Sibos 25: payments, security & flat whites

There’ll be a long line outside the ANZ booth at this year’s Sibos Financial Services Summit in Frankfurt, Germany, says Mark Harding, ANZ’s Head of Financial Institutions Group International. Largely for the opportunity to gain market-leading insights in the payments space from ANZ’s expert delegation at the event. But also for the coffee.

“The last couple of years we’ve had a barista there, serving Australian-style long blacks or flat whites” Harding says. “It’s been a huge hit in the mornings.”

The topic of discussion in that line is likely to be the one on everyone’s mind in financial services: security.

“It always is,” Lisa Vasic, ANZ’s MD of Transaction Banking says. “And that make sense. The role of banks is to provide a safe financial infrastructure for the transfer of value for our customers, and for the transfer of data.”

Both Vasic and Harding will make the trip to Sibos this year, as part of a delegation from the bank. Sibos is the world’s premiere financial services conference, bringing together thousands of representatives from across the industry to set the agenda for the future of banking. It's where the industry gets together and talks about the different payments that flow between banks around the world.

Vasic says Sibos offers ANZ a unique opportunity to engage and learn from the bank’s global peers, and to have conversations with customers about the topics important to them — such as developments in security — that will help shape the bank’s thinking in the year ahead.

“Payment scams have and will continue to be a prime topic,” Vasic says. “Particularly with what is happening in the United Kingdom, and its modern scams framework and the learnings on what has, and has not been effective in reducing scams. We take cues from what's happening globally.

“For our part, we've had Confirmation of Payee go live here in Australia recently and we expect to be talking a lot about that.”

To illustrate how much the security theme is growing in importance in the sector, Harding says ANZ’s delegation will include a financial crime expert.

“We've got somebody from our financial crime team that will be participating this year,” he says. “It's been a theme over the last few years, where banks are sending their financial crime experts and making sure we're up to speed with the latest developments in the area.”

There's been a rise in bad actors around the globe looking to disrupt and exploit the payments network, Harding says. That’s been met with a rise in focus from banks.

“It’s very noticeable how each of the banks have increasingly started to send financial crime people to this event so they can actually meet their peers and talk about what's happening in industry, to get people to really talk about it and get that industry knowledge improved,” he says.

The question for Sibos attendees is not just how they securely access global payments networks, Harding says, but “how do we think about security end-to-end?”.

“Does the money get to where it needs to get to in the right way, in the right fashion? What's best practise? How do we work together to try and eliminate as much fraud as we can through the system?”

Show on the road

For Vasic, Sibos is also a unique opportunity to test ideas and practises on global stage, learn from developments in other markets, and get an idea of what’s on the cutting edge in the space.

“Importantly, it’s also where we get to see our customers, because our customers are based across the globe,” she said. “It's very difficult to see them during the course of the year, but with more than 10,000 delegates in attendance at Sibos, it’s a really unique opportunity see our customers, align strategies, and learn from one another. And that's probably one of the most valuable things I take away from Sibos.”

Harding describes a daily schedule of meetings at the conference not unlike speed dating; one-on-ones with “other banks, payment companies and other interesting people within the industry”.

“We will have meetings that run on the hour, every hour from 8am until 6pm,” he says. “On any given day, we’ll have 10 meetings a day, as we work our way around the exhibition hall.”

If that sounds like hard work, it’s because it is.

“Sibos is intense,” Vasic says. “It requires a lot of energy. But it’s a critical event in our calendar.”

And not just for those in attendance, Harding says.

“There is also a lot of work from our teams who may not be at the conference, to ensure all of our meetings are targeted with specific topics to be covered and that the actions and follow ups from the meetings are completed,” he says.

Sibos this year in Frankfurt coincides with ANZ's 40th anniversary in Germany. It’s the perfect opportunity to bring ANZ’s unique perspective on local markets to the world.

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ANZ Sibos booth 2024

"ANZ is the leading bank in the Australian and New Zealand dollar clearing market and in real-time payments, where we process cross-border payments on behalf of other banks,” Harding says. “So it's important for us to be at Sibos to understand what's happening in the markets.

“It's also a chance for us to share with the world the latest developments in both Australia and NZ. We talk to our customers about what's happening next, the implementation of real time payments in Australia - where we are now connecting cross-border payments into the NPP - and the rollout of other new initiatives that are taking place in our home markets so they can be ready for future.”

Shane White is Editor at ANZ Institutional Insights