Welcome to Finextra's coverage of the Swift Business Forum Nordics 2019, live from Copenhagen. This event has a focus on accelerating digital transformation, and will look at how the financial community in the region is harnessing technological change to deliver a digital customer experience.
17.06: That concludes the Swift Business Forum Nordics for 2019. Thank you for following along with the sessions here on Finextra. Our live blogging of Swift events will return with the Business Forum Ireland on 30 April. See you then!
17.05: Haugaard asks what the best thing companies can do to promote inclusion. Løgstrup says that, on a personal level, respect is an important factor - without that it is hard to promote diversity. Mai adds that the use of technology is also a key way to promote diversity.
17.02: Mai notes that most Nordic companies speak English at external meetings as an inclusive measure, as there will likely be at least one person there that won't speak Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or Finnish.
17.00: Banks have been attacked for focussing on the business rather than the customer, but Mai says banks shouldn't switch their focus to the customer alone, they need to focus on people in general in order to retain relevance today. Løgstrup agrees, and adds that this is something to be constantly worked on.
16.58: Mai adds that finding the right resource can come from anywhere - he notes that his company has a 13 year old who works one day a week with his dad and brings a new perspective on what they are doing. In terms of age, he also says that age is a factor of diversity can be a challenge for fintechs, who may have a need for senior management from older professionals but have a culture that may not gel with an older workforce.
16.56: Løgstrup notes that there is still work around gender to be done. It should be ok to say that men and women are different. Getting the gender diversity right first is a path to opening up other greater diversity, Løgstrup says.
16.52: I want diversity of skill sets and experience, comments one audience member. It is not strange to have a team made up of men and women, or ethnicity, he makes the point that his company already has this so it is skill sets that matter most to him in terms of diversity.
16.48: An audience poll asks what the one expectation that society has of companies. The most popular answer is to give back to society (38%), while a focus on customers polls 28%. These are followed up by embracing diversity and inclusion care (19%), being innovative (9%), and comply with regulations (6%).
16.45: Corporates need to think if they want innovation from within, but the environment within their organisation to promote this is critical, Løgstrup says.
16.43: Business culture acts like an umbrella, Mai says. It is a way of aligning people with different ideas under the same umbrella if done correctly. Fintechs learned very quickly that they had to break down the barriers between their company and the outside world, to create an almost instant feedback from the outside world to the companies ideas, he adds.
16.40: If you don't understand or value people from outside of your usual hiring pool, they won't stay with you very long. It can be difficult to accept new ways of thinking if the culture in the business isn't open to alternative ideas, Løgstrup notes. Haugaard agrees, and mentions a Deloitte study that identified a 'diversity dividend' that companies can reap from promoting diversity in senior management.
16.37: Even within a big organisation, you need to think outside the box, says Løgstrup. You need to find new ways of working and break down silos that can exist in such types of companies, in order to benefit from a diverse range of knowledge and views across the organisation.
16.35: Everything starts with whether you want to conform or deconform, says Mai. If you want to do something new, you have to do something from the outside. He adds that technology can also be used to improve diversity, finding ways to get more information and question the status quo.
16.33: Companies need access to the biggest pool of talent possible, which is why diversity is so important, Løgstrup says. This helps with innovation, brings in ideas that can challenge and improve your existing norms, and actually help you get closer to your customers who are diverse by their nature.
16.30: What is on our mind is that the world is changing. One of the trends we are all experiencing is that societal issues are changing every day, Løgstrup says. Drivers for companies to change and address these issues come from customers, from investors, and from employees themselves, she notes.
16.27: Diversity means you cannot just focus on what you know, because if you don't pay attention to what is happening outside of your core area you can lose track of true innovation, Mai says.
16.22: Haugaard kicks things off by asking where the human factor fits into the day's agenda of digitisation. He notes that actually throughout all of the panel discussions there has been a human element to the conversation, which was positive to hear. He describes people as the glue that hold everything together with banking innovation.
