Future of Finance

This podcast looks at how cloud adoption can bring benefits beyond technological requirements by optimising existing services and potentially delivering return on investment which if done correctly can drive business change and innovation.

Speakers:

• Ian Burgess – Director, Cyber and Third Party Risk, UK Finance
• Marcus Martinez – Financial Services Industry Manager for EMEA, Microsoft
• Nick Merriman – Financial Services Advisory Lead Europe, Avanade

The adoption of cloud computing services has continued to play a significant role in how the financial sector innovates and invents across its technological environment and now more than ever, the importance of security has taken centre stage.

In this episode, Oge Udensi, UK Finance’s Principal, Cyber Security sits down with Sarah Armstrong Smith, Chief Security Advisor in Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Solutions Area and Ian Benson, Partner within PwC's Cyber Security Practice where he leads the UK financial services cyber team. 

The panel of experts discuss the state of cyber security and explore the ways in which the financial sector continues to react and respond to the impact of cyber threats and attacks both within individual organisations and the sector.

The panel also delves into the cloud adoption and cyber/operational resilience intersection, discussing the many ways the sector can embed cyber resilience as it progresses in its cloud adoption journey.

Driven by technology strategy, consumer demand, changing work patterns and the response to Covid-19, the economy has become increasingly digital. In this podcast, we dive into what the emerging digital economy is, what firms are doing to respond both here in the UK and Europe and how firms can equip themselves to support their customers’ future needs and be at the heart of the recovery.

The term Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) has become synonymous with a global movement towards a better world, a world of greater diversity and inclusion where there is wealth and opportunity for all. In the last year alone, huge progress has been made across the UK and we have come to the ever-present realisation that the financial sector and markets have a significant role to play in ESG. We do a great job today delivering financial outcomes, but we are not yet optimised to deliver sustainable ones nor are we fully ready to do so.

In this episode, Oge Udensi, our Principal, Cyber and Third Party Risk sits with David Cox, Digital Strategist in the worldwide Microsoft Financial Sector group with a focus on sustainability, to explore the growing need for ESG across the financial sector. They will also discuss its impact on technology adoption and what organisations must do to stay on top of their ESG agenda.

The cyber landscape has in recent times experienced a rise in supply chain cyber-attacks such as the Solar Winds Orion cyber breach, the Microsoft Exchange Server breach, Print Nightmare Vulnerability, and the Colonial Pipeline cyber breach. The financial sector has seen its fair share of threats, incidents and attacks as a result of vulnerabilities identified from supply chain providers and recognises the need for better third party cyber capabilities. While we acknowledge efforts from the regulators and the government in providing guidelines and policies that help mitigate risk, on the podcast today we will explore the role technology and cyber security organisations play in third-party cyber resilience and the need for sustained impact. Oge Udensi, Principal, Cyber and Third Party Risk is joined by Scott Register, Vice President, Security Solutions from Keysight and Vincent Payne, Director of Technology and Services from Arrow ECS to delve into this important topic.

Ongoing cyberattacks further highlight the need for cyber resilience across all organisations. The UK Finance initiated Financial Sector Cyber Collaboration Centre (FSCCC) helps members respond to attacks, enabling them to understand and mitigate the threat. But there is always more that can be done and in this podcast we will look at how organisations can better protect themselves in an environment dominated by digital transformation. 

Ian Burgess, Director, Cyber and Third Party risk is joined by Sarah Armstrong-Smith, UK FSI Chief Security Advisor and Elizabeth Tyler, Senior Program Manager, both from Microsoft to discuss this important topic.

With a light now on the horizon thanks to the arrival and roll-out of vaccines, but the threat of COVID-19 never far away, now is the time to ask questions as to what the workplace of the future will look like, and how firms can best utilise now-proven technologies to support their staff, no matter where they are logging on.

In this podcast we will be turning our minds to the future. Specifically, the future of work, workplaces, and even we need to go into an office to do our work at all.

Andrew Rogan, Director, Operational Resilience at UK Finance is joined by Helen Wilson, Director of Modern Work - Customer Success at Microsoft, and Graham Hodgkin, Head of Communications and Culture at SMBC.

