Returning for its fifth year, the SWIFT Business Forum London will bring together 800 plus financial services professionals to explore the theme of harnessing change in financial services.
Thursday 23 April 2015
Editor's note: All times reflect local time in London, UK
17:00: Conference ends.
16:58:The final question, for a bit of fun, is: Q. Who do you believe will make up the next UK government? (we’re in the middle of an election here in the UK)
- 25% - Conservative party (we are in the City!)
- 25% - Conservative / Lib Dem coalition
- 10% - Labour party
- 14% - Labour / SNP coalition.
16:55: Other results from the live polls below:
Q. Will FinTech be the next dot com bubble?
- No – Over 50%
- Yes – 30% (high)!
Q. What is the future for challenger banks?
A. Over 40% think they will remain niche. Wishful thinking?
16:51: Swift’s Aggarwal is now sharing the results of the live polling that has been going on throughout the day here. In answer to Swift’s question to attendees: Q. ‘What is the most pressing item on your agenda?’
“Still regulation,” says Aggarwal, with 40% voting for that.
16:47: Arun Aggarwal, Managing Director, UK, Ireland & Nordics, Swift is summing up the day. But first he gives the attendee numbers – 1103. “The Old Brewery venue is creaking at the seams (with the crowds).” True.
16:45 - 17:00 Closing remarks - Arun Aggarwal, Managing Director, UK, Ireland & Nordics, SWIFT
16:45: Panel ends.
A. Who’ll win? “The consumer,” says Professor Kauffman. Good answer!
Q. By 2020, who will win or lose from these new real-time platforms – challengers or banks?
16:41: FPS’ Tillotson makes the case for moving en masse, however, as the UK's banks did, excepting Barclays who jumped the gun with Pingit.
In response to a question about if banks and countries should move en masse towards real-time backbones or banks should push ahead, Professor Kauffman says in India, “only 9 banks started it. Its grown to 60 or more because it had value.”
16:37: The real-time payments panel is now taking questions from the audience.
16:30: The panel is now discussing the operational risks of real-time and 24x7 service. “You haven’t got the firebreaks you used to have,” says FPS’ Tillotson.
16:24: “Real-time banking needs to develop on the back of a fast payment system,” says Michael Mueller, MD Global Head of Cash Management, Barclays, who goes on to mention Pingit but is mainly focusing so far on the corporate cash management side, not the consumer retail bank proposition – as befits his title.
“You need to manage liquidity in a different way,” he says.
16:20: Craig Tillotson, Chief Executive, Faster Payments Service, is explaining how the UK FPS payment backbone now processes 1bn payments a year and over £1trn p.a. “We also now have the pay-m mobile payment platform,” he says, which uses the same UK real-time FPS infrastructure.
16:16: Professor Kauffman is now talking about Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Singapore, India and Mexico. He’s comparing and contrasting the different real-time infrastructures they’ve introduced, moving on to Australia’s imminent introduction of such an infrastructure. “Who will monitise it,” he asks? Opportuities exist for whoever does.
16:12: Great global overview here from Professor Robert Kauffman, Associate Dean, School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University. He’s explaining: “Japan went real-time in the 1970s. It’s taken more than 40 years for others to catch up.”
16:07: "18 countries are on real-time systems now," says Swift's Raes. "12 countries are exploring it." He goes on to mention Alibaba, ApplePay and other new payment options in his whitepaper, implicity referencing the need for banks to fight back with real-time payment offerings on industry platforms.
16:02: Alain Raes, Chief Executive EMEA and Asia Pacific, Swift, says: “There is clearly a case for real-time payments, especially with mobiles.” He goes on to talk about a new Swift whitepaper examining this area.
16:00: The final closing plenary is just getting under way focusing on real-time payments. Should be a good one what with new infrastructures in Australia and the UK, Singapore and many many others now using such infrastructures.
