INSIGHTS FROM SIBOS BEIJING 2024
The SIBOS banking conference was held for the first time in Beijing at the sprawling International Convention Centre between Oct 21-24.
The conference theme was ‘Connecting the Future of Finance’.
The Major of Beijing, Mr. Ying Yong provided the plenary address and highlighted how China is seeking to further open up and execute a strategic blueprint to advance Chinese modernisation.
Major Yong explained how achieving further modernisation of China will be driven by five key characteristics, which are;
- Modernising a huge population
- Common prosperity for all
- Material and cultural ethical advancement
- Harmony between humanity and nature
- Peaceful development
It was encouraging to hear that a popular song in China at the moment is ‘Better to Meet’ which supported the Major’s comments that dialogue is the most effective way to resolve differences.
Transaction Banking was in the spotlight in the ‘Building the Bank of Tomorrow’ session where leaders from Citi, HSBC, ABN Amro and Komgo discussed how Transaction Banking can empower the real economy. It was highlighted by Ashish Bajaj at Citi how deciding what geographies and sectors you want to win in is a key aspect of a successful bank.
This has been a key element of my Realise the Revenue Transaction Banking Sales Program that has steadily been rolling out across more banks around the world.
There was an interesting session entitled ‘Towards a Tokenised Future’ which highlighted new emerging models of asset tokenisation.
Nikhil Sharma from JP Morgan explained how their Onyx Blockchain business unit has led with its repo flagship product to enhance the intraday settlement of bank repo transactions.
The underlying message from the panel was that clients don’t really care about the technology of asset tokenisation solutions, but care about the benefits and addressing segments of global banking, custody and settlement that are not working well today.
Sophie Gilder from Commonwealth Bank of Australia eloquently explained how assessing the cost benefits between what is done today and any future state tokenised solution is of high importance to articulate to customers. This task however is not that easy to do and requires further efforts from all banks.
The regulatory environment was also discussed with different regulations for different regions presenting problems for banks.
The limited regulatory harmony between the US and EU or even regulation in some markets and no regulation in other markets, makes it very difficult for a bank to build one technical system well once and then deploy it in multiple markets.
There were many other sessions on interoperability, innovation, ISO20022 standardisation, ESG, AI and enhancing the current global financial infrastructure.
The conference wrapped up with an uplifting presentation from Tony Fernandes the CEO of Air Asia. Tony gave the audience some very personal insights into the successes and failures in his business life and left a message with the audience to “Believe the unbelievable. Dream the impossible. Never take no for an answer. Because dreams… do come true.”
What is for sure is when the SWIFT community gathers for SIBOS in Frankfurt in 2025 we will all be able to assess how we as individuals and businesses are adapting to a new connected world of finance and achieving our own dreams and aspirations.
