The SIPUGday 2019 of Monday and Tuesday at the Zurich Marriott Hotel was very successful. Around 220 visitors and 40 exhibitors/sponsors attended the annual get together of market data providers for the financial industry. In exciting presentations, the visitors were given an overview of the political, regulatory and social situation in the financial sector.
After an exciting presentation of the Chinese Sally J. Yan (Executive Board Member Drivetide Capital) about “China and innovation as the pathway to the future” at the dinner on Monday evening Elena Philipova from REFINITIV as the first speaker on Tuesday could make clear that that sustainability is the next big thing in the financial sector. In particular, the so-called ESG criteria (Environmental, Social and Governance) would be increasingly integrated into investment and risk processes by asset managers, funds and insurers. So companies must document a transparent process that makes clear how and why they invest in which assets and how they ensure that ESG criteria are met (transparency obligation).
Innovation was presented during the StartUp hour, which was moderated by Urs Bolt, a well known international WealthTech & FinTech Expert. L2F, Kaiko, Sanostro, Deep Impact, TTmZero, SIX Jacob used the opportunity to present there story to the audience in a short five minutes pitch followed by a lively discussion among them afterwards.
Regulatory processes took years, explained Tom Debus, Founder & Managing Partner of integration alpha. It is not a one-sided process for banks and regulated entities as many economic and political actors are involved. Actors have to just be diligent, regulators have to just keep oversight und both have to share responsibility. Debus saw the obstacles to a rapid regulatory process as being the fear of paying alone, so-called tribal boundaries and technology ignorance.
Martin Schlegel, Alternate Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), presented an overview of the monetary policy of the SNB. In his analysis, he noted a slowing economic activity in Switzerland. He estimated growth for 2019 at 0.5 to 1 percent. The Swiss franc appreciated over the last quarters, and the SNB decided in September to leave expansionary monetary policy unchanged. Martin Schlegel emphasized that the negative interest rate is essential for lowering the attractiveness of the Swiss franc. The SNB is willing to intervene as necessary. Regarding topics that will be of interest to central banks going forward, Martin Schlegel mentioned innovation in the financial sector, such as new types of money that are currently emerging.
Konstantin Yershow from RedHat and Sven Roth from SDX Exchange gave the visitors a glimpse at the technology behind the digital value exchange of SDX. The Swiss way of SIX was strong stable, explained Yershaw. According to Sven Roth the aim of SDX, the world’s first end-to-end digital asset platform, is to present the future of the financial markets to the community and to receive feedback as well as to show that a distributed CSD – based on DLT – can be integrated with a central order book exchange model to ensure fair market conditions for all.
Xue Tan of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) presented the implementation and use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) as the linchpin that connects the dots across the universe of entity identification in the digital age. GLEIF is overseen by the LEI Regulatory Committee, representing public authorities from around the globe to drive forward transparency within the global financial markets. For Xue Tan there are tow major concerns: Are we going to see multiple digital IDs or are we going to use one ID. The GLEIF-Vision would be that each business worldwide should have only one true identity which includes a digital identity.
The event was rounded off with the traditional panel including the speakers plus Ambre Soubiran, the CEO of KAIKO which had participated at the StartUp hours in the morning. The open discussion on technology, regulation, and innovation was also including the aspect of women in technology and the differences between Europe and China. It was the first time in the 10 years history of the SIPUGday, that women were the majority of the panelists, even the women themselves don’t see any issues in the daily working environment.
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