16:00 - 16:45 Closing plenary: Real-time payments: Strategies for success
• Professor Robert Kauffman, Associate Dean, School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University
• Michael Mueller, MD Global Head of Cash Management, Barclays
• Craig Tillotson, Chief Executive, Faster Payments Service (FPS)
• Alain Raes, Chief Executive EMEA and Asia Pacific, SWIFT
• Maurice Cleaves, CEO, Payments Council (moderator)
15:30: Panel ends. Coffee break.
A. Clearstream’s Gem points out the industry already works in a similar way anyway, “although there might be room for some improvements [via the blockchain],” he adds.
A. Northern Trust’s Chapman, says regulators would want to examine open ledgers. “Plus we’ve seen hack attacks, so there is a little way to go yet (before acceptance),” he says, referencing the payment side.
Q. Emerging technologies: Are institutions looking at the blockchain?
15:26: The securities panel is thrown open to audience questions now.
15:18: Olivier Goffard, Head of Group Compliance & Ethics, Director, Euroclear says: “Compliance is top of the agenda at boardroom level. But it’s not a one year solution. You need a multiyear plan.”
15:07: Justin Chapman, Senior Vice President, Global Head Process Management, Northern Trust is detailing all the regulations and market changes facing the securities sector. “EMIR, T2S, US Dodd Frank, CSDR, etc,” he says. “Then we’ve got T2S, the credit markets union and so on.”
14:55: No mention yet in this panel of Navinder Singh Sarao, a 36 year old Londoner, who appeared in court in the UK capital yesterday on charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud and market manipulation. The US Department of Justice wants to extradite him as the instigator of the famous 2010 flash crash. …To be fair this is probably not the best forum for such a discussion. However, the court will decide if Sarao was the beneficial owner, which has been a key topic in this session.
14.47: “What problem are we trying to solve? It is to ensure financial instruments cannot be used to mask trades,” says Mark Gem, Chief Compliance Officer and Executive Board Member, Clearstream.
That is why beneficial ownership matters. But as Clearstream’s Gem adds: “It is only one tool.”
14.39: The panel is discussing the difficulty in establishing beneficial ownership in securities transactions and how regulations such as US OFAC are trying to address the lack of transparency in securities flows.
In light of the increased use of financial sanctions globally, and regulatory pressure to maintain strong sanctions compliance capabilities, the spotlight has fallen on the securities industry. The panel is discussing the challenge…
14.35 - 15.30: Compliance forum - Sanctions compliance: achieving transparency in securities flows
• Justin Chapman, Senior Vice President, Global Head Process Management, Northern Trust
• Mark Gem, Chief Compliance Officer and Executive Board Member, Clearstream
• Olivier Goffard, Head of Group Compliance & Ethics, Director, Euroclear
• Angus Fletcher, Director, Head of Market Advocacy & Business Strategy, Global Transaction Bank, Deutsche Bank (moderator)
14:25: KYC Panel ends.
14:23: A. Swift’s Sheppard responds: “Correspondent banking is our core focus at the moment – we’re driven by our members – and we have funds launching later this year. But it is inevitable we’ll look further afield later on.”
14:21: Entering the Q&A bit now of this KYC panel. Great question...
Q. ‘Will we see a SWIFT KYC Registry for corporates’?
14:14: The moderator from Swift, Guy Sheppard, KYC Product Market Manager, is summing up the panel’s thoughts so far, emphasising the centrality of having the right people in place to handle KYC, the right processes, technology and a uniform ‘golden’ copy where possible. Don’t forget the counterparties Guy.
14:07: Thomas Piontek, Head of Regulatory Services Commerzbank AG, rightly says that: “Good risk-based due diligence is a commercial advantage.”
13:55: Key issue of banks de-risking is now being debated. Banks have been exiting markets so that they don’t face the threat of regulatory fines or reputational damage. Why? Will this continue? Interestingly, the role of utilities isn't being discussed yet but it was in this monring's compliance panel so that is perhaps why.
13:47: It’s a point that Mark Taylor of the share registrar firm, Equiniti Investment Services, echoes, commenting he “agrees” counterparties are important, “but don’t forget about the customer experience.”
