What to Expect from SIBOS 2025

SIBOS is opening its doors soon for (almost) a week full of thought-provoking panels focusing on the next frontier of global finance. Experts from all over the world will gather in Frankfurt to address the transformations helping reshape the financial ecosystems and the ways we drive greater connectivity and resilience.

As a SIBOS veteran, it’s always an exciting opportunity to attend the conference, coming together as a collective to discuss innovations, challenges and solutions for our sector. During last year’s SIBOS in Beijing, we’ve seen panellists focus on operational resilience and digitalisation with emphasis on using AI and automation to ease tariff pressures. 

This year’s agenda shares some of the above hot topics and concerns but it also reflects the latest updates in technology, security and regulations. For example, it would be impossible to overlook and not talk about the latest technology trend…

Agentic AI

This year, we’ve seen agentic AI catching everyone’s attention. As the new kid in town, organisations including financial services were quick to start looking at ways to explore agents and their autonomous ability. This will help improve servicing and operations leading to a more autonomous enterprise and it’ll also support managing complex payments. But we shouldn’t forget that this is always within bank risk and regulatory parameters and within an escalation framework and existing process. 

Yet, using the right type of AI for the right use case is so important. For example, using generative AI for a fixed process with clear steps and processes for a payment exception does not make as much sense as say using it to summarise. This is purely down to ensuring predictability and adherence to risk policies. You don’t tolerate mistakes in your current payment operations, and neither would you in using AI or automation. 

SIBOS is an ideal forum to navigate such obstacles and consider how to ensure we use the right type of AI and automation for our industry. It’s also important to discuss how to leverage technology to predict upcoming needs, proactively create services and most critically regain control and visibility. 

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is another key theme that’ll be discussed throughout SIBOS. Panellists will be touching on cyber trends in banking, compliance and how AI can support in tackling such threats. The focus on cyber is certainly justified!

According to Statista, last year, cyberattacks against financial institutions saw a significant increase, with a 65% rate of ransomware attacks reported by financial organisations globally, up from 34% in 2021. I am sitting in a hotel chain right now that is coping with a cyber attack whilst I write this up!  With criminals exploiting AI and other advanced technologies, their attempts have become more sophisticated and harder to recognise.

Some attacks can take weeks or months to recover from or send operations backwards big time. In 2023, the ICBC, the world's largest bank, was the target of a ransomware attack. This disrupted their operations so much that they were forced to shift to using USB sticks! 

Despite that, banks are not defenceless! With the right integration of AI and automation into backend systems, operations, and their customers, banks can protect them against illicit activities. There’s an increased space for not just upgrading the technology, but also the penetration testing and approaches.

SIBOS will provide space for experts to share how advanced technologies can protect businesses and customers while also safely and efficiently predicting and managing future threats.

Sanctions and KYC

Last but not least, SIBOS will yet again discuss long and hard how to accommodate the complex sanctions regimes that must be managed and whether their know-your-customer (KYC) processes can keep pace. With the ongoing geopolitical tensions across the world, sanction lists continue to be revised and updated against groups or individuals. The nature of sanctions is so complicated and risky that makes it easy to have a slip up when onboarding new customers. This has also made it more difficult to review and evaluate contacts. It’s therefore critical to be able to rely on technology for a secure and efficient way to deal with sanctions.

The banking environment and often ineffective legacy systems can complicate how the sector avoids unintentional non-compliance with new sanction measures. This also adds further strain on their KYC processes and service levels. It’s therefore critical – yet difficult – for banks to find a balance between how the KYC process should remain accurate, up-to-date and compliant while also providing efficiency to their customers. The ability to transform legacy KYC, CLM and associated systems is already more advanced than ever before. Rethinking and redesigning processes can be accelerated using GenAI, and huge improvements are possible in operations.

This year’s conference and exhibition floor will open a window on how heated the current challenges financial institutions face but also let in more of a collective discussion about how the sector can resolve such concerns and future-proof businesses. Today’s geopolitical turmoil and its constant changes may keep everyone on their toes but technology advancements are a powerful source you can tap in to absorb current and future storm conditions in commercial banking.