Sibos, the biggest financial services conference in the world, hits Sydney for its 40th year. Find out what to expect from this year's event
Sibos hits the land of OZ for its 40th year this October. Not too far from landmarks such as Bondi Beach and the Sydney Opera House, the conference will be held at the city's International Convention Centre. It'll be the third time the Australian capital has held Sibos, following successful events in 1997 and 2006. But what will the main discussions topics be this year, bearing in mind the theme, 'Enabling the Digital Economy'?
How has the industry changed since last year's Sibos in Toronto, and what are firms hoping to gain from the event?
Location, location, location
As for the chosen location of Sydney, Mike West, vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), marketing at Broadridge, says the city is "an excellent location for this year's Sibos".
He adds, the financial beating heart of Australia, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), "is a world leader in raising capital. It has also become the first exchange to announce the launch of a distributed ledger technology-enabled (DLT) settlement platform."
The new system is estimated to go-live between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 and shows just one aspect of the country's move toward expanding and evolving its digital asset management offering.
Niall Twomey, chief technology officer at Fenergo, says: "[Sydney] is a large financial hub so many attendees will have multiple reasons for making the trip beyond Sibos, it has some of the most progressive financial institutions whose experiences will be important to share. It is a great location if people have some spare time to explore beyond the Sibos conference."
Nathan Gee, marketing director at SmartStream, states: "Sydney's always been at the forefront of financial services, both globally and in the Asia sector, and so it's great that Sibos is returning there.
"He adds: "It's an ideal location as Sibos turns 40—perhaps we'll get treated to a firework display in the harbour!"
We're going through changes
But what has changed since last year's event and what has stayed much the same? What are the industry's current opportunities and challenges? And what hurdles have sprung up since SIBOS 2017? As Jerry Norton, head of strategy for CGI's UK financial services, articulates: "We are on a digitalisation journey, with exponential growth and the rate of acceleration is continuing to increase."
He adds: "The spread of real-time payments, the rise of open banking, FinTech startups, the rise in blockchain proof of concept, robotic automation and data analysis—these will be the top industry concerns this year.
West says: "While many of the overriding themes from last year's Sibos remain current— innovation, regulatory and market change, geopolitical shifts, data security—a year has passed and the industry continues to move forward.”
He adds: "Regulatory and market change is a constant, but the specifics are changing–the Central Securities Depositories Regulation has a higher profile, while the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) is getting more attention."
As Teresa Parker, president of Northern Trust EMEA, reiterates: "At a regulatory level, while the dust is gradually settling after the second Markets in Financial Instruments
Directive (MiFID II), securities lending desks are now getting to grips with SFTR in preparation for the 2020 deadline—new reporting obligations, automating processes and consolidating disparate data sets."
Aside from regulatory deliberation, another over-riding product of discussion will be technology, the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Delegates predict it will seep into other discussions that may not on the surface seem directly connected to technology changes.
As West states: "Technology transformation will be at the centre of many discussions, ranging from business model transformation to the latest on key disruptive technologies; from preparations for technology-enabled regulatory solutions to cybersecurity, data protection and data integrity."
And of course, a lot of technology innovation will underpin and aid firms who are still coming to grips with impending regulatory compliance. Gee discusses that within Australia, in particular, where there is a tighter regulatory environment, "digitisation has gained more traction due to the cost benefits it presents."
He adds: "Digitising, reducing costs on manual effort and various processing, has forced banks to actually revisit to see how much they can automate moving forward. And we have a
big role to play in the journey of transformation."
For asset servicing, specifically, Twomey indicates: "I think there has been a shift from focusing on just digitising the front office and customer omni channels to digitising the middle and back office. The recognition that while digitisation budgets focusing on the front office have improved initial customer experiences the middle and back office area where there is even more potential value to be gained."
To SIBOS and beyond
Of course, conferences are an excellent opportunity to discuss, debate and network.
Twomey says: "People want to go to Sibos to be informed, learn new ideas but also validate their own direction and we are often the same. Being a vendor we want to engage with the community, our thought leadership comes from constant community engagement and feedback and the event accelerates that."
West says: "In addition to learning and sharing new insights into market and technology trends, we look forward to enriching our relationships with clients and partners across all business segments and regions present at Sibos, as well as extending our network through the opportunity afforded through this unique gathering of senior delegates."
He adds: "It's always a tremendous opportunity to capture the state of the industry and get a first-hand account of the drivers and challenges that firms are facing across all regions of the world."
And looking beyond the conference, Parker states: "Technology and regulatory changes will continue to influence the asset servicing industry over the next 12 months. A big focus for us in 2019 will be the application of this technology elsewhere in our asset servicing business and continued investment in emerging technologies to drive efficiency and deliver enhanced levels of transparency to clients."
West says: "Investment communications and the drive for higher levels of corporate governance will continue to be an area of priority, in response to investors seeking increased transparency and more of a say in how the companies in their portfolios are run."
Parker mentions another point of emphasis for 2019, and beyond, will be maintaining a diverse and inclusive culture within financial services. She concludes: "I think the industry as a whole has the responsibility to continue its efforts to achieve greater equality and empowerment throughout our organisations."