13:44: “The biggest problem is that so many firms don’t think they’ve got a problem,” says Russell Saunders, Managing Director, Global Payments, Lloyds Banking Group, referencing counterparties and the search for uniform data.
13:37: Thomas Piontek, Head of Regulatory Services Commerzbank AG, says they “also have a harmonisation project”. The search for a ‘golden’ copy of standardised and harmonised KYC data is universal it seems.
13:33: “Citi has a particular [compliance] challenge due to the diversity of markets and countries we’re in,” says Peter Drake, AML Head EMEA, Treasury and Trade, Citi.
"We are trying to enforce a common 'gold' copy standard for know your customer (KYC) data."
13:30 – 14:25
Compliance forum - Raising the bar: charting the future of KYC
• Peter Drake, AML Head EMEA, Treasury and Trade, Citi
• Thomas Piontek, Head of Regulatory Services Commerzbank AG
• Russell Saunders, Managing Director, Global Payments, Lloyds Banking Group
• Guy Sheppard, KYC Product Market Manager, SWIFT (moderator)
• Mark Taylor, Equiniti Investment Services
The live blog follows the KYC compliance stream above ...
14.25: Corporate panel ends. Liz Lumley’s report on the session entitled 'Are the banks meeting the needs of the corporates'? (below) ends.
14:23: Garrod: There are bigger fish to fry in terms of getting our collection costs lower. There are some outrageously high collections costs out there that does not benefit the banks.
14:19: Dadswell: I want to get to the stage where I can send my payments out from a choice of banks – and the bank that gives me the best service – I will do more business with. You can go back to an age where it takes four months to change banks – it has to be instantaneous.
14:13: Dubarry: You cannot ask corporates to better manage their risk and also ask them to stick to your own proprietary system. The value you are bringing to the corporate is not the format – it is all the other aspects – risk, reconciliation.
Don’t have any fear about an open market – it is coming, you cannot resist it – find other ways to bring value to your customers.
14:11: Hong: I think that will happen anyway – whether I would like it or not. I may be that rare bank employee that doesn’t mind some things getting standardised. Payments services are becoming standardised. It is the data and services that you put around that for the customer now.
14:10: Q. Corporates are trying to be bank agnostic – to allow payments and switch between banks – is this something that banks want?
14:09: Garrod: The banks are there to transform risk. The best way to transform risk is to turn it into an asset that other people want to buy. Cyber risk is a completely different risk. You need to turn those risks around to that there are assets that people want to buy as part of a diversified portfolio.
14:06: Hong: There are challenges to deal with local jurisdictions and processes in supporting corporates. We have territorial solutions, like Sepa, but corporates operate locally.
14:00: Dubarry: New standards bring new risks into the game when we are trying to fix certain problems.
13:58: Hong: One of the issues us we lack a lingua franca. Those of us that went through the pain of Sepa in the past years, know the ISO 20022 issues. There is still an issue with the plumbing.
13:55: Dubarry: Yes, I agree, connect to SAP and you’re done. But as a bank it is a little bit more complex. There are legacy systems that we need to cope with.
We need to ensure connectivity end to end. Swift is a help with that connectivity.
• Where do I put my deposit?
• How to I manage it?
• How do I manage my counterparty risk?
• And how does my banks enable me to have a real time?
13:51: Garrod: You’re going to hear a lot from me. I am ‘terrified’ of a global collapse. I want to be in the UK and the US. I want my cash separated. I want to know that the cash is there and I own the underlying assets. Liquidity pools need to be centralised – get your cash in one place. It is treasury 101. Where possible, the most fundamental aspect of being a treasurer, is having access to your cash.
The banks are not keeping up to speed on connecting to standardised infrastructure. Connect to Swift and SAP (I am sure it is Oracle in the US). Peace of cake, move on.
13:50: Q. Is liquidity an issue?
13:46: Nick Dadswell, director, finance business services, Schneider Electric came from a cash management world – but now he deals with banks from a corporate side. “The last thing I need is to connect to ten banking systems.”
"But there is no way we can get that down to one banking relationship.