16.18: The closing plenary session of Swift's Business Forum Nordics event is looking at the subject of transforming financial services through diversity. The speakers for this keynote are Jeanette Fangel Løgstrup, head of Group Societal Impact & Sustainability at Danske Bank, Rune Mai, CEO & co-founder of Spiir and Nordic API Gateway, and Søren Haugaard, global head of Trade & Supply Chain Finance for Danske Bank.
15.57: Time for a short coffee break now. We'll be back for the closing plenary in around 30 minutes.
15.56: What would be your dream use case for AI? Axelsen has so many dream use cases he finds it hard to pick one out immediately. Fras says instant banking and customisation along the lines of Netflix. For Myllymäki, his dream would relate to insurance - the faster that facts around extreme weather can be provided and tracked, the more money can be saved.
15.44: How has AI changed the workforce of today, Fors asks. Repetitive tasks are being reduced, but it is usually augmenting people's roles and letting them tackle more strategic level decisions. Fras says there will be huge implications to the jobs market from AI. For Myllymäki, there are interesting implications for transforming from being a process person to becoming an AI trainer.
15.39: Now we have the possibility to represent natural patterns mathematically, Axelsen says. This is exciting and there are so many possibilities for where this can go.
15.38: Thinking about the risks of AI, a Microsoft chatbot that started quoting from unsuitable literature had to be swiftly taken down it is noted. AI can fall apart at any given time if you don't take ownership of your AI strategy. There are a lot of good platforms out there, Fras says, but if you buy one and don't understand what you are doing it can go wrong. Understand what you want out of AI and craft your policies specifically around that.
15.34: Is there a dilemma over ethics with AI, Fors asks. In a sensitive environment, absolutely says Axelsen. Fras says he has chosen to see AI as something good - AI forces you to think about ethics in a much more focussed way then before. An algorithm doing the critical thinking means you are putting ethics into the machine. It can let you find biases in the data that you previously may not have thought of.
15.31: The challenge is how do you know if the algorithm works, Fras says. Using AML as an example, the fall in false positives seen can be taken as a win for the business, so when something fails that also needs to be the responsibility of the business.
15.30: If you do an AI for AML, someone in the group needs to be responsible for this. Fras says it would likely be the head of AML who is ultimately responsible for that. However, as the use cases increase, the question over who has ultimate responsibility for the AI is something that could have to be addressed. Myllymäki adds that data scientists never work alone, they work alongside the business.
15.27: It is not just about replacing existing use cases, Myllymäki says, it is about creating new use cases that are applicable for customers.
15.24: Building trust is the reason it is taking a while for AI to take off in financial services - from a policy based approach to a data driven approach, Fras says.
15.22: The scale of AI is not on the cost side, it is on the growth and scale side, Fras says. This is where the big use cases for the financial industry exists.
15.19: Image recognition AI is used quite a lot today already, Axelsen says, including damage to cars to insurance purposes. He notes that some institutions don't want anything to do with AI because they don't see how it applies to them, but that all should explore it to one level or another. Fras says that AI is quite visible in chatbots in banking, but this is still at a fairly simple level so far. Myllymäki notes that chatbots take care of around 70% of customer enquiries in some banks.
15.15: What you can do with AI and machine learning is remarkable, Fras says, citing Netflix and how they use machine learning to change their product offering per customer. Myllymäki adds that there are different requirements in different areas of finance when it comes to AI, and it is very hard to quantify the specific benefits.
15.11: Fors says that we have AI in more areas of life than we would even think of these days, but he is keen to define AI. Axelsen says it is hard to provide a direct definition, something that Fras also agrees with. In general terms, AI is the ability to listen to, read and interpret data and then be able to process that to find patterns and predict future behaviour, Fras adds.
15.05: Fors begins this discussion by noting that AI has been mentioned in virtually every session today already, highlighting the impact that it is already having on every area of financial services.
