Huang Yiping, Sinar Mas chair professor of finance and economics, National School of Development, and director of the Institute of Digital Finance, Peking University, talksed about the history of economic decision making in China, the framework of current policies and the trajectory of policymaking.

Senior executives in technology, operations and digital banking from the Philippines discussed the different cloud migration strategies adapted by banks in order to provide a more seamless experience to their customers.

Henry Antonio of RCBC, Henry Aguda of Union Bank, John Howard Medina of Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM), Arivuvel Ramu of tonik, Noel Santiago of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Rajashekara Visweswara Maiya of Infosys Finacle talked about the opportunities created by moving to cloud and what’s next for the Philippine banks in their digital banking journey.

The dialogue started with Henry Aguda as he shared that the cloud was instrumental for their bank’s digital acceleration, providing their system with speed and agility to scale at will.

Medina noted that moving to cloud has been the natural direction for PBCom since the bank has since moved its servers to a digital environment a decade ago. “We created a bank within the bank that was on cloud,” added Medina.

Antonio, on the other hand, revealed that the pandemic has accelerated their use of robotic process automation functionalities, adding that they are still fairly conservative with their approach to artificial intelligence.

The other speakers also spoke about the challenges of having an existing legacy, the IT concentration risks and the different models that are being utilised with regard to cloud adoption.

Edward Burman: “China is not an easy country” by RadioFinance

At the Leadership Achievement Dialogue 2021, regulators and CEOs/Chairmen/founders including Banthoon Lamsam, Kasikornbank; Norman Chan Tak-lam, HKMA; Sum Sannisith, National Bank of Cambodia; Juda Agung, Bank Indonesia; Victor Li, Pintec; William Tanuwijaya, Tokopedia; Nikhilesh Goel, Validus Capital, Nguyen Hung, TPBank, debated the inherent tensions between leadership that is expected to create stable and steady growth, and innovation which thrives amid disruptions, and the important role that regulators play in facilitating and harnessing innovations, while continuing to strengthen resilience of the financial system.

In this wide-ranging conversation, American Financial Exchange founder and chairman Richard Sandor talks about the creation of the rates index Ameribor and his ongoing involvement in environmental markets.

In this conversation, June Ou, incoming president of Provenance Blockchain Foundation, shares the complexities of building a public blockchain network that is permissionless and open source.

Yves Eonnet, CEO and co-founder of cloud-based core banking fintech Tagpay shares his perspective evolving core banking architecture, challenges faced by banks and the strategic technology change needed, as well as his company’s future plans post recent funding.

Interviewed by Neeti Aggarwal

• TagPay has implemented cloud-based core banking system across 30 financial institutions, primarily in Africa and Europe

• Banks need to evolve their core banking architecture to be cloud based, mobile centric, real time and open, rather than monolithic heavy architecture.

• The company recently raised 25 million euro to fund its geographical expansion, strengthen its team and product

TagPay is a French fintech that has developed next gen cloud-based core banking. It currently powers around 30 institutions in Africa and Europe.

Eonnet opines that next generation core banking system should have five key characteristics in its architecture. It should be cloud based, mobile centric, real time, open and should have security designed for the new threats. His vision is that in the future, banks will need to redesign their architecture to have multiple core banking systems that are interconnected and open rather than a monolithic heavy architecture that exists across most financial institutions today.

The company implemented core banking system at The Mauritanian Bank for International Trade (BMCI) to launch its digital bank Masrvi. Its other clients include Societe Generale, who is also an early investor in the company, Trust Merchant Bank and Banque Postal. Tagpay raised 25 million Euro from Long Arc Capital, an American private equity firm in January this year. Eonnet plans to utilize these funds for further expansion of its team in sales and banking expertise and to develop its product further. It future roadmap includes expanding its reach in Africa and Europe with plans for further geographic expansion.

At the Finance Vietnam Leadership Dialogue 2021, heads of retail banking, products and businesses, including Le Xuan Vu, MB Bank; Dinh Van Chien, TP Bank; Augustine Wong Kok Seng, VP Bank; Bryan Carroll, TNEX; Gunneet Singh, Ubank; Kanishk Upadhyay, Techcombank; Riddhi Dutta, Backbase, together with Pham Duc An, Vietnam Banks Association – discussed the challenges in building operational resilience during the pandemic and debated how new challenger banks and incumbent players will win in a digital-first era.

Senior business and technology executives from leading institutions in Vietnam assess the next steps in their digital transformation journeys as they redefine operational processes and service delivery.

At Heads of Retail Finance Meeting 2021, Ravi Narayanan, Axis Bank; Raymond Sia, Canadia Bank; Winsley Bangit, GCash; Herman Cheng, Hang Seng Bank; Girish Sehgal, ICICI Bank; Supaneewan Chutrakul, Kasikornbank; Darika Phagapasvivat, KEPT by Krungsri; Kalyani Nair, Maybank; Dang Cong Hoan, Techcombank; Joyce Gonzalez, UnionBank; and Jacquelyn Tan, UOB shared their insights on democratising wealth, new asset classes, and payment transformation in the second year of pandemic.

The following key points were discussed:

• Customers shift to digital platforms for daily financial transactions and payments.

• Cryptocurrencies emerged as investment class and means of payment.

• Deeper understanding of cryptocurrency is needed to assess its return potential, value, and risks.

• Leveraging data analytics, AI and machine learning to provide a more personalised service

• Balance fiduciary duty to customers by differentiating investing from speculating.