News

Finovate Europe: Inventing the Bank of the Future

About 60 ground-breaking businesses in the Banking and Finance industry showcased their latest developments during the Finovate conference held in London over a period of two days.

Our editing team was able to gain some insight on the banks and the Swiss developers present at the conference and reviewed a number of new ideas during the conference, ranging from mobile services to Foreign Exchange.

It was a heterogeneous group of individuals that gathered on a cold morning in a Victorian building situated in Old Billingsgate, at the heart of the City district.

Bankers, investors, entrepreneurs and other consultants had come to attend the Finovate European Conference featuring the latest and most effective technological innovations in the Banking and Finance sector.

The organizers had prepared an intensive programme with approximately 60 presentations in two days, a sure sign of a field enjoying rapid growth.

Established organizations and start-up businesses that had been selected were allocated a time limit of seven minutes each to present their products and win over their audience, with the presentations being halted once their time limit has been exceeded.

The enthusiasm of innovative entrepreneurs in participating and thus obtaining opportunities for establishing essential contacts with potential clients, investors and partners, while enjoying a high level of visibility, was not dampened by the tight schedule imposed.

Four Swiss IT organizations present at Finovate were all established vendors who had come to unveil their latest technologies.

SAGE Group SA, a company based in Lausanne (not to be confused with the developer of ERP) had also made the journey to London in order to unveil its new portfolio management tool, BlackSwan Financial Platform, whose outstanding feature is its ability to incorporate indicators capable of providing clients with more information compared to means generally employed by professionals.

“With an advisor, a banking client could, for example, simulate and visualise  risks and performance forecasts of their portfolio in relation to the change in economic growth in a particular region”, Jean-Luc Freymond, the CEO of SAGE Group SA, explained during his presentation.

 
Observer Banks

Few Swiss bankers took centre stage during the conference, with the majority forming a part of the audience.Among them were certain representatives of Swiss organizations. Bogdan Iancu, a representative of web based operations at the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise explained that he was there to observe and update his superiors on the technological innovations presented, stating: “We are interested in PFM, although it is not our aim to pioneer new technologies”?

Representing UBS were Urs Wagner and Andreas von Criegern, respectively involved in e-banking and web strategy at the bank. They too had no interest in pioneering new technologies but were interested in new developments. “We are investing in e-banking and mobile services, however the attachment of clients to advice and more traditional channels of communication cannot be forgotten,” they explained.

When asked which was more difficult between being convinced by start-up enterprises and convincing their superiors, the two representatives merely smiled in response.

It is worth noting that technological innovations are not a priority for Swiss banks.

A study carried out by Ernst and Young in December 2012 involving 120 Swiss banks revealed that their priority themes for 2013 included conformity, equity planning (Basel III) and fiscal transparency. Investment in new technologies was relegated to the background.Furthermore, although the Swiss banks foresaw a sharp fall in customer loyalty, 70% of them   held the view that external competitors within the sector would not pose any threat to their market position by 2020.Tariffs for banking services were expected to become more transparent but not more profitable.Which is worth reflecting on.

*This news was written by Rodolphe Koller and published in French by ICT Journal. Published text translated in English has been shortened for its significance to SAGE Group SA.