Central Bank Digital Currencies have hit the news recently with papers produced by several central banks, and trials live in different jurisdictions. In this episode we discuss what a Central Bank Digital Currency is, the key drivers for its development and how different countries are approaching it.

Joining Jonathan Middleton, Director, Technology and Digital Policy Delivery Coordination at UK Finance is Hedwige Nuyens, MD International Banking Federation and John Ho, Head, Legal, Financial Markets at Standard Chartered.

What key technology trends will drive financial services in 2021?

With technology and digital transformation rapidly changing our industry, what does the future look like? In this episode we make predictions about key technology trends that will drive financial services in 2021.

Jonathan Middleton, Principal, Digital and Technology Policy at UK Finance is joined by Teodor Blidarus, Founder and CEO of FintechOS to talk about the next era of personalisation, how customer experience will no longer be a buzzword, digital transformation journeys reaching a cross-road, no code/low code development, Bank as a Service and Central Bank Digital Currencies.

With technology and digital transformation rapidly changing our industry, is it enough to simply invest in the latest technologies (AI, machine learning) or should firms be thinking further into the future, to consider the lifecycles of their customers, and how other technologies (big tech, cloud, digital assets) could transform their technological architecture across the whole ecosystem?

Listen to the latest episode in our podcast series to explore what the bank of the future will look like.

What business model will future banks need and what will its enterprise architecture be? What do firms need to do to get there? How has COVID-19 changed how firms are looking to make this journey and once the technology is implemented - what changing consumer behavior trends will drive future customer interactions with firms?

Discussing this and more, Jonathan Middleton, Principal, Digital and Technology Policy at UK Finance, is joined by:

• Sarah Rench, ‎Director of AI and Industry Solutions, Avanade
• Jayne Wickins, UK Banking Director, Financial Services, Enterprise Commercial, Microsoft
• Puja Prabhakar, ‎Executive, Head of Banking and Capital Markets, ‎Avanade

In 2020 hard lessons have been learnt about crisis management and the importance of horizon threat scanning. No industry is thinking harder about these lessons than financial services. Business continuity, crisis management, and doing whatever it takes to keep the wheels turning are principles long ingrained in those who move our money around, principles which paid off when COVID-19 came knocking.

Has the prevailing crisis management model in financial services – one relatively unchanged for 25 years – served us well? Is it still fit for purpose? And are there are lessons to be learned from other industries who perhaps have done this better?

Discussing this and more, Andrew Rogan, Director, Operational Resilience at UK Finance, is joined by:

• Will Packard, Managing Principal, Capco
• Tim Armit, Business Continuity Manager, Post Office

Technology and digital transformation is rapidly changing the face of financial services, how customers consume those services and firms deliver them. This latest episode explores how that transformation means a bank can now be built in just 20 days and considers what this means for future business models.

We look at how the bank was built so quickly, cover the key differences between firms that are digitising (wave 2) and consider how they will operate in an ecosystem model (wave 3). We also discuss the challenges and opportunities for financial services of this ecosystem model.

Discussing this and more, Jonathan Middleton, Principal, Digital and Technology Policy at UK Finance, is joined by:

• Justin Fitzpatrick, CEO and Co-founder of DueDil
• Mike Kennelly, Senior Director in PwC UK Financial Services Technology consulting practice

It has been a year since Huw van Steenis published his Future of Finance review. As a senior adviser to Mark Carney he led the review into the future of the UK’s financial system, and what it might mean for the Bank of England's agenda over the coming decade.

One year on and in a very different socio-economic environment, what does the reports architect think of the progress that has been made, and where the Bank and wider industry should be focusing their energies? Has the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation shift? Is the industry making progress at sufficient pace? How can technology strengthen firms’ operational resilience? How has consumer behaviour changed? And how can regulators and the financial services sector support the transition to a carbon neutral economy?

Discussing this and more, Hannah Gurga, Managing Director, Digital Technology & Cyber and Chief of Staff at UK Finance, is joined by:

• Huw van Steenis, Group Managing Director and Senior Adviser to the Chief Executive of UBS (and former Senior Adviser to Mark Carney, the Governor of Bank of England)
• Lord Nick Macpherson, Chairman of C Hoare & Co, and former permanent secretary of the Treasury.