Sibos 2024 day 4: What you need to know

Two themes have dominated the Sibos 2024 conference in Beijing: collaboration, and a sense of an exciting future.

So many of the key events and sessions have been built around partnership, with the tone set by comments from Mayor of Beijing Yin Yong in the plenary session about openness and shared opportunity. Frequently HSBC’s thought leaders have embraced the theme.

Manish Kohli, Head of Global Payments Solutions, spoke about the need for partnership between banks and fintechs – a recurring theme at this conference. “We have to solve for the needs of clients, the world is changing rapidly, and fintechs are a way to accelerate our solutions,” Manish said. He recalled a panel five years ago in which the debate showed fintechs and banks were in competition. That, he said, is no longer the case.

And Lewis Sun, Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments, Global Payments Solutions, took part in a session on the mBridge central bank digital currency (CBDC) distributed ledger project, which unites several major central banks and numerous industry participants in a goal to enable instant cross-border payments and settlements. “We want to continue this journey with all the other partners,” he said.

Partnership was also at the heart of some HSBC announcements at the event. HSBC will build upon its collaboration with Dowsure, a Shenzhen-based cross-border e-commerce platform. This will allow the bank to expand the trade financing solutions it offers to businesses trading on platforms in Hong Kong and China. Aditya Gahlaut, Regional Co-Head, Global Trade Solutions, APAC, called the venture “a pivotal step in our journey to offer seamless trade financing solutions for businesses.”

And HSBC became a direct participant in China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), another example of collaboration. Doing so allows HSBC to play an integral role in supporting the growing demand from its clients for solutions that facilitate RMB trade.

A sense of opportunity

The abiding mood of the conference was of possibility in an uncertain but opportunity-filled future.

Some sessions focused on tangible next steps, like the ISO20022 protocol which will come into effect in November 2025, changing the format for messaging and bringing with it new opportunities. Ralph Nash, Global Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Global Commercial Banking, said the transition would bring speed, certainty, transparency and flexibility, all of it reducing resilience risk. It should “allow innovation on payment platforms and alternative value chains to proceed more quickly and easily,” he said.

Mark Evans, Global Head of Cross-Border and Cross-Currency Payments, Global Payments Solutions, and Yvonne Yiu, Regional Co-Head, Global Payments Solutions, APAC, spoke of customer expectations around speed, transparency and traceability in cross-border payments. “All these things have to be delivered without compromising security and trust,” Yvonne said.

And Aditya spoke of progress in the digitisation of global trade, with positive steps in legislation, common interoperability, adoption and partnership. “Digital documents enable transparent and secure operations leading to lower risk of fraud,” he said.

Others looked at the possibilities of emerging technologies – and tried to bring on-the-ground realities to big theoretical ideas. Melissa Tuozzolo, Global Head of Client Service, Global Payments Solutions, spoke about GenAI in financial services, dispelling myths while emphasising the positives. GenAI can hugely reduce the time spent on laborious processes. “I want it to take away the mundane tasks so people can do more value-accretive work with clients.”

Lewis talked about the future of digital money, and its transition through blockchain technology to its next iteration, where smart contracts would “make money programmable.” And John O’Neill, Group Head of Digital Assets and Currencies, analysed the role of distributed ledger technology for the fund industry. “It’s all about liquidity,” he said. “What’s transformational is more rapid settlement finality.”

Tokenisation holds great potential in reducing global wealth disparities, said Fiona Horsewill, Global Head of Securities Services. The digital issuance of bonds and tokenisation of physical gold brought greater access to traditionally illiquid assets, she said. “Tokenisation has the potential to unlock access to a wide range of assets for a new demographic of investors.”

A perspective on China

With the event held in Beijing for the first time, the RMB – and its use in international cross-border payments – was front and centre. A new cross-border virtual e-commerce payments solution launched by HSBC will allow Chinese businesses trading on platforms to receive EUR and GBP payments through their local clearing system and their own bank accounts.

And David Liao, Co-CEO for Asia Pacific, addressed China’s growing role in the world monetary system. “The goal is to achieve an increase in the RMB’s usage in a way that helps companies and people transact with the rest of the world,” he said.

The event concludes with a sense of progress. Vivek Ramachandran, Head of Global Trade Solutions, captured the mood. “Hopefully from all of us you’re getting a sense of excitement about the future,” he said. “For me, the future of finance is digital, it’s embedded and it’s sustainable.”