Key Take-Aways from Sibos 2017
4 Fintech Themes you should be exploring
Matchi CEO, David Milligan had a great experience at Sibos in Toronto. We picked his brain about what's hot on the fintech scene and here are his insights into this year's 4 key themes.
1. Fintech Collaboration
This is very much the space in which the Matchi team plays, so it was great to see a strong focus on the theme of collaboration at this year's Sibos event. Highlighted for me were multiple presentations by banks alongside the fintech firms they had collaborated with to release new solutions including Wellington Holbrook, Chief Transformation Officer at ATB Financial (and our previous client) with Finn.ai who presented their journey as partners in transformation. I also really enjoyed the presention by Bipin Sahni, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at Wells Fargo on why startups and financial institutions need each other. Ruby Walia, Head of Mobile and Online Bank at TD bank also presented a really insighful and interesting overview of their year long collaboration with Flybits.
2. Open Banking
With the introduction of PSD2 in the UK and Europe in January, everyone is scrambling to meet the new regulatory requirements. Yet, a handful of forward thinking financial institutions have a strategic long term vision and they presented great discussions and insights during Sibos 2017. I particularly enjoyed hearing Dr Leda Glyptis, Chief Innovation Officer of QNB Group (the biggest Bank in MENA) and Dr. Louise Beaumont, strategic advisor at Open Bank who both shared highly valuable and cutting edge perspectives.
3. Cyber Security
Cyber Security is still under the spotlight and was a growing feature on everyones lips this year, especially with the need to adapt in a world of open APIs. I met a high number of chief information security officers (CISOs) from leading banks, as well as many forensic and other security experts from around the industry. Throughout the week, there were panel discussions, workshops, debates and presentations on cybersecurity topics.
4. Real-Time Payments
With different countries implementing faster payments (real-time), Sibos offered some of the best real-time payments learnings from around the globe. Positioning themsleves at the forefront of the international payments experience, I really enjoyed the discussion around Australia’s New Payments Platform with Nigel Dobson from ANZ and Katrina Stuart from NPPA as well as a presentation on Canada’s impending real-time payments network.
For more insights into any of the above themes or to see a list of implementable fintech solutions that allign to any of the above themes, please contact Catherine Miller at