14.59: The upcoming session on AI has four panellists contributing to the discussion - Göran Fors, deputy head of Investor Services at SEB, Jacob Bock Axelsen, lead data scientist in Advanced Analytics and Information. Management with Deloitte Consulting, Mattias Fras, head of AI Strategy & Acceleration for Nordea, and Antti Myllymäki, head of Artificial Intelligence at OP Financial Group.
14.46: That draws our session on cyber security, and the breakout sessions for the day, to a close. After a short break, we will be back in the plenary room with a session exploring the risk of AI in financial services.
14.45: Awareness is key, you can't fight what you can't see, McGrath says. This means different things to different departments, IT needs to know what threats are out there, the front office needs to know that they could become targets, for example. Busk-Jepsen again emphasises the power of cooperation and collaboration in this space. Finally, Desausoi highlights the need for preparation in all areas of cyber defence.
14.42: There are no silver bullets to tackle cyber, but cooperation is key, between banks, countries, and industry sectors, Busk-Jepsen says. McGrath says that the good guys can be offensive even if they're not law enforcement - why not go after hackers and find out what they are doing? Desausoi adds that if you can find what hackers have tried to use but failed, you can get ahead of them as long as you share this with the community.
14.39: How can you trust your counterparties in this environment, Desausoi asks. In terms of KYC with your clients and third parties, McGrath notes that this is changing even more with the rise of digital banking. In Denmark, he says there is good infrastructure to build on that can help. With programmes such as Swift and the CSP there is also a way to get a good idea of the level of risk involved, he adds.
14.36: Everyone knows about social engineering, Busk-Jepsen says, and yet people still fall for this trap. Hackers don't need to be very inventive or like James Bond, Desausoi notes, everyone has a chance to be hacked and there are simple things that hackers can exploit to achieve their goals.
14.34: The insider threat isn't just coming from the IT people, it can come from a janitor, for example. McGrath says that institutions need to think a lot broader when looking to address this threat.
14.31: Internal threats are slightly more of a weak point in Scandinavia because of a trusting culture in the region, McGrath comments. Banks are more likely to trust that people have good intentions, and consequences of actions are not necessarily addressed as strictly as they would be in other markets, he says. Busk-Jepsen adds that cyber actors need someone on the inside to completely empty a bank.
14.28: Banks can't prevent all cyber threats, but they need a response plan for the worst possible outcomes, McGrath says. Busk-Jepsen cites the Financial Sector for Operational Resilience as a good example of how FMIs can share and address risks across the community in Denmark.
14.25: With regards to platforms and open banking, there will be new risks introduced that the community needs to be aware of, Busk-Jepsen says. There may be things that are beyond understanding at the moment in regard to third-party risk, Desausoi says, but the most important thing is to be prepared for the worst.
14.21: There is a clear need for banks to be connected on cyber defences. People need to trust the entirety of the market, McGrath says, not just trust one or two banks on this. There are projects to share information across the sector in the Nordics on cyber. McGrath adds that this level of open communication is a cultural benefit of working in the Nordics, compared to some other reasons.
14.19: The challenge with cyber is it is a risk discipline, McGrath says. Banks can't just buy cybersecurity. You need to know how much is the right amount, how much investment do you allocate to it, and what is your risk tolerance. It is a hard thing to balance. Busk-Jepsen says there is a trend around testing cyber defences, noting CyberDK in Denmark as an example of this.
14.15: In Denmark, over the past few years the curve of online banking is shooting up, but for physical banking the number is plummeting, so not even criminals care about physical banking these days, jokes McGrath. Busk-Jepsen adds that in 2000 there were 320 bank robberies in Denmark, while last year that number was down to just nine. He says that there is a responsibility of the community to educate users in online banking to ensure they are protecting themselves.
14.11: McGrath emphasises how much the threat landscape has changed, from one-off vandalism, to one-off attempts to profit, to online organised crime and knowledge-sharing - often better and more efficiently than the good guys. He says it is hard to prioritise one threat over others as this changes on a daily basis. You have to cover all bases.
