Swift CEO previews this year's Sibos and talks about all things blockchain
In a series of recent interviews, Gottfried Leibbrandt sets out his vision for the future, and how Swift will adapt to meet the changing financial and regulatory landscape.
The Banker interviews
In a series of four interviews, Gottfried spoke with Brian Caplen, Editor of The Banker, giving a preview of the upcoming Sibos conference in Singapore, covering changes in Asia and Africa, KYC and financial crime compliance, technology and innovation, and an insight into real-time payments.
"There are many changes in Asia - one is economic growth in the region, and we see that reflected in traffic, but also in our investments", said Leibbrandt. "We've opened new offices, we've done initiatives such as the GoLocal India venture, as well as the New Payments Platform in Australia".
In chapter two, Gottfried reflected on the financial crime compliance landscape and the impressive growth of Swift's KYC Registry: "We've welcomed our 1000th customer recently, and we see it meet a real demand. This is something that's a shared cost for the industry".
Chapter 3 looked at technology and innovation, reflecting on the rapidly evolving Fintech landscape, how new startups are competing with bank's offerings using new technology - person to person payments, blockchain technology and more. "There are real challenges that the banking system faces; how can new technology help solve these problems, and which ones will actually disrupt traditional banking models," said Gottfried.
The final chapter Caplen and Leibbrandt discussed real-time payments, and how Swift is embracing this trend, examining the new payments infrastructure in Australia. "People now have real-time access to their balance account on their mobile and they're used to being able to wire money to others with fast payments. Banks will have to fix the legacy systems, and at the same time continue in innovation and renewal."
The Finanser interview
The Finanser is a blog linked to the Financial Services Club, a unique service aimed at senior executives and decision makers from banks, insurance companies, technology firms and more. It seeks to promote networking between hundreds of professionals sharing a common interest in the future of the financial industry.
Gottfried talked to Chris Skinner, reflecting on the evolution of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ripple and all things blockchain.
You can read the full interview here.
