In 2017, Innotribe will reinforce the connections between FinTechs and financial institutions through valuable partnership programmes, events, and networking.
Swift has always been about bringing added-value to its customers in response to a rapidly changing landscape. As an innovative incumbent, particularly in the areas of real-time payments, compliance and correspondent banking, Swift has a leading role to play in driving innovation across its community. Benefitting from Swift’s central role within the financial industry, Innotribe seeks to reinforce the importance of collaboration when it comes to innovation, supporting all actors of the FinTech sphere, including Swift, to move forward together.
What’s in store for 2017?
Innovation on the rise: Africa and Russia
In 2017, Innotribe will return to Africa for the third consecutive year. The warm welcome from the community and enthusiasm from startups have been essential in building solid foundations for the programme in the region. Once again, Innotribe will partner with Swift’s African Regional Conference (ARC), organised from 16-18 May 2017 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The Startup Challenge will take place on Wednesday 17 May in the afternoon.
For the first time, Innotribe will also bring the Startup Challenge to Russia. The local innovation ecosystem already includes some notable players and has a great potential to further develop a stimulating environment for FinTech startups, not only in Russia but also in the neighbouring CIS countries. Innotribe will partner with the ROSSwift (Russian National Swift Member and User Group), namely including the Bank of Russia, the National Settlement Depository, Sberbank, and Alfa-Bank. The Innotribe Startup Challenge showcase will be organised during the International Financial Congress (IFC), Russia's largest international financial forum hosted by the Bank of Russia, taking place from 12-14 July 2017 in St. Petersburg.
For each event, Innotribe will closely work with industry experts, bank decision-makers, VCs and angel investors in selecting the showcase participants. Their strong expertise will serve to advise and coach the startups prior to the events.
Applications for the Startup Challenges will open in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Moving on to collaborative solutions
Designed to place the voice of the customer at the heart of the discussion, Industry Challenges are built around a facilitated design thinking workshop where targeted customers, startups, and relevant business units from Swift work together on cracking specific business problems. Moving away from “solution first thinking”, the Industry Challenges begin with the identification of tangible business problems before we assess them during a two-day ‘Zero-to-Test’ workshop. Following the workshop, we conduct ‘proof of value’ exercises driven by customer needs, involving both the startups and Swift.
‘Proof of value’ exercises are still underway with the winning startups from the 2016 Challenges around Securities and Compliance. Outcomes will be communicated in the coming months.
In the meantime, the consultation with customers and Swift’s business teams to define this year’s programme is already well underway. What’s for certain: one Industry Challenge will be around cyber-security. Attackers’ methods have never been more sophisticated and the industry needs a nimble process not only to protect itself but also prevent further attacks.
Engaging the global FinTech community
From the side-lines to the main exhibition floor, from isolated sessions to a plenary debate, Innotribe truly made its mark at Sibos over the last few years. Another success for the FinTech sector was Geneva in 2016, where the entire Sibos conference was dominated by technology discussions to an extent we have never seen before. This proves the ever-increasing importance of technology in shaping the future of the financial industry and is very inspiring for the four-day programme we are building for Sibos 2017, taking place from 16-17 October in Toronto, Canada.
Next to the debate and discussions generated at Sibos, Innotribe will continue to support collaborative research, working with proven FinTech enterprises, academics and top industry experts. The first paper foreseen in 2017 will explore the top three ’must-haves’ for innovation teams within the financial industry. Innotribe spoke to 11 innovation leaders from top financial services institutions across the globe to learn more about the types of innovation frameworks they use, what works and what does not work when practising innovation, but also what are the greatest advantages and barriers to innovation. The paper will be released early February 2017. Watch this space for the top tips on how to make innovation a true success.