14.08: Outlining the evolving cyber threat landscape, Desausoi says that many nations have added a fifth dimension to their armed forces - a cyber service. With geopolitical tensions today, this is sharply in focus. There is also the use and abuse of new technology, evolving attack vectors with a rise in DDoS attacks and ransomware leading to far greater data breaches. At the same time, 'the weakest link' people are still clicking on the wrong link and compromising organisations. Although, Desausoi says that people also act as a living firewall, who know systems and processes and could see and report suspicious activity.
14.03: While the financial services industry is on the threshold of a world of opportunities, there is a troublemaker in the house in the case of cyber, Desausoi says. He notes that the World Economic Forum ranks cyberattacks as a top global risk. Whether you are a target or not, you could be a victim.
14.00: Talking about how banks can combat the cyber threat are Michael Busk-Jepsen, executive director of Digitisation at Finans Denmark, Lance Ryan McGrath, CISO with Danske Bank, and Alain Desausoi, Swift's Deputy CISO and Head of Technical Security.
13.32: Coming up in around 30 minutes, there will be a breakout panel discussion looking at what banks can do to combat the cyber threat, so rejoin us for that after this short break.
13.31: Once all services are on ISO 20022 (RTGS will be the last to move over) Olivier asks whether some flows will migrate from one system to another. Swift is committed to becoming an ESMIG NSP to support the connectivity needs of banks to the Eurosystem, she says. As well as product services in this regard, Swift also has a number of advisory capabilities to assist banks.
13.22: 32% of TARGET2 transactions are created in correspondent banking network, so banks need to look at the bigger picture when undertaking this project - don't just look at it in a silo, Olivier says.
13.20: The migration from MT to ISO 20022 will be implemented to its full extent in TARGET2, Olivier says. There will be no 'like for like' approach in order to allow the usage of additional fields supported by ISO 20022. This is not an easy exercise, cautions Olivier, it is not just a messaging project.
13.17: Olivier looks at what banks need to do in order to be ready for the future Eurosystem services. The changes will have an effect on how banks interact with the Eurosystem. The first step is around the single market infrastructure gateway, and she provides a detailed technical picture of how banks that connect to TARGET2, T2S, or TIPS with Swift can expect.
13.08: While today everything needs to go back to the RTGS system overnight, the consolidated main account that will be created by bringing TARGET2, T2S and TIPS together means this will no longer be necessary, Thiemann says. The TARGET2-T2S consolidation, with a deadline of November 2021, will go live with a big bang migration, with no coexistence between ISO 20022 and MT messages. Thiemann says that if a bank is not ready by the deadline, it will lose access to central bank money at that time as the deadline will not be moved.
13.03: The Eurosystem's Vision 2020 includes the TARGET2, T2S and TIPS consolidation, Objectives of this project include improving efficiency, optimised liquidity management, a harmonised interface, enhanced RTGS services, align the use of message standards and reduce operational costs. Thiemann stresses the desire that create a single platform that can be accessed for cash, securities or collateral management.
12.58: Looking to the future, Thiemann outlines the market infrastructure of tomorrow, with Target Services covering cash, securities and collatoral, with multicurrency services (the Danish krona is the first 'second' currency on T2S, with marginal costs now relatively low, for example), efficiency gains, optimised liquidity management, cyber resilience, ISO 20022, and cross-border business. Optimised liquidity management refers to providing a single view of liquidity across different accounts.
12.55: Thiemann notes that the road to a true domestic European market is speeding up, with new innovations coming online at a relatively rapid rate in recent years.
12.52: In Europe, PSD2 is a regulatory pressure. The move to ISO20022, coming from the Eurosystem and EBA Clearing, is an example of the market infrastructure change in the continent, with TIPS, TARGET2, and T2S being examples of the Eurosystem's vision, Olivier notes.
