Thousands gather in London for this year's Sibos to discuss the evolution of the cloud-services market, the future of Swift, the role of the new nonbanks, the potential of open banking, and innovations in payments.
What is on the agenda for Sibos this September at ExCel in London, and how will this year’s Swift event differ from any previous one?
The formula for this event is well established: four intense days of panels, debates, lectures and presentations, with a bustling trade show where most of the world’s leading banks and tech vendors meet clients and prospects from the corporate sector and correspondent banks around the world. The result is always a learning experience, with new deals cut, new alliances forged and new connections made—this year’s theme is “thriving in a hyperconnected world.”
Dame Minouche Shafik, director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, will be giving the opening address. The event’s theme highlights the many opportunities and challenges that new technologies offer to financial institutions and service providers in general. Opportunities and security threats happen to be two features of the same landscape, while at the same time many new and old fintech players are offering solutions and platforms unthinkable just a few years ago.
The evolution of the cloud-services market, the future of Swift, the role of the new nonbanks and the potential of open banking are some of the issues explored in this month’s special section—and featured on the Sibos agenda. Data and payments will also surely be discussed at this year’s event, the first to take place in London.
We like to think of Sibos as the Olympics of transaction banking. There are no medals—although there are a few awards presented, including those from Global Finance—yet most of the world’s leading transaction-banking “athletes” attend. However, while the Olympics adds new competitions only reluctantly, the Sibos agenda gets refreshed every year: new topics, new opportunities and new challenges.
