the industry forward as customer needs evolve.

Predictions are hard, especially when it comes to money. But there’s no doubt technology is and will continue to transform the way we earn, use and save that money.

Look out for further insights from ANZ institutional during and after the event.

Arun Kayal is Associate Director, Institutional Communications at ANZ

This article was originally published on ANZ’s Institutional website