The world of business and financial services is not as clear-cut as it once was; industries are merging and it’s become necessary to broaden one’s mindset to keep up to date with developments within the industry, while still retaining one’s specialisation.
Case in point are the trendy keywords of fintech and regtech – terms newly coined by amalgamating finance and tech and regulation and tech.
Technology is prevalent in most industries so the topics of fintech and regtech are of utmost importance to those working in financial services. Regtech, it can be said, is reshaping the supervisor market participant relationship. New technologies, Cloud-based services, crowdfunding, fintech using AI and neural networks, Blockchain and the like are rapidly changing the economics and landscape of regulated industries, including banking and finance.
New products, services and non-industry players are radically changing the nature of the markets and the relationship between supervisors and market participants, therefore regulators have to adapt and innovate (along with the incumbents), avoiding regulatory barriers to new competitive and disruptive forces that promise greater financial inclusion and financial depth.
Fintech is also the underlying basis for the latest episode that has taken the world by storm – cryptocurrencies. The question around this new financial trend and its cohorts of Blockchain & Initial Coin Offerings, is, are they to be encouraged or suppressed?
Naturally the ever-increasing proliferation of technology in business has its drawbacks, with security being a key concern for business owners. The issue of cyber security has been around for years; however, awareness is constantly growing as technology becomes more pervasive and hackers become more persistent.
New regulatory requirements like the NIS Directive require finance executives to be ready to lead business recovery after a major breach. By engaging in a high-impact simulation of a data breach, business people will get a taste of the commercial challenges that confront leaders during a major cyber-attack, experiencing the shock, speed and ambiguity of a significant breach.
This type of exercise will also highlight differences of opinion, for example, about how to protect reputation and revenues during a crisis. Simulations bring home the value of data and the importance of new regulations.
May 25 is imprinted in everyone’s mind as D-Day, or rather GDPR Day. The day when everyone needs to ensure that their database is fully compliant or risk paying a significantly hefty fine. But are you ready for it?
The EU General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect with significantly strengthened regulatory requirements and corresponding high penalties. A hands-on session will provide business owners with a high-level understanding of GDPR and a roadmap for implementation.
In January this year MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) was introduced across the EU. The impact of this directive has been significant and far-reaching, affecting the activities of investment banks, broker dealers, various asset managers, private wealth managers and financial advisors on a broad range of fronts. Yet one must ask, to what extent is it fair to say that MiFID II has strengthened investor protection and improved the functioning of financial markets making them more efficient, resilient and transparent?
Directive 2016/97, related to insurance distribution rules, aims to improve the way insurance products are distributed, intermediated and advised so that they continue and bring real benefits to consumers and retail investors in the EU. The IDD needs to be implemented on July 1 and applied as of October 1. What are the main changes of this directive compared to IMD?
All the above topics and more will be discussed during the FinanceMalta Annual Conference 2018, which will be held at the Hilton Conference Centre, St Julian’s on Thursday. Entitled ‘Finance without frontiers’, the finance and business conference will feature select local and international experts who will address delegates on contemporary and current topics affecting the financial services industry, including sessions on business startups, GDPR, cyber security, MiFiD II and MiFiR.
During this conference we will be discussing the challenges and opportunities that the domestic and global financial services sector is going through in view of new legislation on data protection, cyber security and changes which will make the financial services industry more transparent. However, for this to happen, we need to harness the opportunities of the ever-changing financial services industry.
The conference will bring together Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of news and information for professional markets, with a line-up of high-calibre speakers, including Michael Imeson, senior content editor of Financial Times Live and a Contributing Editor of The Banker, who will be moderating the conference, Helen Koepman, Deputy Head of Unit, Startups and Innovation from the European Commission, technology expert Dr Abdalla Kablan and many more.
To add to the quality of speakers, Finance Malta has also invited Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, Silvio Schembri, to address delegates about Malta’s achievements in financial services and the digital economy, and its progress as a leader in DLT technology.
Tickets are available online from www.financemalta.org/conference-2018. The conference is preceded by a networking event on the evening of Wednesday.
Kenneth Farrugia is chairman, Finance Malta.