12.46: Presenting the lunch and learn session are Holger Thiemann, adviser to the European Central Bank, and Isabelle Olivier, head of Securities Initiatives & PMIs EMEA at Swift. Olivier begins by noting the number of drivers for change in the European payments industry: regulatory pressure, technology changes, new entrants and competition, market infrastructure changes and new consumer behaviour and needs.
12.34: That concludes the panel discussion on platforms. There is now a break for lunch, but we will be popping in to the special 'lunch and learn' session that starts in around 15 minutes. This will be dedicated to the European payments landscape transformation and the next generate of TARGET services.
12.30: Looking to the future, da Silva says we are moving to a layered world in banking where collaborations and partnerships are crucial.
12.27: Banks are mediators, Dalagar says, they get money from one place to lend to another. Physical bookstores are also mediators, and they have been thoroughly disrupted by Amazon, so there are huge risks for individual banks in the platform world. It is best to be in the front and tackle this issue now and work out how to capture data to enhance customer services, as doing nothing in this space is catastrophic.
12.24: Where are the risks in platformification, Patel asks. Using data in the wrong way is a huge risk, da Silva says. But using data the right way allows banks to find insights to somewhat predict the future and give banks a competitive advantage. For Bredahl, the risk is when nobody cares about your bank.
12.21: On open banking, the role of data and insights has a huge role in differentiating bank services. PSD2 is a starting point, but there is more that can be done, Bredahl says. Banks have the data and data is gold, Dalagar adds. Now you can access the data across all banks, so banks need to access this and do something great about it to differentiate themselves. Use an AI facility, add fintechs on to data from all the banks, and set yourself apart, he says.
12.17: Fintechs have a great way of executing, far better than banks, Bredahl says. However, they have no customer base. By combining banks and fintechs, the customer can be offered the best of both worlds.
12.15: Collaboration in the Nordics between banks and fintechs is successful, da Silva says. It is much more useful to build on fintech strengths to enhance products, rather than buying them and bringing them in-house. She adds that the next step is to find the platforms to distribute the products.
12.14: Why would a customer pick any banks in the platform world, Dalagar questions. He cites what has happened in the airline industry, where customers now have a relationship with their favourite comparison flight search website, rather than a specific airline. Banks should think about serving all customers, regardless of where their accounts are, in the platform world.
12.10: Authentification is a big issue for corporates, da Silva says. They are looking for an easy way to connect and identify themselves rather than new products. They are also looking to get away from paper, which is still playing a role in back offices. Dalagar adds that you can look into the fintech world to see what customers are really looking for, as this is where fast development is happening.
12.08: Patel asks the panel where the end user benefits are coming from. For Bredahl, it is all about the ecosystem that is not owned by anyone and how that can provide customers with the best solution to them.
12.06: Dalagar highlights that a focus on the customer experience is key in this development. You can build a big well connected platform, but how many products and services are actually on there? Have a mindset that everything you want to do has already been created, so being able to scout the market is a lot more important than developing internally, he adds.
12.03: Everybody is building their own platform and not connecting to anyone elses right now, says da Silva, which is a problem for the industry. She adds that the trust angle for banks is one way to remain visible, and can be in a much stronger position as a result.
12.02: The discussion is kicked off by da Silva, who says that she is happy the theme is not 'banking platforms' as she doesn't believe that banks should be the platform themselves, but rather be accessible through platforms. For Bredahl, his ideal is that the bank will become the platform, but the challenge is not to become invisible in that scenario, as if you become invisible you can be replaced.
11.59: Growth at low cost is a goal of being a platform, but is there a different cost to face? Could the brand lose its shine? What about the lack of central control? And critically, who is responsible for security? Dalagar brings up these discussion points and now we move into the panel discussion.
11.57: There are a variety of fintechs that could be banking on platforms, some with a narrow focus, while others have broader appeal. Dalagar says that the mega-trend caused by the platform economy will lead to a change in bank business models into loosely-coupled entities. He notes that this won't happen overnight in the banking sector, but this shift enables financial institutions to offer a completely different and complimentary set of services.