We are now dealing with a banks as a technology partner – but the technology doesn’t always come from the bank – it comes from a third party.
Five years ago – it was a very corporate traditional relationship with banks. Now at the transactional level we really ask – how are we going to act in this space – especially from a technological level."
13:37: Philip Hong, director, head of channel services EMEA, Citi, takes the panel through five banking technology themes for large multinational corporates.
• Digitisation
• Standardisation
• Mobility
• Fraud Management – social engineering attacks on corporates is on the rise
• Information.
13:35: Charles-Henry Dubarry de Lassale, head of corporate innovation & solutions for Global Payments and Cash Management, HSBC gives the banks response to Garrod’s comments.
"The banks are looking, in a very collaborative way, how we can address those concerns. It is not a bank coming out of the blue with a fantastic risk management tool. It is only through collaboration with corporates that we can match and meet their demands."
13:31: Neil Garrod, treasurer, Vodafone has been asked to focus on risk.
Are the banks focusing on risk in regards to corporates? The answer is no. The risks we are concerned about are:
• Cyber risk is a big issue
• Euro breakup
• Quantitative easing is a complete experiment. We don’t know how that ends.
• EMF Risk – specific to the telco industry
• Counterparty risk
The correlation to these risk is a tricky thing. The banks need to start thinking –is there a correlation to these risks?
Banks not advancing and innovating fast enough to meet the demands of corporates.
13:30-14.25: Are the banks meeting the needs of the corporates? (Liz Lumley reporting above)
• Nick Dadswell, director, finance business services, Schneider Electric
• Neil Garrod, treasurer, Vodafone
• Philip Hong, director, head of channel services EMEA, Citi
• Charles-Henry Dubarry de Lassale, head of corporate innovation & solutions for Global Payments and Cash Management, HSBC
• Gary Campkin, director of international strategy, The CityUK (moderator)
13:30: Lunch ends. Conference re-starts. The conference splits into different streams ...the live blog will follow the compliance stream looking at KYC.
But first Finextra's Liz Lumley reports from the Corporates Forum above: ‘Are the banks meeting the needs of the corporates’? …
12.00: Lunch is being taken (to use a cricket phrase).
For those who want to 'eat on the go' visit the Innotribe FinTech presentations over lunch from the startup financial technology companies attending today.
12.00: Financial crime Panel ends. Lunch.
11:58: “Many of the people in this room are part of the solution,” says Lloyds Banking Group’s Cate Kemp. “The true enemy are the criminals creating social harm.”
11.56: Into a lively Q&A debate section now with questions coming in from the floor focusing on if banks have reformed and “get it”, how do banks handle OFAC US regulations, etc.
11.54: “Culture is the hardest thing to change,” says Deutsche Bank’s Deane, adding perhaps optimistically that “the top of every bank gets it now.”
Really? What about HSBC recently getting hammered in the UK over the tax affairs of its Swiss private banking clients? Counter-argument, of course, is that this goes back to the so-called Lagarde list and many of the fines hitting banks now emanate from previous pre-crash practices. Mmmmm. Time will tell if banks have truly reformed.
11.53: Addressing the issue of culture, Lloyds Banking Group’s Cate Kemp says: “It must start at the top.”
11.51: The panel is moving on now to discuss the fourth element of the agenda outlined by Scampion, namely culture.
11.48: “Utilities need to work together,” says Deutsche Bank’s Deane. “They could become the ‘golden’ source of data, especially reference data [if they work together].” Whether they cooperate is another matter. Too many utilities mean the desired shared economy-of-scale savings won’t accrue.
11.46: Deutsche Bank’s Deane is now outlining some of the numerous utilities now launching, alongside Swift’s own offerings. “Clarient are building a registry and own Omgeo now too,” he says. “Markit acquired CTI and there are lots and lots of utilities now.”
11.42: The panel is moving on now to discuss Data & the Opportunities it presents. Addressing the issue Deutsche Bank’s Deane says: “The data challenge is a monster, but indeed there are opportunities there too.”
