Sibos 2019 @ London: Unique in many ways

The week-long Sibos 2019 at ExCeL in London has been a memorable event in many ways. Some of the highlights of the technology conference:

Chantal Van Es, head of Sibos, who welcomed the delegates to London for the annual technology event had aptly summarized the event this way: “We are proud to welcome thousands of delegates from more than 150 countries to the city for what proved to be an extremely successful and memorable Sibos. With over 11,000 delegates, hundreds of exhibitors and sessions packed with inspiring speakers, Sibos remains the place to be to shape financial services into the future.”

The week-long technology extravaganza at ExCeL, London (23-26 September), held for the first time in the city, had truly surpassed expectations with record number of delegates, 600 speakers and some 300 plus exhibitors. Regulars at Sibos described this year’s event as something unprecedented, delivering record-breaking numbers. The organizers in fact saw an average visitor increase of 20% when compared with events hosted in other European cities.

True to this narrative, Sibos this year in London had been a memorable event with sessions that highlighted issues like open banking, collaboration with fintechs, cybersecurity, countering frauds, AI and machine learning in providing security for banking transactions.

DISCOVER - A NEW CONCEPT

The core of all activities was Discover, which reflected the continuing integration of innovation, new technology and collaboration within the financial and banking sectors. Banks were displaying their work and ideas across a range of areas and these banks indicated that they understood the value of having that talent in-house and are creating their own technical knowhow. There were indications of higher levels of collaboration not just between fintechs but between the bigger banks themselves in areas like fraud, KYC, standards of information exchange and APIs.