11.53: PSD2 and open banking effectively forces banks to become a platform to a degree At the same time, cloud-based business services are another driver. The Bigtechs are active in the platform space and have been for some time - and now they offer banking services. Dalagar mentioned the Apple credit card announcement from earlier in the week as an example - they don't care about fees or interest rates that much, they want to spend money to make money, essentially.
11.50: Will the platform economy make banks invisible, poses Dalagar. A platform is an economic activity on a technical platform that accommodates different suppliers to tap into the same underlying framework. He cites the iPhone with its App Store as a simple example of this. Platforms open the possibility for partnerships for banks with innovative players such as fintechs, which can extend customer reach and save costs.
11.44: The panel for this conversation is comprised of Philip Bredahl, head of Integrations & Liquidity, First Vice President at Danske Bank, Bent Dalager, partner NewTech and Financial Services for KPMG, Paula da Silva, head of Transaction Services with SEB, and Vikesh Patel, Strategic Relationship Management at SWIFT. Dalagar will kick things off with a short presentation.
11.34: That concludes the instant payments panel discussion. Coming up very shortly is another breakout panel discussion, which will expand on a theme already touched upon today - banking on platforms.
11.33: What is the next step in the Nordics? Georgzen says that on infrastructure this is around realising the potential of the P27 project. Flatraaker says that countries are fixing their infrastructure, and the bank will use the new rails that evolve in this area to be able to fulfil the role of a relevant service provider.
11.31: Managing fraud in the instant world is incredibly important. Flatraaker says that Swift has a role to play here, as a network. They can bring these services as a utility to the banks, he says, and while fraud is a challenge there are ways to address this as a community.
11.28: Flatraaker adds that there are different payments rails to be considered in the cross-border instant payments landscape as well. Creating a real-time seamless payments experience can use different rails. The traditional way of thinking, around card infrastructures and bank account infrastructures, are moving forward together in the same direction, he says.
11.26: Instant payments schemes are mostly domestic at the moment, but there is an expectation to go cross-border on the horizon. Palmers notes the Swift pilot with a gpi cross-border payment from Australia to another country as an example. Georgzen cites the P27 project in the Nordics to create a cross-border instant payments scheme. He adds the bigger challenge is around currencies rather than countries. Efficient account to account payments can be done instantly in regional hubs better than completely globally, he suggests.
11.21: When we can do instant payments frictionless at a low price, customers will use it, Georgzen says. Van Den Bosch adds that this is a demand in the market. Banks also need to understand the thinking of younger generations, not just the demographics of their own organisations.
11.18: Transparency is extremely important for instant payments, Georgzen adds. Work needs to be done in areas such as sanctions screening in order to speed up processes so that instant transparency is available alongside instant payments.
11.17: The Nordics is a very digitalised region - Swish mobile payments is cited as an example. It is important that the region retains this position, Georgzen says, as this will influence when the region's banks choose work with the global tech companies and when they don't.
11.13: Flatraaker notes that big tech companies don't just do everything themselves, they partner and have suppliers already. Banks need to learn from both fintechs and global techs, and how they work with global techs depends on who is able to be the relevant partner in various sectors. He adds that culture is one of the most important issues in the banking world today. Van Den Bosch adds that it is vital for being able to be both global and local at the same time. He cites the case of Uber failing in Denmark as an example of the importance of local knowledge.
11.11: Apple, Google or Amazon won't build something completely on their own when it comes to a global payments infrastructure, Van Den Bosch says. There will need to be collaboration between banks and big tech companies. He says he doesn't just see these companies as a competitor, but also as partners who can both learn from each other and collaborate.
11.09: In the future, decisions we make as humans today will be made by AI, Van Den Bosch says. Payments will be part of the overall commerce ecosystem, and you won't have to decide whether to pay with cash, credit or debit at the store, this will be handled automatically for customers.
11.07: Georgzen comments that what is happening with instant payments is a natural step, with the e-commerce space exploding. It is about collaboration, transparency, and finding how to connect systems - he says there are nine different payment platforms in the Nordics, and banks connect to a variety of corporate ERPs, for example.
