Sibos wrap-up report from TowerGroup

Extending critical dialogue during critical times

TowerGroup has just published its Sibos wrap-up. In this special report commissioned by SWIFT, analysts Gareth Lodge, Andy Schmidt, Dushyant Shahrawat and Ralph Silva document their key takeaways from the event.

These include:

• Sibos 2009, held in Hong Kong, attracted the largest Asian attendance in the history of the conference and exhibition, with 42% of the 5,782 attendees coming from Asia, compared to 45% from EMEA and 13% from the America.
• The critical dialogue at Sibos this year revolved around five major themes for financial services: innovation, globalization, responsibilities of the financial services industry, collaboration and cooperation, and the future of the financial services industry.
• One of the crucial insights gleaned from Sibos 2009 by attendees is that instead of standing back and letting regulators dictate the future of financial services, the financial services industry must proactively engage regulators to encourage them to pass more effective rules and regulations.
• This year's Sibos revealed that innovation in financial services is definitely not dead as firms seek to innovate in new areas like risk management.
• While everyone looks to China as a major growth opportunity for the global financial services industry, it is time to consider the ambition of Chinese and Asian banks to compete against Western banks, not just in China but in Europe and America as well.
• Despite financial institutions being blamed for having brought the global financial system to its knees, the continued success of market infrastructures through all these stresses and strains gives us great hope that all is not lost.