In the first board meeting in 2018 we held a workshop to define the current focus topics for 2018. “Where do we, as members, have real pain points?” “On which topics do we want to move forward, but we can’t do it alone?” “Where do we see potential in topics that affect not only us, but the other members as well?”
The new topics will create new working groups or projects within the SFTI that can be realized by means of our toolbox (see below) as a study, educational session, technical use case or otherwise, depending on what benefits the members most.
Topics that have been given the highest priority are currently under revision and will then seek support from the Advisory Board and the Board itself.
In addition to the existing and ongoing working groups, the following topics will be included:
Learning from data
Data is one of the most important asset in banks and insurance companies. Corporates have tons of data about customers and markets. However, this data is mostly tied up in silos within the organization.
The project should teach the skills of data science and setup an environment to run data analytics, data visualization and machine learning experiments in an easy way.
The question to answer here would be: How can we use the data in order to create new products and services or improve existing offerings.
Crypto Currencies
Since one year we can observe an increased hype on crypto currencies. Everybody talks about bitcoin. Some countries have introduced some type of crypto currencies (e.g. Venezuela). Some countries consider introducing one or at least it is a topic. What will be the role of crypto currencies in future. Some countries have started regulating or banning the use of crypto currencies. Will crypto currencies replace fiat currencies? What is the impact on payment systems infrastructure (credit cards, SIC, SWIFT)? On the other hand there are several challenges regarding crypto currencies: volatility, scaling of transaction volume, high transaction fees, regulation, democratization (hard forks), transparency, usability, impact of a hack on the system. The project focuses on fostering discussion on the need of a crypto currency for Switzerland and on the required setup as well as enabling innovations in the area of crypto currencies.
Digital Assets on the Blockchain
The project focuses on establishing a working group to identify use cases for digital assets/blockchain technology in the banking and insurance industry.
Goals to be considered are to develop use cases and deliver a flexible infrastructure for regulated financial institutions to share processes and data securely, on a need-to-know basis, without the need for reconciliation; to define market standards and cooperation concepts required to exploit the full benefits of the blockchain/DL technology and to align on common position regarding potential regulation applicable to Digital Assets and blockchain technology (reference to “SFTI Regulations WG”).
Behavioral Economics
Digitisation is changing the ways in which we will communicate, work or shape our lives in the future. These changes will also affect the way we conduct our financial transactions. The aim of this topic is to show the possible future behavior of people with regard to financial services and its possible impact on financial services.
Stay tuned for more information on our new topics.