TECH TUESDAY is a weekly content series covering all aspects of capital markets technology. TECH TUESDAY is produced in collaboration with Nasdaq.
SIBOS 2024, billed as the “global financial services event of the year,” took place on October 21-24. This year’s event convened more than 10,000 participants in Beijing and online, representing more than 150 countries.
The theme of this year’s SIBOS was ‘Connecting the future of finance’ – the premise being, as the industry embraces rapid digital transformation, collaboration is more necessary than ever in order to foster the most resilient and inclusive financial ecosystem.
Panel sessions and keynote addresses over the four-day event covered topics including artificial intelligence, digital currencies, tokenization, the international messaging standard ISO 20022, ESG, embedded finance, interoperability, and compliance.
Nasdaq was represented at SIBOS by executives from its financial technology team, who showcased how advanced solutions are transforming the capital markets ecosystem and driving industry modernization.
“The SIBOS conference has been a fantastic opportunity to connect with our existing and future client community, spanning regional banks, investment managers, central banks, exchanges and CCPs,” Sophie Marnhier-Foy, Vice President, Client Solutions Strategy Innovation, Nasdaq Financial Technology, told Traders Magazine after the event.
“Innovation — including AI, cloud transformation, and tokenization — is definitively top of mind for the financial industry,” Marnhier-Foy continued. “In addition, one common theme has emerged from our many conversations: a foundational consolidated platform is a must-have to prepare for upcoming regulatory and market changes, accelerate time to market, and optimize the new industry paradigm for today and tomorrow.”
Among the specific SIBOS discussions Nasdaq participated in was Digitalization to Accelerate Connectivity Throughout the Financial Markets Landscape, with Marnhier-Foy and Brad Wilmot, Vice President, Strategy & Solutions, Calypso, Nasdaq Financial Technology.
That panel session was framed as follows: challenged by regulatory reforms, intensified margin pressures, market volatility and ESG compliance, financial institutions need to change their approach around data and connectivity. Digitalization, connected ecosystems, and innovation can establish a sound foundation for firms to grow, while mitigating risks.
Specific discussion points included updates on data automation and digitalization; new settlement initiatives for regulatory compliance; system consolidation for better straight-through processing (STP) rates; platform and cloud transformation to optimize data and related costs; and AI-powered initiatives to accelerate change.
“More and more, digitalization dictates the customer experience and how we interact,” Wilmot said. “We’ve come a long way through the integration and automation of communication, networks, data processing and messaging but as the recent BIS reports indicate, there is still much to be done around the interlinking and interoperability of payment systems and beyond. As we continue to innovate, we connect in new ways, open new horizons and become much more efficient.”
In sum, having a foundational consolidated platform will be fundamental to optimizing the new industry paradigm and addressing upcoming regulatory and market changes.
Next year the SIBOS community will congregate in Frankfurt to share further key insights into issues relevant to the financial industry and how collaboration can help address them.
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