11.36: “We need the right people, with the right training to manage the operational compliance challenge,” says BNP Paribas’ Guiteau.
11.32: The panel is moving on now to discuss transaction monitoring. Addressing the issue of alert management, Jean-Marc Guiteau, Global Head of Compliance Operational Risk at BNP Paribas, says: “The more systems we put in place, the more alerts we get.”
BNP Paribas’ Guiteau is essentially outlining the huge operational challenge facing banks here, the need to manage false positives, identity large risks, etc.
11.28: “Show me used to be good enough [for financial crime],” says Cate Kemp, Global Transaction Compliance Director, Lloyds Banking Group. “Now it is all about prove it.”
Good quote there, illustrating how much tougher regulators have got and prepared they are to impose large fines on banks that break AML, KYC or other such financial crime rules.
11.21: “Data is a big challenge for us too [and other banks],” says Deutsche Bank’s Deane, adding that essentially banks have grown by acquisition and are now so large that they have disparate IT estates, departments and legacy concerns.
11.13: David Deane, Group Head of Client & Data Services, Deutsche Bank: “We’re seeing a rise in utilities …it’s a way to serve low-risk customers. We want to automate as much as is possible so that we can focus on high risk, large customers.” He later adds, “Swift is an important partner.” No doubt thinking about their KYC Registry, shared sanctions screening platform and other offerings there.
11.04: According to Delotte’s Scampion, one bank told him they spend $1.2bn on AML and manage 2m alerts a month. “It’s a huge challenge,” he says.
11.01: The moderator for the session, Tom Scampion, a Partner, Enterprise Risk Services, at Deloitte (moderator), opens by explaining the agenda for this panel will be:
- Customer risk
- Transaction monitoring
- Data & the opportunities it presents
- Culture
11:00 – 12:00 Dedicated business streams
Compliance forum - Financial crime compliance: in conversation
• David Deane, Group Head of Client & Data Services, Deutsche Bank
• Jean-Marc Guiteau, Global Head of Compliance Operational Risk, BNP Paribas
• Cate Kemp, Global Transaction Compliance Director, Lloyds Banking Group
• Tom Scampion, Partner, Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte (moderator)
The conference financial crime stream report is above ...the live blog above follows the finanical crime session, which in the wake of large bank fines against HSBC, Standard Chartered and others in recent years is certainly topical...
12.00: Liz Lumley’s report on the session entitled ‘Three of the pillars of MiFIR & MiFID II: Transparency, Data Publication and Reporting’ ends.
11:52: Gravelle - We don’t even know what an OTF will look like. The rules will be national rules. We are now getting a first taste of what an UK OTF will look like – but that is just consultation.
11:50: A. Herbst: Should we as a broker open up an OTF or should we open up a second or third tier market that is an OTF?
The more mandatory trading coming in will get more OTFs. It is very different to MTF. Are we squeezing what was the old OTC world into a market package?
11:50: Q. Who is going to run an OTF?
11:36: A. The panel wasn’t very clear on this, except to say that the exchanges would have to report the orders. However, the moderator commented that “Wouldn’t the ‘Hound’s LEI have given him away?”
11:35: Q. What about ‘The Hound of Hounslow’ – Those orders that supposedly caused the Flash Crash happened in 2010 - How would those orders on a future’s exchange be picked up in 2017 (post Mifid II?)
11:34: A. Herbst: Some will be in some will not. Deliverable forwards/cash settlements – yes, they are in. There is a good question in regards to spot and…Once you are in the future and options world they are in. Then there is the non-deliverable debate.
11:34: Q. Is FX in or not?
11:28: Joe Halberstadt, principal standards consultant, Swift
What is most important to Swift is the standardisation. We are trying to get our heads around all these acronyms and map them. What Europe is trying to do is bring European reporting more in line with what is going on the US, with Dodd-Frank. The US has real-time reporting. We can learn some lessons from US. Whether the regulators do that or not, there is an opportunity for us to learn those lessons.
The difficulties are the lack of common language across the industry. The unique identifier hasn’t got where it should be. How do you define an OTC non-standard product? However, the LEI has progressed quite well, but there is more to do.
