The conference addressed a wide range of topics, from cloud and data storage, to crypto and centralized digital currencies.

Discussion on the first day focussed on technology and process efficiency. A willingness to innovate was highlighted as a key priority for banks and fintechs going forward, not least when it comes to regulation. A key concern for regulated enterprises is data privacy and protection, with cloud concentration identified as a risk that could be mitigated by a multi-cloud strategy.

Trust is key for clients making the choice about a cloud provider. James Fox, director, Protiviti, referred to cloud as the plumbing for organizations. Firms can have two or three cloud providers – choosing these is often part of what he called a maturity curve in firms.

Digital assets

A major theme running through the second day of the event was how to regulate digital assets and the timeframe in which this could be achieved. One panel headline referred to digital assets as the “biggest opportunity of the decade”, foreseeing their widespread adoption and regulatory changes to accommodate this.

DLT (distributed ledger technology) was also addressed as a key theme. The EU DLT pilot, due to be implemented in March 2023 for a period of six years, will help to address regulation in the sector, developing the trading and settlement for tokenised securities. It is part of the Digital Finance Package introduced by the European Commission in 2020, alongside the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). The pilot is a form of regulatory sandbox, allowing innovators to trial new products, services and business models in a real-world environment without some of the usual rules applying.

“I believe that DLT provides an opportunity to truly transform the financial markets and improve infrastructure efficiencies,” said Elise Soucie, Associate Director, AFME. “Overall, the industry welcomed the DLT Pilot Regime, and it is positive that EU regulators are thinking deeply about how to foster innovation and experimentation. The UK FMI (financial markets infrastructure) sandbox is similar, but not the same, and has the potential to be broader. I believe it would be beneficial to consider sandbox participation beyond MTFs (multilateral trading facilities) and CSDs (central securities depositories), as this could encourage wider participation in the UK sandbox which would in turn allow for more proposals to be tested, with a higher chance of the DLT being embedded across financial services.”

In the US, debate is still ongoing about whether cryptocurrencies should be considered as securities or commodities.

This is not a complete reproduction of what was said at this conference – it is an edited version based on the reporter’s understanding of what was relayed. This content has not been approved/endorsed by the speakers.