SIBOS 2023 Toronto: A Glimpse into the Future of Global Payments and FX
Every year, SIBOS provides a forum for the global financial community to discuss and deliberate on the state of global payments, banking, treasury, compliance and financial technology. This year’s SIBOS conference in Toronto hosted 9,000 attendees and the official programme covered a wide range of topics with particular coverage of AI, ESG, cybersecurity, crypto currencies and tokenization. On the conference floor, discussions often turned to more immediate topics of which we noticed three interesting issues relevant to cross-border payments and FX.
- ISO 20022–still a lot to do. ISO 20022 represents a generational change in payments capture, storage, and transmission. The new standard promises better, richer, and more accessible payments data with a wide range of benefits to regulators, banks, and end users. Six months into the coexistence period for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+), it’s clear that there is still a lot of work to be done and it will take time for these benefits to accrue. Smaller banks and business lines outside of payments are taking longer to transition. FX is one such line of business as many vendors have yet to update the settlement modules of core FX systems and the businesses struggle to keep pace with the enterprise transition program. These businesses aren’t looking for a solution so much as they’re looking for tools to help them implement a solution.
- Service levels for business cross-border payments. Business users are asking for the same payments experiences they enjoy with their personal transactions despite the process and risk differences between personal and business payments. These experiences include transparency, speed, certainty, and better integration with client platforms. All of this is expected along with global coverage and lower fees. Some of the same non-bank and neo-bank firms that have been successfully challenging banks in the personal and SME marketplace are turning their attention to larger businesses and gaining traction. These demands come at the same time as ISO compliance and budget pressures make wholesale product improvements even less likely. There is a demand for agile solutions that can improve the payment experience and provide new revenue at reasonable costs and short timeframes.
- Data: As one participant noted: “data is the new oil” and, like oil, it has to be gathered and then refined. Also, like oil, this is an old story. What is new is the confluence of a number of factors from ISO 20022 which provides more and better data, to growing regulatory demands for data, and the power of AI to reliably and affordably parse this accumulating store of transactional and client information. And to continue the oil metaphor: once refined, it has to get where it’s needed. This has attracted the attention of payments and FX businesses that have a large volume of valuable transaction data but don’t have immediate and actionable insights into that data as the ‘refining’ is being done centrally–if at all–rather than locally where the need exists.
smartTrade’s Commercial Banking and Payments platform is designed for the future. Our platform offers unparalleled FX and payment functionalities tailored for a broad user spectrum, from sales desks to sophisticated transactional clients.
Stay ahead with smartTrade:
- Compliance Ready: Navigate the complexities of ISO 20022 with a platform that effortlessly operates in both MT and MX formats, catering to diverse platforms irrespective of their ISO progression.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Harness structured payment and remittance data, and seamlessly interface with client accounting and ERP systems. Detect FX requirements and proactively offer solutions.
- Real-Time Analytics: Oversee every transaction with our robust FX and payment analytics. Dive deep into actionable insights and drive strategic decisions.
At smartTrade, we are committed to redefining the future of cross-border payments and FX. Embrace the future with us. For more information or to arrange a demo please contact us.