Beyond Sibos 2023: Staying ahead of the curve in an everchanging environment
Last month, we shared our highlights from the Sibos 2023 conference in Toronto. Attending industry events of this scale is always enlightening, and our interactions with financial service professionals inspires us and feeds into our strategic thinking and decision making with novel trends, technological developments and arising opportunities.
This is how Acupay’s strategy and roadmap addresses each of the Sibos highlights that we took away from this year’s conference:
Exploring the transformative power of AI
At its heart, Acupay is primarily a technology company. Our SaaS solutions help issuers, financial intermediaries and investors navigate the complexities of cross-border funding and investment, maximising tax relief on income for investors and ensuring tax compliance with current and upcoming international and local rules and regulations. This year’s Sibos hosted several thought-provoking debates on the impact of AI applications. Acupay has been researching AI and ML technologies with an open mind and investigating the potential applicability of in-house and third-party solutions for fraud detection, AML, cybersecurity, and client servicing.
Transforming financial services through collaboration
As we mentioned in our previous article, collaboration as a catalyst for true innovation in the financial services industry was spotlighted again this year. Major financial service providers shared their visions for the future of custody and banking, which showcased the value of automation, standardization and collaboration among providers. Acupay has recognized the significance of the network effect in financial service. Since 2019, our strategy has been driven by our vision for an ecosystem which will bring all market participants and stakeholders together under a common technology framework. Our vision aligns with those outlined by key players, such as State Street and BNP Paribas, during their sessions at Sibos align with ours: to engage all other stakeholders on the path towards powerful, interconnected and interoperable networks that support innovative solutions within financial services.
The future of value and Its implications
This year’s Sibos Innotribe agenda addressed the evolution of the concept of ‘value’, whether it is novel digital asset types or intelligence derived from data and technology. The discussions we witnessed underlined how DLT and digital assets are reshaping the ways traditional financial services are offered. Adding to this, in recent years, the topic of taxation on digital assets has gathered a lot of attention by key stakeholders, including governments and regulators (for instance, see IRS’s latest guidance on this topic). We have been monitoring on these subjects while exploring the implications and developing solutions to anticipate the developments as they are bound to occur in the near future.
Addressing the importance of ESG and DEI
ESG and DEI were prevalent in various sessions, with financial institutions and fintechs calling attention to the need for action due to climate change concerns, employee and consumer demand, and financial regulation. Acupay has been keeping a close eye on these topics both at corporate level (read our ESG Team’s latest update here) as well as product and customer service level. As an example, we have been in discussions with our clients and their advisors concerning ESG targets and initiatives and are looking into adapting our services to cater to their everchanging needs, such as adapting our solutions for issuers to support the cross-border issuance of sustainability-linked bonds.
Do you want to know more about how Acupay’s plans to develop solutions to complex problems and help our clients stay ahead of the curve? Contact our Product Team at product@acupay.com to learn more about our current and future services.