11:15: Matthew Gravelle, CME Government Relations
Data publication – Biggest issues are the new commercial intermediators? Who is going to operate them and how are they going to differ services in the market? We are starting to get more colour on how they are going to be regulated. It looks to be a bit more interventionists than had been previously been expected. Depending on where you are in the market - that could be a good or a bad thing.
Data packages are not part of the ESMA consultation – That is separate and happened over Christmas. There is different lobbying on that.
Best execution data and reporting - a lot of excitement on this. Best execution is a Mifid II requirement. Now we are seeing more information on what type of data you need to comply with best execution.
Industry is not convinced of costs benefit of all of this. Asset managers and brokers say that this proposal will open them up to new risks. How do you execute against data that comes out post trade? Or how do you deal with commercially sensitive data put out the public space? ESMA may not have considered this. There has been an industry push back on this.
New Mifid requirements to report sits beside the European reporting regimes. That is live right now. What happens is a trade is subject to different regimes – operationally it is very difficult. Mifid II in 2017 – all these regimes will be running beside themselves.
In the international space/policy space - making meaningful sets of massive policy proposals are being discussed – to break down legal and technical barriers to allow data to be shared cross border and to make it make sense.
Transparency regimes is the biggest change Mifid II will introduce to the market. One of the biggest builds from an operational level.
The Industry will be watching at what ESMA does with all that feedback. During the phased ESMA consultation, we saw two very different ideas of what constitutes a liquid market.
11:01: John Herbst, partner, Norton Rose Fulbright, laid out a few ‘hot topics’ around Mifid II. There are already a few ‘pirate versions’ of the ESMA consultations running around.
What defines a liquid market – that debate has taken on a life of its own.
Cross border convergence, and the relation to Dodd-Frank in the US is a big topic. As well as territorially issues – even in Europe.
Data publication is a hot topic– Approved publication arrangement regime. The Consolidated tape – which concerns the equities space – is in Mifid II.
What does reasonable commercial basis mean? Much debate on the ESMA status on this. It could be fairly light touch or a cost plus model. Rumours are it could be a hybrid.
11:00: Moderator Daniel Corrigan, CEO, CME European Trade Repository asked each of the panellists to lay out the hot topics concerning Mifid II and MiFIR.
11.00-12.00: Three of the pillars of MiFIR & MiFID II: Transparency, Data Publication and Reporting (Liz Lumley reporting)
• Matthew Gravelle, CME Government Relations
• Joe Halberstadt, Principal Standards Consultant, SWIFT
• John Herbst, Partner, Norton Rose Fullbright
• Ed Newman, Senior Manager, Business Risk Services, Grant Thornton
• Daniel Corrigan, CEO, CME European Trade Repository (moderator)
The conference now splits into different streams ...the live blog will follow the financial crime session, which in the wake of large bank fines against HSBC, Standard Chartered and others in recent years is certainly topical.
Finextra's Liz Lumley reports on the MiFIR & MiFID II session about transparency, data and reporting above…
10:30: Panel ends. Coffee break.
A. Christophe Chazot, Group Head of Innovation, HSBC, responds, as he should, explaining: “There is no single model. The model is different at each organisation. Some partner, some buy off-the-shelf, etc. It doesn’t matter as long as it works for your organisation.” Doesn’t really answer the question there.
10:28: Another question from the audience: Q. What’s the process in a bank to be more agile and respond to the FinTech challenge?
10:23: No mention of Ripple during the debate? Surprising!
10:21: Responding to the same audience question Christophe Chazot, Group Head of Innovation, HSBC, says: “There are plenty of other technologies too. Distributed databases are the key thing; the blockchain is just one part of it.”
10:18: Responding to an audience question about what their organisations are doing to explore Bitcoin (BTC) and digital currencies, Barclays’ Fayyad says: “It’s not Bitcoin that is of interest. It is the blockchain.”
