Exploring "Real World Fintech" at the Temenos Community Forum ("TCF") 2017
I had the honor of attending this year’s Temenos Community Forum (“TCF”) where the theme was “Real World Fintech”. Throughout the event, we “explored real-world examples of the latest advancements in Fintech, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and advanced data and analytics”. The conference was meticulously organised and executed across three days for over 1,200 attendees.
My experience most notably consisted of attending the main conference sections in the mornings and the wealth management breakout streams (most applicable to my research were “Leveraging Technology to Navigate through Regulatory Change” and “The Future of Digital Advice in Wealth Management”) in the afternoons. I had the pleasure to meet some of Temenos’ senior management (ranging from the Heads of North America and APAC, and cloud infrastructure) through the “Senior Management Speed Dating” rotation and had the unique opportunity to attend a press/analyst lunch with Temenos’ CEO, David Arnott, as well as Ben Robinson, Chief Strategy Officer, and Mark Gunning, Global Business Solutions Director where they discussed the evolution of the Temenos solution and the components of their forward-looking strategy. One of my favourite segments of the conference was the Temenos “Innovation Jam”, where 5 finalists from across the world showcase their fintech start-up with the hope to win the final at TCF. The winner of this year’s competition was “Paykey”, the world's first payment keyboard. “PayKey uses patent-pending payment technology that works with popular messenger apps. Users just tap the "$" key to unlock payment mode directly within the app to transfer funds”. The theme across each of the finalists was: financial planning (particularly for younger investors), customer segmentation, front office efficiency (for advisors and clients), and data management and privacy.
Of particular interest to my research (Serving NextGen Investors: Innovative Technologies and Platforms ) was the wealth management stream “The Future of Digital Advice in Wealth Management” as Temenos explained how they are shaping their platform to meet the needs of digital clients:
- A channel agnostic environment (single-source, omni-channel, multi-user role);
- Automated support is welcomed (Temenos’ robo-advisor, self-service in real-time on multiple devices);
- Personalization at each stage of life (goal-based planning, younger investors, accumulating wealth for customized purpose);
- Data as a new AuM capability;
- The GAFA model (Digital engagement, contextual relevance to the user);
- Digital signing and document management;
- Chatbot / Digital assistants;
- Digital communications (collaborations, screen, video and document-sharing);
- Integrated market data;
- Risk analysis and compliance.
Overall, I found the action-packed event a highly valuable learning and networking experience and I very much look forward to attending next year’s TCF.