Tuesday
Bringing the world to Sibos and Sibos to the world
Emerging markets
come of age
by Richard Schwartz
O
ne of the first sessions at Sibos in Sydney explored whether
emerging market infrastructures can harness new technologies
to leapfrog their more established peers in terms of efficiency.
Preceding the core of the debate, however, panellists discussed whether
the term emerging markets still had relevance, particularly when it
comes to operational matters. As Charl Bruyns, head of investor services
at Standard Bank Group put it to Club@Sibos ahead of the event: “A mar-
ket might be seen as an emerging market because of its fundamentals,
but not from the perspective of capability or operations. There are many
lenses that you can use.”
Chris Hamilton, chief executive of BankservAfrica and session mod-
erator, took a similar position. Introducing the session, he noted that the
level of technological sophistication is no indication of the distinction
between major and emerging markets. He cited as an example the largest
issue of crypto assets to date being related to Venezuelan petro dollars.
The session focused on teasing out the differences in the approach to
financial market infrastructures. Sebastien Kraenzlin, head of banking
operations, Swiss National Bank, stressed that for a ‘classic’ developed
market like Switzerland, a crucial factor was efficient interconnection
between the different elements of the infrastructure.
He drew a distinction between the core infrastructure, accessible at a
wholesale level and the outer layer where the interface between banks
and their customers is found. In the case of the former, he suggested,
experimentation, particularly with distributed ledger technology (DLT)
is well under way, but that in the outer layer, Switzerland was perhaps “a
little behind the curve” with no sense of urgency to move to a widespread
mobile payment infrastructure.
By contrast, Brazil with a large unbanked population and heavy use of
cash is working through the central bank to foster uptake of electronic
payments, said Breno Lobo, advisor, Banco Central do Brasil. There, the
focus is on constructing an instant payments ecosystem.
Russia meanwhile, provides a good example of success in such an
endeavour. Maria Krasonova, deputy chair of the Executive Board of
the National Securities Depository (NSD) pointed out that from being in
a similar position to Brazil, Russia’s cashless economy programme has
resulted in 68% of adults holding bank accounts and more than 50% of
payments being mobile. The challenge, however, is the “last mile.”
READ MORE AT www.clubsibos.com
Open banking shifts
O
pen banking is a “tectonic shift” bringing both challenges and
opportunities to traditional players in the fintech sector, said
Thomas Nielsen, chief digital officer global transaction banking
at Deutsche Bank, writes Roland Tellzen.
In Australia, open banking is the first shot in the Government’s legis-
lated Computer Data Right, which is designed to ultimately give Aus-
tralians greater control over their data. It will empower customers to
choose to share their data with trusted recipients only for the purposes
that they have authorised.
While the financial sector will spearhead the plan, it is envisaged to be
eventually rolled out across the economy on a sector-by-sector basis, with
the energy and telecommunications sectors next in line after banking.
“It is something that the industry is entering into in a phased
approach,” the vice-president of security solutions for Mastercard,
Mallika Sathi, told Sibos.
Australia’s Consumer Data Right is but one part of a broader global
trend to empower citizens with control over their data. The UK’s larg-
est nine banks, accounting for 90% of the UK market, began their own
implementation of open banking at the start of this year. The UK model
is the one the Australian Government says it’s most closely following,
with some important differences.
Private enterprise is also seeking to carve a niche within the open data
movement. Just earlier this month, world wide web inventor Sir Tim
Berners-Lee, announced he was working on a start-up, called Inrupt,
tasked with helping people control their data – by essentially building
an “internet of the future”.
The aim of the Australian open banking policy is that by forcing banks
to make their customers’ account and payment data available through
secure APIs, having access to such data, means that customers will be
equipped to make more informed decisions about financial products.
READ MORE AT www.clubsibos.com
3 6 10 12
ALONE TOGETHER REFORMING THE
REFORMERS OVERHAULS FOR THE
LONG HAUL OVER THE LAND AND FAR
AWAY
THERE ARE AT LEAST 22 SIBOS
SESSIONS MENTIONING CYBER
SECURITY – IS THE INDUSTRY ON
TOP OF THE PROBLEM? A DECADE ON FROM THE CRASH,
THE NEED TO REFORM MORE
THAN JUST THE BANKS IS COMING
UNDER SCRUTINY ARE AGEING RTGS SYSTEMS STILL
FIT FOR PURPOSE IN THE DIGITAL
AGE? HOW AUSTRALIA’S PIONEERING
OVERLAND TELEGRAPH LINE
CHANGED THE WORLD