09:55: Daniel Marovitz, President, Europe, Earthport disagrees, pointing out that “banks are a protected class” and cannot be as easily disrupted as the newspaper, music or taxi sector [Uber alert!].
“Banking is different. We know this because of what happened during the financial crisis. Governments didn’t allow them to go bust.”
09:51: “The way we [as banks] do things is outdated. It’s crazy. Why would you do anything this way,” asks Usama Fayyad of Barclays? “It’s no longer excusable,” he adds, going on to warn that “it could be too late” if banks don’t act and they could be disintermediated as the newspaper industry has been.
09:43: Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank, one of the challenger banks is pointing out to the audience that, “customers are the powerbase now ...mobiles have made them so.”
"Legacy culture can be damaging," he adds.
09:38: Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO of SWIFT: “I do think the FinTech revolution will change the industry ... but banks can survive.”
09:35: “The other side of the equation is we’re in an environment of diminishing returns and barriers to entry are dropping,” says Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Barclays. That is the FinTech and regulatory challenge expertly summed up right there!
09:33: “Banks are way behind [tech-wise],” says Usama Fayyad of Barclays. “In my opinion 10-20 years behind.”
09:30 – 10:30 Opening panel: Harnessing disruptive technology in wholesale financial services
• Christophe Chazot, Group Head of Innovation, HSBC
• Craig Donaldson, CEO, Metro Bank
• Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO, SWIFT
• Daniel Marovitz, President, Europe, Earthport
• Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer (CDO), Barclays
• Andrea Catherwood, Broadcaster and TV Presenter (moderator)
09.30: Clementi is finishing with a regulatory overview: “Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles should be at the heart of any organisation,” he says.
09.29: “Always recruit people who are smart and friendly,” concludes Clementi. Tech matters, but so do people. As does the customer, who will be the ultimate arbiter of which challenger banks survive to disrupt the industry and those that fall by the wayside.
09.21: “Business distinctions are becoming blurred as the digital revolution takes hold. It’s having a profound effect,” says Virgin Money’s Clementi. “Mobile and tablet devices have raised this to another level.”
09.17: Virgin Money’s Clementi is making a good analogy between the legal, medical and FS industries and how each has historically had barriers to entry. But as he points out all these professions are opening up somewhat, within an appropriate regulatory environment. For the future he is stressing, “the customer experience is key”.
09.12: “It’s a pleasure to be here today,” says Clementi, Chairman of Virgin Money, a new challenger retail bank in the UK, as he opens with a great joke about addressing a live audience today having addressed an actuaries conference last week. He is also involved with another challenger instution called World First, which concentrates on payments.
09.10: Opening Keynote - Sir David Clementi, Chairman of Virgin Money and Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.
09.09: Swift’s Aggarwal is calling for good old fashioned efficiency and control as banking tries to respond to the challenges he’s outlined via collaborating with partners, overhauling systems, reducing costs, etc. “We’ve got to get the cost base down,” he says.
Clearly he's thinking of Swift's KYC Registry offering there and its other bids to get compliance traffic to sit alongside it's securities and payment traffic.
09.09: "Silicon valley clearly has FS in its sights,” says Aggarwal, referring to them as the "new masters of the universe". How will banking respond?
09.08: “2008 really did bring to an end an era in FS,” says Aggarwal. “We are seeing a seismic shift due to ringfencing, de-risking of FS, new challenger banks, new technology, etc ...the role of banking is being redefined."
09:04: "London Forum is now second biggest SWIFT event after Sibos," says Swift''s Aggarwal. 1300 attendees registered for the event, 23 vendors in the exhibition. "London is in many ways the centre of the FinTech revolution."
09:01: Arun Aggarwal, Managing Director, UK, Ireland & Nordics, SWIFT is welcoming attendees and explaining today’s agenda, focusing on harnessing change and coping with disruption in financial services.
09:00 – 09:10 Opening remarks - Arun Aggarwal, Managing Director, UK, Ireland & Nordics, SWIFT
08:50: The crowd is gathering here for the 2015 Swift Business Forum, London. The Live Blog will begin shortly. Join the twitter debate at #BFLondon.