11.04: Payments aren't something that happen in isolation, Flatraaker notes, but they are part of a bigger transaction. The payment element of a transaction should be seamless. In the future, there will be big marketplace where you are either selling or buying services. This will change the business model of financial institutions, he says, and banks need to understand how to position themselves in this new world. With the Internet of Things, for example, how can banks ensure they remain relevant.
11.01: Compliance, risk and control have been a focus for banks since the financial crisis. Van Den Bosch says that today banks need to think like a modern company in order to innovate.
10.59: In all the Nordic countries, the regulators started talking about the need for an instant payments infrastructure a few years ago, Flatraaker says. He adds that Swift is helping global payments get faster with the gpi solution. The challenge is the use cases, Van Den Bosch adds. The most obvious potential for instant payments is in the B2C space, he adds, but changing consumer behaviour away from cash and ensuring the infrastructure for instant payments is essential.
10.55: Georgzen notes that challenges go throughout the value chain when establishing instant payments. For example, his bank found that the central bank wasn't set up for the demands of 24/7 payments system either, so there was a lot of work to be done across the community. Flatraaker adds that banks need the infrastructure in place not only to prove that payments can flow instantly, but that also to prove that they can handle the risks of transactions moving instantly.
10.51: Following introductions from the panellists, Palmers comments that instant payments brings opportunities and challenges - particularly around the 24/7 availability challenge. To run an instant payment system you can't have any downtimes.
10.45: Participants in this discussion on fast and frictionless payments are Dag-Inge Flatraaker, SVP Payment Infrastructures at DNB, Martin Georgzen, head of Payments Development with Danske Bank, Hans Van Den Bosch, global sector head of Consumer Brands, Retail and Healthcare, Global Liquidity and Cash Management at HSBC, and Swift's head of Instant Payments, Carlo Palmers.
10.27: That concludes the opening plenary. There will now be a short break, and we'll be back in a breakout session looking at delivering a fast and frictionless payment experience in around 20 minutes.
10.26: Steve Jobs knew that smartphones weren't just about a touchscreen, they were a platform that brought together apps from all sorts of contributors, Seres says. Banks need to think about how they can act as a platform in the world. It is too late to catch up, it is a great time to leapfrog, she adds.
10.23: The really profound changes from PSD2 will come from areas we don't know about today, Lie-Nielsen says. The real innovation could come from non-banks who incorporate banking into what they do as a way to serve their customers. Banks could hire people from a non-banking environment who may ask 'stupid' questions that will actually get banks thinking differently.
10.20: Ahman asks if open banking is living up to its promise. Zingmark says it is, but with PSD2 requirements from last year, the time plan for what they could commercialise was set back a little. He says open banking is very important not only for banks, but also for the community as a whole. Lie-Nielsen adds that PSD2 could create a lot of solutions looking for a problem in the next couple of years.
10.17: In the banking sector we talk a lot about legacy IT systems, but Lie-Nielsen says that it is the organisational structure that is a legacy problem too. Compliance teams are doing their job if they say 'no', but this needs to be challenged - how can you change that culture to get them to help advise and support new projects along the way.
10.14: Culture is a challenge for banks to tackle if they are to be agile. Zingmark says that the most productive team he has is 'shielded' from the bank, giving them a full focus on innovation. At the same time, innovation needs to be balanced with compliance and risk as this is essential. The challenge is to take care of the customer need while transforming the culture.
10.11: Traditional banks are scared of the SMB sector, Seres says. She notes that new 'disruptor' banks are arriving in the market that place the customer experience at the centre of everything that they do. Incumbent banks should look at dedicating a certain percentage of their development budgets to developing an approach that would work in this sector.
10.07: Lie-Nielsen makes the point that banks tend to only invest in the solutions that their big customers want. He says that any bank in the room could have created Klarna, for example, but nobody did as it addresses what is perceived as an marginal business area.
