Discussions during Swift's annual Sibos conference in Geneva were dominated by talk of open banking and open APIs, which create both opportunities and challenges for banks. This is the first of five key takeaways from the event explored in Finextra's review of Sibos 2016, produced in association with SAP, and published today. It was clear from Finextra's interviews with industry leaders during the event as well as from the discussions on the main stages of the conference that banks increasingly understand open banking, underpinned by open APIs, is an opportunity for them. However, as the new report details, it was also clear that banks face a challenge in ensuring their systems can handle open APIs. Open banking will be a spur to further collaboration between banks and fintechs – as will a number of other key drivers shaping the industry currently, as the report examines.

London, 22 November 2016 – The birthplace of the World Wide Web, Geneva, was the host city for this year's Sibos--a fitting location for a conference that has become increasingly dominated by the opportunities and challenges posed by technology innovation. Very few (if any) discussions on the exhibition floor did not involve distributed ledger technology or cybersecurity. But newer and equally discussed topics were artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology, highlighting how the industry may change as automation and digital labor replace many core operational processes. This report rounds up the key discussion topics from the event and evaluates how each of these fits into SWIFT's strategic agenda. This 46-page Impact Note contains 22 figures.