The Digital Finance Summit
Thursday, March 21, 2019

08:00

Registration

09:00

Chairman’s Opening Remarks

Opening Remarks by Philippe Paillart , Chairman, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council

Opening Keynote: Disruptive Technologies - Challenges and opportunities for the financial services industry by Spiros Margaris who is the world's leading venture capitalist and influencer in the “triple crown” areas of fintech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain as assessed by Onalytica. He is also ranked highly as the leading influencer in the insurtech space. He is founder of Margaris Ventures, a multi-million dollar fintech investment firm as well as an advisory board member of a whole range of leading players including weFox Group (which raised record $125 Million Series B round – March 2019), SparksLab Group, Media Stalker and others. We will have a wide ranging discussion with Spiros, from how financial institutions should deal with the threats and opportunities that Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain presents today to how funding for fintech will evolve in the immediate future.

Embracing disruption and preparing for the future
The financial services ecosystem is entirely different to what it was a decade ago, with political upheavals, economic uncertainty and planning for numerous regulatory changes coming into effect in 2019. But are we safe to say that we are better off?

While political events will continue impacting financial services, digitalisation and data will dominate alongside Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain and 5G making larger waves in the sector and paving the way for uncapped growth and innovation.

In the opening session we will discuss the shifts being brought by the new technologies, how we view communications, IoT, gaming, and AR/VR and changes within consumer behavior.

Panellists joining Spiros on this wide ranging dialogue will include:
- John Holder, Chief Technologist, Realities Centre London
- Michiel Ykema, Independent Organizational Change and Development Advisor, Partner @ Limpid & Co

10:00

Coffee/tea break

10:30

The International Heads of Retail Annual Dialogue
This annual dialogue involves the heads of retail from more than 30 countries from the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The dialogue will cover a comprehensive range of key issues on leading best practices in the industry:

• Digital banking ecosystem critical for banks
• Branch strategy for the future generations
• Delivering superior customer experience through digitization
• Regulatory challenges for the industry
• Blockchain in digital banking
• The future of cryptocurrencies
• Responding to the robo-revolution
• GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) approach to banking: looking for partners or competitors?

Chaired by Philippe Paillart , Chairman, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council & Emmanuel Daniel, Chairman, The Asian Banker

12:00

Key Findings from the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme 2019

• Awards programme: Process, methodology and scorecards
• Overview of the retail banking market
• Key findings from the awards programme
• Best practices (based on submissions)

Presentation by Richard Hartung, Member, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Dealing with the latest threats and challenges in cybersecurity, privacy and frictionless in finance
Financial institutions have been at the forefront of combatting cyber attacks, while trying to create a balance between digital business growth and the required cybersecurity.

Presentation: How trust and data economy driving value and innovation in global financial services
by Philipp Kristian , Author, The Trust Economy

Presentation: Major data breaches every day. How can we prevent the next privacy Titanic?
by Ayden Férdeline , Tech Policy Fellow, Mozilla

Other discussion topics include:

Panellists include:
- Hassan Nasser, RegTech, Compliance & Risk Management Expert

Session chaired by Wilson Chia , Member, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council

14:30

Coffee/Tea Break

15:00

Fulfilling the Promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Finance

Presentation: Artificial vs Intelligence by Steve Monaghan ,Chairman & CEO, GenLife & former Chief Innovation Officer, DBS

Panel discussion topics include:
• How does AI transform the way in which we talk to customers, invent products and services and organise ourselves for competition?
• Should financial institutions be investing in AI or buying these services from technology players who are better invested?
• What are some of the things AI will not achieve for businesses today?
• How integrated should FIs be with other industries to benefit from AI?
• What are some of the limitations of algorithms and how should we guard against biases?

Panellists include:
- Steve Monaghan, Chairman & CEO, GenLife
- Souffiane Houti, Founder & COO, Viafone

Session chaired by David Gyori, Member, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council

15:45

Reviewing the Payments and Remittance Revolution in the Digital World

The panel will discuss the state of the payments industry today.
• The latest developments in payments landscape
• The internationalisation of M-pesa and the increasing use of QR codes across the region.
• Breakthroughs in cross-border payments and remittance industry, in lowering technology costs, foreign exchange costs, speed of delivery
• Role of challenger banks in changing the payments landscape
• Use of blockchain to expedite effective transmission of money

Panellists include:
- Yannis Karagiannidis, Head of Growth, Monese
- Richard Hartung,Payments Expert; International Resource Director, The Asian Banker

Session chaired by Wilson Chia, Member, Excellence in Retail Financial Services Advisory Council

16:15

From Baby Boomers to Gen-Z in the digital world: Redefining expectations and behavior
Millennials have taken much of the mind space, and marketing efforts, for financial institutions the past decade. Up until today this generation finds itself widely immersed in the financial mainstream. However, it is the next generation – Generation Z – that will begin to reshape the financial services industry, as these digital natives enter college and adulthood with a unique background and fascinating perspective on human interaction.

• What do we need to know about how the different generations deal with technology, behavioral changes taking place and what should businesses need to know about managing this mix
• Understanding the accurate financial impact of Generation Z
• When it comes to direct spending where are they dedicating most of their earned funds?
• Need for customized products – Creating products that fit the needs of different generations

Panellists include:
- Elissar Toufaily,Associate Professor of Marketing, American University, Dubai
- Ketan Samani, Former Managing Director, Chief Digital Officer (CDO), UBS Wealth Management APAC

Session chaired by Foo Boon Ping, Managing Editor, The Asian Banker

17:00

End of Conference