10.04: In banking, the Nordics is well placed in the digital revolution, Zingmark says. This is not enough, however. He is thinking about how banks can understand and utilise data - with the information flows and trust that banks have, how can they innovate in this space?
10.02: It will take time for people to understand how new payments systems work, for example. Seres says that you need to find ways to show customers how you know them better than others, and bring them with you as you leapfrog others in the market. Some cannibalisation in the industry is necessary, but are you doing it or is it one of your rivals?
9.59: Zingmark says that banks tend not to see disruption that much in the Nordic region, they haven't seen fintechs come in and challenge banks directly. However, he notes the cautionary tale of how Nokia was usurped by the smartphone, meaning that banks need to be aware of what is happening in the digitisation arena.
9.56: Ahman now introduces Henrik Lie-Nielsen, entrepreneur, investor, and advisor at Tripod, and Erik Zingmark, head of Transaction Banking with Nordea, who join Seres on stage for a panel discussion on accelerating digital transformation.
9.54: Companies need to find new relevance in this changing world, as well as identifying who your competitors are. You need to think beyond the limits of your industry to truly identify who your competitors are. Seres notes that the CEO of Netflix said that their main competitor is sleep.
9.49: Humans can never imagine a world very different from today, so don't rule out any of the possible technologies that are emerging today. Seres' advice for delegates is that you don't need to know how new technologies work, you just need to know what they can do for you today.
9.47: The 4th industrialisation is also polarising, where the winner takes it all. You can get the best, globally, in real-time. It is Adam Smith's hand on steroids, Seres says. It is also combinatorial, with digital marketplaces and enabling technologies being the two sweet spots. In the Nordics there are world leading technology skills, she adds.
9.44: Data is the new competitive resource that is powering the 4th industrial revolution. The computation data network runs our society today, Seres says. The 4th industrial revolution is all about cyber-physical systems. It is exponential - cost cutting won't give you this exponential growth, only disruptive technology will.
9.36: The biggest technology companies in the world are now the biggest companies in the world, full stop. This means that they will be moving into areas beyond their traditional remit. Seres notes the recent announcement of the Apple credit card as one example, and that other areas such as healthcare will be attractive to them. She also notes that people give away their data too easily, and need a better understanding of the importance of their personal data and how this grows over time.
9.33: The amount of innovation that China has done on innovation and AI is remarkable, Seres says. The likes of Amazon and Google find it difficult to compete there as a result. Understanding local knowledge and capabilities is critical for success, something that Seres should also be applicable to the Nordics.
9.29: Seres says that technology is changing business models and the need for regulation at a supersonic speed. But she says thinking of this as a problem is like thinking of gravity as a problem... you just have to deal with it. With technology and digitisation, you need to identify where the opportunities exist for you.
9.27: There is a digital transformation going on in the financial services industry, Ahman says. She then welcomes Silvija Seres, CEO of Technorocks to the stage who will set the scene with a Ted-style talk.
9.25: Kemp now introduces Erica Ahman to the stage. Ahman is the head of Nordics at Swift.
9.18: Legacy technology is a challenge for financial institutions. At the same time, developments in new and evolving technologies are creating a wealth of opportunities, but also a wealth of challenges.
9.17: Those that threaten us are using the same technologies we are using to innovate against us, Kemp notes. The sharing of threat data across the community is essential.
9.15: Kemp begins by noting that we're moving into unchartered territory. Whoever you work for, fintech, bank, or corporate, customer demands are greater than ever before. Regulators are playing a role in supporting this, with Kemp citing PSD2 as an example of a driver of new customer experience.
8.49: The welcome address this morning will be given by Cate Kemp, Swift's Head of UK, Ireland and Nordics. Throughout the morning our focus will be on digital transformation, faster payments, and banking on platforms.
7.00: Good morning and welcome to Finextra's live coverage from the Swift Business Forum Nordics 2019. Delegates will be arriving in around an hour's time, with the packed day's programme getting underway at 9am local time.