Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to attend Sibos 2023 in Toronto, Canada. Known to be one of the premier global financial services events of the year, Sibos is an annual conference, exhibition, and networking opportunity hosted by Swift.

The conference included discussions from international thought leaders in finance to provide big-picture insight on key issues, risk areas, and industry trends. This year’s theme was “Collaborative finance in a fragmented world,” addressing ESG standardization, cross-border payments, post-trade data, digital currencies, and technologies such as AI and machine learning.

Here are highlights from a few specific sessions that particularly resonated:

Big Issue Debate: What is the impact of technology and data intelligence on financial services?

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has become an essential part of the Banking and Financial Services industry, evolving how products are offered and customers are serviced. This session featured Bruno Campenon from BNP Paribas, Mark Gould from Federal Reserve Financial Services, Cathinka Wahlstrom from BNY Mellon, and Katrina Stuart from Australian Payments Plus.

The panel addressed how each firm is using AI to make data-driven decisions, enhance customer experiences, and mitigate risk. Examples of priority AI use cases mentioned included financial controls, customer support, and fraud mitigation.

With McKinsey’s latest research showing generative AI could unlock over $4 trillion worth of value, it was clear from this session that leaders are investing in substantial resources. Gould, from the Federal Reserve, summarized the session well when he concluded that technology should make your organization more efficient, upskill your employees, and delight your customers.

Bridging custody client onboarding in an interoperable ecosystem

Customer onboarding has been a longstanding challenge for firms with the complexities involved around data collection, cross-department workflow, and changing regulatory landscape. There is focus on an ecosystem that can offer more interoperability with multi-directional information for account openings. This session dug into this topic more, featuring Suren Sankar from State Street Bank and Trust Company and Michael Heffner from Appian.

State Street’s Sankar provided a case study of his company’s custodian accounts opening process. Previously this was handled manually, with over 1,500 data points, lengthy steps to collect all information required, and took months to complete.

Using Appian’s process automation platform, they have streamlined account onboarding, where a front-end captures all information needed for the client opening request and workflows validate with teams in legal, compliance, and portfolio management. This has improved accuracy, team efficiency, and turnaround time, while making the customer experience more seamless. Additionally, they have an impressive journey of over 35 Appian applications live throughout various business areas. 

Bridging the Financial Ecosystem Gap with Appian

As both a partner and client of Appian, we know its power and potential to address pressing challenges, including regulatory compliance, risk management, stress testing, customer lifecycle management, and more while using cutting-edge AI process automation.

At Zimpatica, we have extensive experience in helping financial services firms deliver innovative solutions that solve complex day-to-day challenges. We’ve worked with clients across banking, private equity, investment groups, and regulators to realize the power of the Appian platform. Applications deployed have included:

• Anti-Money Laundering (AML) & Anti-Bribery

• Client Management

• Compliance Due Diligence

• Contractual Obligations Tracking

• Deal Execution

• Investor & Fund Lifecycle

• Legal Entity Onboarding

Learn more about how we have helped clients streamline their processes by checking out this global investment firm case study.